Page 13 of A Very Oceanport Christmas
"Sam," he said. "I didn't know you were back in town."
"Yeah, I um..." Damn it. I'd left the store because I didn't want to think about all the problems I was facing anymore, but talking to Conner meant doing exactly that, didn't it? I really hadn't thought this through. Then again, when did I ever?
"You're expecting?" Conner's mate--Jake--asked, glancing at my belly. Then he huffed when Conner's elbow hit his side. Sitting in the stroller, their daughter laughed at her parents' antics. She was about two years old, I thought, although I wasn't too sure on that. I was bad at telling the ages of children that young, and really, I had so much family I couldn't keep everyone's ages straight.
"It's okay," I said. "I'm about six months along, yeah." Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw David exit the store, but he hung back instead of joining the conversation. I focused my attention back on the omega before me. "I was, um... this is actually why I wanted to talk to you."
"Yeah?"
"Aiden kinda reminded me that you deal with this kinda thing a lot. Stupid young omegas who get themselves knocked up, right?" I laughed in an attempt to hide my shame.
Conner's expression, however, turned serious. "They're not stupid and neither are you," he said kindly but firmly. Then he tapped his mate on the shoulder. "Why don't you two go ahead? I'm sure the line's super long, anyway. I'll be with you in a minute."
Jake nodded. "Don't be too long. If it's our turn, I'm not gonna wait. C'mon, princess," he said, pushing the stroller forward. "Daddy wants to work."
"Work lame!" the little girl called as Jake wheeled her away.
Conner scoffed, then hid a smile. "He taught her to say that, can you believe it?"
"What's it like being a parent?" I asked, watching Jake as he left.
"It has its ups and downs, like anything," Conner said. That surprised me. I'd kind of expected him to sugarcoat things the way the other adults in my life often did when talking about pregnancy, but Conner's honesty was refreshing.
"Do you regret it?" I asked a second question before I could think about it. Conner's eyebrows inched up his forehead. I was probably being too straight-forward, but it was too late to take my words back now.
"I don't," he said. "And there's no reasonyouhave to regret it either. I know it must seem like a lot right now, but you’ll be fine, okay?" He fished a card out of his pocket and gave it to me. "Swing by my office when you’ve had time to get settled back in around here. We can figure out what benefits you might qualify for and get those balls rolling."
"Thank you." I stared at the card for a second before pocketing it. Benefits meant money, right? I could really use some of that. But I didn't want to just sit around and wait for government money or whatever charity. I wanted to work, make my own way. "I want to support myself."
"I get that," Conner said in a sympathetic tone of voice. "But there's no shame in accepting help while you work on getting on your own two feet. Those first couple of months especially are going to be tough, I'm not going to lie to you about that."
I chewed my lower lip.
"You’ve got a large family. We’ll be here for you, all right?" Conner said, as if he knew that I secretly needed the reassurance.
“All right,” I made myself respond.
"Also, one more thing?"
"What?"
"Stop saying that you're stupid. I know you, and you're not stupid."
I blew out a breath. Maybe I wasn't stupid, but I sure as hell wasn't smart either. That I'd even gotten into college in the first place had been a small miracle. So of course I'd had to go and blow it.
Maybe this was just the universe correcting itself.
But if I told Conner any of that he'd just try to convince me that I was wrong, so I kept my mouth shut on the matter. "Are you going to see Santa?" I asked. It was a pretty obvious change of topic, but my cousin rolled with it.
"We're taking Connie for a picture. Jake insisted. Who knows? It might actually be fun." He didn't look like he thought it was going to be fun, though. The way I knew Conner, he'd rather have stayed home to cuddle up on the couch with his family.
I'd rather be home on the couch cuddled up to David right now too.
My thoughts ground to a halt.
I couldnotlet myself fantasize about cuddling with David. Especially not while I was staying with him. And while my brain was being all weird from the pregnancy hormones. My friend was an attractive guy, yes, and he smelled amazing and his skin would probably feel really good to the touch and--
Wait, where was I going with this? I was pretty sure abutwas supposed to come here somewhere, but I couldn't think of anybutsnow.
