Page 65 of Broken Bonds

He snorts and shakes his head. “Nothin’.”

I narrow my eyes on him, but he says nothing else. I heave a quiet sigh and push off the counter I was leaning back on, moving to stand by him.

“How is she doing?” I finally ask.

“She’s doing better every day. There are still shitty days for her, and on those days I have to drag her out somewhere to find something to help her get it out. We’ve gone into the mountains a few times to scream it out. That’s been her favorite way so far.” He pauses. “I think it helps her when I talk about Celia,” he says quietly, a faraway look in his eyes, but there is still a soft smile sitting on his lips.

“And you? Does it help you to talk about her?”

He considers my question for a moment before he answers.

“Yeah, it does.”

“Good.” I glance up at the clock and clap him on the back. “Come on, let’s open her up. Maribel said she’d be late today, so it’s just us until she shows up. Jillian left earlier.”

“Where’d she run off to?” he calls out as he goes to flip the sign on to open.

I clear my throat, rubbing the back of my neck.

“She went to go talk Ramsey into leaving for a weekend.”

“What? Why?” he asks, turning around and looking at me with wide eyes.

“There was a delivery here today for one of Ramsey’s alphas. Jillian says it’s an entire nursery set up. We put everything in the extra storage room in the back, and I offered to help put the nursery together to keep it a surprise like her alphas had intended if she could get her out of the house,” I tell him, shrugging my shoulders like it’s no big deal.

He continues to stare at me with wide eyes and parted lips, like I’ve grown a third nipple or a second set of arms. Something like that.

“Youare going to put a nursery for triplets together for the grieving omega you’ve barely spoken to?”

I roll my eyes and grumble, “It’s not that big of a deal, knothead. Jillian said they were planning to surprise her with the nursery, and there’s no way she can put it together herself while keeping it a surprise. At least, not in enough time before the babies are here. But I can do it. Building shit is kind of my forte. So, I offered.”

Forde blinks before shaking his head.

“No, I mean, it’s nice as hell of you to offer, brother. I’m just a little surprised, is all. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it,” he tells me sincerely.

I nod and become quickly distracted when several of our regulars walk through the door and take their seats at the bar right on time.

For the rest of the night, I think about Ramsey and whether she’ll actually appreciate me putting her nursery together while listening to several of the older regulars talk about their day or as they reminisce about ‘the good ol’ days’.

ChapterEighteen

RAMSEY

“What combination areyou going for tonight?” I ask Forde as I look over the menu, like I don’t practically have it memorized by now with how often we’ve come here.

He’s sitting across from me in a corner booth at Pop’s Diner, like we’ve taken to doing every time we have come in since he brought me that first night. When I’d brought Link here, we had sat in a booth towards the middle of the room.

For the past few weeks, Forde and I have been getting together once or twice each week to hang out. He talks to me about his sister and her alphas, and I’ve noticed when he does, he seems less burdened. I try to talk about my alphas, but most days I’m more content to just listen to him.

When he senses that my anxiety and grief are becoming too much to bear, he takes me up to the mountains to scream out all my frustrations. And here lately, he’s been taking me to the gym to release some stress by punching the bags.

No matter what we choose to do, after we’re done, we make our way to the diner to try another fry combination and enjoy each other’s company.

It’s… nice.

I’d like to say Forde and I have become good friends, and honestly, I needed it. A friend that isn’t completely familiar with the ins and outs of my life and who didn’t know my alphas. It also helps that he’s struggling with his own damage, which only seems to make me feel closer to him.

I like that he doesn’t push.

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