Page 8 of The Omega's Surprise Baby
“Isn't that great?” Shane asked his daughter, and then he carried her away before she could utter another word of protest.
“I'm sorry,” Nick said as we entered the guest room. “I guess my family can be kind of intense.”
“I don't mind.” I waved him off. “Mary's cute, and Shane's...” I struggled to find the word.
“Hot?” Nick suggested, a teasing smile on his face.
“Dude, he's your cousin.”
“Only repeating what you said in the car. Don't worry, I'm not interested in having relations with any of my family members. You however, are free to do what you want.”
“Please, I'm here to work, and I'm professional.”
“Whatever you say.”
Shaking my head, I put my guitar down on the bed.
After everything that had happened to me, I knew better than to fuck anyone while on a job.
Didn't I?
4
Shane
Lord help me. Kade was even prettier in real life than he was on screen. How was that possible? Before he came here, I told myself it was all smoke and mirrors. Professional make-up and lighting effects. But damn, he was a lot more alluring without all that. His natural charm was also much stronger when face-to-face and nearly impossible to evade. I'd seen a couple of cute omegas since Ron passed away, but none had really caught my eye. Not until Kade had grabbed my hand and met my gaze with an expression that said he knew exactly what I was thinking.
He had such intense eyes. I'd never met an omega who could look at you like that. Like he'd seen everything and then some. I couldn't help but wonder what his story was. Keeping true to my word, I hadn't googled it, though I was curious. Even now my fingers itched to reach for my smart phone and get some information, but with the man staying in my home, the idea of googling him felt even more like a violation of his privacy.
Besides, I was too busy to browse the internet.
Evening had come, and Conner asked me to help him with some math homework he was struggling with. He was a bright kid, but math wasn't his strongest subject. I didn't blame him; I'd never really enjoyed it either.
But tonight, I felt like something else was eating at him as well. I knew my kid. Yes, he was mostly quiet, but he wasn't unfriendly or impolite, not like he’d acted today. Earlier, he'd vacated the kitchen as soon as our guests came downstairs without so much as saying hello. I'd let it slide because I was busy, but now here we were and he was looking at me as if I was about to take his favorite book away.
“What's up with you tonight?” I asked. “Are you having trouble at school?”
That was always a possibility. Conner didn't have an easy time making friends at school. He had found one friend in my cousin's nephew, but they weren't in the same grade.
Conner shook his head. “No,” he said, but didn't provide any more information than that. Instead he did another math question, grumbling at the paper.
“I can see that something's bothering you. And that's not right. Six times three is?”
He stroked through what he'd written. “Eighteen. Nothing's bothering me.”
I tried not to sigh. Didn't he see that I couldn't help him if he wouldn't tell me? “Do you not like that we have people staying over?”
For a second, he paused with his pen on the paper, and I felt like I'd hit on something. Of course he was bothered by our guests. He didn't know Nick very well, and Kade not at all. Conner was a creature of habit. He always did his homework at the same time and never asked to stay up late. He liked to have the exact same thing for breakfast every morning, prepared the exact same way. He didn'tcomplainwhen I messed up, but he let me feel what a failure I was with his looks.
Sorry, kiddo, you're stuck with me.
“You know they're only staying for a few days,” I tried. Nick and Kade were going to go back to their own lives as soon as the wedding was over.
Conner looked up. “And then you'll stop listening to Kade's music all day?”
I wasnotlistening to it all day. Every now and then, yes. So what? I liked good music. Sue me. “I'm not that bad.”
“Yes you are.”
