Page 56 of His Gentle Omega
Lucas squirmed and giggled, until Josh sat my coffee on the counter, and I needed to reach for it. “Have you decided what you want?”
Lucas sighed dramatically, in only the way a six-year-old with a major life choice could. “They all look so good.” Finally, after another full minute of deliberation, he pointed to the cookies Quinn had been putting in the case when we arrived. “One of those, please.”
“A great choice,” Quinn assured him, handing Lucas the cookie in a wax paper holder. Moving us to the register so I could pay, Lucas nibbled on his cookie, oohing and aahing with each bite.
“Good?” Quinn asked.
Lucas nodded, mouth full of cookie and chin covered in crumbs. “Sooo good.”
“Glad you like it. You’ll need to come visit us again.”
Lucas nodded his agreement, and we waved good-bye. Sipping my coffee, I sighed in happiness as the mocha and sugar hit my tastebuds. Lucas was right; sooo good.
Getting him buckled in, I wiped his crumb covered face with the napkin Josh had wrapped around my coffee cup. “They were nice,” Lucas told me.
Nodding, I agreed with him. “They are.”
“Where to now?” He seemed to be enjoying himself, so I drove through town pointing out things I thought he might enjoy and relaying tiny tidbits about Sweet Alps. Passing by the three-story library that sat in the middle of town, taking up an entire block, reminded me about the books I needed to return. We’d do that on the way home, after we had run all our errands.
Lucas was a good sport the entire day. We stopped at the Walmart on the edge of town and I purchased him a booster seat, and he helped me pick out a couple of flats of flowers to plant along my front walk. We managed to put together an array of different colors and types. Storing them securely in the trunk, I hoped they’d be okay until we got back home.
The mall had him once again wide-eyed and gawking at everything. It was a fairly new addition to the town, less than a year old, a passion project of the Sinclair brothers. Gabe’s construction company had built the structure, and it housed a good mixture of franchised stores, as well as smaller specialty shops. It was nice having an actual mall to shop in. The closest had been the mall in Hollow Ridge, which was a couple hours’ drive away. Prior to the mall opening, our shopping options had been Walmart and Sinclair’s department store. Sinclair’s was nice but could also be pricey for a lot of folks. There was always online shopping, but sometimes I liked to actually see and touch what I was buying.
Ava had opened a specialty clothing store for kids, and Lucas and I picked out a couple of shorts and T-shirt pairings for him, along with a few more pairs of pajamas. He tended to gravitateto anything with animals on it, I noticed, especially if they were Disney themed.
Hanging out with Lucas was an absolute joy. I wasn’t naïve enough to think that if I spent more time with him, he would always be as well behaved as he had been today, but he truly was a wonderful kid. Shay had done a fantastic job raising him. Whatever had happened to them prior to coming to Sweet Alps didn’t seem to have had too much of an adverse effect on Lucas.
Our last stop was the library, the building still the original structure that had been built back in the eighteen hundreds. I loved the old library, with its gleaming floors and carved woodwork.
Dropping my books into the return slot, I led Lucas to the children’s room, so he could pick some books out. Because I wasn’t his parent or guardian, I couldn’t obtain a library card for him, but I could check out books for him with my card.
He had brought two books with him when they had left, and he loved being read to. More than once, I had caught him flipping through the colorful pages of his well-worn books, trying to decipher what the words were. He was smart, and eager to learn, and I knew he would do well when school started this Fall.
He seemed at home in the library, this place not a new experience like so many today had been. I watched him in silence, as he ran his fingers along the spines of the colorful books, pulling out one here and there, to peruse the cover intently.
Glancing at me over his shoulder, he quietly asked, “How many can I get?”
“How about five?”
He nodded, pleased with this number, and quickly had a stack of five books he handed me. “Will you read one to me tonight, before we go to our new house?”
Running a hand over the top of his head, a habit I had somehow gotten into doing, I smiled softly at him. “I would love that.”
We pulled into my drive mid-afternoon, but Shay’s bright red truck was nowhere in sight. Shay had sent me a text earlier, letting me know that he had a couple of extra stops to make he hadn’t planned on, and asking if I was okay watching Lucas longer, so it wasn’t a complete surprise that he wasn’t back yet.
“Are we going to plant the flowers now?” Lucas asked eagerly, as I set the flat of colorful petunias, pansies, and marigolds on the sidewalk.
Dusting some dirt from my hands, I nodded. “We are. Let’s both get changed into something we can get dirty, and we’ll get started. I’m sure your daddy will be home soon, and we can order pizza before you guys take your stuff next door.”
Glancing over at the neat, sprawling ranch-style house, I blinked rapidly at the heat that flooded my eyes, a wave of sadness sweeping over me.
Why did it feel like the small distance that separated our two houses was suddenly the size of an ocean?
Chapter Nineteen
Shay
Dr. Carpenter’s office wasn’t what I expected. It was located on the first floor of her home, a well-maintained Victorian much like Asher’s, only hers was painted a bright, cheery yellow. The front yard boasted tall trees that offered shade in summer, and a cozy swing took up a corner of the wraparound front porch. The house and yard exuded warmth and comfort. Not the clinical space I had expected, with a couch for me to lay on and pour out my soul.
