Page 34 of Ronen
Before I had driven over, I had sent him a text asking if he was free to talk. He’d said his last class ended around three-thirty and then he would be in his office for a few hours. He’d suggested meeting for dinner, but I had told him that this couldn’t wait.
When I finished picking Matty’s brain on every single thing he had learned in his research on fated mates, I needed to go see Mason.
Emily floated next to me, and I did my best to ignore her presence, as she looked around.
“Man, I wish Sweet Alps would have had a college when I went to school. Hollow Ridge was nice and all, but it would have been sweet to have something this close.”
I don’t know why she insisted on carrying on a one-sided conversation when she bloody well knew I couldn’t respond to her.
Maybe that was exactly the reason she did it, because there was no way for me to respond to her and she could just carry on.
The hallway was crowded with students moving on to their next class, or just trying to make their way out of the building at the end of their day.
The sounds of talking, laughter, and too many bodies in one space threatened to overwhelm my senses, when an arm sliding through mine startled me.
“You lost, stranger?” The light voice of my cousin Rory’s mate, Becca, had me grinning. Mostly because I adored her, anda tad bit because I was relieved to see her. She’d be able to get me to Matty’s office. All these bodies moving around, the laughter and talking, was making me edgy.
“I was thinking of enrolling,” I teased, “Can you help me out with that.”
She threw her head back and laughed, her black curls bouncing. She was a short, petite, brown-skinned omega, who for some reason adored Rory. They had met at their freshman orientation at college–when I had been around thirteen–and had been inseparable since.
They weren’t fated, but that didn’t matter to them, because they were crazy in love. Honestly, they were perfect for each other, and I had my doubts Fate could have done a better job of matching two people than Rory and Becca.
“I don’t think we have any classes that would challenge that extra-large brain of yours,” she teased. “We used to only be a community college until about twenty years ago, remember. If you want to be a nurse or teacher, we’ve got you covered.”
It was true. Sweet Alps had been a small community college until about twenty years ago, when they had received a grant, and some financial backing from some donors with deep pockets.
I suspected my family might have been one of those donors, but not one of my uncles, or even my grandmother, would fess up.
Regardless, they had added on to the campus and buildings, built several dorms, and gotten more accreditations. While we didn’t have a law or medical school, we did have a superb teaching program, as well as a nursing program that was beginning to be highly sought after.
Leaning down, I kissed her cheek. “Is the morning sickness better?”
Her brown eyes turned soft, her free hand resting gently on her small visible bump. “Finally. Once I started avoiding garlic it got much better. Speaking of morning sickness, I have a bone to pick with you.”
“Me? What did I do?” And what did it have to do with her morning sickness? “Can we talk and walk? I’m assuming you can take me to Matty?”
She waved a hand in front of her in the direction we were facing. Becca was a lot shorter than me, so I slowed my stride to match her smaller one. “Right this way, sir. I need you to not let Rory borrow anymore books on pregnancy from the library. She is making me insane. I swear, if it’s not her, it’s Lachlan. I mean, I’m glad he wants to be an involved grandparent, but not this involved. I need him to be the helpful, ‘hey, you need a few hours away from the baby, we’ve got you covered’, type of grandparent.”
I laughed, “It’s not my fault she was too impatient to wait for Amazon to deliver. I mean, I can cut her off, but she’s gonna find ways to get what she wants. Uncle Lachlan is just excited for his first grandbaby. You’re carrying the first Sinclair grandchild and great grandchild, Becca,” I reminded her. “That gives you instant street cred.”
“Does it?” She arched her brow, looking impressed with herself. “I mean, I feel like I should get treated like royalty.”
“Absolutely. Use that power to your advantage and hold it over all their heads. How has Uncle Quinn been? I feel like he is totally not ready to be a grandpa.”
She laughed, “Quinn is keeping me supplied with his famous cookies behind Rory’s back. Quinn is my guy. Quinn understands my needs.”
“So, he’s your cookie dealer?”
“Fuck yeah, he is. I’m craving the shit out of those cookies. And Logan said next appointment we have to do some test to check for gestational diabetes, and Ror lost her mind. She has done nothing but freaking worry about it. She is convinced I have it or am going to get it. Logan literally told her to calm her tits in the office, that it’s a routine test and I am showing no early signs of it, at all. But she has taken all the good stuff out of the house, then waved her finger at Papa Quinn and told him he is not to bring anything home from the bakery for me.”
Wincing in sympathy, because my uncle made some damn good cookies, as well as brownies, and cakes, I said, “Harsh. Well, I’m sure Uncle Quinn just took that as a challenge to see how much he could sneak to you.”
“Oh, he did! Quinn is good people. Hands down, my favorite father-in-law.” We stopped in front of a closed wooden door. “Here’s your brother.”
The door opened and a cute, young omega was backing out of the room, talking as he went. “Thank you so much, Professor Sinclair, I appreciate you taking me on.”
“It’s no trouble, Myles. I don’t want you to worry about failing. We’ll get you on the right track.”
