Chapter Sixteen
Zac
My mate hadn’t officially started his new job yet, and I was enjoying this time with him before he did.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he went from move to the city with me to showing up here, giving up the entire life he built for himself there to be by my side.
Although, the better I got to know him and the more we built our lives together, the more I realized that it had never been about the city life being better to him.
It was about the city life feeling like the easiest path to travel.
I rolled over. Edris was still sound asleep, snoring, and I snuggled in close. The comforting sound he made when he slept let me know that he was not only there, but he was okay.
Unlike most jobs, mine was far from a nine-to-five.
Today, I had an appointment I needed to see early afternoon.
That was the only thing on the books, anyway.
That could change with one phone call. I had two omegas pretty close to their due dates, which meant at any point in time, I could be called away.
That was something my mate and I were going to have to figure out in the not-so-distant future. Once the baby was here, we couldn’t just tell him, “Nope, sorry. Gotta go deliver a different baby. You just wait here until your dad gets home.” But we’d figure it out…together.
Not all of my mate’s things were here yet.
He still needed to make a trip back to the city to put his condo up for sale and take care of some paperwork.
But this house was his as much as it was mine.
You could sense it when you walked in. We rearranged some furniture to help make it feel less “mine,” but it wasn’t the stuff or the building that made it a home.
It was the two of us building our lives together.
“How long you been awake?” My mate’s raspy sleep-filled voice surprised me. I hadn’t realized he’d woken up, being so lost in my thoughts.
“Not long,” I said, kissing his cheek. “I was thinking about getting up and throwing the cinnamon rolls in the oven.”
We’d made them together the night before. In theory, we could leave them in the fridge overnight, and they’d be perfectly risen. We’d discover soon enough how true that was.
“How about I do that, and you start the shower so we can save some water?” he suggested.
“There will be no water saved if we shower together”—I kissed his cheek again before rolling off the bed—“but I’m down for that, but you take care of the water while I grab the rolls.” I was far too curious to see how they came out to give up my task.
I winked and ran to grab the cinnamon rolls from the fridge.
I hadn’t been lying when I said I wasn’t a baker.
They looked fine, but something told me these were going to be hockey pucks when they were done.
Not ready to give up just yet, I turned on the oven, popped them inside, set the timer, and joined my mate, where we eventually washed up after enjoying each other’s company.
Surprisingly, the cinnamon rolls smelled delicious when we came downstairs. Maybe they had turned out after all.
“See? I told you, you could bake,” he said, rubbing his nose against mine.
But when he went to take them out of the oven, he changed his tune. He set them on the stovetop and turned to me. “How about we go to Good Times Diner for breakfast?”
“That bad?”
He stepped out of the way, allowing me to see. “Yeah, I think that bad.”
I didn’t know how they could be both flat and sunken in, but they were both of those. Breakfast out, it was.
The diner was packed, as it always was in the morning, but we got there just as someone was leaving and were able to slide into their booth.
“It shocks me that this town can support this kind of breakfast traffic.” It was going to take a while for Edris to get used to how things were around here.
“It’s part of a lot of people’s daily routine,” I explained. “People who, you know, can’t bake.”
We ordered cinnamon rolls the size of dinner plates.
As much as I loved attempting to make our own, coming here with my mate was just as good.
I was only about halfway through mine when my phone went off.
Unlike my mate, I couldn’t ignore mine. That was part of my job.
And sure enough, one of my omega fathers-to-be was in labor and going to be meeting me at the birthing center.
“I have to go. It’s baby time.”
“Go bring another baby into this world. I’ll stay here and finish eating.”
“But how will you get back? We only took one car.” Something we had to consider in the future.
“I’ll head to city hall and get some of my onboarding paperwork done. I can always walk. It’s not that far.”
“You sure you don’t mind?” I felt awful, leaving him there like that.
“Yeah, I’m sure. But take your cinnamon roll with you.”
Layla must have overheard, bringing a box for him to put his cinnamon roll in and a second box for me.
“You’re going to need some protein if it’s baby time.
I packed you an omelet, honey,” she said.
“Now, go grow our population.” She sat across from my mate as I scurried out, meeting my client at the birthing center, smiling wide, knowing that in a handful of months, I’d be rushing there to meet my own little one.