Her entire demeanor changes as she shrinks back into herself, and it’s a gut punch. Beckett feels it too.
She looks up at us and smiles, but it feels flat and practiced. From the corner of my eye, I can see Beckett’s face is tight, lined with confusion, like he’s never seen someone’s spirit get crushed before.
I have. A lot. With my siblings, and with neighborhood kids whose parents should have never been allowed to reproduce. With Pierce, with Reed, with Reed’s baby sister. With every kid who grew up in shitty circumstances. With me even.
Maybe Beckett senses the rage flowing over me, or maybe he sees what I see. It adds to his confusion. She has her arms jammed deep in her pockets, and her smile is plastered on. She swipes her fingers through her bangs like she’s not used to hair in her face. There’s something familiar and upsetting about that. It reminds me of when Reed’s baby sister cut her own hair and absolutely melted down about it. Reed had fixed it as best he could, and we spent weeks hyping her up about how cute she looked.
Just as Ash reaches us, a mother with a gaggle of kids cuts her off. Ash shrinks back when their arms brush.
“Mr. Hansen, could we get a picture? The kids just love you and my alphas are just going to die. Milo is your biggest fan.” She’sbeaming, clutching her phone to her chest and completely missing Ash’s recoil.
“Of course.” Beckett gives my neck a final squeeze as he steps over toward the Adventure Science Center signage. He cups Ash’s cheek for a brief second.
She comes to stand beside me as we watch the chaos ensue. I put my hand on her back to guide her closer to the exit. She doesn’t shrug me off and I just about die. Strangers touching her is bad. Beckett touching her is great. Me? She tolerates. I drop my hand after a moment, not because I want to, but because I’m not sure she’d welcome the touch. She shifts her weight so that her arm is brushing mine. I know it’s crazy and not possible, but I feel her body heat seep into me.
“Does this happen a lot?” Ash nods at the omega who is standing on tiptoes with one arm stretched all the way out, trying to get a good selfie angle. I feel her stiffen when the omega puts her arm around Beckett’s waist.
“Often enough. More so during the season when the team is in the news.”
Beckett finishes up, with autographs and ruffling a kid’s hair. He comes back to us with bright eyes that make you completely ignore the remnants of his black eyes.
“I’m starving. Let’s go cook those steaks you bought.” He wiggles his fingers for Ash and takes her hand, pulling her forward. She looks over her shoulder to make sure I’m coming too.
Chapter twenty-seven
ASH
Liamslidesapillbottle across the counter to Beckett. It skitters to a stop against his palm. He pops the top, rattles out two, and tosses them back with a shrug.
“Does your head still hurt?” I ask as Beckett puts his hand on my hip and moves me out of the way so he can get to the sink. Tingles spark across my back at the casual touch.
“Nah, I’m all good. It’s part of the protocol.”
Liam side-eyes him hard, so that’s probably a lie. Maybe he’s just being all alpha-y for me. I grab a lemon from the basket on the counter and hold it to my nose. The citrus clears my head. This house smells stupidly good. The two alphas move around the kitchen getting all the things ready for dinner, but it’s Liam who is obviously in charge.
“I should be helping,” I mutter, trying to stay out of the way.
“We got it under control, I think,” Beckett says, setting a glass of water onto the counter beside me before brushing my back again. This second touch is even worse, like electricity crackling down my legs.
“Isn’t this supposed to be an omega’s job?”
“Only if you want to.” Beckett’s face does that weird half-frown, half-grin thing; I don’t know if he’s hiding the frown or hiding the grin. “I tend to stay out of Liam’s way in the kitchen.”
“That’s only because you’re a total menace, and you’d eat raw meat if we let you,” Liam says, shouldering past me to rinse the produce. He doesn’t touch me on purpose the way Beckett does, but his elbow grazes mine, and my whole body lights up like I’ve been shocked.
“Here.” Liam slides a cutting board in front of me. “Can you handle carrots?”
I eye the carrots suspiciously. “I’m a terrible omega. I can’t really cook.”
Liam and Beckett trade a glance, and the beat of silence gets uncomfortable. I grab a carrot and whack at it with a big knife. I manage to chop off the tip, but it jumps and rolls down the counter.
“Okay. Knife skills lesson!” Liam declares with a chuckle in his voice. “Beckett nearly chopped his pinky off a few years ago.”
Beckett holds up his finger as proof. “Eight stitches. It was off-season, but the team doc was pissed. My fingers are literally insured.”
“You want to pinch the blade where it meets the handle.” Liam demonstrates, thumb and forefinger on the blade. “And then wrap your other fingers around the handle. Nope. Like this.”
He slides behind me and wraps his hand around mine on the knife, putting my fingers in the right places. His scent tickles my nose and puts all those flutters in my tummy.
