Page 57 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“It’s probably gonna happen a couple more times before he finally shifts,” Cole said, and took a bite of food. “You better get ready for it. I was six feet tall before I was sixteen.” He pointed a fork at Ashton. “I think he’s gonna have me beat, though.”

Heaving a dejected sigh, I grabbed a biscuit and ate. Part of me was simply in shock that the changes were happening so fast. The other part of me mourned my baby. In some ways, it seemed like yesterday when Ashton had been toddling around the house, barely able to string three words together, but it also seemed like that had been decades ago. Now, he was almost a full-grown man.

The rapidly growing teenager grabbed a container for hash browns and dumped gravy on them before devouring them.

“Hey, how about this,” Cole said, as though suddenly thinking of something. “Why don’t the three of us head to town and do some shopping? Ashton obviously needs clothes. What do you say?”

“I need new shoes,” Ashton said between bites.

“Ugh. Shoes, too? Fine,” I said. “Better now than later. At this rate, he’s not gonna fit in anything by dinner.”

After we finished eating, Ashton having devoured anything and everything Cole and I didn’t, we piled into Cole’s truck. Rather than trying to find anything nearby in Harbor Mills, Cole drove the forty minutes to Greenbriar Mall on the outer edges of Atlanta.

“More options here,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot.

The shopping spree began at the shoe store. Ashton found a couple pairs he liked, and I went ahead and purchased both basketball shoes and leisure sneakers for him. Against his protests, I got half a size bigger than what he’d tried on. With the way he was growing, I worried that I should have gone a full size up.

Cole tried swiping his card, but I pushed his hand aside.

“No way,” I said. “You drove. God knows how much gas that giant thing you drive guzzles.”

Cole glanced behind me. “Looks like our boy may need his own wheels in a couple years. He’s gonna have his pick of the girls for dates.”

My neck actually cracked, I turned so fast. Cole was right. Ashton was checking out a rack of specialty shoelaces, but a small group of girls stood outside the store, whispering, giggling, and pointing at him. He took after his dad, so I knew my son was very handsome, but this? Girls ogling my baby? Not only that, he was fourteen, and most of these girls looked at least sixteen. It raised my hackles, and I wanted to chase them off.

“This is all happening so fast,” I said as the cashier handed me the bag of shoes. “I can barely handle it. It’s like one minute, I had my baby boy, and then a few mornings later, I’ve got a full-grown man who has girls drooling over him.”

Cole chuckled. “I remember you getting pretty territorial over me back in the day when the same thing happened.”

I scoffed. “Daisy Gillies was doing everything she could to get into your pants. What was I supposed to do?”

Cole belted out a laugh. “Well, slugging her in the nose during lunch senior year didget the point across. You got suspended for three days. She still lives in Harbor Mills, by the way. Her nose has, to this day, remained crooked.”

I didn’t want to smile at that, but a grin spread across my lips, anyway. “Is it really still crooked?”

“Yup. From what I’ve heard since being back, she married a lawyer. Surprised she hasn’t talked him into paying for a nose job.”

Ashton had made his way across the concourse to a shop that looked like it sold everything a teenage boy could dream of. Video games, comic books, specialty board games, you name it. The group of girls had moved on, but I saw a few of them throw looks back at Ashton as he inspected a rack of posters.

“You know what?” I said, a new idea forming, one that really appealed to me. A penance of sorts for Cole.

“What?” he asked, looking dubious.

I patted him on the arm. “I think you’ll need to havethe talkwith him soon. Unless you want us to become young grandparents.”

Cole’s eyes bugged out for a moment before he laughed. “I don’t think that will be a problem. He seems to actually listen to you.” His smile faded, and he became serious, nudging me to stop outside Ashton’s hearing range.

“You know what he said to me a few days ago?” he said. “That you told him to be mindful of the hearts in his care. Our boy isn’t going to be a heartbreaker, that’s for sure.”

A lump formed in my throat. I’d said those words to Ashton, hoping he’d take them to heart, but I knew the mind of ateenage boy didn’t usually retain platitudes like that. I’d thought he might forget about it as soon as the conversation was over. It touched me that he’d thought the words important enough to share with Cole.

Swallowing back the tears that threatened to form in my eyes, I smiled back at Cole. “I’m glad the words stuck. He’s a good-looking kid. The last thing I want is every hormonal teenage girl and their mothers calling my baby a playboy.”

An hour and a half later, with a backseat full of bags of new clothes and shoes, as well as some comics Ashton purchased with his allowance, Cole drove back into Harbor Mills. He glanced at his watch and then turned to us.

“Anybody up for a burger and some milkshakes? My treat.”

“Ashton had a hamburger yesterday, but I’m game,” I said.

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