Page 10 of The Omega's Surprise Baby
“I grew up in Goldstone, Indiana,” he said when I'd nearly forgotten that I'd asked him about that. “A small town full of small-minded people. Believe me, I know all about having mixed feelings about weddings.” He gave me a small smile as if we were co-conspirators in our shared aversion of romantic ceremonies. “I hear your cousin's wedding is going to be real, though. You don't see a lot of real weddings in Goldstone.”
One of my eyebrows went up at that. He laughed, although his voice lacked all amusement.
“Ninety percent of the population is Vinist.”
“Ah.” He didn't have to explain further. If there was a religious group more old-fashioned than the Vinists, I hadn't heard of them yet. I wouldn't have been surprised if Vinists were responsible for more than half of all arranged alpha-omega weddings across the country. “Well, I can promise you the wedding you're going to be performing at won't be an arranged affair. Dean and Griff were friends for years before they finally fell into bed. Actually I didn't think it was going to happen, but my cousin proved me wrong.” I took another sip of the beer. Dean and Griff were perfect for each other. I wished them all the happiness in the world, but seeing them plan their wedding did bring back memories, and I needed to distract myself. So I turned to the omega sitting next to me. “I didn't know you could play guitar. You don't use it on stage.”
“No, my agent wanted me to focus on the vocals,” he explained. “But I thought acoustic guitar would be good for the wedding, and besides, I love playing it.” He looked at his guitar in a way that left me with no doubt as to how much he loved the instrument. “It used to be my Dad’s,” he added after a moment, voice barely above a whisper.
“Your dad's?” I asked to make sure I'd heard right.
“Yeah,” he said, and for one short moment, he looked so vulnerable I didn't know what to say, what to do. Instinctively, I inched a little bit closer to him, as if my presence could comfort him somehow. That was ridiculous, of course. I was a stranger to him, and yet... Something in me felt a deep need to comfort him, even when I didn't know what had caused his pain in the first place. “Are you and your dad close?” I asked, though he had no reason to share that kind of personal information with me.
“We were,” he said, and then he continued before I had a chance to process the fact that he spoke in past tense. “Holding the guitar kind of calms me down,” he said with a laugh, as if this was just an odd quirk. I thought it was endearing, though. Almost as much as the way he tried to laugh it off. “I used to take it with me to shows even when I knew I wouldn't be using it.”
“Are you nervous now?” I asked, intrigued.
“A little,” he admitted with the tiniest of smiles.
“Really? Kade Ashton is nervous to be performing at a small-town wedding?”
He punched my arm in response to my teasing. “I get to be nervous when I want to be nervous. It's been a while since I've played in front of people.”
“Okay, okay. You have my permission to be as nervous as you want, but I'm sure you're going to do fantastic.”
“Thank you.”
I smiled at him and offered him another sip of the beer, which he accepted gratefully. It should have made me feel more self-conscious to be sharing a beer with a celebrity like Kade, but it didn't. That evening on the porch, underneath the small-town sky, we were nothing more than two people having a conversation. An alpha and an omega.
Itriednot to look at him the way an alpha looks at an omega, but it was difficult. He was so damn pretty with his high cheekbones and his piercing eyes. And he smelled nice too. Now that I was sitting close to him, it was hard to ignore that. Part of me wanted to lean in and bury my nose in his hair to get more of that alluring scent.
That would have been totally inappropriate, of course, so I didn't. But I wanted to—and that confused me, to be honest. It had been so long since I'd been attracted to any omega other than my deceased spouse that I didn't know what to do about this rush of hormones at all.
It was probably best to ignore it. Dean had asked me to house Kade because he trusted me not to jump him, and nothing about Kade screamed that hewantedto be jumped either. No, it was just as I'd told Conner earlier. Kade would leave in a few days and our lives would go back to normal and that was that.
5
Kade
The morningof the rehearsal dinner, I woke up to the sound of someone crying. Blearily, I looked around the guest room. Was it Nick? No, Nick was still asleep. Lucky bastard. Grabbing my phone, I checked the time. 6 a.m..Oh for the love of all that's holy...
The sound grew louder. On closer listening, it seemed to be a female voice. Mary? I swung myself out of bed, rubbed my face, and made my way down the stairs. The crying came from the living room, so that was where I headed.
In the end, it wasn't a child crying like I'd thought. No, sitting in the living room I saw Shane and a woman I didn't know, but who sported the same ginger hair as him. A relative? Shane was comforting her, one hand running circles on her back and his mouth speaking low words I couldn't hear.
Neither of the two noticed me, and I wondered whether I should sneak back upstairs. This looked like a personal moment they probably didn't need a witness for.
But then Shane raised his eyes and spotted me.
“Oh, sorry, did we wake you?” he asked, even though he was clearly not the one responsible for the noise.
“It's no big deal.” I licked my lips, wondering if there was anything I could do to help the situation now I'd been noticed. “Why don't I make some coffee?” I remembered where the machine was from watching Shane the day before.
“That sounds wonderful,” Shane said, lips curling up just the slightest bit before he went back to comforting the woman on the couch with him.
“I'm sorry,” she said, stifling her cries. “I didn't want to cause you trouble. I knew you had guests over.”
“Really, it's no big deal,” I said before Shane could respond. Putting on my bestI'm not bothered-smile, I went off to the kitchen and set about preparing coffee for all of us. Shane had a nice big kitchen. Nothing like the cramped kitchenette Nick and I shared in our apartment. It was kind of nice to move around in, really. Growing up, I'd hated being made to cook and serve coffee and prepare meals, but when I was doing it of my own free will, I didn't mind. It felt good to be helping out.
