“Not long,” I said, kissing his cheek. “I was thinking about getting up and throwing the cinnamon rolls in the oven.”
We’d made them together the night before. In theory, we could leave them in the fridge overnight, and they’d be perfectly risen. We’d discover soon enough how true that was.
“How about I do that, and you start the shower so we can save some water?” he suggested.
“There will be no water saved if we shower together”—I kissed his cheek again before rolling off the bed—“but I’m down for that, but you take care of the water while I grab the rolls.” I was far too curious to see how they came out to give up my task.
I winked and ran to grab the cinnamon rolls from the fridge. I hadn’t been lying when I said I wasn’t a baker. They looked fine, but something told me these were going to be hockey pucks when they were done. Not ready to give up just yet, I turned on the oven, popped them inside, set the timer, and joined my mate, where we eventually washed up after enjoying each other’s company.
Surprisingly, the cinnamon rolls smelled delicious when we came downstairs. Maybe they had turned out after all.
“See? I told you, you could bake,” he said, rubbing his nose against mine.
But when he went to take them out of the oven, he changed his tune. He set them on the stovetop and turned to me. “How about we go to Good Times Diner for breakfast?”
“That bad?”
He stepped out of the way, allowing me to see. “Yeah, I think that bad.”
I didn’t know how they could be both flat and sunken in, but they were both of those. Breakfast out, it was.
The diner was packed, as it always was in the morning, but we got there just as someone was leaving and were able to slide into their booth.
“It shocks me that this town can support this kind of breakfast traffic.” It was going to take a while for Edris to get used to how things were around here.
“It’s part of a lot of people’s daily routine,” I explained. “People who, you know, can’t bake.”
We ordered cinnamon rolls the size of dinner plates. As much as I loved attempting to make our own, coming here with my mate was just as good. I was only about halfway through mine when my phone went off. Unlike my mate, I couldn’t ignore mine. That was part of my job. And sure enough, one of my omega fathers-to-be was in labor and going to be meeting me at the birthing center.
“I have to go. It’s baby time.”
“Go bring another baby into this world. I’ll stay here and finish eating.”
“But how will you get back? We only took one car.” Something we had to consider in the future.
“I’ll head to city hall and get some of my onboarding paperwork done. I can always walk. It’s not that far.”
“You sure you don’t mind?” I felt awful, leaving him there like that.
“Yeah, I’m sure. But take your cinnamon roll with you.”
Layla must have overheard, bringing a box for him to put his cinnamon roll in and a second box for me. “You’re going to need some protein if it’s baby time. I packed you an omelet, honey,” she said. “Now, go grow our population.” She sat across from my mate as I scurried out, meeting my client at the birthing center, smiling wide, knowing that in a handful of months, I’d be rushing there to meet my own little one.
Chapter Seventeen
Zac
It was an odd feeling going from care provider to patient, especially when the person providing my care was someone I worked closely with. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Tyrus. I did, immensely. I wouldn’t work with anyone I didn’t. But it was difficult seeing where the boundaries were and not overstepping them. Not in anI know better than youway but more of a jump-the-gun way. Instead of waiting for him to tell me how he felt about an exam, I’d start peppering him with questions, that kind of thing.
But I told myself that today, I wasn’t going to do that. Instead, I was going to sit there and listen and not say a word. We’d have to see how that went.
Edris had just come back from his trip to the city a couple days ago with his condo officially on the market. We’d spent last night and the morning unpacking his personal items and swapping out one of my chairs for his recliner. It wasn’t until I sat in it and used the auto button to recline that I saw how brilliant his idea was to bring it here in a U-Haul. Every pregnant omega needed one despite my initial thought something this fancy wasn’t worth the trouble. I was at the point in this pregnancy where every little bit of comfort helped, and this thing was made of magic.
My alarm went off, signaling it was time to do what I’d been dreading, chugging the water. I couldn’t say how many patients I’d told to do that over the years and remembered each and every one of them complaining. I’d slap on a happy face and say it was best for the scan, which it was. But that didn’t stop me from suggesting to Tyrus that I wait a couple of weeks to do my ultrasound, so I wouldn’t need to.
He was firm, saying he didn’t feel comfortable with that, which had me a little on edge. Something had his nerves on high, although when I asked him straight out what it was, he said it was nothing. I knew him better than that.
I stared at the glasses of water. It really wasn’t that much. Thirty-two ounces was our center’s norm, but our glasses just weren’t that big, making it look like a ton. I could stick with one at a time, but I knew myself well enough to recognize that if I didn’t have it all ready to go, it was going to be hard to pour that last glass.
