Page 55 of Mating of Convenience
“Good. Then we only have to figure out a way to be happytogether, okay?”
I lowered my hands to look at Nathan. “I love you, turtle.” Something I probably didn’t say as much as I should.
My alpha responded by drawing me into his arms and kissing me deeply and without any hurry, and I felt like maybe,maybeI could believe him when he said that everything was going to be fine.
27
Raphael
The day after my failed pregnancy test, I visited Conner in his office during my lunch break. Predictably, my friend wasn’t taking a lunch break himself, hunched over a stack of papers at his desk. “I knew I’d find you in here,” I said as I entered. “You do know that you need to eat sometimes, right?”
“Of course I know that. I have food.” He pointed at a brown paper bag that had the branding of a bakery I’d never heard of printed on it.
“Is there a new bakery in town?”
“Nah, this is from the city.” Conner finally looked up from his papers. “A friend brought me something because I told him I was too busy to meet up for lunch.”
“That’s nice,” I noted, letting my gaze sweep over his desk. The brown bag wasn’t the only thing out of the ordinary. There was a single red rose in a glass of water next Conner’s telephone. “Is that from your friend too?” I asked, nodding at it.
“That… uh…” Conner glanced at the rose and then back at me. “It’s nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing. Is it from Jake?” I asked, remembering what I’d overheard while talking to him on the phone in France. “Are you having him over more often now that I’ve moved out?” I couldn’t help but tease my friend as I slid into the chair in front of his desk.
“It’s just a rose, okay? It doesn’t matter where it’s from.”
“So you’re not denying that it’s from Jake.”
“Was there something you wanted?” Conner asked pointedly. “I really do have to get through these papers.”
“No need to get testy.” I held my hands up in front of me. “I’m only curious. You’re one of my closest friends and I want to know what’s going on in your life.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Conner leaned back in his chair and exhaled. “There’s nothing much going on, okay?”
“But you’re seeing Jake again.”
“I wouldn’t say that I’mseeinghim.”
“But you saw him.”
“Yes,” Conner finally admitted. “We’re trying to be friendly.”
“Friendly?” I glanced at the rose. “You know that worked out super well for me and Nate.”
“We’re not you and Nate,” Conner pointed out. “Now can we please move away from this topic? It’s cool that you’re taking an interest in my life, but I really don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Okay,” I agreed. If Conner didn’t want to talk about it, I wasn’t going to get much more information out of him anyway. “I actually came here to talk to you about Laurence.”
“What about him? Is he not doing well?”
“He’s doing okay. But he’s worried about his ex trying to gain custody of their children.”
Conner nodded. “Anyone would be worried.”
“Do you think there’s any chance in hell that the abusive asshole is going to win this case?”
My friend didn’t answer immediately, shuffling through the papers on his desk as if to buy time while putting a response together in his head.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m not one of your protégés, you can talk openly with me.”
