Page 17 of Maple Sugar Mix-Up
“What?”
He cleared his throat again and nodded behind me. My heart sank and I turned, praying it was a supervisor or someone who would be mad I wasn’t at my desk. No such luck.
Ashton smiled weakly. “Hey, I uh… just got off the phone with my mother and heard your voice… she has a meeting and can’t get me until late. That’s okay though, I’ll find another ride.” He turned slowly and started to limp back to his room.
“No, it’s fine,” I said. I should’ve just left it alone. There was no doubt he had overheard. Clearly he wasn’t interested.
“You sure?” he asked.
I nodded. “If you don’t mind waiting a couple of hours.”
Ashton shrugged. “The doctor hasn’t checked me yet anyway.”
“I’ll come up when my shift is over at two.”
“Okay.”
The rest of my shift was spent cursing my luck and feeling like an idiot. When I went up to get Ashton, we made slow progress to my car in a somewhat awkward silence.
“Guess you got it fixed?” he asked softly as I helped him in and stuffed his crutches in the backseat.
“Just needed a jump,” I muttered.
With that I slid behind the wheel and let him direct me onto the right road.
“So,” I said, when the silence broken only by Ashton giving directions became unbearable. “I guess you overheard all that…”
“Yeah,” Ashton said with a sigh. “It’s okay, you wouldn’t be the first.”
Not the answer I expected. “The first what?”
He looked almost as confused as I was. “The first alpha to feel dirt poor, as you put it, because of how much I make. It makes alphas uncomfortable, I get it.” Ashton let out a bitter laugh. “I was hoping you were… Whatever, it’s fine. I’m glad it’s out before I made another mistake.”
“I’m… um… I’m confused,” I said slowly. “Iampoor,” I confessed. “It’s not about you.”
Ashton arched an eyebrow. “Wait, what?”
“What do you mean mistake?” I asked.
“Dating an alpha who…” He threw up his hands in annoyance.
“We’re clearly on different pages,” I said. “Let’s start over here. Why… why don’t you date?”
He was quiet for a long, long time; I started to think he wasn’t going to answer, when he spoke.
“I make a lot of money off of my royalties. As you heard. I’m… I’mverycomfortable,” Ashton said at last. “And alphas always tell me it isn’t an issue. Then, they either make it clear the only thing they’re interested in is my moneyorthey start feeling emasculated and threatened by it. It sucks, frankly. Worse, is when we start to get serious and Vicki meets them.” He paused and heaved a sigh. “My last serious relationship ended when we met his family. It turned out he was lying to them for two years; telling them I was a stay-at-home omega and he was earning more than three times what he really was. He wanted me to lie to them too. Indefinitely. So… we broke up. And Vicki was crushed.” Ashton chuckled darkly. “That’s when I promised myself I wouldn’t date again. I don’t want to be used and I don’t want to put Vicki through it. That’s why I don’t date.”
I laughed weakly. “Sounds like we have the opposite problem.”
“What do you mean?”
Guess it was my turn to explain. I started to think of where to begin and decided that he probably needed a little bit of background to see where I was coming from, especially considering I doubted he'd had any sort of money troubles in his life.
“My parents,” I said slowly, “were very traditional. My mom was a stay-at-home omega and my dad was the so-called Providing Alpha.
“And that’s what you’re looking for,” Ashton said grimly.
“No!” I heaved a sigh. “And yes. But no.”
