2. Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Jackson
“Daddy?”
The small, quiet voice of my son from the backseat had my eyes straying from the road to the rearview mirror. Catching him solemnly looking at me in the mirror, I smiled. Even if he couldn’t see it, I hoped the gesture would reach my eyes. He was frowning, his little brow furrowed in a way I had seen way too much on his almost five-year-old face.
“What’s up, kiddo?” It still made my heart clench a little how much Aiden resembled Levi. The same shape of his eyes, cute button nose, the curve of his mouth. Even the way he stuck out his chin when he was trying to be brave, or stubborn, or wanted to ask something really important. Exactly like he was doing now .
“What if they don’t like me?” Aiden’s small voice held the tiniest tremor to it.
Well…fuck.
Wishing Levi was here for these moments did me no good, but he’d been so much better at this than I was. Or he would have been, had he been able to be here for these moments. He’d had way too short of a time being a father, but I knew he would have handled all of it so much better than me.
If you’re up there watching, love, I could use some whispered words of how to navigate this.
My silent…plea, because I had stopped praying or believing in a higher power of anything when I had watched Levi’s casket be lowered into the ground, went unanswered. Much like it usually did.
I was well and truly on my own, navigating single parenthood more than I ever had since my husband’s passing. In those early days, I was so thankful for my large family, who lived close. And Levi’s mom had been able to step in to help, watching Aiden for me so I could work and taking on the burden of a baby and beyond. Unfortunately, lately she had been stepping in just a little too much for my liking. It wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful for her help, because I was doubtful I would have made it on my own had she not offered her help.
Man up, my croc snapped his teeth sharply, his scales rippling beneath my skin, you got this .
I very much don’t have a damn thing, but I appreciate the vote of confidence.
“Why wouldn’t they like you?” I asked cheerfully, turning my attention back to my son, while still navigating the new to us streets. “You’re very likeable.”
Aiden let out a small huff of air, his slender shoulders moving with the effort. “You have to like me,” he grumbled, “you’re my dad.”
“Is that in the parent handbook somewhere?” Teasing, I turned into the parking lot of the Little Cubs Daycare. Finding an empty spot, I put the car in park and turned off the ignition. Unbuckling my seatbelt, I turned in my seat, until I could face my son to give him my undivided attention.
He gave me a little smile, nodding his head. “Yep. It says you must like your kids.”
Tapping my chin with my finger, I hummed. “Hmmm, I must have missed that chapter. I just like you because you’re you. And you are pretty great.”
“But I don’t know nobody.”
“You don’t know anybody,” I corrected, reaching out to push a lock of his unruly sandy hair off his forehead. Levi’s hair had done the same thing, that one lone lock that always fell over his forehead, no matter how he tried to tame it.
Is it ever going to not hurt when I think about him?
It will get easier, my croc advised, not for the first time, eventually.
“You know Miss Charlie,” I reminded him, thankful not for the first time, for the kindness my new boss, Brendan Sinclair, had shown us since we’d arrived in Sweet Alps. He and his husband, Ryan, had invited us over for dinner a couple of times already in the two weeks we had been here. Their little girl, Charlie, already adored Aiden. “And you know Mr. Ryan. He works here and I know Miss Charlie will be here today. So, see, that’s two people you know.”
Aiden didn’t look convinced in the slightest, his little face scrunched up, brow furrowed once again, blue eyes troubled.
“Hey,” keeping my voice quiet, I tilted his chin up, “you think I’m not nervous too? Because I am. And I only know one person at my new job. It’s a big day for both of us.”
“Grown ups don’t get nervous,” he scoffed, crossing his arms over his skinny chest.
Folding my arms over my broad chest, in a good imitation of my son, I nodded. “Grown ups do get nervous. I’m very nervous. I’m doing a brand new job, with people I’ve never met. It’s okay to be a little scared starting something new. I bet by the time I pick you up tonight you’ll have made at least two new friends.”
He wrinkled his nose, his thinking face on. “You need to make two friends today, too, daddy. ”
Sticking out my hand, I said, “Deal. We both go into today with the goal of making at least two new friends.”
He placed his little hand in mine, and we shook on it. It had become our thing, shaking on things, when life had gotten a bit away from me and I had started burying myself in my work. It was a promise to him to do whatever it was I had promised him I would do. I hadn’t always been the best at keeping my promises to him, but I had vowed to do better, to be better. To be the father that Levi would have been. That he would have expected me to be.
Walking up to the glass doors of the daycare, his warm hand in mine, I predicted, “I bet you’ll make lots more than two friends today.”
He shrugged, trepidation back on his face, as I ushered him into the building and what I could only describe as controlled chaos. The sounds of children already playing filled the air, despite it not even being eight in the morning yet. I knew the center opened at six a.m. and stayed open until after eight, to accommodate as many parents’ schedules as they could reasonably manage.
Ryan had recommended Little Cubs, as he worked here part-time and acted as the assistant manager. Still, I had asked for a tour, and had been shown around personally by the owner, Wyatt Cooper-Beckett. The facility was outstanding and offered a good learning environment. Since I had felt it would be a good fit for Aiden, and would solve my immediate childcare problem, I had enrolled him .
I never imagined I would ever leave Levi’s and my marital home, or my cushy job where I was the youngest managing partner of a swanky accounting firm, to move across the country. But the walls had started closing in with too many memories, and I–we–had needed a change.
If I had stayed in that house, I knew I would never move on. I loved Levi, but he was gone, and wallowing in his memory, in the what-if’s, the should-have-been, hadn’t been healthy for me or my growing son. When I realized I was spending more time in my office than with my son, to avoid going home to the house Levi had decorated so lovingly, to wishes and dreams that would never come true, I knew I needed to make a change. For both Aiden and me.
The job in Sweet Alps had practically fallen into my lap at just the right time. A friend of a friend from college, who was a headhunter, had approached me with the opportunity. Brendan Sinclair ran his family’s upscale department store, but was wanting to scale back and spend more time at home with his mate and daughter. He was on the hunt for a CFO that he could hand the reins over to. He and his three brothers had also recently gone into business together and built the first shopping mall in Sweet Alps. On the days Brendan would be in the offices of the store, I would be in the offices of the mall.
The job came with a hefty salary, as well as several perks, and would pose some new challenges for me that I found myself eager to take on. It helped that Brendan and I had hit it off from our very first zoom meeting, an easy friendship already forming. It made it much easier to tell my family–and Levi’s–that we were moving to Northern California from Connecticut.
Glancing around the big open room of the daycare, I helped Aiden off with his light jacket, my eyes scanning all the activity. Kids of all ages played in various areas, overseen by adults. There was a craft area, an inside play area, complete with a small slide and merry-go-round, and an area that I knew from my tour was used for story time. I knew there were also some rooms kept for the smaller children and infants, and areas for napping.
Folding Aiden’s jacket over my arm, I shifted his backpack in my hand. Aiden firmly grasped my other hand, squeezing tightly as his large eyes looked around at all the kids playing and the various things to do. We hadn’t been noticed by any of the adults working yet, beyond the young woman who had been sitting behind the reception desk when we first arrived, and I wasn’t really sure what the protocol was for drop off.
One of the ladies who was overseeing the craft area noticed us and started over, a welcoming smile on her face. Movement from a doorway caught my eye, shifting my attention, and my gut clenched.
A man stood there, a beautiful little girl with dark curls perched on his hip.
He was absolutely stunning. Breathtakingly beautiful .
Brown hair, a mixture of light and dark strands, sprinkled with some strands of gray. It was stylishly cut to frame his face in a flattering way, brushed back from his forehead and showing off his features. He was slender like most omegas, standing about five foot six or seven, which meant I would tower over him at six foot two.
His smile, aimed at Aiden and me, was warm and inviting. Heat started in my chest, spreading across my body. The child in his arms patted his cheek affectionately, momentarily bringing his focus back to her.
For a few beats of my heart, I forgot how to breathe.
Images of this man holding a child that looked like a mixture of the two of us, his eyes crinkling at the corners with fine laugh lines as he smiled broadly with happiness, swarmed my mind. Another image of him round and glowing with pregnancy had me nearly gasping out loud.
Desire, like I hadn’t felt in years, slammed into me hard; unfiltered lust mixed with pure need.
Whoa! Where the ever-loving-fuck had any of these thoughts come from?
Want! My croc demanded.
Watching the man move towards us gracefully, I guessed he was probably a good ten years or more older than me. There was a natural sexiness to him that I could tell he wasn’t even aware he had. As he moved closer, I noticed the hair at his temples was liberally sprinkled with white that just added to his sexiness, as well as the five o’clock shadow that was a couple of days old, and made my growing cock give a happy little twitch.
Nice to know my dick wasn’t dead after all, but now was definitely not the time for my libido to decide to work again.
Breathing in deeply, to calm my racing heart and to get a grip on whatever the fuck was happening inside me, my senses were flooded with the scent of…Christmas? Sniffing, I subtly took another whiff, warming as the scents of nutmeg, cinnamon, and something else washed over me.
It’s cloves , my croc supplied helpfully. He smells divine! Like spiced cookies!
Shush! I’m trying to…think.
Mmmm, no thinking, just sniffing! Nom Nom! My croc snapped his teeth sharply.
“Good morning!” he greeted us, his voice soft and smooth. “I’m sorry I wasn’t out here to greet you when you arrived.” He stuck his free hand out, hiking the toddler on his hip at the same time in a smooth, practiced motion. “Julianna needed a hug from her papa. I’m Mr. Robert.”
Robert. It fit him, somehow, and I rolled the name over in my head a few times.
“Jackson Sobek,” I engulfed his smaller hand in my large one, jolting when a burst of electricity shot between us. He yanked his hand back, frowning fiercely at me, before the smile was plastered back on his face. It didn’t escape my notice that the smile no longer met his warm brown eyes. No, those gorgeous eyes of his now held confusion, and maybe just a hint of wonder.
We stared at each other for a full thirty seconds, before I stared down at my still outstretched hand.
Did that really just happen?
Could it mean what I think it means?
Were we…?
MATE! My croc roared in all his apex predator glory. Mate, mate, mate, mate.
I hadn’t imagined it then, and by the look on Robert’s face, I wasn’t the only one. He looked as shell shocked as I felt.
His breathing sped up, then hitched shakily as he took a slow, steadying breath. He blinked once, twice, looking dazed, before his vision cleared and he turned his attention to my son.
Okay, so we weren’t going to talk about what just happened then? Probably a smart move, but at some point, we were definitely going to have to have a conversation about it. Right?
“You must be Aiden?” Robert hunched down until he was eye level with Aiden, setting the little girl–Julianna, he had called her–down on her feet. “We’re so happy to have you join us.”
“I, ah, wasn’t sure what the usual drop off routine was,” I told him, watching as Aiden’s eyes became glued to a small group of children who were playing dress up in one corner. There was a large chest that resembled something from a pirate’s ship, with the lid thrown open. The small group of children gleefully rifled through its contents.
Recognizing Brendan’s little girl, as she was helped into a blue princess dress by a little boy who looked to be a few years older than her, I told him, “Look, there’s Miss Charlie. Do you want to go play with her?”
Robert looked over his shoulder at the group, easily standing back up to his full height. Impressive core, I couldn’t help but notice, even though it was clear he was a bit soft around his midsection. I happened to find a little fluff sexy as fuck on a man. I loved my omegas soft and cuddly.
And older , my croc reminded me helpfully. You like them older.
He wasn’t wrong. I had always found older omegas much more attractive than men my age, or even younger. Levi had been a full ten years older than me.
Robert held out his hand to Aiden, and to my surprise, my son slipped his small hand in his with no hesitation. “We have all kinds of dress up clothes. You can be a pirate, a fireman, policeman, a prince…you name it, we probably have it.”
Biting my lip, I waited for Aiden to answer. I wanted him to be true to himself, but didn’t want to push him in any one direction. An issue Levi’s mom and I had strongly disagreed on recently .
Aiden’s eyes hadn’t left the children, and I realized that the little boy who had helped Charlie into her princess gown had donned one of his own. This one in a bright yellow that I recognized from a Disney movie. He twirled happily in a circle, making the skirt of the gown swirl around him.
“Can I be a princess?” Aiden asked softly, and my eyes never left Robert’s, tensely waiting to see how he would respond to the request.
He didn’t miss a beat, didn’t hesitate, when he cheerfully answered, “Of course! Do you have a color princess dress you’d like?”
I trailed behind as they moved over to the chest of clothes that were strung out the sides of the container.
“Everyone, this is Aiden,” Robert introduced him to the group, “this is his first day so let’s make him feel welcome. Aiden, this is Patrick and his sister Rory. And I think I heard Mr. Ryan say this morning that you know Charlie already?”
Charlie nodded her blondish red head emphatically, waving her small hand in greeting, and smiling her bright smile.
Rory swung her pirate sword in the air, and Robert casually eased it away from everyone with a flick of his finger. “I’m a pirate! Patrick and Charlie are princesses. What do you wanna be? ”
“Aiden would like to be a princess also,” Robert started straightening the clothes, while simultaneously looking through them. He triumphantly pulled out one pink princess gown and one purple. “Looks like we have these two left to choose from.”
Aiden’s eyes lit up at the sight of the pink dress, and I smiled gratefully at Robert, silently mouthing my thanks. He gave a slight nod of acknowledgement.
Aiden fingered the silky material of the dress. “I like this one.”
“Ah, sleeping beauty is one of my favorite stories,” Robert helped him into the costume. “Pink is my favorite color.”
I filed that piece of information into the file I had already started in my head with this man’s name on it.
I wanted to learn everything there was to know about him. Gorgeous eyes. Sexy smile. Smells like my mom’s house at Christmas. Favorite color is pink.
Oh, and fated mate . Couldn’t forget that vital statistic.
How the fuck was I supposed to concentrate on my new job today, when I had just met my fated mate?
It was going to be a long day.