Page 6 of Choosing Their Omega

“Of course. Thank you. Bye, everyone. Bye, Ben!” Angelica waves and then she’s out the door, and Winston starts barking to get attention.

“I’ll take him for a walk,” Miles volunteers, already reaching for the leash that hangs by the front door.

“I’m hungry,” Ben declares. He rests his head on his uncle’s shoulder. “Sooooooo hungry.”

“Uh huh.” I grin, skeptical. “Let me guess, you’re hungry for Uncle Miles’s pancakes.”

“No,” Ben lies, badly.

“You can have some apples.” Knox carries him into the kitchen. “I’ll cut them up for you.”

I watch them go with a fond smile on my face. Ben is only three, and it was a serious adjustment for him to come and live with us after his mother died. I just hope that he understands how much we love him. We want to be there for him, but we can’t just let him do whatever he wants either. We need to give him discipline.

Lawson sighs and looks over at me. “Angelica’s schedule really doesn’t leave a lot of leeway.”

“I know, I know. We were late, though.”

“Not by much. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again.” Lawson shrugs. “I think we should consider something more… permanent. Like a nanny. Someone who can live here and take care of Ben no matter what’s going on with us.”

I jerk my head for Lawson to follow me and then head into the kitchen. “Knox, can we get your thoughts on this?”

“One sec.” Knox finishes cutting up the apple and then hands it to Ben, who’s sitting on his booster seat at the table. “Okay.”

“Lawson was wondering if we should find a permanent version of the… situation that just walked out the front door.” I hedge a little so that Ben doesn’t realize we’re talking about him. I don’t want him alarmed. He really likes Angelica.

Knox frowns and folds his arms. “You mean bringing someone into our home? Living here?”

“We need more structure,” I point out, tilting my head toward Ben. “And we can’t keep rotating babysitters. Today it was Angelica, then we have Mary, and Ophelia can do every other Saturday… we’ve had to find a lot of subs last minute.”

“And our schedule is only going to get more intense from here,” Lawson adds.

Knox blows out a breath. I know that he knows that we’re right. Knox is just stubborn and slow to trust. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good.” I walk over to the fridge and open it, then wince. “I’ll run to the store.”

With four athletes and one voracious toddler living in the house, we go through food faster than you can blink. I feel like one of us is running to get groceries every single day lately.

I clap Knox on the shoulder as I walk past him. “I know this is hard,” I say, my voice quiet. “But really think about it. We have to do what’s best for Ben, even if that’s something uncomfortable for us.”

Knox nods. I do finger-guns at Lawson just to see him roll his eyes and flip me off where Ben can’t see him, then I head out. Miles will be enjoying his outside time with Winston, I’m sure. Winston is a cheerful, adorable beagle mix, although we’re not sure what he’s mixed with since we adopted him from a shelter. He has black and white spots, and he’s bigger than the average beagle. We all adore him, but he and Miles share a special bond.

Miles is the quieter one of us, and I think he likes going on walks with Winston, because it lets him be out and about but alone with his thoughts and a sweet animal who won’t judge him if he voices those thoughts sometimes.

It hits me, sometimes, how damn domestic we are. We’ve got a big house that we bought when we decided to make our pack permanent. We have a dog. We’ve even got a kid, for crying out loud, although Ben wasn’t planned. The only thing missing is—

I cut that thought off before I can finish it. We’ve got the playoffs to focus on, and that’s what matters. And besides, I can’t even think about an Omega until we get Ben settled.

At the grocery store, I grab a cart and start loading up. We’ve had to add in a lot of food that kids like now that Ben’s living with us and I need to keep checking the list so I don’t forget anything.

Macaroni and cheese, right, and bread, peanut butter and jelly…

I head for the checkout, wincing a little when I get to the line with my full cart. I feel bad for the guy who does the bagging. Someone gets into line behind me, and I glance back. It’s a woman, with only a few items in her hands.

“You go on ahead,” I tell her. “I’ll take longer than you do.”

“Oh. Thank you.” She looks up, her voice soft, and I blink in surprise.

“Hi, Sunshine.” I grin when I recognize her as the not-puck-bunny from the game.

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