Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
Colt
With Ben’s help, it only took a week for me to get all my stuff out of the cabin and a “for sale” sign in the front yard.
The following Saturday, I decided to celebrate this achievement by taking Ben and Angus to the market in Jessup.
Not to sell anything—Maddox and David were going to do that—but to walk around and have fun. Like a date.
The day was beautiful, warm and sunny as opposed to chilly and wet, an equally likely scenario in these parts in late spring. As we climbed out of my Outback in the outdoor market parking area, I said so to my mates.
“I’m looking forward to summer and swimming in the river,” I added.
“That sounds like fun,” Ben said.
“For sure, we’ll do it, then,” Angus promised him. “Although Colt is sure to dunk one of us.”
“Do you guys go swimming a lot?” Ben asked as we walked across the gravel lot toward the covered booths in the near distance.
“Not a lot,” I answered. “But a couple of times a summer, usually. I don’t know if we got to do it last year, did we, Angus?”
He shook his head. “Last year was pretty busy. Colt and I like to fish, too. What about you, Ben?”
“I’ve never been fishing,” Ben said. “I’ve never lived near water.”
“Do you know how to swim?” I asked.
Ben shook his head.
“We’ll teach you,” I said. “Won’t we, Angus?”
“Yup. Don’t want you drowning on us.” He grinned at Ben fondly, but I could see the worry in his eyes.
Not for Ben drowning, because we would watch him like hawks, but for his health in general.
A week had gone by, and he was still sleeping way more than was normal.
One day when Ben and I had been working in my cabin, I got a phone call and went outside to take it.
I was out there a while because the utilities company was being difficult about my bill, and when I came back in, Ben, who had been sitting on a rug on the floor, had gathered the boxes around himself and was fast asleep.
He looked so cute, I took a picture. Then, I started worrying that I was overworking him.
Another time, later in the week, Ben disappeared after breakfast and Angus and I found him on our bed with about a dozen pillows from around the house surrounding him. He’d only been up a couple of hours.
Angus had been working so hard doing both his own work at the ranch and going over to the Borders’ to help them repair everything, we hadn’t had time to talk about Ben’s health. But we’d communicated our concern with our eyes on many occasions, so I knew he’d noticed it same as I had.
Before Laura had left for home, she’d asked Angus to watch over Nova and Eric and their kids.
She seemed to have gotten awfully close to the little family in a short amount of time, but I guess that came from being there for them when their little boy was so sick.
Now that she was back in Hudson City, she was probably worried about them.
Angus would have gone over there today if I hadn’t assured him that Grant Cheevers and his boys would be there.
“Hey, they’re selling honey!” Ben pointed at a table covered in jars with bright labels on them. He ran ahead of us, and Angus and I smiled at his excitement.
“Good to see him so lit up. This was a good idea,” Angus said.
“You’ve been worried about him, too,” I said.
“Hard not to when he suddenly wants to sleep every minute of the day.” Angus stopped walking and turned to me. “But I think I know what it’s about, Colt.”
Heart in my throat, I waited for him to tell me. Was Ben sick?
Angus smiled. “You look like you’re gonna puke. It’s not bad, it’s actually kind of good. I’m pretty sure Ben is having our baby.”
“Huh?” Dumbfounded, I could only stare at Angus like he’s spoken in Mandarin.
“I said, I am pretty certain that Ben is pregnant. I didn’t really think about it until that day we found him with all the pillows. David did that all the time when he was pregnant with Ollie. It’s called nesting.”
“Nesting,” I repeated. “Uh, wow.” Excitement stirred within me. “Is there a test he can take?”
“They don’t sell those for omegas. We’d have to get a doctor to confirm, and the only one we have for our omegas is Laura. Can’t call her back here this soon, though she’d probably agree to come in maybe a month. I get the feeling she’d like to see Nova and Eric Borders again.”
“You think they’re involved?”
Angus nodded. “Hard to miss with Nova staring at her like she wanted to inhale her and Laura turning all shades of pink in her presence when I’ve never seen her blush.”
“Ben told me he saw her hugging Eric in the kitchen the night Ben sat with Jeremiah. He said that something about it looked very intimate.”
“And you saw something in our kitchen when Nova came over that night, didn’t you?”
I nodded. It hadn’t been a kiss or anything like that, but it had been something.
“Well, good for her,” Angus said. We’d stopped within a few feet of where Ben had struck up a conversation with the honey seller and watched him.
Pregnant. Well, what do you know? Angus and I are going to be dads!
Angus elbowed me in the ribs. “Get that love-sick goo-goo expression off your face, and let’s buy our mate some honey.”
An hour later, the three of us sat eating barbeque at the wooden tables set up in the shade of some trees.
“Angus Angel!” a woman’s voice exclaimed. Looking up from my food, I watched Adele Adler approach our table. Standing, Angus gave Adele a friendly hug.
“And Colt Nelson,” she added, recognizing me. I didn’t know her well, but she’d gone to school with my father and mother. “I haven’t seen either of you in ages. Colt, are you still helping out at Angus’ ranch?”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Angus said, “Colt not only helps out, he’s going to live with us. He and I are mated, along with Ben, here.” He gestured to Ben, who smiled and nodded his head in greeting.
Adele’s eyes widened comically. “My, that’s…
really something! Well, congratulations, you three.
” Gesturing to Ben, she said, “An omega, correct?” When Angus nodded, she continued, “Isn’t it odd?
A while back, none of us could get an omega from the government, and now Maddox has one; Bertram Jenkins has one; my brother, who tried for years and was rejected multiple times is expecting one anytime now; and you and Colt have one. ”
I wasn’t sure I liked the way she was making omegas sound like objects, and I could tell Angus didn’t either.
However, the situation was a little difficult to describe, so I let it pass without comment, especially as Ben didn’t seem to be paying attention anymore.
I’d noticed he often zoned out when people started talking about omegas.
“Silas has been approved for an omega mate?” Angus asked, looking surprised.
“Yes, isn’t that wonderful? He’s over the moon. It gave me the incentive to request one myself for me and the husband.” She chuckled, then she seemed to realized something. “Wait. You two alphas are mated? I’ve never heard of such.”
“I guess it is kind of rare,” I said.
Adele looked at Ben, who was placidly eating while scrolling on his phone.
Although I didn’t think he was listening, I intuitively felt that he was uncomfortable in Adele’s presence, her being a strange alpha.
As unobtrusively as I could, I scooted closer to him on the bench.
Immediately, Ben leaned into me, making me glad I’d done it.
“I suppose it’s the omega that makes it work,” Adele said with a shrug.
I looked at Angus, raising a brow. Of course, we’d realized that a physical relationship was going to feel incomplete between the two of us and that an omega would help, but I wondered if that’s what Adele meant or something else. I wasn’t about to get into our sex life with her, though.
“Well, I have to be getting back to my shopping. Nice to see you all!” With a jocular wave, Adele walked off.
“Busybody,” Angus mumbled after she left.
“You don’t like her?” I asked, surprised.
“Of course I don’t. She’s never had a bit of sense, and she feeds off gossip like a starved guinea fowl eats ticks.”
Ben giggled. We had several guineas that wandered the ranch in the summer gobbling up the blood-sucking insects along with grasshoppers, beetles, and mosquitoes.
Angus grinned at him. “You agree with me, don’t you, Benny? I bet you had that woman’s number from the moment she walked up.”
Ben said, “I don’t know about that. I just didn’t feel comfortable around her. She’s one of those alphas who puts off a negative vibe.”
“How do you mean?” I asked, piling barbequed pork on a roll and taking a bite. It was tangy-sweet and delicious.
“I don’t know. I can just tell, that’s all.”
“You one of those people who’re good at sizing folks up?” Angus asked, picking up his orange soda to take a drink.
Ben shook his head. “No, not really. I mean, I’ve never thought about it.
” Lowering his voice, he said, “I think it’s just that when I was on the run, I started paying a lot more attention to people and sizing up their intentions, that’s all.
I avoided alphas, of course. Here in Jessup, they still make me nervous if you two aren’t with me. ”
Angus banged his fist on the table, gaining the attention of the people having lunch nearby. “A strange alpha has no business sniffing around you when Colt and I aren’t around.”
I couldn’t say I disagreed, but Angus was coming on a bit strong. When I looked at Ben to gauge his reaction, though, I could see he understood, as I did, that fear for those Angus loved tended to make him gruff.
“Guineas kill rattlesnakes,” I said, in an attempt to get Angus’s mind off the idea of alphas intruding on our omega.
With a huff, Angus said, “Knowing Adele Adler, she’d kill off the good ones, like rat snakes.”
The people who had been sitting nearby finished eating and walked away. With no one within earshot, I asked, “Why was her brother refused an omega mate?”