Page 15 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
But even if that was true, it was ages ago and had nothing to do with our current situation. “It doesn't matter. I want you to know that I'm not interested in getting into a new relationship right now. Least of all with my manny. My children need some stability in their lives. If Rhys can provide that, I'm not going to mess with it. It'd be nice if you could relate that to anyone who comes asking.”
“You're trying to ward off the rumors?”
“You know my family has enough to deal with right now.”
“Certainly.” She sighed. “I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any promises. You know how people are going to be when I tell them you've hired Rhys.”
“Just tell them I'm too heartbroken to date or whatever.” I waved my hand. “Just make something up.”
“I guess I could tell everyone that you're suffering from erectile dysfunction if you really need me to.”
I made a face to show her what I thought of that idea. “Don't piss me off. I'm your best customer.”
“And you get all the biggest discounts too,” she reminded me. “Speaking of, I got the flowers you wanted.”
“For the Maden wedding?” I asked, momentarily confused.
“No, you dummy, the fire roses. For your grandmother?”
“Oh!” In all the stress of the recent days, I'd forgotten all about ordering those. Every time that I'd visited my grandmother at her care facility over the last month, she'd insisted that I bring her fire roses. I had no idea what she wanted them for, but she didn't ask for much these days, so I wanted to grant her this wish. Cynthia vanished into the back of the store for a minute and then came back with a bouquet of beautiful roses with flaming red petals. “Wow, those are really nice. Put them on my bill, okay? I guess I'm gonna go visit my grandmother. She's going to love these.”
“Sure thing. Tell the old lady I said hi. Just don't tell her I'm still single, she'd probably have a heart attack.”
I had to laugh at that. My grandma was very sweet, but she would never rest until everyone she knew was mated or on their way there.
Predictably, the status of my marriage had become her favorite thing to talk about since my wife left.
A young alpha like you should not be without a mate,she'd always say.
I hoped for today's visit, the flowers would be enough to distract her.
As it turned out, I had no such luck, of course.
The moment I set foot into my grandmother's sun-flooded room and she turned her wheelchair around to see me, she sank her proverbial claws into me like a cat toying with its favorite prey. “Ethan, my little darling! So good to see you! I haven't heard from you in a while! Are you still single? You know an alpha your age shouldn't be single!”
I suppressed a sigh that desperately wanted to escape at her behavior. “You know my situation is a little more complicated than that, Grandma.”
She made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “That's what you tell yourself. You have to stop being so down on yourself. Go out in the world and get yourself a new mate! Let your old grandma show you how it's done.”
Wait, what exactly did she mean by that? I didn't like that mischievous grin on her face at all. “What are you talking about, Grandma?”
She giggled—whichnevermeant good things. “I got my sights set on a hunky alpha, and I'll get him too, just you wait.”
I blinked. A hunky alpha? “Someone who lives here?” That was almost kind of sweet. As sweet as my grandmother ever got while talking about mating, anyway.
It wasn't that simple, of course.
“No, none of the old geezers who live here.” My grandma laughed. “Don't you know I've taken all the good-looking ones for a spin? It's how I know I need someone younger. You've got to experiment before you settle, Ethan. It's very important. I guess you never got to do that. That's regrettable.” She squinted and rolled her wheelchair forward, coming a little closer to me. “You brought the flowers!”
“Yup, ordered them especially for you at Oceanport's very best flower shop.”
“You're such a sweetheart, Ethan. Maybe that's why you haven't found a new mate yet.” Her attention shifted from the flaming red roses to me and then drifted off into thought. “You know omegas like their alphas gruff and manly. Like that hot fire chief I wanted these flowers for.”
“Wait, you're going to give these away?” I asked, ignoring the way she'd called my manliness into question. That my grandma held some outdated views on how alphas should behave came as no surprise to me, but that she wanted to court ahot fire chief? That was definitely a surprise. “I thought you wanted the flowers for yourself.”
“Don't be silly, boy. The best use for flowers is to give them to someone you like.” She gave me a saucy grin. “Someone you like tomate, if you get what I mean.”
I dragged the heel of my hand down my face, because I couldn'treallybe having this conversation with my grandmother. My mother had mentioned Grandma embarrassing her in her youth, but for most of my life, I'd been spared the worst of it. Probably because Grandma never had reason to 'worry'
