Chapter Fifteen
Clay
Today had been the longest day of my life, and it wasn’t even noon yet. I kissed Duncan goodbye this morning and went to work. Which was where I was and the absolute last place I wanted to be.
“I know that feeling.”
I looked up at Silver and shook my head. “How did you come back to work so soon? I spent three weeks with him, and I still want to stay holed up in our house and just exist in his space with him.”
Silver chuckled as he came in and sat down at one of the chairs in my office. “That might be part of the issue. You spent a lot of time with him instead of getting back to life right away. You got used to spending all of your time with Duncan, and now you’re going through withdrawals. Like anyone on vacation, it sucks when it’s time to get back to reality.”
He wasn’t wrong. I had essentially been on a three-week staycation. “That reminds me. The jewelry store called, and ourrings are ready. I need to swing by and pick those up on my lunch break.”
“Rings for what?”
I blinked at my brother. “Aren’t you and Charlie planning a wedding? Didn’t you propose to him?”
“We’ve discussed it, but there was never a formal proposal or anything like that.”
I stared at my brother for a moment before shaking my head at him. “You found your mate, even though you didn’t want to. He’s pregnant with your twins. He’s already miserable because he’s so small and carrying your massive twins. And you haven’t proposed? What’s wrong with you?”
“I haven’t officially proposed,” Silver said. “We’ve already agreed to get married. Charlie wants to not be miserably pregnant with twins for any of those memories. He doesn’t want to be pregnant in engagement pictures. Or wedding pictures. Therefore, it’s something we’ve decided to not really discuss until he’s ready.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“You never said if Duncan is pregnant or not. Charlie said he mentioned he had a heat, but that was the extent of it.”
“He’s not shown any signs or symptoms of being pregnant. I couldn’t tell you if he was or not. Is this something that a pregnancy test would work for?”
Silver laughed at me. What felt like forever later, he finally stopped and stood up. “Clay, pick up a pregnancy test before you go home. Have him pee on it, and then you’ll know for certain if he’s pregnant or not.”
“That works?”
“Yes. Pick one up. You should have added one to your shopping list when you moved him into your house.”
Silver left my office, leaving me wondering if it was possible that Duncan was pregnant. He had a heat, we did the thing, buthe’d not shown any signs of being pregnant thus far. No changes in scent, food aversions, or anything else that I was aware of.
“Hey, you got a minute?”
I looked up and smiled at Flint. “Sure. What’s on your mind?”
Flint came in and sat in the chair that Silver had been in just moments ago. “I wanted to apologize to you. I want to extend an apology to Duncan as well. I’ll apologize to him in person when you think it’s a good time. I didn’t mean to ruin his first time meeting the rest of the family.”
I thought about it a moment before nodding. “Apology tentatively accepted. You really took a lot away from Duncan and made him feel uncomfortable. He was already struggling with meeting our parents, and you acting like an ass didn’t need to have happened.”
Flint nodded. “I know. Dad chewed me out for well over an hour last night. Then Ma started.”
It took a lot not to laugh at Flint. He deserved every minute of the chastising that our parents gave him. He’d upset not only Charlie but Duncan as well. And they were the ones who would be providing the grandchildren, and that meant a great deal to our parents.
“Tell me why? What were you thinking? Why? What’s going on?”
Flint sighed. “I took a chance and reached out to Megan. She’s not interested in having a relationship with a shifter. She admitted to being attracted to me, but she’s decided that she doesn’t want anything to do with shifters in that capacity.”
That was incredibly messed up. “Does Silver know?”
Flint nodded. “I told him this morning after I apologized to him. I’ll be going to Charlie at lunch with a bunch of cookies and ice cream in hopes of getting his forgiveness.” I snorted at that. Charlie was pregnant, already looked ready to pop, and hadmonths left to go. I was almost certain that it was going to take more than just cookies and ice cream to smooth things over with him.
“Silver didn’t mention anything of that nature to me when he was just in here,” I said. “I’m sorry she said that.”
