Chapter Seventeen
Cooper
Despite Patrick’s offer, and even though I’d slept more at his place than mine in the last week, I didn’t immediately move into his bed on a permanent basis. I was weirdly nervous to leave our little fragile bubble tonight.
It was Friday afternoon, marking the end of my work week, and I’d promised Dylan and Axel I’d show my face at the pub. With Patrick.
Patrick insisted that he’d invited Jack along for no other reason than to catch up with his friend, but I knew he’d been trying to even the playing field since Dylan had declared the jury still out on him regardless of how much he adored Patrick’s mum.
Jack and I had been working a big job at this new office building, so we drove back to the office together to drop Jack’s van off before walking the short distance to Axel’s pub.
It was busy when we got there, filled with the end of the week crowd, but Dylan was hogging one of the high tables nearest the bar and drinking a dangerously large glass of white wine.
“Beer?” Jack asked me, as he started heading over to where Milly was serving people.
“Yes, please.”
I approached Dylan and stepped up behind him, resting my chin on his bony shoulder.
“Your chin is too sharp,” Dylan complained.
“You should wear shoulder pads,” I helpfully suggested. He just rolled his eyes. “Where’s Ax?”
“Finishing up some last-minute den repair before next week. He should be done soon.”
The reminder that my rut was coming up, and therefore so was Patrick’s, had anxious butterflies fluttering in my stomach.
We hadn’t discussed it at all, and I wasn’t sure what the expectation was going to be.
I really wanted to spend it with him, but it was a big deal, and he was probably used to spending his rut with omegas who could take his knot. The thought soured in my stomach.
“Hey, little Bailey,” Jack greeted Dylan and handed me a beer.
Axel and Patrick walked in together, and I was relieved to see them looking almost friendly with one another.
“I really hope you don’t call my brother ‘Big Bailey.’” Dylan scrunched his nose up in distaste.
“Of course not.” Jack squeezed my shoulder. “He’s Piper.”
“I’m not even going to ask,” Dylan muttered.
“Hey, love,” Axel said to Dylan, planting a big kiss on his cheek before stealing my beer and downing half of it. “Okay. I give in. You were all right. I’ll hire an apprentice. I’m fucking done doing den season on my own.” He groaned as he took a seat.
“Oh, help yourself to my drink by the way,” I said, grumbling.
“Why are you letting strange, ugly men buy you drinks anyway?” Patrick asked, giving my neck a squeeze.
“Who are you calling ugly with that mug?” Jack retorted.
“Now, now, boys. Play nicely,” Milly interrupted as she cleared some empty glasses from the table next to us. I went over to give her a hand.
“Long time no see, Coop,” she said.
I scratched the back of my neck nervously. “Been… um… busy.”
“Can see that.” She smirked and looked at Patrick over my shoulder. “Official now?”
My cheeks warmed, but I nodded. I’d asked Patrick two nights ago what I was supposed to tell people we were, and he claimed that while he felt way too old to be someone’s boyfriend, he supposed that’s what he was, so he’d make peace with it.
“You look happy, but Dylan is glaring at him. Something I should know?” Milly asked.
I glanced back to see and Dylan was in fact giving Patrick some major stink eye. Things got worse when I approached.
“Can I speak to you outside for a moment?” Dylan asked Patrick.
“Why do you need to do that?” I interrupted.
“I just need to speak to him for a sec,” Dylan insisted.
“You don’t, actually.” I narrowed my eyes at my intrusive little brother.
“It’s okay, I can take it,” Patrick said.
“I don’t care. He can mind his own business.”
“Excuse me—” Dylan started, but Axel placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear.
Axel effectively got Dylan to back down, but my annoying little brother sipped his wine and sulked about it.
“You promised you weren’t going to act like this. Me and Patrick will go if your plan is just to make this awkward.”
Patrick leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “It’s okay. You don’t need to stick up for me and argue with your brother.”
“I’m sticking up for me too.” I said loud enough for Dylan to hear.
“We both fucked up. Him and me. I’m grateful you were there for me but I’m not going to tell you things if it means you’ll hold a grudge on my behalf.
Do you think it was easy for me to see you get into a relationship with my best friend?
It wasn’t, but I never made it either of your problems. Patrick isn’t going anywhere so you need to figure it out.
” I huffed and took a big sip of my drink.
Dylan’s eyes went wide, and I worried for a moment that Axel was going to get involved, but he stayed silent and just stroked a hand up and down Dylan’s back.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Dylan said as he hopped off his seat and walked over to the bar, leaving an awkward silence in his wake.
Well, until Jack said, “There’s something relaxing about other people’s family drama.”
Patrick patted him on the shoulder. “That’s an inside thought. And probably something you should discuss with your therapist.”
Dylan returned to the table with a slightly fake but solid attempt at an “I’m making an effort smile” and a tray of shots for the table.
Axel took one and sniffed the glass before grimacing. “Ahh, nothing like the sweet smell of ‘I’m going to be scooping my boyfriend off the bathroom floor later.’”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “It’s one shot of tequila. I’m a heavyweight now, didn’t you know?”
“The heaviest,” Axel replied fondly, scooping Dylan up and plonking him on his lap like he was a little feather.
We all winced as we took our shots but accepted them as the peace offering they were. While Patrick chatted away to Jack, he kept an arm round my waist and held me close. My chest felt warm at having so many of the people I loved and cared about in the same place.
The next morning, and with a bit of a sore head from drinking too much, I dragged myself out of Patrick’s bed. He was long gone to work, and he’d asked me if I’d meet him there for my breakfast later. I’d still been groggy then, only answering with a mumbled “maybe.”
Now, though, I’d remembered today was Omega Parents’ Day, which was one of the handful of days each year that I liked to go and visit my omega mum’s grave.
Recalling the story Patrick had told me about picking daffodils for his mum as a child, I took a detour via the duck pond and picked a handful of the sunshine-yellow flowers to take with me.
I was used to the cemetery being a little busier on this day each year as other people spent time with their lost omega parents, but I’d never come and found someone by my mum’s headstone.
I froze for a minute and watched, not sure if I was supposed to approach or come back later, but then the person glanced around and saw me.
Abbie, my alpha mom’s mate, smiled at me, so I stepped towards her and gave her a hug.
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” I said, placing the daffodils in front of the stone.
Cassidy Bailey-Rhodes. Loving wife, mother, and daughter.
“I often think of her on this day,” Abbie explained. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve shared a life with her.”
I’d wondered at times how it must have felt for Abbie to love an alpha who still grieved their lost omega as much as my mom did.
“When you joined our family, I used to wish Mom had found you sooner. Me and Mom have never really understood each other, but you softened that somehow. I wonder if we’d have had that for longer, if it would have helped.”
Abbie stepped closer and wrapped an arm around my waist but still faced Mum’s headstone.
“Your mom loved Cassidy about as much as I think a person can love. I once asked her if Dylan was like your omega mum, and she said, not at all. Dylan was all Dylan. She told me that you were the piece of Cassidy she’d left on earth when she passed.
I explained to her where I was coming today, and she knew you’d be here. She asked me to give you this.”
Abbie dug into her pocket and pulled out a small box. Inside it was a familiar locket I’d only ever seen around Mom’s neck after Mum had died. When I was little, I’d crawl onto Mom’s lap and open it, staring at the photo inside of her and Mum on their wedding day.
I rubbed my finger over the engraved C on the outside and opened it, expecting to see the familiar photo, but it had been replaced.
Inside was a shrunk down photograph of my omega mum holding me in the hospital.
A beaming smile on her face like she couldn’t believe the little pink bundle in her arms was even real.
I swallowed past the large lump in my throat. “Would you… would you fasten it for me?” I asked.
Abbie nodded, and I leaned down so she could reach as she secured the clasp and then pulled back slowly, letting the locket rest against my clavicle.
Maybe Mom understands me a little after all.
Abbie left after that to give me some time alone with my mum.
I told her all about Patrick and how I loved books now since he’d begun reading to me.
I let her know about Dylan and Axel and how Dylan was going to train to be a teacher.
It was one of the first times I’d visited her grave and hadn’t spent my time telling her how alone in the world I felt.
“I think you’d really like him. Mostly because Mom says I’m a lot like you, and I really like him. So that makes sense, doesn’t it? That you’d like him too. Well, I love him actually, I just haven’t told him yet. Do you think I should?”
I stared at the picture of her in the locket.
“Yeah. I think I should, too.”
I wasn’t really up for being around people after visiting my mum’s grave, so I left Patrick a voice note letting him know I’d decided to head home.