Page 173 of As The Shifter World Turns

“Hello, people,” Archer said. “I’m standing.”

“You?” Micah shouted. “That can’t be you. I’m your mate. I’d know.”

Archer shrugged and kissed the unicorn shifter. “Sorry, babe. You don’t know me as well as you thought.”

“Damn!” Micah said as he studied the photo.

There were plenty of giggles and wrong answers as we tried to match each baby to our friends.

My stomach grumbled when we finished and Archer noted, “Good timing,” as the food arrived and a team of caterers carried it up to the roof. Daire hurried after them, worried they might harm his ‘babies’ as he referred to his plants.

When everything was ready and I leaned on my mate as he climbed up the stairs, I held him tight as I caught a glimpse of the roof. There were fairy lights strung around and a big sign that read, “Congratulations, Ivor and Ryder.”

My mate wrapped his arms around me as our friends and Patch arrived on the roof. They toasted us with Shirley Temples because Ryder told them how much I enjoyed them on our babymoon.

“Thank you,” I said as I sipped my drink.

“I’d like to say something,” Ryder told our friends.

“Oh, speech,” Daire chuckled and he clapped. “Speech. Speech.”

“Thank you for giving us such an amazing day. You’re not just our friends, you’re our family.” I reached out and took his hand. “Ivor and I have travelled a rocky road to get to where we are today. But the future is bright and with our daughter on the way, we’ve put the past behind us and can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow and all the tomorrows after that.”

Baby hormones had me wiping tears away with the back of my hand. “Thank you. That was so sweet.”

“Ivor, I love you but can we put a pin in the tears and eat,” Daire told us. “I’m starving and I can’t eat when you’re crying.”

“Daire!” everyone shouted.

“Ivor, can I take the baby to the park when she’s born?” Toby asked. “Patch and I are grown up now and very responsible.”

Neil put his arm around Martin and tears glistened in both their eyes.

“That’s a very kind offer, Toby. When the baby arrives, she’ll need both her dads. How about we talk again when she’s a little older?”

“Okay. Come on, Patch. Let’s play with the ball.”

72

HOW MANY PREGNANCY TESTS DOES ONE OMEGA NEED?

Ryder

“What are you going to do now?” I asked Daire and instantly heard how shitty I came across. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant like are you going to focus on videos or are you two going to open up a new business?”

Daire and Micah finally sold their business for gobs and gobs of money after the first sale fell through. I was happy for them, but it also tugged on some insecurities I had.

Was my business going well? Yeah. It was fine. I was able to pay all my bills, reinvest in the business, pay a decent wage, and not worry if I would have enough money from one week to the next. None of those had been possible when I started. Shit, most of that wasn’t possible even a year ago.

But things were different now. I didn’t have just me to think about. I had Ivor and the baby. And as much as Ivor wanted to continue working when the baby was born, I wanted him not to need to work. And right now, we weren’t as comfortably off as I desired.

“I think so. I love it and people seem to enjoy them.” He gave a half shrug. “I’m not opposed to buying another building on the street if one opens up. I like being a landlord and while I have made a shit ton of mistakes, I’ve gotten pretty decent at it. I would never want to own twenty buildings or anything, but maybe two?” It sounded more like he was figuring this all out as he spoke and I allowed him to continue, but my focus wasn’t on his words—it was on my business.

Were there things I could do to bring it to the next level? Probably. No, notprobably. There were, but they all cost money and held a certain level of risk. I had the money, but I also had a baby on the way.

“So that’s the long winded answer.” Daire chuckled. “Want to come with me? I ordered a pizza.”

“Yeah, okay.” Ivor was finishing off some work at the office, and my office was closed. A stroll to the pizza place would be an outing at least. Daire and I had done this walk many times. “I didn’t realize you were on your way out or I wouldn’t have stopped and chatted your ear off.” Or I would have, but while walking with him.

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