Page 41 of What A Croc
“I’ll talk to you tonight,” I promised. “Robert, I lo–”
Biting the word off before it could escape my mouth, I sat there, breathing hard, my muscles tense. Had he heard? Did he realize that I had almost admitted to loving him? To being in love with him?
This was not how I wanted the first time I told him I loved him to be. Not over the phone, where I couldn’t see his reaction, or kiss his lips.
Nope, not today. I needed to save that declaration for another time and place.
“I’ll talk to you tonight,” Robert whispered, his voice breathless. “Good-bye, J.”
Tucking my phone into my back pocket, I hurried down the stairs, only to be met with seven pairs of eyes staring at me in silence when I was back in the living room. My two dads, my older brother, his mate, and my older sister and her mate were all looking at me uncomfortably. While Levi’s mom, Michelle, was sitting stiffly in a chair, her arms crossed over her chest, lips pursed.
Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, I asked, “What? This better not be more BS about Aiden wearing feminine clothes, Michelle, because I’m not going to have that conversation with you again.”
“Jackson, watch your tone,” my omega dad, Devon, warned, his own tone telling me he didn’t care that I was a thirty-five year old alpha, I had better mind my manners.
“Sorry, Papa,” I apologized softly, taking a seat across from my parents.
My brother, Jason and his mate, Tobias, and my sister, Jasmine and her mate, Sherry, looked amused by Papa’s scolding me.
“Jackson,” Michelle began, turning to look at me. “Aiden has told me some frankly disturbing news.”
Here we go, my croc snapped his teeth sharply and I shushed him. Though I was feeling slightly snappish myself.
“Oh?” I arched a brow, crossing my own arms across my chest. “What’s that?”
“Aiden told me that you have been going out some nights to have dinner with friends, and you’ve left him with your boss.”
“Brendan has become a good friend,” I informed her. “He and his husband, Ryan, have a daughter, Charlie, and she and Aiden are friends. And, I’m allowed to have friends, Michelle. I’m allowed a social life.”
“No one is saying you aren’t allowed to go out.” My alpha dad, George, tried to soothe the situation.
“He also said you left him with these people,” Michelle continued and I inwardly bristled at the way she referred to Brendan and Ryan, “for several nights in a row, not too long after you got to Sweet Alps.”
“Jackson?” Papa asked, looking concerned, “Is that true? Son, that’s not like you.”
Michelle huffed, “You obviously don’t know your son that well, Devon. I can’t count how many times he would disappear for days on end and leave Aiden in my care.”
“Wait a damn minute!” I growled, jumping to my feet. “I was working, Michelle, and you know it. And you are the one that insisted,” I pointed a finger at her, not caring that I was being rude, “insistedthat you wanted to watch Aiden after Levi…after Levi died.”
I saw the tears well in her blue eyes, but I couldn’t make myself stop to care enough. Levi had been her onlychild, her world after her husband had been killed in a car accident when Levi was ten.
Levi’s death had hit her exceptionally hard. She’d lost her only child, but I’d lost my husband. My mate. My whole fucking world. Had I always handled it the best? No. Had I grieved the way she had thought I should. Also, probably not. But grief was a funny thing, that didn’t look the same on every person. It ebbed and flowed and had a way of hitting you out of nowhere, at the oddest times. A part of me would always grieve Levi, but I wanted to live.
Robert made me want to live. He had made me realize just how numb I had been inside for years.
“Son,” Dad was holding out his large hands once more, in the way he did when he thought things were getting a “bit out of hand”, as he liked to say. “We're just worried about you and Aiden.”
“You’re so far away,” Papa said softly, his eyes sad.
Closing my eyes, I took a calming breath, slowly counting to ten. Finally, I looked at my well-meaning family, and said, “I was with a friend. He…was in heat. And I helped him.”
Jason hid a grin behind his hand and a cough, grunting when Tobias pinched his side. For once, Jasmine said nothing, keeping her opinions to herself. Though I was sure she had plenty to say, she usually did.
“You helped a friend through his heat?” Michelle said the question slowly, her tone full of disapproval.
“You know what, fine,” I told the room. “I was planning to tell you all once I spoke tomy son, but if you’re going to force my hand.” Waving my arms out in surrender, I admitted, “I haven’t been having dinner with friends. I’ve been having dinner with my fated mate.”
The gasps in the room were many and varied. “He is the one that was in heat, and I spent his heat with him. His name is Robert, and he’s…” I tried to find the words to aptly describe Robert. “He’s wonderful.”
