23. Grace
“Hello?” I shout in the kitchen behind the cafe as the door slams behind me.
I got back from New York this morning. Stanton wanted to take me home like the perfect boyfriend, despite that he had hockey training. And if I’m not mistaken, he wasn’t happy when Harlow called to tell me she booked us a cab.
“Sienna!” I walk further into the back of the cafe as I check my phone and the message he sent me on the journey. I read it again.
Stanton: I hate I didn’t take you home like the best boyfriend in the world should.
And I know I shouldn’t have replied, but I did.
Me: Just thinking about it makes you the best boyfriend.
I smile at my phone.
“Ah, there you are,” Sienna says as she pushes the door and steps into the kitchen. “We really need a batch of your blueberry muffins and some oat cookies.”
“On it.”
Sienna tilts her head. “You look…” Her hand covers her mouth as she studies me more. “You look happy.”
I let out a long breath, resting my head against the wall. “I’ve got something to tell you when we have some free time.”
Her eyes lock on mine. “I already know because Harlow called me. She told me you left the charity dinner with Colton’s teammate.”
My sister is such a big mouth, the killer of all secrets.
“Yeah. He’s the captain of the hockey team. His name is Stanton Adams.”
She pulls her phone from her back pocket and her two thumbs go like lightning as she searches his name.
“He’s gorgeous…” Then she groans and turns her cell to face me.
The first five articles are of Stanton, each showing his arm around a bevy of different women. All gorgeous, all thin, and all the opposite of me.
“I never did anything with him. We’re just…” I want to tell her he’s my fake boyfriend and we’re going to make Lucas want me again.
I sigh. What the hell am I thinking?
“Don’t say friends.” Sienna sighs as she rolls her eyes upward. “You’re a fucking omega, Grace. You can’t let an alpha like that get under your skin.”
“He’s not that bad.”
“What are you talking about? What are you not understanding? He’s an alpha. Those men you are trying to avoid.”
I press my hand on my tummy. “The baby’s father was also at the charity dinner.”
“What!” One hand lands on her mouth as she gasps and falls onto the chair behind her. “You told me you didn’t know what he looks like.”
“But I know what he smells like,” I mutter. “And…”
A bell rings out from the cafe.
“Stay there and start making cookies while I serve this customer.”
Thirty minutes later, Sienna hands me a mug with a frothy top as I perch on the stool in the kitchen of the café. “It’s a decaf.”
“Delicious,” I grumble as I wipe my floury hands over my apron and plonk two teaspoons of sugar into my hot drink, needing a sweet hit.
“So tell me more. What does the baby daddy look like?” Sienna pulls out the stool next to me.
“Gorgeous.” I admit, forcing a grim smile onto my face. “Dark hair, blue eyes. But he hates me.”
“Why the hell do you think that?”
My shoulders sag as I sigh. “Because he sent it through the bond.”
“He claimed you?” Her voice raises at least four octaves as she waits for me to explain.
I shake my head. “There are no marks on me. I must have claimed him.”
Her eyes search my face, expecting me to start laughing at the joke she thinks it is. When I don’t, she hisses, “Oh fuck. What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t know I did it. Not until last night. I thought everything I was feeling was me. My fears about having a baby by myself. My shame at not being able to give my baby a father.”
Sienna drags me closer to her and holds me close. “You don’t need to worry about anything. I’m here for you and the baby. You don’t need an alpha.”
“Thank you,” I murmur as I pull away from her. Nervously, I tap my fingers over the counter. “But I made a deal with Stanton.”
“A deal?” Sienna exhales deeply, like she already knows she won’t like what comes next.
“Stanton’s my fake boyfriend.”
“Ah, for Heaven’s sake, Grace. Are you mad?” she hisses.
It appears I am.
“He knows Lucas. And he thinks it will drive Lucas to want me if he thinks Stanton is taking his place.”
She narrows her eyes as her head tilts to one side. “Why do you want Lucas if he doesn’t want you?”
I wish I could honestly answer that, especially after hearing about his father. Still, I can only hope.
“You don’t understand.”
“Of course I don’t. He left you alone, upset and pregnant, and somehow you have it in your head that he wants you.” She exhales. “Grace—“
“Don’t Sienna.”
Her shocked expression says it all. She shakes her head and manages to say, “You’re playing with alphas, Grace. You can’t play games. They don’t play fair.”
I grit my teeth and press my hand on my stomach. “So you think I shouldn’t even try?”
Her eyes bulge as she stares at me. “I just… I don’t want you to be any more hurt than you already are.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
She looks stunned, and I feel insulted she doesn’t believe me.
I sigh, pushing down a pang of disappointment in my chest. “I do.” I insist. “And Stanton is going to help me.”
“Jeez, Grace,” Sienna shakes her head, her mouth hanging open. “He’s an alpha too. And he’s trying to fuck you, not help you. He probably hasn’t had an omega in a while and wants to knot you.”
I nearly spit out my drink. “Just say what you think.”
“I am.”
I sigh. “He’s not being anything other than kind to me. And like you told me, he’s a playboy. He’s gorgeous and can get any woman he wants. Why would he want me?”
“Don’t you even go there!” Sienna’s voice raises. She is the most positive person I know and refuses to let any of her friends put themselves down. “The question is, ‘why do you want him?’”
“I don’t.” But the words of protest die on my lips as a strange feeling bubbles inside me as I remember everything he did.
Holding me close when I was upset at being sick and then cleaning my teeth and face. And the way he held me in bed afterward. Even when he fell asleep, his body cocooned mine, his breath warm against my skin, but it was his scent that suffused every inch of me, and I liked it.
I’d be lying if I say he never affected me.
“Grace,” Sienna warns. “You have to be strong. Alphas like Stanton Adams are not good for you.”
“I know that,” I huff as I stroke my palm over my tummy. “But Lucas…”
She spins her cell to show me the screen. It’s a picture of Lucas and his omega smiling at the camera. Despite what Stanton told me, they look happy. “What the hell is going through your head, Grace? Look! He already has an omega.”
My heart shatters into a million pieces as I stare at the screen.
“I don’t know why, but they’re making a fool out of you,” Sienna tells me as the bell to the café chimes again. She growls under her breath. “Just a minute.”
She leaves her phone face up and I look at the picture of Lucas with his smiling and gorgeous black haired omega.
I grab my phone, open Google, and search for the hockey team that Stanton and Lucas play for — the New York Bears — and when it loads, I hit the button for the players.
Time to do a little cyber-sleuthing before Sienna comes back into the room and chastises me even more for my life choices. I shrug. I need to do this. How was I supposed to know my one-heat-stand would be my scented mate?
Lucas Hilton, twenty-seven years old. Then I click on Stanton Adams, the team captain. Stanton is older than Lucas and will soon hit thirty-years old.
Soon, my internet search shows Stanton more than Lucas. Stanton is definitely the playboy of the two men. There are too many pictures of him with beautiful women, and I doubt any of them were girlfriends.
“You’re not his type,” Sienna says, taking me by surprise.
“Why not?” I don’t know why I asked when the nagging voice in my head already gave me the answer. I’m not a model. I’m not tall and thin. Not only that. I’m pregnant. I just don’t know what the hell Stanton is playing at. He doesn’t need me to be his fake date… unless he is trying to annoy Lucas.
It did look heated now again between them at charity night. And Lucas hated seeing Stanton’s hand stroking over mine.
“Because you’re quiet.” She laughs. “And apart from being an omega and your cam girl accounts, you’re relatively normal.”
“I think that makes me far from normal,” I hit back.
Sienna lifts a perfect eyebrow at me. “I don’t want you getting hurt, Grace. And men who have a different woman every week will hurt you.” She nods her head to emphasize her words.
I frown and drop my face to stare at the image of him on my phone.
The kitchen door squeaks as it opens.
“Grace.” Ella rushes to me and places a hand on my shoulder. “Harlow told me all about you and Stanton Adams. Jeez, that man is gorgeous.”
“It was only a date for the dinner, nothing more.” I laugh. “And I doubt your alphas will appreciate you gushing over Stanton.”
“I’m not gushing over him. Nobody compares to my alphas. Hockey gods or not.”
“It must be nice to be the chosen one.”
“It is and I am.” She grins and nods. “And one day, you’ll find alphas who’ll treat you the same way.” She gives my tummy a reassuring pat. “How are you and bubs?”
“What pack will want me?” I groan. “I must be the only pregnant omega without an alpha.”
They side glance each other, a tinge of unease on their faces.
Sienna breaks the silence first. “But you’ve got loads of friends, two sisters and your mother and all of us are going to look after you and the baby.”
I take a gulp of my now cold decaf to calm my nerves, but I need something stronger. The idea of having this baby alone scares the hell out of me.
Ella gnaws her lip, eyeing me anxiously. She’s an omega. She knows what I need. “And the perfect alpha will come along when you least expect it.”
A knot forms in my throat. “Not when I’m carrying another alpha’s baby.”
I stare at Sienna’s phone again, looking closer at Lucas and the lady he is with. I don’t know what Stanton was thinking. There is no way Lucas Hilton is going to get jealous.
And I’m not sure that I want him to be.