Chapter Two
Lyon
We’d made a lot of decisions, my friends and I, about how we wanted our life to go. We’d had the same goals for a long time, but only in recent years had our plans coalesced. Growing up, I’d planned on making a lot of money and retiring at a young age. Never a comfortable public speaker, I’d used my finance degree to work behind the scenes in a large investment firm. The position I held required no contact with clients and only casual in-person contact with others at the office. Not that I minded seeing them, but they counted on me to generate reports that were sent to those involved by email or interoffice messaging. Long days, handling other people’s money in huge amounts where a mistake could cost someone millions. I liked using my mind, being successful, but a constant level of stress underlay my life.
It paid. Very well. But once I found myself out to dinner with my best and oldest friends, it turned into a real bitch session on all our parts about the difficulties of life in the workplace. Their jobs were also great, on the surface. Money, perks, respect. And stress.
After a couple of hours of conversation, I realized how often we had these same talks. Basically every time we got together. We didn’t work to live; we lived to work. I didn’t say much, but I understood because I did the same. Sitting there, pushing the steak around on my plate, I finally blurted out, “We’re living like humans. And my bear hates it.”
“What?” York, chunky and usually cheerful—until lately—stared at me. “How are we doing that?”
I struggled to find a way to express what had suddenly become so clear to me. But before I did, Cashel, always a naturalleader, held up a hand. “I think I understand what you’re trying to say.”
“Which is?” York didn’t slow down on eating his dinner no matter how serious the conversation.
“Okay with you if I try to explain?” Cashel arched a brow, and I nodded. “Okay. Humans are all about money and prestige as a marker of being a strong male. Maybe not all, but in general. Am I getting this right, Lyon?”
“Yes.”
“And we have other priorities, which these jobs are making impossible to focus on. By the time we expend all that mind power for twelve, fourteen, or even more hours a day doing work for other people’s interests, we have no time or brain power left for the future we’ve always dreamed of. For our omega, our family, the home we want her to have. Even if we found her tomorrow, what would we have left to give her? Money? Not to suggest that she shouldn’t have everything she wants or needs. I would never want that. But maybe we should consider alternatives that will make us ready when she arrives.” He sat back and picked up his beer.
“So, you are saying it’s time for a reset of everything?” York put in. “Jobs, home, all of it?”
“I am. Because if we don’t, Fate may decide we are unworthy of our omega and make other plans.”
“C-can that happen?” York’s horror contorted his face. “Why didn’t someone tell me?”
“Cashel is just saying if we want to be worthy of our omega, we need to make a life worthy of her,” I said.
“Exactly. Now, let’s figure out what that is. I think all three of our bears will thank us as well.
Two years later, we’d made so many changes, our lives would have been unrecognizable to anyone who’d known us in the past. Instead of suit guys, we were handymen. Living in a bigold barn of a house, we’d used our acquired skills to fix up as we went along. The only problem was, we weren’t getting enough work to cover expenses.
Sure, we all had savings from our previous life. Between salaries and selling our other properties, it was substantial, but once we’d spent what we needed to getting set up with our joint home and business, the rest got put away. They, we agreed, were not to be touched until our omega showed up. If we tapped them now, that could become a trickle that would use up what we needed to make sure she’d never want for a thing.
Which led to our morning meeting. We had them every day, technically, but usually they were more check-ins to say what we each had to do for the day. At first, we’d welcomed the days when we didn’t have work because they allowed us to continue our home improvements, but lately they had become far too often.
Cashel sat at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee and a bagel. He waited until York and I joined him before saying, “I think we need to discuss how we are going to keep things moving here while we wait for our omega. We have not been bringing in sufficient money to cover expenses, and if nothing comes up, we need an alternative plan.”
We’d been so sure that if we just did this, set up what we hoped was the ideal life for our omega, she would come. Like that movie with the baseball field. But so far, not only no sign of our omega, but three competent males were having some difficulty making their business plan work. It was humbling. Sitting, eating breakfast, nobody offered a plan. I wished one of them would because I only had one idea, and it felt like giving up. But finally, when my bagel was gone and my coffee mug empty, I squared my shoulders. We were a team, and out of the three of us, I had the best options. In fact, I got messages weekly from my former firm reminding me how welcome I was to return at any time. If I’d been able to work from home, it might havebeen more palatable, but for security reasons, it was go to the office, or nothing. Nothing was the choice I’d make. To continue to work in construction with my partners, my friends, that was the goal.
“I’ll go back to the investment firm.”
They protested, but I held my ground. It was a solid choice for the time being. I carried my mug to the sink and rinsed it out, stuck it and my plate in the dishwasher. “I’ll call and let them know I can start back tomorrow.” After all, why wait? It would only make it harder in the end.
We all left the kitchen, the two of them to the office we’d set up in a small room off the living room, and me to my bedroom where I’d left my phone on the charger. My boss was going to gloat, claim he’d always known I’d be back, but I didn’t really care about that. I felt as if I’d let our team down, as if I should have been better at putting myself out there, finding more work for our little business. Cashel had such an air of confidence, potential customers only had to speak with him to feel as if they were in the best hands. And, of course York’s friendliness drew people in, wanted them to spend more time with him. I never knew what to say to strangers, and that had for sure cost us some jobs.
But…I could contribute in this way.
Resigned, I pressed the contact and heard it ring once before my phone was snatched out of my hand. “What are you doing?”
“We got a call, asking for a bid. It’s for a mansion and has a very long list of conditions and demands. They have a lot of security and require an NDA, but with all of their demands, we can ask a high price. Let’s check it out before we do anything crazy like send you back to that stuffy office. If it’s not something we want, we’ll just bid so high, we won’t get it, and then we’ll revisit alternative solutions. Agreed?”
“You’ve twisted my arm.” Which he might have believed without my noisy exhale of relief.
Chapter Three
Isabella
