Page 213 of As The Shifter World Turns

“Ice cream?” Nate offered.

“Ice cream.” The three of us said in unison.

We were back to the minivan in record time and at the ice cream place when they opened.

“This was a much better idea.” Daire took a long sip of his float. “Much better.”

“Agreed.” Nate had a banana split, claiming the banana made it healthy. Not that anyone was going to judge.

Neil had an ice cream mixer with four kinds of candy. I was the closest thing to reasonable with my vanilla dish but the four scoops could hardly be described as reasonable. I argued with myself that it was because I was “sharing” with Charlie. That sharing ended up the equivalent of a tablespoon.

“We can have this be our play group,” I teased and Neil’s face suddenly got serious. “I was joking, m—Neil.” Mate almost slipped off my tongue. We still hadn’t quite worked through all that nonsense. But we loved each other and that was all that mattered.

“I know. But also… what if we made our own playgroup? Like, have a set time when we got together.” Neil put his ice cream down. “Not just us. That wouldn’t be any fun, but with our Sunshine Manor family.”

He had a point. Jasper wasn’t at the playing stage yet, but he would be soon and the others already were.

“It would have to be a set thing if we want to make it stick,” Nate said, chocolate sauce on his chin.

“You have a…” Daire leaned in and licked it off and then kissed his mate. It was sickeningly sweet and not just because of the sugar.

And I was more than a bit jealous. Not because they had each other or even because they were so affectionate. No, I was jealous because I never felt like I could be that way with Neil, not in public. Part of it was knowing all that Neil had been through, sure. But part of it was my own insecurities. I really needed to work on those.

“We can get together with the other fathers and see what works for them. And we need to think of a place. If it’s just at one of our places that’s fine, but it’s a lot to host each and every week.” Neil grabbed his ice cream again and shoved a spoonful in his mouth. “We could rotate.”

“We could refrigerate?” Nate asked. “Please tell me you did not just say we can refrigerate the kids, Neil.”

“I said,” he swallowed the last of his mouthful of ice cream. “I said we could rotate. Each week of the month is a different person’s place, like a schedule.”

“And if there are five weeks?” I pointed my spoon at Neil. “Then we can have that week here.”

93

WHEN RENOVATING, YOU DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SURVIVE

Neil

It was Day 1 on Daire and Micah’s reality renovating project. I was here for a few hours to help out, though Nate was the main videographer. The contestants had been chosen. There were ten pairs consisting of mated couples, parents and their adult children, siblings, neighbors and even a former couple.

They had each been given a motel room to renovate and a budget. And they stayed the last two nights in the ten unrenovated rooms, which were clean and in working order, but with weird and wonderful 70s decor.

As Martin was at work and Daire and Nate were here, I’d wanted to bring Charlie with me. But Ivor had pointed out that the baby shouldn’t be around the construction. My friend was a star as he brought Dyani into the motel office, which Daire and Micah had paid a firm to redecorate, and was looking after both her and Charlie. I was certain he should have been in the office, at the company that Ryder had created, but now he was the boss, he’d made an executive decision to work from the motel for a while.

Thankfully Charlie would now stay with my friend and not howl until I returned. My little boy was comfortable with his Sunshine Manor family and I was so happy, it brought tears to my eyes.

Now each pair was lined up with Daire giving instructions on how long each part of the renovation should take. They were being given three weeks in total with one day off a week.

“Please concentrate on the room you’re renovating and not look at what others are doing. Any attempt to sabotage other contestants' work, will result in you and your partner being removed from the show and you lose any chance atwinning the grand prize.” Micah and Daire had decided to give smaller second and third prizes as well.

“Like that’s gonna happen,” an alpha yawned and kicked at a hole in the concrete.

“Let’s hope not,” Micah interjected. His smile was already plastered on his face and knowing him so well, I noted how tense he was.

A teenaged omega who had paired with his grandfather put up his hand. “I’d like to complain about the food. Last night’s dinner was too spicy. I was sitting on the toilet all night and it was gross.”

Ewww. I could have done without that description.

“And there was too much meat,” another contestant noted.

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