Page 17 of Omega Dragon Manny
“Ready?” I turned to Clark and started walking toward the main entrance.
“More than I ever thought I would be.” Clark had been making comments like that more and more often, and he had no idea what it did to me. Every little hint he gave about being happy with me and the babies made me fall even harder for him.
The first tunnel was strung with lights in a twisting blue pattern to look like water. A wall display of indigenous fish swimming through waves kept their attention for three whole minutes before Rory got cranky and we had to keep going. We saw red pandas sleeping in a ball, bats clustered like grapes, and penguins that waddled right up to the glass and stared at us with curious eyes before diving back in the water and swimming with their friends.
I kept glancing at Clark, watching for that soft expression he got when he thought no one was looking, like he was memorizing the moment for later. Was this as special to him, bringing him back to that first day?
Clark got us churros at a stand that was set up just for this event near the cat house. He bought four because he always claimed to be starving, but I ate two and a half of them and he barely touched one.
“Thank you for this.”
I licked the cinnamony sugar off my fingers and raised an eyebrow. “You bought them.”
“No.” He waved at the stroller and then the glowing scenery behind us. “This. Tonight. Everything. It’s been amazing. It reminds me of that day.”
Oh. I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “The one that changed everything.”
“That one.” He pressed a quick kiss to my cheek, and it was safe to say I was blushing.
He bumped his shoulder against me and started steering us toward the main path. We found a bench under the giant light-up dragon and I sat down, letting the stroller rest beside me.
Clark plopped next to me and stretched his legs out with a groan. “How long do you think we have before one of them wails?”
“I give us two or three minutes, tops.” I adjusted Betsy’s socks so they weren’t about to slide off her chubby feet. “So enjoy them while they last.”
14
CLARK
Being together with Beau lit up my world. I never fully grasped the loneliness I’d been enveloped in before he came and took it all away. Coming home to him each night was everything.
After cutting down to half days working at home for a week, I added half in the office, and now I went back and forth. Some days I’d be in the office, some days I’d be home. It was more like my old routine, with one major exception—I set up boundaries. I didn’t take on more work than I could handle during my workday, and I made it clear to the office that my goal now was to do the best job I could in my current position.
I wasn’t trying to climb up the ladder.
I wasn’t racing to partner.
I didn’t want any of that.
This was my job and nothing more.
I’d actually been considering taking a demotion to a position with fewer responsibilities, because at the end of the day, work only mattered as much as we needed the income. My job nolonger defined me, and it didn’t prove the kind of alpha that I was or wasn’t.
I shut down my laptop, stood up, and stretched. It was just about time to go home, and I had a stop to make along the way. I wanted to surprise my omega with his favorite dessert, one the bakery only made on Fridays.
I’d pre-ordered ahead this time, learning my lesson from last week when I tried to get them and they’d already sold out. Even with that stop, I was home hours earlier than I used to be, back before I’d finally opened my eyes and realized what my priorities needed to be.
When I walked into the house, bakery box in hand, I saw Beau on the floor on his belly, propped up on his arms, with the three little ones doing the same. In the middle of them was a cube that played music. It lit up in time with the music, and right now, it was playing something from Bach whose name escaped me.
Depending on what side of it was up and how many times you tapped it, it played a wide variety of songs, and you could even isolate particular instruments. Betsy particularly loved this. Our sweet baby girl was very much a fan of the violin, and it tended to be a frequent part of the rotation.
I gave Beau a half wave, brought the dessert into the kitchen, then joined them on the blanket. The kids had gotten so big in such a short time. If I were to guess, they’d be crawling any day now.
I thought I was tired when they were newborns. Chasing them around the house once they were mobile was going to be…interesting. A new definition of tire was probably going to enter my vocabulary.
“I’m home from work,” I sing-songed.
Two of them reached for me, then gave up when the song switched and their attention was suddenly elsewhere.
