Page 9 of Home for Nathan
“Of course.”
She glanced at Nathan, and he managed a grin. “Do you have ginger ale? You do, right?”
“Of course, ginger ale is easy.”
“Ginger ale? That actually sounds perfect. Two of those please.”
“You know, if you want a beer, you won’t hurt my feelings.” There was no reason for Zion to deny himself just because he was knocked up.
Zion shook his head. “I’m good. Thank you though.”
Maybe he wasn’t a drinker. A lot of sports guys were super careful about things like beer, as it really put on the pounds.
“Of course. I’ll be back.”
Zion snorted. “I guess we should look at the menu. Hey, check it out. No tuna.”
“Oh my God, that’s so tough at work. So many people love our tuna salad.” He swallowed hard just thinking about it, even though his stomach was pretty good right now.
“I bet it’s tough. Ginger ale for the win?”
“Yes.” He had to grin. “You’re very kind, you know. About my baby bump.”
“Hey, I don’t judge. Like I said, I have a unique perspective a lot of alphas don’t. My brothers have schooled me.”
“Everyone here has been super decent to me, too. Some days, I feel like it’s all overwhelming, and some days, I just really sort of feel like I’m going to be fine.”
He knew that the farther along he got, the more the fact that the baby was there would be impossible to ignore—especially once the teeny flutters inside him became more pronounced. Right now, he was still able to mostly wear his old pants, if they weren’t too tight.
“Oh, I think this place has an amazing infrastructure. I love the sense of community. It’s one of the reasons I chose Secret Springs.” Zion kept beaming at him, his pretty eyes lit up. “Now, food, huh? No fish.”
“Totally food,” Nathan agreed. “But yeah, no fish.”
Zion looked down at the menu. “I don’t think there’s any fish on tonight. It looks like pot pie with chicken, or steak, or sweet potato and black bean enchiladas, which kind of sounds amazing.”
Nathan chuckled. “I think those would probably be too hot for me. I’m gonna go for the pot pie. You know what I really want, though, is the peach cobbler that’s at the end.”
“Hey, maybe we should get that to come out first. I mean life is short; we should eat dessert before anything else.”
He bounced. “I love that idea! We should do that.” That so went with a laughing date. He could just see it. Peach cobblerand ice cream, and then they would take half of their entree home or whatever.
“I think that’s a grand idea.” Zion’s smile went totally wry. “I had to stop having dessert for so long, and I have to tell you that when I was a kid, I had the worst sweet tooth. My mom, oh my God, she makes the best pie. Like her pie crust is amazing, and when I would go home to visit like when I was on the circuit, I couldn’t have it.”
“Oh, that sucks.” Nathan shook his head sorrowfully, maybe teasing a little bit, but not much. “I mean, do you still get along with your folks? You talked about your brothers but not your mom and dad.”
“Well, you know, I’m from Steamboat Springs, and Mom and Dad are a little… Let’s just say they were kind of sad that I didn’t go rodeo rather than snowboard, but they’re really good about everything else. They’re just waiting for me to have grandbabies now.”
“Do they care what kind of omega you might hook up with?” He knew some folks did have very certain preferences.
“No, they really don’t, which kind of surprised me because in some more conservative areas they still frown on anything but male and female, no matter which one is the alpha. But my folks, they don’t care.”
“That’s fantastic. I’m so glad to hear it.” His own parents just wanted him to be happy.
The server came back to their table and kind of held up her tablet expectantly. “Are we ready?”
They grinned at each other, then at her. “We so are. We’re going to have two peach cobblers with ice cream to start,” Zion said.
Her eyebrows flew up, but she never really even blinked otherwise, she just nodded. “Sure. And then was there gonna be anything else?”
