14. Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
Robert
Sinking down into the hard plastic chairs at one of the small tables in the break room, I tried to mask my wince. My body was sore, but in a good way that I secretly enjoyed every time my muscles twinged when I turned a certain way. Each time I felt the mild ache, it brought back memories of my heat and Jackson.
Just the thought of the alpha had my hole clenching in need. The man was…well, I didn’t really have words for what Jackson was. Attentive, kind, sweet, generous, sexy, funny. Jackson Sobek was the total package.
My phone vibrated with an incoming text, and seeing Jackson’s name on my screen I couldn’t help the huge smile that made my cheeks ache as I read it.
Jackson: Good morning. How are you feeling?
I could feel the huge smile that lit up my face before I could stop it, and I didn’t try to hide it.
Me: Good morning. I’m good.
Jackson: Not too sore?
Me: Just a little.
Jackson: Good. I’m in meetings all day but I wanted to see how you were. And…I missed you.
Staring at those three little words, I didn’t know how to respond. Before I could come up with any kind of suitable reply, the three little bubble dots appeared, then disappeared, then reappeared.
Jackson: Okay, it was obviously too soon for me to admit that. It’s just after spending three days and nights with you…I did. I missed you. I missed holding you and waking up with you.
Emotions swamped me that I didn’t know what to do with. Because I had missed him too. Had woken up in the middle of the night, after he had driven me home, and missed his strong arms around me. Missed the heat of him at my back. Missed the weight of his thick thigh thrown over mine, as he held me possessively to his chest.
It was crazy. It was too soon. It was…it was everything I had ever wanted and wished for.
And something told me that if I didn’t at least give this–us–a try, I might not get another shot at this. We were fated mates, after all. Besides, every argument I had for why we wouldn’t work, Jackson had debunked rather quickly.
It would mean taking him at his word, putting my trust in him, that he truly meant what he had said about our age difference, about us not having children, about the real possibility of me dying before him and leaving him widowed. For a second time in his life.
But there was a part of me, a part I had locked away so long ago I had almost forgotten it existed, that wanted everything Jackson was offering me.
And dammit, I deserved it.
I deserved to be happy. To have what I saw other people have and envied. Until I had walked out on my marriage, on Jane, and moved to Sweet Alps, I hadn’t realized just how absolutely unhappy I had been most of my adult life.
Even if we ended up not working out–
Fated, remember? My gazelle snorted. Highly unlikely to not work out at this point .
Even if we ended up not working out, at least I would have the memories. I would know what it was like to be…to be…
Cherished , my gazelle supplied when my mind floundered for the word.
Cherished , I agreed.
Me: I missed you too.
Jackson: Yeah? *smiling emoji*
Me: LOL yes. Don’t let it go to your head.
Jackson: I don’t care what happens in these meetings today, I’m gonna be grinning all day.
Me: *eye roll emoji*
Jackson: I do have to go. Meeting started a minute ago and I’m late. I’ll talk to you later?
Me: I’d like that.
Jackson: Have a good day, sweetheart .
“Spill!” Ryan demanded gleefully, sliding into the free seat across from me, and startling me so much I dropped my phone before I had a chance to respond to Jackson’s last message. It clattered loudly on the table, before I could scoop it up and slide it into my pocket.
My eyes widened when Wyatt took the other empty spot. “Yeah, spill. How was it? Did he treat you well? Because if he didn’t, I’ll–”
“Sic Becks on him,” Ryan finished for my son.
Raising both brows at their eagerness for me to share all my secrets with them, and for Wyatt’s overprotectiveness, I primly told them, “I don’t kiss and tell. And I’m certainly not going to share details with you both about my–” glancing around to see who else might be on break, I hissed, “heat. Especially with my son. That’s awkward and weird.”
Wyatt and Ryan exchanged looks, then shrugged, before Ryan conceded. “He’s not wrong.”
“Thank you. Now, my break is almost over.”
“But something put that smile on your face,” Ryan told me, his green eyes full of merriment and happiness.
“Or someone,” Wyatt grinned at me. “Was that Jackson you were texting?”
Standing, I shook my head at them both. “For your information, yes it was. Nosiness is not becoming.”
Wyatt snorted inelegantly. “We’re just invested, Pops. We all want you to be happy. ”
I didn’t even need to ask who the ‘all’ was he was talking about. His group of omega friends, for sure.
Ryan nodded, then told me softly, “You deserve it, Robert. We’re all just really excited that you met your fated mate, after…well, you know. We’re all rooting for you.”
It was at that moment that Becky, our front desk receptionist, appeared in the doorway, a huge bouquet of gorgeous pink roses nearly obscuring her round face. There were three different shades of pinks in the arrangement. Some were a pale pink in the lightest of blushes, some were a darker shade nearing fuchsia, while the remainder were stunning pink and white stripes that I had never seen before in my life.
“Someone is either super romantic or fucked up massively,” I heard Ryan say to Wyatt.
“Right! Either way, those flowers are gorgeous.”
Poking her head around the side of the heavy vase, Becky grinned at me, her brown eyes dancing. “Robert, these were just delivered for you.”
My heart hammered in my chest, as I rushed forward to take the teetering vase from her. “Me?”
Even I could hear the stunned incredulity in my voice, as I buried my nose into the soft petals and inhaled deeply of their fragrance.
“Yeppers,” she smacked her lips on the ‘p’s’. “ Lucky guy!”
She hurried back to the front desk, while I stood there completely stunned. Wyatt snatched the white card from where it poked out of the bouquet before I had a chance to stop him.
“Looking forward to seeing you again and finishing our date. J.” Wyatt read out loud, while I tried in vain to snatch the card back.
I wanted to admonish that I had raised him with better manners than that, but I didn’t want him to say, not for the first time, that I hadn’t raised him at all. That he had been raised by nannies and then raised himself while at school. While it was true, it still stung, and I didn’t want to go back down that road. Especially since we had come so far in mending our complicated relationship.
Instead, I exclaimed, “Rude!” and watched as my son’s face lit up in a wide grin at my snark.
He gave me a kiss on my cheek, whispering, “You deserve to be happy, Pops.”
Flustered, by both my son and the flowers from Jackson, I gave a little flip of my hand as I left the break room, but I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips. It was kind of nice knowing I had people in my corner, rooting for me. It was even nicer that one of those people was my son.
Not knowing what to do with the flowers, since they wouldn’t fit in the cubbies we had for staff to store their belongings, I hurried to Wyatt’s office and deposited the flowers onto the small table he had there.
Quickly snapping a picture of the beautiful flowers, I sent off a text to Jackson.
Me: Thank you doesn’t seem adequate. They are stunning.
Not expecting a reply, since Jackson had said he would be in meetings all day, I quickly glanced at my phone when it buzzed in my hand.
Jackson: You’re stunning. And you should be surrounded by things as equally beautiful.
Heart hammering, mouth dry, I stared at the eloquent words, at a loss of how to even respond to them.
This man was overwhelming in all the best romantic movie ways, and I honestly didn’t know what to do with it all.
Jackson: Can I call you? Do you have time to talk? For just a minute?
Technically, my break was over, but I knew my kids were in good hands, so I sent back a yes. Not ten seconds later, Jackson’s name flashed on the screen with an incoming call .
“Hello,” my voice was more hesitant than I meant it to be, but all kinds of strange emotions were swirling inside me.
“Please just listen, and don’t say anything until I’m finished,” Jackson urged hurriedly, his voice hushed, and I wondered where he was. Had he walked out of the meeting he was in, just to speak to me? Was he standing outside a conference room somewhere in Sinclair's department store, with people waiting on him?
My head nodded slowly in agreement, even though he couldn’t see me. Instead of actually responding, my throat made some kind of garbled noise that Jackson must have taken as a yes.
“I heard you, Robert, I did. I listened to all your reasons you think we won’t work or shouldn’t work. I want you to know that you allowing me to spend your heat with you meant…well, it was an honor and one I don’t take lightly. But I don’t care about the age difference, or that your child-bearing years are over, or that I might outlive you. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, for all we know. And I understand that I’ve lost one mate already and you are just trying to spare me from that. But all of that is just…it’s just static. It’s just life. Anything can happen at any time. We aren’t in control of any of it. I know that better than most and I refuse to live my life worrying about all the things that might happen that we can’t control. ”
My breath hitched again, but I stayed silent, just listening to him.
“But the Goddess says that we are supposed to be together. I don’t know why things happen the way they do. I don’t know why I got to love Levi first and he was taken away. I don’t know why you spent so many years in an unhappy marriage to someone that couldn’t see what a precious gift they had in you. But all of that made us who we are today, and the one thing I do know is I want you, Robert. I want you in every way there is possible to want a person. And I plan to court you. I plan to make you see what I see in you. How absolutely wonderful I think you are. I just need you to give me–us–a chance. I need you to let go of all these rules you have for what you think is acceptable and just give us a chance. Because I think we could be something truly amazing and special, if you just let us have a chance.”
Silence stretched across the line, his words buzzing in my brain. I was barely aware of Wyatt coming into his office, moving to take a seat at his desk. Barely aware of him looking at me, then frowning and asking if I was okay.
Jackson’s voice broke the silence. “That’s it. That’s all I got. That was me pouring my heart out to you, so if you would say something now, that would be great. Even if you tell me to go fuck myself. ”
Gasping, because I hadn’t even realized I had forgotten how to breathe, I made some kind of noise between laughing and crying.
Just give us a chance.
What’s it going to hurt to give him a chance? My gazelle asked me softly.
Finally, I breathed the only word I could to Jackson’s word vomit plea.
“Yes.”