Page 59 of Mating of Convenience
After Grandma had had her tea, I told her it was time for her to head on home. I’d called the care facility to let them know where she was and they were anxious to get her back. “You don’t want to miss dinner, do you, Grandma?” I asked her.
“Oh, no, I wouldn’t want to miss that,” she agreed. “One of the new guys they have helping around the facility is seriously handsome. You should see him. Although, I guess you don’t need to keep your eyes open anymore now that you have Raphael by your side.”
“Of course not,” Raph agreed with her. “It was so nice to see you today, Grandma. Thanks for visiting. And for the gifts!” He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and she slapped his butt as I wheeled her to the front door.
“I’ll take Grandma back to her home and then we can have dinner,” I told my omega in passing. Grandma might have come here all by herself, but I wasn’t letting her make the trip back by herself.
Grandma smiled. “You’re such a good boy, darling, but don’t leave your omega alone for too long.”
“I won’t. Don’t worry about him.”
But even as I told my Grandma not to worry, I did. Raph acted bright and cheerful, but I knew that wasn’t truly how he was feeling. Not on the inside. We’d both agreed not to stress the baby issue and we were more open about it now than we were at the start, but I could tell it was still weighing him down when people made comments the way Grandma had today. Why couldn’t they accept that we could be happy even without offspring? Was that such a difficult concept?
I had Raphael back with me. I didn’t need more than that.
When I eventually got back home, the house didn’t smell like dinner, so I knew Raphael hadn’t started cooking anything the way he sometimes did on the weekends while I was out with the dogs, but that was okay. We could order pizza or whatever. I found my mate up on the second floor, in the small unused bedroom next to the master bedroom. The room with the blue walls that we both kind of considered to be the nursery.
Since we hadn’t put any furniture in here, he sat on the floor next to the window, leaning back against the wall. He hadn’t turned on the light, allowing the room to be cast in the glow of the evening sun saying her last goodbyes outside the window. Raph’s full attention was on a notebook in his lap, propped on his knees as he scribbled into it.
“What are you doing?” I asked softly as I approached him to sink down on the floor next to him.
“I had an idea for a tattoo design,” he responded, never looking up from the notebook.
I peered at his drawing. “It looks good,” I said, though I couldn’t really tell what it was. It didn’t look like anything to me. Just an intricate pattern of squares and circles that repeated itself over and over again. I knew he hadn’t really come in here to design anything. He would have flicked on the light to see what he was drawing if that had been his intention. But he was only doing this to distract himself from whatever emotion entering this room had sparked in him.
After a minute, he set the notebook aside. “In another month or two we’ll have enough money to make a down payment on that store,” he said.
“What store?” I asked. For a second there, I really didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Your pet store. You’ll be so busy.” He gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He was good at faking them, but I was good at seeing through his masquerade.
“What will you be doing while I’m so busy?” I asked.
“What do you mean? I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing all this time.”
“You don’t want to look for a new job yourself?”
“No, I don’t think there’s a point when...” He glanced at his notebook as if the patters he’d been drawing somehow hid the words he struggled to say now. Finally he sought my eyes again. “I don’t think I should be looking for a new job when everything could change at any time.”
“You mean because you could get pregnant?” I tried not to let my face betray any emotion I had while voicing that question. As much as I wanted to have a child with Raphael, it didn’t seem very likely and I couldn’t get my hopes up. I hadn’t wanted to press the issue at all, but if the uncertainty was dragging my mate down... “Do you think we should maybe see a doctor?”
“A doctor?” Raph hugged his knees to his chest. “You mean about my infertility?”
“I was thinking maybe there’s something we can do, you know? When we know what’s actually wrong.”
My mate nodded, even though he didn’t seem excited about the idea.
I slung an arm around him and pressed him against my side. “You know I love you no matter what, right?”
“I know.” He sighed and relaxed a little bit, leaning into my touch. “You wanna head to bed?” A mischievous glint entered Raph’s gaze. “Take your Grandma’s underwear for a test ride?”
“Oh God. I can’t believe you would even suggest that.”
Raph grinned, his amusement at my disgust etched so clearly into his features that I could see it even in the fading light. Well, at least he was feeling better. Standing, I pulled my mate up with me. “I’ll take you to bed, but no more words about that underwear.”
“I was only joking about that,” Raph claimed.
“I’m not sure if I believe you.”
