Page 147 of Dream Mates
My parents had a May wedding. Also, Bren did buy a venue because I wanted to get married there. It won’t be ready for a while.
But if you and Grace want to reenact your childhood ideas and get married sooner, I’m fine with it.
Wes
It’s up to her.
Shit, Spence will throw some fancy-ass party, won’t he?
Me
Probably.
Actually, I knew of the perfect person to help planthatparty. Someone who’d not just get along with Grace, but Mrs. K.
Wes
Well, I’m off to another meeting. Eating lunch? Did I do a good job?
Wes had packed me lunch because Grace wasn’t here. Brennan did so for me yesterday. While I was fine with making my own lunch, I loved someone packing my lunch for me. Wes even had put a littleI Love Younote in it.
Me
It’s perfect. Thank you.
Taking the note, I put it in the box in my drawer I kept all Grace’s notes in. It was myhappy boxand filled with notes from clients, pictures, and things they’d made me. The box was a reminder of why I did this job. I hadn’t always wanted to be an advocate. Really, I’d taken social work and psychology classes because it was one of the more interesting education options the military offered me, and I wasn’t one to turn down free education.
It wasn’t until I awakened as an omega and ended up with a desk job in the family mental health clinicbecauseof my background, that I realized that I wanted to be a social worker–and an advocate. I’d worked a lot with both, helping to support the families and packs of service members. So, I’d started taking all the classes I needed, then finished up after I got out of the military and began interning at the Omega Center. Once I was licensed, I applied for the advocate training program.
Now, here I was. Claire fully supported me wanting to take Blanket Brigade training while keeping my advocate position, and just going on the emergency roster. I was excited. The training didn’t start until fall, so it wouldn’t interfere with any of our summer plans, and it would end right before the wedding.
Another reason to hire a wedding planner. I would bebusy.So would Grace.
Grace. I was still weirded out a little by that guy she met yesterday. Spencer’s failed theory about Grace’s bio-dad being one of the omegas his father resettled was also odd.
Closing my pinboards, I opened our database and looked up Nate Thorne.
Yep, there he was. He’d have to have beenyoungto be Grace’s daddy. But omegas did have kids in their early twenties. I couldn’t view everything in his file, but I saw some things. Wow, he’d met with his advocate for decades. I scrolled down. Yep, until his advocate retired. While we kept an eye on our omegas for some time, and they were always welcome to re-engage an advocate, having one continuously for decades was unusual. Huh.
Oh, his file showed that at one point, ages ago, he was flagged as avulnerable omega. Okay, that could be part of it?
Though there was nothing here that indicated he was a bad person. No, there were lots of little notes about him being sweet or applauding his volunteer efforts tutoring people in chemistry.
Hmmm. Could I tell if he was part of the Omega Protection Program? Nope. But, really, I shouldn’t be able to tell. Which was why I had no luck with what Wes had suggested–which was me trying to see if I could identify any of the omegas Spencer’s dad had resettled in an attempt to find a therapist for Grace.
There was also the issue that this was decades ago, and they were probably processed through Centers in Greece, or at least Europe, which made it a little harder.
Sure, I could call in a favor, but how did I even come up with a good explanation?
With a sigh, I went back to working on my case notes from all my client visits this morning. It was Thursday and Riley wouldbe here soon. I got a hit of anxiety from my bond with Grace, followed by sadness.
What was going on? I looked at her location and she was no longer at the university she’d been at, but the one next door.
I texted her.
Me
Are you okay?
