Page 73 of Best Friends
He gives a weak smile. “Then I’ll just worry about both of you separately. At least right now you’re a package deal.”
I laugh. “Well, we’ll figure it out, okay? This is new for us.”
“True.” He puts his arm around me and he leads me into the bedroom. “You should nap,” he encourages.
“Sex and then a nap, yes please.” I grin, climbing under the blankets. I settle against the pillows, sighing contentedly.
“I should keep painting, but I don’t want to. You look so cozy, I want to join you.” He smiles at me, looking happy and relaxed.
“Yes. Get over here.” I hold out my arms. “Cuddle your pregnant omega. That’s definitely a very important alpha duty.”
He hesitates, but then he sprints toward the bed, grinning. He jumps onto the mattress and I let out a yelp as he lands next to me. The bed frame squeaks alarmingly, but thankfully doesn’t collapse.
He throws an arm over me, his smile boyish. “Alpha Malcolm McLeash, reporting for snuggle duty.”
“Geez.” I can’t help laughing. “You almost broke the bed, Malc.”
“Sorry. I was a little overly eager.” He kisses me, his mouth warm and affectionate. When the kiss ends, he says, “We have a really good life, don’t we, C.?”
I smile. “We have the best life. I still don’t know how we got so lucky.”
“It wasn’t luck,” he says softly. “It was meant to be.Wewere meant to be.”
I trace one of his dark eyebrows. “I never believed in fated mates, but I’m a believer now.”
He looks pleased. “Yeah? You finally believe?”
“How could I not? From the day we met, we’ve rarely been apart. When you went on that two day fishing trip with your dad in high school, I felt like you were gone a year. It was torture.”
He smiles. “Same. Why do you think I taught you to fish? So that you could come with us from then on.”
“And if you hadn’t taught me to fish, I wouldn’t have gone to the fishing convention with you. And if I hadn’t gone to that convention, we never would have kissed in that elevator. And if we hadn’t kissed in that elevator, we might never have fallen in love.”
He snorts a laugh. “Oh, we were already in love, C. We were just too stupid to know it. Elevator or no elevator, you were always going to be mine. That’s how fated mates work. You had to be mine and I had to be yours.”
When I look into his familiar blue eyes, the certainty of us settles deep in my chest. I’ve always known he was mine, just as I’m his. The tug toward each other has always been there. Impossible to ignore or fight. It took time to believe I deserved something as good as Malcolm’s love, but now I accept the truth of it. Of our destiny.
“My mom hasn’t done many things right,” I say huskily. “But moving us to Whispering Pines was a good decision.”
“Yeah.” He lifts one shoulder, a determined glint in his eye. “But I’d have found you either way, C.”
And somehow, I believe him.
Chapter Fifteen
(That same night)
I wake up to an uncomfortable wetness and the strangest sensation, like something inside me has just... shifted. For a moment, I lie there in the darkness, trying to figure out what’s wrong. The digital clock on Malcolm’s nightstand glows 2:47 a.m., and beside me, he’s sleeping deeply, one arm thrown over his eyes.
Then I feel another gush of warm fluid, and my heart starts hammering.
“Oh shit,” I whisper, carefully sitting up. The sheets beneath me are soaked, and there’s no mistaking what this is. My water just broke. Three weeks early.
I shake Malcolm’s shoulder gently. “Malc.Malcolm, wake up.”
He stirs, mumbling something incoherent before his eyes flutter open. “What’s wrong?” he asks immediately, his voice thick with sleep but already alert.
“My water broke,” I say, trying to keep my voice calm even though my pulse is racing.
