Chapter 15 Merrick
MERRICK
My pregnancy was flying by, and I still hadn’t seen my father or brother. Part of that was because I insisted on working. There were things I didn’t like about my job, but now that it was the place that held the memory of when I met my mate again, I couldn’t quite let it go.
Being mated to someone who was rich kind of changed how “working” looked, though.
As a surprise three-month anniversary gift, not even a real anniversary in my opinion, my father-in-law gave me the venue.
Gave. It. To. Me. He bought it, put it in my name, and handed the documentation to me in a gift bag covered in party hats.
Life with my new family could never be described as boring.
He must’ve noticed my panicked face when I finally understood what he’d given me.
I wasn’t a business owner or even a hospitality graduate.
I served people food and drinks and cleaned tables.
That was it. But he told me he’d help me find better managers and that I didn’t need to work any job at all there, and if I did, it could be of my choosing.
I took him up on his offer of help. Manager Steve was long gone, and we moved Sally up to his spot. What a difference that made.
At first, my coworkers were skeptical that I would still be one of them, and I got it.
Why would I be? I was the owner. I could sit in the office, wander around, schmooze…
all of it, but I didn’t want that. I also didn’t want to bus tables, although now that money wasn’t an issue, I didn’t mind it as much.
I hadn’t realized how much being in debt and working to pay off my brother’s medical bills had impacted so many areas of my life. Now that my debt was gone, I felt so much freer.
As my pregnancy progressed, I worked less and less, always listening to the advice of my midwife. Most recently, I’d slid into the host position a couple nights a week, as carrying the trays was becoming a bit too awkward with my belly in the way, but it was nice to still feel needed.
King insisted that I didn’t need to work at all, and it was true…
financially, I didn’t. But at least until the baby came, I really needed to for my own wellbeing.
It wasn’t as if my mate could just take off and stay home with me all the time.
Maybe then it would be different. We’d get hobbies, go on day trips, that kind of thing.
But with him going to work every day, it made sense that I did as well, at least part-time.
Today was my last day for a while. Tomorrow, we were getting on a plane to go see my father and brother and his family for the first time in far too many months. They’d Zoomed with my mate and me quite often, but it wasn’t the same. I was excited.
I stared at the two suitcases open on the bed.
King’s was already packed, just waiting to be closed.
Mine was a hot mess, with most of the clothing ending up on the bed beside it.
I was spiraling so much about what to bring for myself that I didn’t even hear my mate come home or enter the room until his arms wrapped around me.
I nearly jumped out of my skin. Had my center of gravity not been so skewed, I most likely would have.
“I didn’t hear you.”
“I noticed,” he said, kissing my mating mark. The things that did to me. “Do you want help packing your bag? Looks like mine is done. I told you that you didn’t need to do that. Thank you.”
I leaned back against his chest. “I know I didn’t need to, but I figured packing two was just as easy as one, and you were working.” I’d been wrong, but at the time, the logic made sense.
“You spoil me.”
“Says the man who had his father literally purchase my place of work to make it less stressful for me.”
“I didn’t have my father do anything.”
I turned in his arms to face him. “You didn’t think to yourself that I would turn it down from you, but if your father gave it to me, I’d feel the need to accept it?”
I’d suspected it was the case, but the look on my mate’s face when I called him out affirmed it.
“Moving on…” He nipped at my bottom lip. Anything but admit his part in my new business venture. It was all kinds of adorable. “What’s the deal with your bag?”
“Nothing fits right.” And I hated it. Even the shirt I had on now was a tad too short, and I found myself tugging at it repeatedly.
He scented me deeply, something I never stopped finding sexy. “If only there was something we could do about that.”
I’d been fighting him on getting new clothes because, to me, new clothes meant defeat. I wanted to be in the paternity size that was equivalent to my pre-pregnancy shape, which was vanity and nothing more. Cognitively, I knew this. Emotionally, it was hard.
My body was growing to fit the shape of our young. Of course, it wasn’t the same shape as before, and that was because it was better. It was giving our growing cub what they needed. But understanding that and taking the steps to go buy new clothes were two different things.
“I don’t want to.” I faux pouted.
“Well, I think we’ve gotten to the point where your choice is to wear my old sweats or go shopping. Do you want to be wearing my clothes when you see your father again for the first time in a long time?”
Of course, he had to be logical about things.
“Fine, I’ll go buy new clothes if you take me and we stop for tamales on the way back.”
“Deal.”
I’d gone through such interesting food phases this pregnancy.
There was a time when I had to force myself to eat anything because I wasn’t hungry.
Then there was a time when, if it was salty, I was putting it in my mouth.
There was also my cookie phase, which came and went pretty regularly, my scrambled egg phase, and this week, I couldn’t stop thinking about tamales.
Specifically, tamales from the food truck on the corner of Larch.
I wasn’t sure what they put in those, but it was infused with some sort of magic, because it was to the point where I was dreaming about them.
Dream marketing. Was that a thing?
“Done,” he said, kissing my cheek and then grabbing my hand.
“Wait, I need to get dressed.”
“Look at me.”
I tilted my head up so I could meet his eyes. “You’re handsome in everything you wear, and especially when you wear nothing. And right now, you look like somebody who needs new clothes, and we’re going to get new clothes.”
I tugged at my shirt, making sure my belly was covered. “Fine.” No point in arguing with him. All it did was put time between me and my tamales.
There was one paternity store in town, and it wasn’t particularly large, but I was pleasantly surprised by how many options they had for me.
My initial clothes were all purchased online.
It was when I was still working full-time and didn’t want to be bothered with going and trying things on, not when there was another option that came with free next-day shipping.
“We should get you everyday clothes and something nice for when we take your family out to eat,” he said.
I hated suits, although I’d worn one more now that I was mated with King than I ever did beforehand. “Let’s just see what there is.”
The salesperson must have seen us coming and knew that my mate was going to say we’d take anything I even glanced at, because they made a beeline over to us and followed us around, giving suggestions at each rack.
When all was said and done, there was a pile on the counter that was embarrassingly large.
“I don’t need all this. There’s this thing, it’s a new invention, that’s only like a hundred years old, and it washes clothes. So you can wear them, put them in this machine, and in an hour, another machine dries them. Voila, you can wear them again.”
“Or my mate can have the choice of what he wants to wear each morning,” he said, handing his card to the salesperson. “Can these be delivered to our home tonight?”
I wanted to argue that we could carry them back ourselves, but I learned a long time ago that when my mate wanted to do spoiling kinds of things like this, to just let him. It made him happy, and there was nothing I liked more than seeing my mate happy.
On the way home, we stopped and bought enough tamales for ten pregnant omegas with the idea that I could put some in the freezer for the next time I had a craving.
When I was just about finished eating, my clothing arrived, delivered as promised.
We packed the suitcase and were ready for our morning flight.
“Thank you for taking me to see my family. I know it’s a busy time at work.”
“It’s never too busy for you, mate. I’ll never be too busy for you.”
It was great seeing my family. We ate at my brother’s favorite restaurant, did a tour of the local area, played cards, and laughed at silly stories about my younger days. I’d never seen my brother looking as good as he did now.
Seeing him like that made it so I’d never regret having to leave all those years ago and the time that I wasn’t with my mate.
It would’ve been nice if things happened differently, but when the end result was seeing my brother happy and healthy and my father looking younger than I’d ever seen him and talking about the neighbor that my brother swore he had a crush on.
.. yeah, those were things I treasured. It made it all worth it.