Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Enzo
Ohhhhhhh. So that’s what this was all about.
Stepping into the middle of a massive family drama was not exactly what I’d planned to do with my weekend, but maybe there was a chance I could help in some way. I certainly had more than enough experience with crappy families to add some insight.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said, smiling and shifting subtly closer to Walt. “Do you want to maybe grab lunch with me and Shawn so we can talk about everything?”
Shawn looked at me like he might burst into tears and kiss me with gratitude. Yes, please!
Walt was not so pleased with things.
“The very last thing I want is to go out to lunch with my stuffy, arrogant, golden boy brother and his perfect, cute omega,” he snapped.
“We have—” he checked his watch, “—fifteen minutes to go in there—” he pointed hard toward the Pullman Center, “—to give them a check to reserve the space for the Christmas Eve supper. So get out that gold-plated checkbook of yours, brother, and sign on the dotted line so that Dad doesn’t string me up because of your incompetence. ”
Everything Walt said was wrong in a thousand different ways, but rather than calling his brother out for it, Shawn looked defeated. “Okay,” he said, like a dog with its tail between its legs. “Let me just grab my satchel out of the back seat.”
As Shawn walked around to the car, I stared at Walt. He deserved an epic take-down for the way he’d treated the one person who desperately wanted to help him in every way. I opened my mouth to do the job that it was clear Shawn wouldn’t do, but my words caught in my throat.
“I suppose you think I’m pathetic, too,” Walt said.
He could have been bitter. He could have been spiteful and nasty.
But all I saw was a desperately unhappy omega with an accidental baby on the way who didn’t know what to do about anything.
He was like a cornered animal lashing out with pure fear.
Kind of like Papa had been when he’d first gotten his cancer diagnosis.
I didn’t have it in me to make things worse by telling him what he needed to hear. Because there were other things he needed to hear just then that would be far more helpful for everyone.
“Tell me about this Christmas Eve supper,” I said, inching closer to Walt with as much friendly, omega energy as I could muster. It was the same brand of approachability I’d used with Papa’s nursing staff and with Papa himself for years. “It sounds like it’s important to your family company?”
“It’s one of our marquee events,” Walt snapped, still defensive.
He tugged his coat closed and hugged himself tightly, like he was protecting his baby from the shit of the world.
“Of course, Dad puts Shawn in charge of it every year, because he’s the head of our entire philanthropic division.
But I have a real passion for helping the poor and unhoused, too. ”
My eyebrows shot up. Well, that made sense. Shawn was a philanthropist. I didn’t really know how that worked, but it sounded like his entire life was about being good and helping people. That definitely tracked.
I decided to skip over the deliberately antagonistic part of Walt’s explanation to try to cut more to the heart of the matter as Shawn joined us with a black leather attaché case slung over one shoulder.
As we started toward the Pullman Center entrance, I asked, “What do you do at this supper every year?”
“We feed people,” Shawn answered.
I quickly glanced at him and shook my head slightly. Thankfully, he got the message.
“We provide a big Christmas dinner for people here in Norwalk who can’t afford it,” Walt explained, maybe thawing by about half a degree toward me.
“We also pair up families that apply for the program with offices and businesses across Barrington and Norwalk. The families make a list of things they need, and the businesses band together to get everything for them. After supper, there’s a big gift exchange. ”
“That sounds great,” I said as we reached the door. Shawn held it for both of us. “What else do you do?”
Walt shrugged as we veered through the lobby to the office. “That’s it. Supper and making sure everyone has a merry Christmas.”
About a thousand suggestions for ways to make the event even more useful to poor people, people like me, popped into my head, but I held my tongue. We reached the office quickly, and I had the feeling both Shawn and Walt wanted to take care of business then get out of there as fast as possible.
I was right. To my surprise, Walt was also right about the managers of the Pullman Center setting a hard deadline for when they wanted their check.
I was a little suspicious that they were trying to screw Shawn over somehow, but Shawn was also smart enough and commanding enough to get a contract signed before he handed over the check.
The whole thing pissed me off a little. It was Christmas, for Christ’s sake. Why did people have to be so stingy and nasty at Christmas? It was supposed to be a charity event.
All three of us were in lousy moods as we left the Pullman Center. Walt practically raced to get to his car first, got in, and drove off without saying goodbye to either of us.
“Your brother is charming,” I said as Shawn and I reached his car.
Shawn sighed and leaned dejectedly against the side of his car.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said, rubbing his face with both hands.
“He didn’t tell me he was pregnant. I guess it happened during his last heat, but I thought he always hired Bangers & Mash for his heats. They don’t make mistakes like this.”
“Part of me wants to say ‘mistakes happen’,” I said, leaning against the car beside him and crossing my arms, “but what I really want to say is that babies are not a mistake, dumbass.”
“That’s not what I meant at all,” Shawn said, sounding even more depressed. “I meant that Walt doesn’t make mistakes. He’s always been rigidly careful about everything, because he knows that if he slips up just a little….”
He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.
“You don’t know that he made a mistake,” I pointed out.
“I mean, he kind of made it sound like it was a surprise heat and an accident, but maybe he actually wanted a baby. Maybe he’s felt so alone that something in him wanted someone to love and who will love him, so he let the surprise heat do what heats usually do.
And yeah, I know that’s not the best way to deal with your emotional baggage, but it happens. ”
“Maybe,” Shawn said, looking sideways at me. “I know my brother, though, and I don’t think getting pregnant was on his bingo card.”
“Okay, maybe he just wanted to have a freaky heat instead of a routine Bangers & Mash heat and things got out of hand. Because that never happens,” I said with as much sarcasm as I could manage, giving him a look.
What we’d just done the night before fell into the category of not really planned either.
“You’re right, you’re right,” Shawn said, pushing away from the car. “I can drive you home now, if you’d like.”
I really didn’t want to walk away from Shawn right then.
I didn’t really want to walk away from him ever, but in the back of my mind, I already knew it would never work between us.
He was a super-rich philanthropist and I was a dirt-poor retail worker who had actually considered selling himself to the mob, things had gotten so bad.
Even so, I blurted out, “Wanna get lunch first? We’re actually close to my stomping ground, and there’s a great little diner around the corner that does brunch all day.”
“A diner?” Shawn asked, sounding both intrigued and wary.
“Yeah. Come on. I’ll give you directions how to get there.”
We got in the car, and Shawn silently drove around the corner to Mallomar Diner, my favorite place to eat when I felt sorry for myself.
“Hey, Enzo. Who’s your cute friend?” Evelyn, the alpha who owned the diner along with her wife greeted us as we walked in.
“This is Shawn,” I said with a big smile. “And if it’s not too much to ask, can we have the booth in the corner?”
“Sure, hun. Anything for Enzo,” she said to Shawn as she grabbed a couple laminated menus and walked us to the far corner of the diner.
“I’ve never eaten at a diner before,” Shawn said, looking around as we walked.
Evelyn stopped and turned back to stare at Shawn like he had two heads. “Where did you find him?” she asked me.
“At a kink club,” I answered without hesitation.
Evelyn burst into laughter and walked on. Shawn went beet red.
“Here you go,” Evelyn continued to laugh as we reached the booth. “One corner booth for you and your kink daddy. I’ll get you two some coffee to start out with.”
She kept laughing as she walked away.
“Don’t worry,” I said, glancing at the menu, even though I already knew what I wanted. “She doesn’t actually think we met at a kink club. It’s kind of a running joke we have.”
“Um, but we sort of did meet at a kink club thing,” Shawn muttered, barely audible and still bright red as he picked up his menu.
“Which is why it’s even funnier,” I said with a beaming smile.
Evelyn came back with coffee, and the two of us ordered.
The diner was busy, but the staff still had our food out to us in a matter of minutes.
Shawn seemed impressed by that as we dove into our pancakes.
I didn’t realize how hungry all the gymnastics of the night before had made me until I was shoveling carby goodness into my mouth like food was about to be banned.
“I have some ideas about this Christmas Eve supper of yours,” I said once I was full of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. The only thing that could have made me more content was if I was filled with sausage as well, specifically Shawn’s sausage.
Shawn had eaten slower than me, but his pancakes were nearly gone, too. He glanced across the table at me as he finished chewing, eyebrows raised, grabbed his coffee to wash his last bite down, then asked, “What sort of ideas?”