Sunday Surprises
Not only did every single one of us sleep in, I was the very last one to wake up.
It was the smell of pancakes and the distant sound of laughter that dragged me out of bed, my sleep so deep and exhausted that if I dreamed, I didn't remember it. I descended the stairs looking like someone had given a rat’s nest sentience, and popped out into a very busy kitchen, where I stood in mounting confusion.
Rudy was wearing an apron he must have pulled out of some magical wardrobe deep in the corners of the house, and he was covered in what looked like pancake flour. Lucy was standing up on a stool, waving a wet spoon around, little clumps of pancake mixture in her hair. Dylan was nearly doubled over, pointing in merciless hilarity as his brother, who was desperately trying to pull batter out of his patchy fur.
“Hang on!” Came a familiar voice, and Jade came skidding out of a bathroom, dressed much more casually today. “I’ve got water, that’ll get it out!”
“I’ll smell like pancakes all day,” Collin wailed. “You shut up, Dylan! When you shift, I’m going to dump a bowl of this stuff all over you, and then we’ll see who’s laughing!”
“No one’s getting batter on anyone.” Aegis appeared from down a hallway with a towel in his hands. “I didn’t think pancakes could be so traumatic.”
“You gave Lucy a spoon!” Rudy complained, trying in vain to get white powder off his nice collared shirt under the apron. “There’s pancake stuff everywhere! What am I going to tell poor Sylvia-”
He looked up and managed to lock eyes with me. God only knew what my expression was, because I was standing in my kitchen in mismatched, faded pajamas, no bra, hair in total disarray, and looking shockingly similar to a homeless man.
“Oh,” Rudy said, before I could stop him. “Sleep good, kiddo?”
I blinked, suddenly thrown for a loop at being called “kiddo” in this kitchen, which dredged up a nearly stifling tide of memories- but I didn’t have time for that, because Aegis and Jade both looked up in time to see me standing there.
“Good morning,” Aegis said, and I saw him give me a once over. “Sleep well?”
I made a noise that sounded like a cross between a lawn mower and a turkey, turning to scramble back up the stairs in mortification.
Thirty minutes of diving through my closet while silently mouthing “WHY” over and over, and I was walking back downstairs, trying to pretend that this was how I’d ALWAYS looked.
By now, the pancakes were... finished? There were heaping plates of food everywhere, and the kids had been miraculously cleaned up, even as they wolfed down more sticky syrup than was probably good for them.
“There she is,” Rudy laughed, leaning on the counter. “Again.”
I shot him a dirty look as Jade looked up from the table, smiling.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said, apologetic. “Aegis wanted to get a quick look at your car to make sure it’s holding together. Wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“They brought more pancake mix, too!” Dylan said, holding up his plate. “This is the REALLY good stuff!”
“Mom alwaysh getsh shugar free shtuff,” Lucy said, her mouth full.
“Swallow,” I said, brushing her hair out of her face. “You guys say thank you?”
“Oh, you bet we did,” Collin said, swallowing a mouthful that looked like it’d been nearly as big as his face. He had to have had like ten times the normal serving on his plate, alone. “This is holy.”
Jade snorted. “Thank Rudy. The man’s got the patience of a saint, when it comes to kids.”
“He’s like that chef we see on TV sometimes,” Dylan added. “You know, the one who’s super mean to adults, but becomes like super sweet whenever the kids show up?”
“As long as you all clean up your plates after,” Rudy said, pointing at them with a dirty spatula, “then it’ll keep being the nice one.”
“Yes, Chef!” Collin said, saluting, which made Lucy burst into giggles.
“I take it Aegis is outside?” I said, trying to sound casual.
No dice. Both Jade and Rudy exchanged raised eyebrows, which mad me roll my eyes, throwing my hands up.
“I want to hear about my car. Don’t even go there.”
“Uh-huh,” Jade said, straightening a newspaper out in front of her. “Sure. I’m just saying, some things never change.”
“Oh, can it,” I snapped, before turning to walk out the front door with as much dignity as I could muster.
Aegis was, indeed, over by my car, my hood lifted. He was alternating between scanning the machinery inside and whatever he could see underneath it.
Today, both he and Jade had opted to shift back into their human forms, though that by no means meant the rest of the town had. As if to prove that point, a neighbor stepped out of his house to carry trash to some cans sitting at the curb in full werewolf form, wearing a somewhat ripped and frayed bathrobe.
“Still in working order?” I asked, before I could chicken out. I didn’t even know what I was doing out there, trying to talk to my childhood crush like we weren’t both adults at totally opposite stages of life.
Aegis glanced up, amber eyes catching mine, and grinned. “I liked the other look.”
I scowled. “There was no other look.”
“Says you.” He pushed up, his grin turning into a scowl as he looked back at my car. “This thing makes me more anxious the longer I look at it.”
“It’s all I’ve got, Aegis,” I said, sighing. “Maybe in a year, when I’ve had a chance to build my savings back up, I can think about looking into a new car.”
“A year?” Aegis gave me a look. “This thing’s going to combust by then. Last thing I want is it taking you and the kids down with it.”
For some reason, hearing him voice concern about my kids in such a way- it was hard to explain. My chest did something funny.
“How about this,” Aegis said, slamming the hood shut. “I’ll come pick you up in the mornings. My car’s way safer.”
My eyes popped open. “Aegis, no.”
“Why not?” He leaned against my car, arms crossed, and gave me a patient look. “Give me a good reason, and I’ll consider it.”
“You have to open the auto shop.”
“Paul’s got the keys.”
“You have customers!”
“I’ve got eight other mechanics who are just as skilled as I am, if not more.”
“You- you can’t give me preferential treatment! I’m not even really pack!”
“It’s not preferential,” Aegis pointed out. “I’ve given rides to several other packmates in similar positions.”
“I already owe you too much,” I said, feeling the first pricklings of shame. “I know I’ve barely got things together, Aegis, but I- I’ve been doing this on my own just fine-”
“You don’t have to, anymore.” Aegis frowned, tilting his head to look more closely at me. “I am not doing these things because I pity you, or because I think you are incapable. I know, fully, that you are capable, or you would not be here right now.”
A lump hit my throat, and I blinked at him.
“I am doing this,” Aegis continued, “because I can. You are not alone anymore, Sylvia. We want to help you.”
I waved a hand at him and ran my other hand through my hair, looking away. If I cry now, I thought, It’ll all pour out, and it’ll never stop coming.
“So?”
”So, what?” I continued looking away, pinching the bridge of my nose so I wouldn’t cry.
“So, what time do you need to leave by tomorrow?”
I snorted and gave him a look. “You’re not going to quit, are you?”
“I’m Alpha around here,” he said, smirking. “You want to change how I do things, you have to become Luna.”
I pointed at him, cheeks burning. “You were a lot more quiet back in High School!”
“I learned to speak my mind more, once I became Alpha.” He pushed up. “Come on. We need to get inside, or Jade’s going to start planning your wedding dress. I know school starts at eight, so I'll just be here around seven.”
I made a sound of disgust, and he just gave a bark of laughter, holding my own door open for me.
----
It was one of the nicest days I’d had in memory.
The backyard was lacking in playground equipment, but Jade, as it turned out, had brought a soccer ball, and that was apparently all my kids needed to have a good time. They ran around on grass I’d once played in, screaming and shouting and playing games that pulled at my memory in warm overtones.
We all sat on the back porch, which looked out over the sloping backyard. Rudy popped a single beer, which he sipped at for a long while, and Jade and Aegis told stories about the Auto Repair, which the kids sometimes weighed in on.
“Should’ve seen everyone’s faces when Paul first pulled up with his truck,” Jade laughed. “Aegis about blew a gasket.”
“I didn’t even know he’d been building the thing,” Aegis complained. “My own Beta, and he hadn’t told me a damned thing.”
“To be fair, that was a hard year. Dad had just fallen ill, and you had just started the auto repair, and everyone and their mom was showing up for tune-ups.”
“I just want to know when he had the time,” Aegis said, waving a hand. “Not only did he find the parts, but he put the whole freaking thing together in his backyard. Did he even sleep?”
I was silent for a moment, guilt stabbing at the near-perfect peace that had fallen over us. Of course something had to have happened to their dad, I thought, feeling terrible for having never asked. An Alpha rarely abdicates, unless something’s gone wrong...
“Sylvia?” Jade asked, and I looked up to see the three of them watching me.
“I was thinking about how I forgot to ask about your family,” I said, cheeks turning pink. “I’m sorry. I should’ve asked ages ago.”
“You have been here for three days,” Aegis scoffed. “You think I expect you to be following some crazy manual for etiquette?”
“What’s ecticet?” Lucy asked, peering up through the porch fencing.
“Manners,” Rudy said promptly. “But a little more complex. It’s rules about how to talk to people.”
“You guys need rules for that?” Lucy scrunched up her face. “Adults always make stuff so hard for no reason.”
“Tell me about it,” I said, as Jade and Aegis laughed. “We’re pretty good at that.”
“I’ll tell you your rules of ecticet,” Lucy said promptly. She held up a finger. “If someone’s sad, you ask them why." She held up another finger. “If someone’s hungry, you give them half your sandwich.”
“Only half?” Jade asked, eyes sparkling.
“Uh, yeah, duh,” Lucy said, giving her a pitying look.
“‘Duh’ is against the rules of etiquette,” I pointed out.
“If you give someone your whole sandwich, then you get hungry, and that’s just making another problem,” Lucy said, as if this were super obvious. She held up another finger. “If somebody needs help and you’re closest, then it’s your job to help.”
She dropped her hand, and we all blinked.
“That’s it?” Rudy asked.
“Told you,” Lucy said, putting her hands behind her back. “You adults make stuff so hard.”
She turned and skipped off to rejoin with her brothers, who were currently trying to take each other out with the soccer ball.
“Smart kid,” Aegis said, laughing.
“We’re working a little on her manners,” I said, bemused, “but she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
“What about her dad?” Jade asked, voice hesitant.
My immediate, knee-jerk reaction was to shut down and change the subject, but I looked up and caught Rudy’s eye. His expression had stiffened, and he was watching me, beer frozen halfway up to his face.
"You can't ask me to do something you're not willing to do yourself."
“Jackson,” I said, keeping my voice down, “was a mistake. I missed a lot of red flags, and I got so worked up on the idea of finally giving my kids a fully functional family that I... made mistakes. We weren’t careful, and I was stupid, and I thought he’d be so excited. I... I wanted Lucy. I wanted her so bad.” I looked out at the kids, guilt eating away at my insides.
"How was he with the kids?" Jade asked.
“I waited almost a year before introducing them, and they got along so well straight away. They liked him. He brought them little gifts, he played with them, and they never felt uncomfortable with him. I thought I did everything right. I thought I'd found that little slice of happiness I'd been wishing for. I just...”
“You wanted a family,” Aegis said, and I glanced at him. His expression was difficult to read, but he didn’t seem disappointed in me.
“I should’ve realized we weren’t serious,” I said, giving him a small smile. “I should’ve realized a lot of things. The pregnancy was just the nail in the coffin.”
“He’s still scum,” Jade said, scowling. She drummed her fingers on the wood arm of her seat, which creaked ominously. “Who takes off when their girlfriend gets pregnant? He’s not blameless.”
I shrugged. “I wasn’t blameless, either. I didn’t realize how casual we really were. Before he left, he finally let me know exactly where I stood in his life.”
Aegis’s eyes narrowed. “And where was that?”
I paused, looking down. “He wasn’t interested in forever. We weren't even exclusive. He wanted to date around. He wanted to travel, to be a ‘free spirit’. Tying himself down to take care of a baby and live that 'white picket fence' dream was just... not what he wanted.”
I stared at my knees. They were hearing it all. My stupidity... my mistakes. How disappointing for them to see just how little I had mattered to someone I thought loved me.
That wasn't an example of someone who had their shit together.
“You didn’t tell me any of that?!” Rudy sputtered after a moment, outraged.
“I didn’t want to drag it out,” I said, shrugging. “I had him sign the papers that relinquished all of his rights to her, and then he disappeared, probably off to go play dollhouse with someone else.”
“Ooooogh!” Jade swung her fists around, looking furious. “I hate, hate, hate people like that! He got to run off with no repercussions!”
“I didn’t want to force him to stick around and be worse than absent,” I said gently. “And I just wanted to be done with him. I got Lucy out of it, and I don't regret that even slightly... but I do regret that it was him.”
Aegis was quiet, but his eyes were flashing with barely suppressed fury. He looked out across the grass toward where Lucy was playing with Collin and Dylan, the three of them rolling around in the grass like logs.
“His loss,” he said, before standing up and moving over toward the fence.
“No one wants a single mom with kids,” I scoffed, without thinking. “I shouldn’t have been so surprised by the whole thing.”
“That is not true,” Aegis said, still staring out across the lawn. "The right person will want all of you. You deserve happiness- you and them."
“I have happiness,” I said softly. “I have Collin, Dylan, and Lucy. My kids have kept me going all this time. Maybe Jackson wasn't what I wanted him to be, but he gave me Lucy, so... I guess I can't bring myself to hate him that much.”
We all sat for a moment in grim silence, before I shifted and stood up.
“I’ll make some popcorn,” I said, forcing a smile. “Maybe we can stick a movie on for all of us, if you guys are staying.”
“We aren’t going anywhere,” Aegis said without turning, and I got the impression he wasn’t talking about the movie.