“I can talk to her about it, yeah. It’s just talking,” Jack said, and stepped back from Beckett just as the bell dinged.
Beckett left the area behind the counter and returned to his usual spot at the bar, watching Jack work. It was domestic, visiting Jack every day on his lunch break. Bringing them both dinner the past three nights. He spent plenty of time with Jack one-on-one, but watching Jack and Eli together was his new favorite thing.
They so clearly adored each other, it was almost hard to watch, to be the outsider. But it was also a special kind of privilege, to be close enough to witness the magic.
When Jack spoke again, the customer was gone and Beckett snapped back to attention.
“So how do you already know these things? Eli and I have been friends for, like, twenty years, and it takes you less than a week to clock this? How?”
Beckett shrugged. “The forest for the trees, and all that.”
9. Packing
Eli
Standing outside Jack’s bedroom door, Eli sucked in a deep breath.
Just get the shirt. Get out. Don’t look at the bed.
Eli held her breath at the peak of the inhale, and pushed open the door.
She headed straight for the corner where Jack kept his laundry basket, and plucked a shirt up with two fingers. After giving it a spin, she decided it was safe to keep and grabbed the next one down.
Another faded band tee shirt, no visible stains. Two would probably be enough to get her through the heat, along with the collection she’d already amassed.
She could wear one and cuddle one. It’d be just like home.
Eli spun on her heel to leave, and without thinking, her gaze landed on the bed.
The sheets were still mussed, pillows still dented from the weight of their bodies.
All the images she’d spent the whole morning attempting to banish from her mind splashed across her vision.
Jack and Beckett, right there, wrapped around each other, pulling the sounds she’d heard from one another with lips and tongue and teeth and… and...
Her breath exploded out of her, and when she inhaled right behind it, their scents were so strong.
A whine spilled from her before she could stop it, and she averted her eyes, but it did little to lessen the sudden burst of heat within her.
She caught sight of Beckett’s bag, tucked beside the nightstand on what she presumed was his side of the bed. The shirt he’d worn yesterday, the pale blue button up, was tossed over the top of the bag.
Without hesitating, she grabbed it on her way out, and slammed the door behind her.
Sucking in fresh breaths, she willed their mixed, heady scents from her memory.
With the shirts clutched in her hands, she took the very few steps to her own door and slipped inside. After stuffing Beckett and Jack’s shirts in her bag with shaking hands, she turned around and snagged her lighter. Before lighting the candle, she brought it to her nose and inhaled, breathing deep the muted basic, cotton-like scent, replacing the warm cinnamon and greenery, the tinge of desperation and need.
The scent-canceling candle flickered to life as she brought the flame to it, and she sat it back down on her dresser.
Now what?
Eli was convinced she was making the right move, going to the Omega Center.
Ignoring the pitch in her stomach, she sat on the edge of her bed and stared down at her bag, making a mental checklist and marking each item off that she might need for the next however many days. Clothes and toiletries and… toys.
She knew it wasn’t supposed to be embarrassing, knowing that the people passing the other side of her heat room would know what she was doing in it. Knew it was natural, and every omega went through it, which was apparently more of the population than anyone expected. Knew most of the employees at the Omega Center were betas and other omegas, so she should feel comfortable, relieved.
But it was embarrassing, and her skin itched at the thought anyway.