Page 214 of Stolen Omega

She shrugs at me.

“Zoey, you look cute in those clothes,” I tell her.

“Say it like you mean it or don’t bother,” Dale says.

I go for the second option, because those clothes are drowning our mate.

“Dinner’s being made. We should head to the …”

“Dining room?” Zoey guesses, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Kitchen?” Dale asks, eyes wide.

“I was about to say dining room, but we might have a chair problem. In that there are four chairs through there, and two pretty small tables. I didn’t really count on your bodyguards, Zoey. I thought Cam might show, but I didn’t expect anyone else.”

“We could sit by the pool, maybe?” Zoey shrugs, keeping her hand on her belt to keep the too loose shorts from falling down.

Dale nods. “Yeah, that sounds good. There are tables and chairs out there.”

“Okay,” I tell them. “Dale, can you send Cam a message, so he knows where we are?”

“Done,” he says, as he gets his phone out of his pocket.

We start down the stairs together, and I turn on the poolside lights when we get to the bottom.

It looks pretty out there with the soft lights around the pool.

“This was a great idea,” Zoey says as she pushes the door open and steps out.

She holds the door for Dale, and he strips off his T-shirt immediately, ditching it on a pool lounger with his phone before he divebombs into the pool. I shake my head at him, and Zoey laughs as she shakes off the water he just splashed all over her while holding her shorts up.

“Still a great idea?” I ask her.

Dale swims up to the side of the pool and rests his arms on the tiles as he looks up at us.

“Wait. Zoey promised s’mores.”

“After dinner,” she tells him.

“Aw,” he mutters, before he swims away from us.

She looks at me with worried eyes. “Please tell me you have the stuff for making s’mores?”

I laugh. “How could I bring Dale out here without making sure of that?”

“Thank God!” She looks over at the tables. “Oh, this one should be big enough for all of us. Help me move chairs.”

“Sit down, before your shorts fall off. I’ll move the chairs.”

Chapter Eighty-Seven

Cameron

My parents weren’t exactly big on family time when I was growing up. Dinners weren’t usually a shared meal around a table with conversation. My dinner was usually some kind of microwave meal in front of the TV, and my mom ate a salad while she graded papers at the table. My dad worked a lot of overtime so we could have a nice house and expensive things, so he was hardly ever home for a mealtime.

Sitting out by the pool with my new family while we eat barbeque meats with s’mores for dessert is so different than what I’m used to. Even with Dale, we’d usually eat while we watched TV.

This feels better. It’s like we’re bonding just sitting around together.

---