That was the catch. “About three, if no omegas come in. I get called in at all times of the day and night. It’s kind of how pregnancy works.”
“Can I take you to dinner? Whenever you can.”
“That sounds great. I’ll text you during the day.”
He ran for his phone and we exchanged numbers. Before I got to work, I already had a text from him.
My alpha missed me already.
Chapter Nine
Edris
I had been given a second chance to fix things with my mate, and I wasn’t going to blow it. This dinner had to be everything. I needed to spoil him without making him feel like I was fixing things. That wasn’t like me, I was the guy who wanted to rush forward and make everything okay. My mate deserved better.
The town wasn’t a good place to get a meal, not if you were trying to woo a mate. There was the Good Times Diner, where the food was great. Everyone loved it, but it was also the center of gossip, so not a good place to have a first date. And then there was Fred’s Fried Chicken, not the vibe I wanted for a first official date.
I pulled up a search forplaces to eat near meand it added the local watering hole to the mix, but nothing else was less than a half hour away. Did I choose close and convenient, or turn it into something more than just a dinner date and drive the distance. I went with the latter.
With limited in-town resources, I found myself at the front desk asking for the best place to watch the sun set. When I explained why, Bennett immediately offered to lend me his car. How different small towns were from the city. If I asked the front desk of a hotel anywhere else, I’d be lucky to get good advice on a location, never mind a car to use.
Bennett made it possible for me to pick Zac up and woo him properly. And yes, that was some old-school alpha bologna, but still, it made me happy. Zac didn’t question me when I said I’d pick him up. Did he think my car was ready and this was a goodbye? As if I could say farewell that easily.
Zac’s house was far enough from the center of town to be private but close enough that he could walk if he preferred. Icould see why he loved it. Not city fancy, but I hadn’t even stepped inside, and it already felt like a home.
I regretted not having stopped for flowers or a bottle of wine, but he opened the door, smiling wide, and threw his arms around me before I lifted my hand to knock. He seemed as excited about this as I was.
“I just finished getting ready,” he said, still holding on. “Perfect timing. Do you want to come in for a minute?”
For a lot longer than a minute, but with time ticking away, I had to deny him. “I’d love to, but don’t know if we’ll have time. There’s something I’d like to share with you before dinner.”
“Oh, okay,” he said and pulled the door shut. “I’m ready, then.”
“Bennett let you use his car. Yours isn’t fixed.” He recognized the car immediately. It shouldn’t have surprised me, the thing was red and yellow and not by artistic design. It had a new hood and side panel, either from an accident or rust, and he’d never bothered to match the paint. I kinda loved that.
Suck. I should’ve been clearer in my message.
“Not even close. Jesse’s still waiting for the part. But yeah, Bennett is the best. I told him about our date and he offered. I was surprised.”
“That’s so like him.”
I followed the directions up the hill Bennett had described and pulled to the side of the road. “I wanted to share the sunset with you before dinner, if that’s okay.”
“It sounds perfect.”
I tried to get out of the car fast enough to grab the blanket and open the door for him, but failed. He was already out, reaching for my hand. We walked the short distance to the clearing where I laid down the blanket. “Watch the sunset with me, mate?”
“I’d like that.”
I tried to think about the last time I watched the sun rise or set, but it had been ages. Where I lived, it wasn’t beautiful the way it was here. I didn’t see all the colors in the sky, only streetlights and the building lights blurring out the beauty of nature.
We held hands as the colors in the sky morphed.
“If I were a painter, I’d paint this.” He leaned in to my side.
“We’ll just have to come up and see it again so you don’t forget how pretty it is.” I could envision us watching a thousand sunsets like this.
We stayed until my alarm went off, telling me we had enough time to get to the restaurant and not much else.
