Page 31 of What A Croc
Me:I missed you too.
Jackson:Yeah? *smiling emoji*
Me:LOL yes. Don’t let it go to your head.
Jackson:I don’t care what happens in these meetings today, I’m gonna be grinning all day.
Me:*eye roll emoji*
Jackson:I do have to go. Meeting started a minute ago and I’m late. I’ll talk to you later?
Me:I’d like that.
Jackson:Have a good day, sweetheart.
“Spill!” Ryan demanded gleefully, sliding into the free seat across from me, and startling me so much I dropped my phone before I had a chance to respond to Jackson’s last message. It clattered loudly on the table, before I could scoop it up and slide it into my pocket.
My eyes widened when Wyatt took the other empty spot. “Yeah, spill. How was it? Did he treat you well? Because if he didn’t, I’ll–”
“Sic Becks on him,” Ryan finished for my son.
Raising both brows at their eagerness for me to share all my secrets with them, and for Wyatt’s overprotectiveness, I primly told them, “I don’t kiss and tell. And I’m certainly not going to share details with you both about my–” glancing around to see who else might be on break, I hissed, “heat. Especially with my son. That’s awkward and weird.”
Wyatt and Ryan exchanged looks, then shrugged, before Ryan conceded. “He’s not wrong.”
“Thank you. Now, my break is almost over.”
“But something put that smile on your face,” Ryan told me, his green eyes full of merriment and happiness.
“Or someone,” Wyatt grinned at me. “Was that Jackson you were texting?”
Standing, I shook my head at them both. “For your information, yes it was. Nosiness is not becoming.”
Wyatt snorted inelegantly. “We’re just invested, Pops. We all want you to be happy.”
I didn’t even need to ask who the ‘all’ was he was talking about. His group of omega friends, for sure.
Ryan nodded, then told me softly, “You deserve it, Robert. We’re all just really excited that you met your fated mate, after…well, you know. We’re all rooting for you.”
It was at that moment that Becky, our front desk receptionist, appeared in the doorway, a huge bouquet of gorgeous pink roses nearly obscuring her round face. There were three different shades of pinks in the arrangement. Some were a pale pink in the lightest of blushes, some were a darker shade nearing fuchsia, while the remainder were stunning pink and white stripes that I had never seen before in my life.
“Someone is either super romantic or fucked up massively,” I heard Ryan say to Wyatt.
“Right! Either way, those flowers are gorgeous.”
Poking her head around the side of the heavy vase, Becky grinned at me, her brown eyes dancing. “Robert, these were just delivered for you.”
My heart hammered in my chest, as I rushed forward to take the teetering vase from her. “Me?”
Even I could hear the stunned incredulity in my voice, as I buried my nose into the soft petals and inhaled deeply of their fragrance.
“Yeppers,” she smacked her lips on the ‘p’s’. “Lucky guy!”
She hurried back to the front desk, while I stood there completely stunned. Wyatt snatched the white card from where it poked out of the bouquet before I had a chance to stop him.
“Looking forward to seeing you again and finishing our date. J.” Wyatt read out loud, while I tried in vain to snatch the card back.
I wanted to admonish that I had raised him with better manners than that, but I didn’t want him to say, not for the first time, that I hadn’t raised him at all. That he had been raised by nannies and then raised himself while at school. While it was true, it still stung, and I didn’t want to go back down that road. Especially since we had come so far in mending our complicated relationship.
