Page 8 of Maple Sugar Mix-Up
The food, much like the date itself, was simple, but good.
“So, what do you do?” I asked.
“I work at the hospital. The one that hosted the auction.”
“Oh, that’s great. What do you do there?”
Jace hesitated. “I uh… I’m a receptionist.”
He looked at me strangely, as if waiting for me to comment, so I decided to spare him from whatever awkwardness he was feeling by changing the subject a little bit.
“I gave birth in that hospital.”
“You did?” he said in surprise.
“Actually, I had some complications and had to have an emergency delivery.” I pursed my lips grimly at the memory. “But she’s seven now and doing great.”
I could see the question in his eyes and added, “The alpha isn’t in the picture, I’m single.”
I wasn’t sure why I bothered reassuring him; it wasn’t as if I had any interest in a second date.
But as the night went on, I found it harder and harder to remember that. Jace had a great sense of humor, he was kind, thoughtful… and if it weren't for the fact that Buck had lured me in the same way, I really would have thought about giving this guy a chance.
“I’m sorry, I never asked earlier. What do you do?” Jace asked.
“What makes you think I’m not a stay-at-home omega?” I challenged.
He chuckled, the shrugged. “I suppose I shouldn’t make assumptions.” Truth be told, I would rather people assume I did work than not. I just smiled and Jace went on. “I just figured that since you’re a single dad and you mentioned there’s no alpha at all…”
“I’m an author,” I said, cutting off the slightly awkward back-peddling.
“Oh, wow.” He grinned. “That’s amazing.”
I braced myself for the dreaded, “Have I read anything you've written,” question? For one thing, the snarky response, “I don't know, have you?” was always on the tip of my tongue. For another, more than one alpha had gone and looked them up, then gotten scared off when they saw how popular the books were.
Much to my relief, he smiled and said, “I’ve never met an author before, what’s it like?”
“It’s pretty good,” I said. “I make my own hours, stay home with my daughter, get to be my own boss… Well, actually I do a lot of co-writing with my mother, so I’m not always in charge.”
We both laughed at that.
“I can’t imagine co-writing with my mother… or anyone for that matter,” Jace said.
“Do you write?” I asked.
He cleared his throat and blushed a little. “Not, you know, actual books. I just uh…” He took a long, long drink of his coffee.
“Co-writing is great when you have a good partner,” I said. “Luckily, Mom and I have a lot of the same ideas. And every once in a while Dad pitches a decent one too.”
“Sounds fun. I never got along well with my parents.” Jace looked just a little sad about that, then shrugged. “Oh, well. They wouldn’t be too thrilled with me now.” He shot me quizzical look. “They had um… grander aspirations for me than being a receptionist.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. It sounded like not only had he struggled for their approval, but I got the impression they had passed.
“It’s okay,” he said with a shrug.
Nevertheless, I still felt bad that he hadn’t gotten along with his parents. My mother, as well as my grandmother, and I had been thick as thieves. I found it hard to imagine not having a relationship like that. On the other hand, it helped me hold onto the idea I didn’t want an unreliable alpha in my life. But boy was Jace making that difficult…
Time seemed to fly by. I had only planned on staying an hour or so to be polite, but before I knew it they shop was getting ready to close. Even though it seemed like we had talked about everything under the sun, I still felt like we had a million more things to talk about.
