Page 46 of His Innocent Omega
He nodded, his hands wrapped around his waist, and nibbled on his bottom lip.
“Where’s Jules?” I asked, wondering who he had left her with. She was too young for the daycare, and Wyatt didn’t know that many people yet.
“She’s at Jamie and Bash’s,” he told me, and I waved my arm at the sofa indicating he should sit. He did, perching on the very edge like he was going to bolt any second. “Bash thought I might like to shift since it’s been so long and offered to watch her for a couple of hours. They’ve been really kind to me, checking in. Answering baby questions. Really all of the Sinclairs have been wonderful. Wade added me to this chat they have. Calls it The Three Musketeers, even though there are more than three of us in it. It’s been nice to be able to text when I have a question, or I’m just feeling anxious and overwhelmed. Like every single thing I’m doing is wrong.”
“I’m glad you’ve had them to talk to.” Even though I wished I was the person he reached out to when he was feeling these things, I was happy Wade and his Scooby gang had taken Wyatt in. He needed people around him he could rely on, even if he didn’t think he did. Everyone needed someone.
Sitting in the empty space next to him, I tried not to crowd him. I could feel the heat of his body, and his blackberry scent filled my nostrils. “You can’t shift after…is it ten weeks pregnant, right?”
“Twelve,” he corrected, his hands resting on his knees and his fingers digging into the material of my sweats nervously. “It canharm the baby.”
He stood suddenly, and I followed his motion, not wanting him to leave yet. Goddess, I felt like a teenager with his first crush. Nervous and jittery, with a stomach full of butterflies.
“I should go. My car is at their house, with my clothes. It was really nice of them to let me shift and to watch Julianna, but I don’t want to be gone too long. This is the first time I’ve left her since she was born. I know it’s only for a short time, but…I need to get back.”
“Wyatt, wait.” He was halfway to my front door, his long legs eating up the short distance quickly. My voice held a pleading tone, that I had never heard myself use before but I couldn’t stop it, “Please.”
He glanced over his shoulder at me, his hazel eyes wary and hesitant, his hand braced against the door. Slowly, he faced me, his back braced against the wood.
Taking two steps towards him, I forced myself to not crowd him. “Let me drive you over there. Give me ten minutes to get changed for work and I’ll drive you. It will give us a few minutes to talk."
"About what?" he whispered, “We said everything already. I told you I won’t stop you from seeing Julianna. We’ll work out a schedule. I just…I’m not comfortable with you having her overnight yet.”
Yesterday I called to ask him when he thought I could take her overnight and it hadn’t gone well. He’d said no, I’d gotten my hackles up, and hung up on him in a rush of angry feelings. We still had a long way to go in figuring out this co-parenting thing, especially with a newborn.
Opening my mouth to protest, he cut me off, “Not because I don’t trust you with her. She’s just so little yet.Maybe in a month or two. I don’t know. But I said you could have her on Saturday for a few hours and I meant it.”
He had, that was true, and I was grateful. He had let me see her for a few hours the last two Wednesdays, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. My wolf and I wanted her near us. Wanted Wyatt near us too.
Family law varied state to state on what was best, and factored in how much time the non-custodial parent spent with the child to determine what age overnight visits should happen. Most suggested doing either a 2-2-3 schedule, or a 50-50 schedule. Yes, I would need to rearrange some things, and hire a sitter because I needed to work, but I wanted more time with her, and soon.
Wyatt wasn’t happy with that, since he was in a position to have her with him at his job. We had come to the conclusion we would need to figure out some kind of schedule that worked for both of us, but we weren’t on the same page yet. It was hard for me not to push him, while logically understanding I needed to back the fuck off.
“We have more to discuss than Jules and parenting time.” I took another step closer to him, until there was only a few inches between us. His nostrils flared, his eyes dilated, and the alluring scent of blackberries filled the small space.
“Why do you call her that?” he questioned. “Her name is Julianna.”
Giving him a small smile, I shrugged, “I like having a name for her that no one else calls her. She’s my Jules. Does it bother you that much?”
He shook his head, his curls swaying with the movement. He had cut his hair last week. It was much shorter now, but he’d left some length on top. It looked good on him. Really good,showing off his high cheekbones, and strong jaw. Jules had started pulling on his shoulder length hair when he held her, and she had a strong grip on her. He had cut his hair to avoid it being pulled on. “It’s fine. What did you want to talk about?”
“I owe you an apology.” That caught his attention.
His head shot up and he searched my face. “You already apologized.”
“Let me get this out, okay? Then you can talk.”
His answer was a wide-eyed shake of his head.
Blowing my breath out, I rolled my shoulders, trying to ease some of the tension in them. “I just want to tell you again how sorry I am for my actions. I’ve had a lot of time to think these last two weeks, and it was unforgivable of me to barge into your life the way I did and start taking over. I don’t have an excuse for why I did any of it. All I can tell you is something feral took over me. Seeing you, and Jules, being near you, all my brain could make sense of was that I needed to take care of you both, protect you, keep you safe. Believe it or not, I was trying to make things easier on you.”
He stared at me with those wide eyes of his, not saying a word, his face impassive of whatever he might be thinking or feeling in that moment.
“Jamie said it probably was because of the whole fated mate thing and my alpha pheromones going a bit haywire. And that I’m used to just taking charge of any situation.”
“Bossy,” he whispered, but his lips had a slight smile, which gave me hope.
Smiling, I nodded my agreement. “Yeah, bossy. And just…it’s who I am. I’m domineering, but that didn’t give me the right to act the way I did. It didn’t give me the right to come into your home, to take Jules from her crib without telling you. I didn’tthink about how you would feel waking up and seeing her gone. I swear to you, I won’t do anything like that again, and I’m sorry I scared you. I’m sorry I wasn’t listening to you. And I’m sorry that I didn’t take the time in the hotel that night to make sure you understood what was happening between us. What that spark of electricity meant. I made sure to check in with you on everything else, except that. To be honest, I didn’t want to acknowledge it at the time. I just wanted us both to go our separate ways and forget about each other. But I never meant that to hurt you, even though now, I can see how it did.”
