Page 43 of Alpha & Omega

“A pain in my ass is who he is.”

“He’s hot!” Blondie said.

“He’s not,” I growled, but he was. Harley looked stunning, with his tanned skin and long, wavy hair blowing in the gentle breeze.

He finally reached us and smirked. Maybe he smiled, and I was just projecting, being in a pissy mood and all.

“What’s up Kingston? What a surprise,” he asked.

“Surprise? Please. You following me, Harley?”

He smiled brightly, raised his face to the sun, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. “I’m only here because it’s a beautiful day.”

“You don’t even skate.”

He shrugged. “I could learn,” he said before looking down at my family. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends, King?”

I used to like it when he called me that. Not anymore. It was too intimate—too friendly. “Don’t fucking call me that. And no, I’m not.”

He stood closer to me, about to open his mouth, before I stopped him. “I’m not doing this with you. Give it fucking up,” I said with more force than I intended.

“You know damn well I’m more interested in you than the business.”

“Bullshit. I’m not going to be manipulated. You know what? I’m not in the mood to skate anymore.”

Everyone groaned in irritation, but it was Ajax who piped up, telling Harley he needed to go, oozing danger.

Harley smiled and told me we needed to talk. Like hell we did. Fuck him coming here and ruining my day.

As I watched him saunter off, part of me almost asked him to stay because Ididmiss him. We had such an amazing connection and chemistry.

Fuck it. It didn’t matter anymore.Stick to your guns, Kingston.

“Don’t any of you ask me a fucking question about what just went down, or else I’m leaving,” I said and went off to skate again, needing to blow off steam.

Iwalkedintomyhouse with a sense of defeat. Even if I hadn’t been sure he would be at the skatepark, I’d taken a risk to corner Kingston. I recalled him talking about that particular skatepark. In fact, I hadn’t even thought about what I’d say to him. But seeing his anger and being surrounded by his family, I quickly realized my mistake. If the roles were reversed and I’d been with my son, I would’ve been pissed, too.

Still, I wanted to continue with this thing we had going on and see where it took us. Clearly, he could be a stubborn man, taking on everything and everyone. While that was a good quality, I needed to find a wayto make headway with him. If we just talked about everything, he would calm down and realize I didn’t want to hurt him or take anything away.

It wasn’t like me to chase, but I knew a good catch when I saw one. Kingston was worth it. I wasn’t ready to give up on him… on us.

After catching up on some paperwork, I headed to the kitchen to start dinner. Hudson hadn’t come home yet from hanging out with Oliver, but he would be here soon.

I pulled out some grass-fed ground hamburger meat and set it on the counter to warm up to room temperature. Then I grabbed a tomato from the windowsill and thinly sliced it.

Hudson was going to be happy that I planned to make him regular hamburgers tonight.

Next, I grated an onion and mixed it with mayonnaise, hot sauce, yellow mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. I sprinkled in salt and pepper, stirred the mixture, and set it aside.

“I’m home!” Hudson yelled as he slammed the front door.

“In the kitchen.”

He plopped down at the kitchen table to watch me cook. “Need help?”

I smiled at him and worked on mixing up the ground beef with some salt and pepper with my hands. “Thanks, but I’ve got it. How’s Oliver? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“Good.”

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