Page 34 of Home for Nathan
Nathan had shown his folks the house.
So that was…good.
“You don’t have to be so nervous,” his mom whispered to him. “No one’s going to bite you.”
“Are you sure?” he whispered back, loud enough for everyone to hear. “I feel sort of like I’m about to be in trouble.”
Nathan’s mom started chuckling. “I think that’s just normal for meeting the in-laws.” She winked at him, her dark eyes twinkling. “Nathan’s already thrown up twice. It’s time for everyone to relax.”
“I blame you, Angela,” his dad told his mom. “You’re terrifying.”
“And now all this time I thought it was Marcus that was the scary one,” Nathan’s mom teased, poking Nathan’s dad.
“That’s me. Terrifying omega. Grr.”
They all started chuckling, which he had to admit helped a lot, because that’s really what he needed.
A little happiness.
A little ease.
A little joie de vivre.
Nathan came toddling down the stairs from the bedroom, and Zion hurried to help him down the last few steps.
“Are you all right, honey?”
“Nerves. It’s just nerves. I’m sorry, guys, it’s so stupid.”
“Pregnancy is kind of stupid.” Nathan’s mom winked at him, and his dad nodded in agreement.
“I think you’re doing an amazing job. You’re very brave to start this process on your own.”
“Well.” Nathan kind of shrugged. “I hadn’t intended to start this process right at this time, but I did, and now little Rachel is wanted by her father, both her fathers, right, Zion?”
“Absolutely.” There was no worry about that. Not at all.
Zion had explained the situation to his parents, and while they hadn’t been overjoyed, they also hadn’t been particularly worried about the situation. Omegas got pregnant. Irresponsible alphas got omegas pregnant. It wasn’t amazing, but it was the truth.
“So how did you come to land in Secret Springs?” Mom asked Nathan, and Nathan shrugged.
“I have a friend, Saul, who runs the daycare here. He and I were friends before, and I had to get out, you know, I had to get away. He said there was a place with affordable rent here where I could get my feet back under me. There was a job opening at the grocery store, and it was just like a perfect situation. The place to get out of town where I didn’t have to worry so much. It’s super hard to constantly be stressing about who and where and what.”
Zion hugged Nathan close to him. “Then I got myself a sandwich, asked the most important question of my life, and the rest of history. It’s amazing. Kaleb is the one who convinced me to move here. Well, Kaleb and this place. I saw it, and I just knew that this was the place for me and for the business. The mill is so damn inspiring.”
“And it got us Torah.” Nathan beamed at their dog, and Torah’s tail thumped from where she was lying on her back, legs sprawled, farting like a mule. Both sets of dads thought she was superdog and had been feeding her altogether too many treats and bites.
“Do you know Hank Vargas?” Nathan’s dad asked.
Zion nodded. “I do, in fact. He was just up here at the house the other day. He wants to do some…well, investigations.”
He didn’t want to upset the ’rents by having them think there was a ghost.
Of course, this was where Nathan’s dad’s eyes went wide. “You have a ghost?”
Nathan chuckled softly. “Yeah, Dad’s a fan of the podcast.”
“Oh, well how cool.” Zion had to grin. “Nathan is much more likely to see something or sense something than I am. But I think Hank will be at the wedding. We invited him and Elliot. In fact, his daughter was named for a ghost.”
