Page 15 of Single Omega Dad
But I couldn’t make myself open a blank screen on the computer to begin. Why would I want to go through all this again? Mathias obviously hadn’t sabotaged me. He hadn’t set limits, which he’d been in the right to do, and he’d seemed honestly convinced of my competence by my handling of my family’s finances all along since before Drayden’s death.
Still, I couldn’t help but think Mathias didn’t want the job, or anything to do with me, for that matter. Maybe it would be better to have someone who took an interest.
I knew Mathias’s type. He saw Omegas as servants at the best of times, and at worst, holes to be filled during an Alpha’s Burn. He no doubt did not approve of me raising two kids on my own, with two more on the way. I was a problem. Someone who didn’t fit with hissociety.
I hated Alphas like that. Drayden had been one. He requested I be taken off my contraceptives for our dating, then knocked me up at the chattel farm and married me to be his nanny and maid. He had an image to keep up with his status at work and his friends. I was part of his brand, part of how he showed the world what a perfect Alpha he could be.
Drayden was never mean, but never warm, either. Mathias seemed much the same, so why couldn’t I stop thinking about him?
I scratched my fingers through my hair and yanked. Ack! Was my mind stuck on him just because he was handsome? And he was, I couldn’t deny it. Far better looking than Drayden, or any Alpha I’d known.
To distract myself from such thoughts, I checked on Tybor and Luke, who were both up and scrambling into their clothes, their shirts inside-out and half over their heads.
I helped them finish and they followed me to the kitchen where I turned on the TV while fixing them breakfast.
They laughed and played together, spilling more of their food than eating it, then ran off when they said they were full to set up their race car ramp in the living room.
“Hey,” I said. “We’re having a visitor. Can you set that toy up in your own room?”
They nodded simultaneously and scampered off together.
I looked at the clock. I had time to do some cleaning. First, the kitchen. When it was spotless, I turned to the living room before asking myself, yet again, what I was doing. Was I cleaning because Mathias was coming? What did I care how he saw me and my house? The expenses and finances were his expertise. He was coming to assess if I could afford to keep the place, and how I might make my money last.
Still, I got out the vacuum and began with the living room.
I piled up toys in a box.
I dusted.
I swept the front porch.
I even changed the sheets on the kids’ beds and my own, and did two loads of laundry.
All the while I chastised myself that I’d lost my mind. But the house needed a good cleaning anyway. Drayden had liked me to keep things neat, but he was never home. I always left everything to the day before I knew he was returning for a few days off. This felt like the same thing. I was backtracking. Making my house neat for an Alpha I didn’t even care for.
I hated every moment of it. The only thing I liked about being a stay-at-home dad was the kids. I loved them more than anything. But the chores sucked.
By the time I was satisfied enough with the house’s appearance, I realized I had only five minutes to see to myself before Mathias arrived.
Hastily putting away all my cleaning tools, I started toward my room where I planned to change my out of sweaty shirt and comb my hair.
As I walked past the front room, I heard a knock.
Damn, he was early!
I pushed my hair back over my ears with both hands, straightened my t-shirt, and peered through the peephole.
I saw a big chest clad in a dark blue suit with a pink vest underneath and a darker pink tie with a solid gold bar fastened through the knot of the tie. Gods, he’d dressed up? My heart hammered in my chest before I realized he was simply wearing his work clothes. Yes, that was what he wore to work. Yesterday he’d been impeccably dressed as well for our meeting. Why would I have assumed otherwise?
Taking a deep breath to calm my stupid nerves, I put my hand on the door knob and opened it.
Mathias stood looking down at me, and one eyebrow rose.
I felt small and hot and sweaty. Ridiculously subservient. I knew better. I was smart, competent and definitelynotinferior.
“You’re early,” I snapped. I almost cringed at the tone of my voice, but stepped back in a pretense of inviting him in.
“Am I?” he asked. He glanced at his gold watch. “Hmm, a minute or two,” he said as if it shouldn’t have mattered.
