“But I want us to work, and that means we have to be able to—”
“Talk,” Gabe finished for me.
“Yeah, and I have to know you’re listening, and you’ll actually take my side into consideration.”
Gabe moved so he was looking me in the eye. “I promise I’ll try, but I know I’ll mess up. I want you to always call me out on it. Because I want us to work. I want you to be happy.”
“I want both of us to be happy,” I corrected.
Gabe’s lips curved. “Yeah. And I didn’t mean I didn’t like your work—I meant you don’t have to work at all…if you don’t want to. I mean, you don’t have to.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t really sure what else to say to that. I’d never thought not working was a possibility. But my papa hadn’t. Even after Dad had passed away, he’d left us enough that we were taken care of. Even college for me had been set up if I’d wanted to.
But was that what I wanted?
“I like my job, and I always thought it would work even when I had kids ’cause I can work primarily out of my home.” I smiled at the memory. “Papa always picked me up from school till I was too old, and he would be at the stove while I did homework at the table and give me homemade cookies and milk as a snack. I want all that with my kids. I think that’s why Papa and I were so close because I knew he was there for me always. Even Dad with his job, he was a lawyer, but he still made time for Papa and me.” I sighed. “I really wish they could have met you.”
“I wish I’d gotten to meet them,” Gabe said. “They gave me you, and I will forever be grateful to them for that.”
My heart turned over. “I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you too”—Gabe beamed at me—“and I swear I will make you happy, Kian, and I’ll do my best not to take you for granted.”
I pushed my hands through his hair and smiled. “I know you will.”
Gabe jumped to his feet and walked back to the closet. He came back out and held up his phone. “I did have one logo I really like. I even saved it on my phone, but it might need a couple of tweaks.”
I patted the space beside me. “Show me.”
18
Gabe
“I still can’t believeyou have a full hospital here,” Kian said as we pulled up outside the Asheville Medical Center for his first scan.
Even though I’d wanted to take Kian to see Ian the first week we found out he was pregnant, Papa and Kian convinced me we didn’t need to go. Papa had checked him out, and everything was going fine, but it was finally his sixth week, and finally, a doctor would be the one to tell me that.
I parked the car in one of the parking spots close to the building that was the medical center for Asheville. “We have to,” I reminded him. “Both well-equipped and staffed for our particular needs. The doctors need to take care of both humans and others.
“Like most shifter towns, we make sure our people are well taken care of,” I explained. “It’s always been like this in packs and dens. The difference now is our den is a town. Usually, if a den member wants to study something that’s good for the pack, then we send them to the best college, and so far, ninety percent come home.”
“For real?” Kian twisted in his seat to look at me.
I couldn’t help it; I stole a quick kiss. “For real,” I replied. “Usually only those that find their mates, but most alphas end up bringing their omegas home. Usually, their family too, if possible.”
“So living next door to your parents is totally normal around here,” Kian said. “I would have loved that.”
“Yeah, most people live on the same land as their family or a couple of streets over.”
Kian looked over at the medical center. “It doesn’t look like any hospital I’ve ever been to.”
“Yeah, we went with the lodge aesthetic, as you can see. Fits with the surrounding mountains, don’t you think?”
“It definitely does,” he said.
“We’re one of the best in the rural hospitals in the northwest.”
“You sound very proud of that,” Kian said.
