Chapter Sixteen
Augie
Now that I had more staffing, I was taking off every Sunday, giving myself a two-day weekend.
It felt like such an indulgence at first, but I needed it.
I was already well into my third trimester and starting to slow down again.
Pregnancy was wild like that. In the beginning, I had no energy, and then suddenly I was Super Omega, able to take on the world.
Now, I was reverting back to those early days of barely being able to stay awake.
I woke up a half an hour earlier, but still hadn’t rolled out of bed yet. Once I moved, I’d need to pee, and I wanted to capture a little more sleep. But I’d also somehow managed to get on my back in my sleep, and it was making that nearly impossible.
“Alpha, can you help me?” I was whiny and I didn’t care.
“Always.” He got up from the chair he’d been sitting in, drinking his coffee. He’d gotten used to getting up early with my work schedule and had been up and about since before I opened my eyes for the first time. “What do you need?”
“I need help getting out of bed.”
The first time I struggled with this, I was too mortified to ask for help.
But I’d gotten to the point where I didn’t even care anymore.
Heck, I was willing to ask a stranger on the street if I dropped something and needed it picked up.
I was growing a full human being, more accurately a shifter baby, and if that meant I needed assistance, so be it.
He helped me up and out of bed, and I waddled to the bathroom to freshen up. When I came out, he had sliced hot bread on the table with a bowl of scrambled eggs. It wasn’t the breakfast of champions, but it had become my favorite go-to meal.
“How’s the bakery looking?”
I needed to let go and not keep checking up on it. Although I wasn’t quite able to do that. Thankfully, Dante humored me. I suspected he’d be the same way in my position, his business being just as important to him as mine was to me.
“It looked good to me. No one was running around trying to find where they left something or to get a tray of cookies out of the oven before they burned, and there was no line out the door.”
“What are you trying to tell me?” It sounded like things weren’t all sunshine and rainbows down there, by the way he worded his morning report.
“Nothing.” He crossed his heart with his finger. “I promise. I just don’t know what to say, other than it’s fine. And when I say ‘it’s fine,’ you tell me ‘it’s fine’ is always a lie.”
“Because it is.”
“I didn’t say you were wrong. I know better than that.” He kissed my cheek. “Now, eat your breakfast. We’ve got lots to do today.”
“What do you mean we have lots to do today? It’s our day off.” It was the only one we regularly had together.
“I mean, I have plans for us.”
I would have pushed harder, but that bread was calling to me. I slathered it with butter and took the first of many bites. The loaf was nearly depleted when I was officially full. It might not be the healthiest way to eat, but boy, did it taste good.
Once I was done eating, my mate rushed me to leave. I barely had time to say hello to Sierra and to tell her to call if she needed anything. He was more eager for this surprise than I was.
“I’ve got this,” Sierra assured me and pointed toward the door, the one my mate was already dragging me to.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Last time he took me on a surprise trip, it was to get paternity clothes. I had plenty now, so I knew it wasn’t a repeat of that. It shouldn’t have surprised me when we pulled in front of the new baby boutique in town.
“Isn’t this place kind of high-end?”
“It is.” He unclicked my seat belt. “Wait here. I’ll help you out.”
He got out of the car and walked around to help me out of my spot. It was sweet and, sadly, very necessary. We held hands as we walked inside.
The nursery was already set up. It was woodland-themed, not for any reason other than when we looked at pictures for my display, the little woodland cakes always made me smile.
So, why not? The room was pretty much good to go.
Bookshelves, books, a changing table, a crib, a rocking chair—all of it. We weren’t here for that.
And goodness knew the baby had enough toys, clothes, and diapers to get him through.
Word on the internet spread, and a few customers came in with random gifts.
A few became many, and I had to post on my social media how our baby was spoiled by all the wonderful presents and kindly ask them to donate to a local parent shelter instead.
At first, it was weird that people bought us anything, like they knew too much about us. Now, I saw it for what it was. People wanted to give happiness back to someone who made them smile. If yummy cookies and cake didn’t make you smile, nothing would.
“I’m back!” My mate waved to the clerk. “I got a call about my order yesterday.”
The saleswoman behind the counter left and came back a minute later with a bag. “Here you go. Enjoy.”
“Do I get to look at it now?” I reached for it and he snatched it back.
“Nope. You need to wait till we’re in the car.”
Had my belly not been its own area code, I would have run to the car. Now that the surprise was within hand’s reach, I needed to know what it was. But waddle I did and, when we got there, Dante helped me in and then held on to the bag as he went around to his side.
“Jerk.”
“I heard that.”
“I meant for you to.” I stuck out my tongue.
He handed me the bag, and I grabbed it like a defiant little child. I reached inside and pulled out a stuffie—but not just any stuffie. A bearcat.
“I didn’t know they made these.” He was gorgeous.
“They don’t. The store works with somebody who custom-makes stuffies.”
“I love it.”
“I figure our little one’s gonna grow up with all sorts of storybooks that have dragons. They have rain boots with dragons, lunch boxes with dragons. Dragons are everywhere. But I don’t want them to ever think that their bearcat side is any less awesome.”
“If you keep talking like this, I’m gonna cry.” That was a lie. I already was.
“Then how about instead of talking, I take you out to lunch?”
“Lunch? Isn’t it a little early for lunch?” I looked at the clock. It was much later than I realized.
“Are you telling me you’re not hungry?”
“No, I’m definitely not not telling you that.”
He took me to Animals, and it was the first time we’d been there since we met.
The vibe was so different in the daytime.
The lights were brighter, the music quieter, and because it wasn’t an event, the tables and chairs were set up very differently.
But Goldie was still there, making us fancy little drinks with 100 percent juice because, she said, even pregnant people needed to feel special.
And then Karma came out with two plates of food. For me, she had the steak sandwich I’d been craving, and for my mate, a chicken pasta.
“I thought you two could use these,” she said, setting them in front of us.
Neither of us had ordered, and I’d never eaten anything but my sliders that night here, but somehow she knew this was the food I craved. And the way my mate started digging in right away, the same was true for him.
“It’s a little calmer here since the last time you two were here.”
“You mean there’s no alpha making a scene?” Dante teased.
“Well, that too. But you know what? If having a scene means seeing two mates find each other and living their happiness, I say, make all the scenes.” She flitted away on heels that I didn’t think were possible to walk in, and yet she did so with ease.
“She’s an interesting person.” My mate held out a forkful of his pasta to try and I shook my head. I was all about steak today.
“Very. Although I suspect maybe she’s not exactly human.” I didn’t scent shifter on her, but there was more out there than shifters and humans.
“Oh, no doubt,” my mate agreed. “No human could walk in those heels and not end up in the ER.”