Page 51 of Harvest Moon

But it had taken literally one day of bed rest before Birch had caught her trying to sneak out of their room to check her messages.

Birch wasn’t a forceful kind of alpha, almost ever. He gave Claudia the space to do whatever she wanted, because he knew damn well he didn’t own her. This time, though, he wasn’t having it.

So he’d handed me her phone, given me the code to unlock it, and asked me to deal with people who called, leaving it to my discretion whether I dealt with it by telling them to call someone else, or by trying to fix their problems. It was terrifying, and gratifying, and nerve-wracking all at once.

I felt a little bad for Claudia. She loved her job, and it was driving her nuts to be unable to run out at every ring of the phone, and go solve people’s problems. Still, I kind of wanted to slap some of them. They knew Claudia was pregnant, and not well, and they were still calling her to complain about Mr. Whatsit not stopping to chat with them about the weather.

Okay, none of it was quite that trivial, but it was a lot of stuff people could have handled on their own. They were used to Claud solving their problems, so they called her without even trying to do it themselves.

By the time Thursday rolled around, I was about ready to drop, and I didn’t have the excuse of being pregnant. Of course, I was trying to cook three meals a day for Claudia, make sure she stayed in bed like she was supposed to,anddo her job.

Without Brook’s help, hanging out with Claudia and keeping an eye on her for most of the day sometimes, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it.

So by Thursday morning, I was already not at my best. When I got a text from an unknown number that said, “I’m told you’re the woman to talk to if I want to come home,” I almost ran straight to her. It didn’t seem like the kind of “that guy insulted me” stuff involved in most of her texts.

Frankly, it seemed sad.

But Claudia was on bed rest, and I was not putting a single thing off on her. So while I made her eggs and sausage, I considered how to respond. I had no right to keep anyone away from their home, and I didn’t think Claudia would say she did, either. But that wasn’t exactly what they were asking.

Finally, after plating her food, I sent an answer. “This is Claudia’s cousin Alexis. I’m doing her job right now because she’s not well, but if you need help, I would like to try.” Then I stuffed the phone into my back pocket and carried the tray in to her.

When my butt buzzed while I was setting food in front of her, her eyes strayed longingly toward it. “I’m feeling better,” she mumbled.

It was a lie, and I didn’t even have to say that out loud. She was pale, her eyes ringed with dark circles, and she’d been struggling to keep down any food. “You get this phone back the minute you trade me my niece or nephew for it.”

“Trying to make off with the baby already?” She was trying for a joke, but it fell flat. She turned and stared at the plate of food, her face going queasy as she looked at the sausage. “Are we sure I can’t just have those chocolate-chip freezer waffles? They’re whole grain. It says so right on the package.”

“I threw them away.” She dropped her head, sighing and glaring at the food I’d served. “Did you look through the lists I got from Skye’s blog? Anything you want me to make?”

“It’s all gross,” she mumbled. “All whole wheat, no sugar, no bread, no butter, and no joy. How does he even live like that?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Claudia Astrid Mena Wilson.”

For a second, her face went even more petulant, but then she gave a deep, soul-weary sigh. “This sucks, Alex. All this low-carb stuff. I don’t even like meat that much.” As though to prove the point, she poked at the sausage with her fork.

“I know. I remember your vegetarian period in high school, when your mother was constantly struggling with a brain meltdown.” For the first time that morning, she smiled—heck, she almost laughed. “What do you mean no meat? You’ll still eat chicken, right? No? Crabs? Fish? What about some bacon?”

With that, she was reduced to giggles. Her mother had been determined that her vegetarianism was a phase, but honestly, I suspected she’d only given it up because of the constant pressure to go back to meat. Well, I could figure out how to handle that. There were lots of vegetables on Skye’s list of foods.

I could always call Ridge. He worked on the local farm, after all. He’d have access to the best, freshest fruits and vegetables.

And he’d be Ridge.

Nope. I didn’t have time to worry about my personal life right now. I had come to Grovetown to help Claudia and Birch, and that was what I was going to do. I could call Ridge when she was better. I’d waited years for him already. Maybe he’d take the opportunity to find an omega he was attracted to, and... then I’d have to watch him with someone else.

I shuddered at the thought, but pushed it away.

“Okay, so just don’t eat the sausage. I’ll drop by the market and see if we can get something better for tomorrow’s breakfast.” Her eyes lit, but I pursed my lips at her. “Something that’s on Skye’s list.”

Her shoulders slumped, but she started picking at her eggs. “I guess.”

I didn’t pull her phone out of my pocket till I was back out in the hall. The return message from the unknown number stopped me in my tracks. “Cute Alexis from the overlook?”

Aspen. This was Aspen Grove.

And he thought I was cute.

Okay, yeah, so there was zero chance I was ever going to date Aspen Grove. Just his history with Brook, whom I was coming to see as a friend, would have stopped me from seriously considering that. But that didn’t change the fact that being called cute by a gorgeous alpha felt nice.

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