Page 12 of What A Croc
“Hops! Hops!” Julianna calling my name in the tone of an annoyed toddler, had me giving her my full attention. She was standing in front of my sofa, the remote in one pudgy hand, waving it wildly towards the TV. “Beast!”
I busied myself turning on the movie for her, then helped her get settled on the couch, while Belle sang about being stuck in her life and small town.
Sing it, sister.I hadn’t been stuck in a small town, but I had felt stuck in my life most of my adulthood.
Ignoring Wyatt’s frown, I went back to cupping the warm mug between my hands.
“Please don’t allow my daughter to boss you around like that,” he urged me.
Grinning at him, I took a sip of the coffee, before sinking into a chair at my small dinette. “Grandparents don’t mind being bossed around.”
Wyatt took a seat across from me, tucking his long, thin frame into the corner. “Okay, enough about my daughter's manners. What exactly is going on between you and Jackson Sobek.”
“Nothing,” I blatantly lied, ducking my head so he couldn’t see my eyes. I was a shit liar, and I knew Wyatt would be able to see right through me. “He wanted to apologize for scaring me, that’s all.”
Wyatt grunted, drumming his long fingers across the tabletop. “Pops, I can tell the man kissed you. Your lips are all red and swollen.”
My fingers came up to touch my lips, remembering the feel of Jackson’s lips on mine.
“So, what gives? Do you like him?” Wyatt demanded, his eyes sparkling. “He’s hot. Not as hot as Becks, but he’s definitely easy on the eyes. I guess this is where, technically as your boss, I tell you all the reasons I would caution you against dating one of the daycare dads. But there’s no rule against it. Jackson seems like a very nice man, and…you deserve some happiness.”
The softly spoken last part of his sentence caused a lump to form in my throat, and my gaze locked onto his. Reaching a hand out, I squeezed his arm in a quick embrace, before going back to spinning my mug around and around.
“Thank you for saying that,” whispering, I swallowed past the tightness that made it hard to get the words out. “It seems that Jackson and I are, well, we’re fated mates.”
Wyatt’s brows flew up to the wild curls that fell over his forehead, and his eyes got big. “Really?” He somehow made the word have about four syllables.
“Really,” I nodded, then waved my hand in the air. “It’s silly though. I mean, it’s just…it would never work. It’s some kind of mistake, obviously.”
My fingers lightly touched my still tingling lips. It hadn’t felt like a mistake though, I had to admit. No, it had felt…perfect.
Wyatt’s brow knitted in confusion. “Why do you think so? You and mother weren’t fated. Hell, she never even mate claimed you, Pops.” I could hear the sympathy laced within his quietly spoken words.
Wincing at his reminder of one more of my many failures, I touched the skin over my mating gland lightly.
Thank fuck for small favors, my gazelle snorted.We’d have never gotten rid of that cold witch if she had.
That wasn’t necessarily true, but it had made things easier with the divorce that Jane and I had never mate claimed one another. In the beginning, her reasons for not doing it had somehow made sense. Or maybe I was just fooling myself, and I had made them make sense in my head. Later, it had just never been a priority. Possibly it had been my gut intuition knowing that we weren’t right for each other that had made me stop pushing the issue.
Still, there would always be a small part of me that felt like it was a failure on my part. That I hadn’t been a good enough omega for her to want to claim me, even after all our years together.
“The man is thirty-five, Wyatt,” I told him, as if that explained everything. “I’m way too old for him.”
“Oh please,” Wyatt scoffed, rolling his eyes, his arms crossed over his thin chest. “Becks is older than you are, Pops.”
“Don’t remind me.” Because yes, I found it a little weird that my son’s mate was a couple of years older thanme. And yes, I was aware I had some old-fashioned ideas. I was working on them, but I wasn’t there yet. “But I’m still almost fifty. And Jackson is not. Biologically, the age thing makes a difference.”
Wyatt’s eyes softened, and he glanced over at Julianna on the couch. She was doing her best to sing along with the movie, even if most of the sounds she was making weren’t exactly words or even the correct words. “You mean bearing children?”
“Yes. I…” Shrugging nonchalantly, I admitted, “I’ve started the omega change. Children aren’t an option.”
Wyatt shrugged his own shoulders, “Who cares? Did Jackson tell you he wants more children? That it’s a deal breaker for him if you can’t give him children?”
“We didn’t discuss it. We just found out we were fated the first day he dropped off Aiden.” Staring back into what was left of my now cold coffee, I muttered, “And I kind of avoided him all week.”
Wyatt snickered, “That explains your eagerness to do the supply ordering.”
“I needed a minute to deal with it, okay?”
