Page 16 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
about me before the events of last year. I'd been a popular kid and I'd mated and procreated very young, basically fulfilling my life's purpose in my grandmother's eyes. “I really don't need your advice, Grandma, but thank you,” I tried.
“Just let me know if you ever need help impressing an omega. I could fake a heart attack and make it look like you're saving me.” Her thoughts seemed to wander again. “I wouldn't mind being saved by that hot fire chief.”
Listening to her, I didn't know who I felt worse for—myself or that firefighter she'd set her sights on.
“I'm a wedding planner, Grandma. I think I know a little bit about how to romance people.”
“Whatever you say, sweetheart. Grandma just wants you to be happy, you know? You and the children. Where are they today?” She leaned to the side of her chair and peered behind my back as if I was hiding Nathan and Caleb somewhere.
“They're home. I just hired a new manny.”
“A manny, you say? Is he good-looking?”
“His looks really don't matter.”
“Oh no, is he unfortunate looking?”
“No, he's not,” I said before I could stop myself.
“Oh. That's good. And if he's a manny he must be an omega.” Her smile grew.
“Anyone can be a manny these days. Don't get ideas, Grandma.” After Cynthia, I didn't need my grandmother to lay in on me too. “Rhys will do a good job. That's all that matters.”
“Rhys, hm? I like that name. I'll make him a scarf. What's his favorite color?”
“I don't know, Grandma,” I said, trying not to let my irritation bleed into my voice and failing spectacularly.
“Well, that won't do. How can you romance that boy when you don't even know his favorite color?
The fire chief wears red all the time, you see? That's why I'm getting him these lovely red roses.”
“I'm not romancing anyone.”
“Now, now, don't say that, darling. I'm sure you can do it when you set your mind to it.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, I'm just really not interested in romance right now. Look, it's lovely weather outside. Why don't you bundle up and I take you out for a walk and we talk about something different?”
“If you insist,” she finally agreed and I brought her coat from a hook near the door. “I still think you should ask him his favorite color, though,” she said as I handed it to her.
“Sure, Grandma. I'll ask him his favorite color.”
Whatever would get her off my back.
6
R H Y S
I took me only about an hour of watching Ethan's kids to figure out that this job wasn't going to be as easy as I thought it would be. As Ethan had predicted, the older one wasn't moving from his room at all—which, to be fair, made it easy to watch him, but hard to connect. The other kid, nearly four-year-old Caleb, wasn't hiding away from me, but it didn't seem like he wanted tointeract, either. He'd been shy when his dad had introduced us, but at least then he'd talked to me, saying hello and telling me how old he was when prompted. But now that we were alone, he wasn't inclined to talk to me.
The moment Ethan had left the house, Caleb had walked into the living room and picked his Legos back up. He hadn't moved from his spot by the coffee table for the full hour.
I sat on the couch, watching him for a while. He was a cute kid, with his sandy blond hair and his big blue eyes, but there was something undefinably sad about him too. It occurred to me that I should have asked Ethan what happened to the other parent, why they weren't in the picture. That might have helped me understand what was going on with the children. I wasn't here for a therapy session, no, but I still wanted to be on good terms with them. It was difficult for me to read people even when I had all the facts, so this situation left me a little unsettled, to say the least.
“What are you building?” I asked Caleb, trying to make conversation. I'd learned that it was good to show an interest in other people's hobbies.
“I don't know.” The boy didn't even look at me, just kept stacking Lego bricks on top of each other as if it was his goal to build the highest Lego tower that had ever existed. I remembered doing that as a child, and then Nick kicking my tower over when it grew higher than his. The joy of growing up with lots of siblings. Idly, I wondered how Caleb and Nathan got along, seeing as there was a rather large age gap between them.
Cautiously, I picked up a red Lego piece and stacked it on top of the tower, just to see how Caleb would react if I tried to join in on his play. The boy stopped, hand with Lego in mid-air, and looked at me like a wild animal trying to judge if I was predator or prey.
