“You’ll have this really amazing summer and then you’ll start your PhD program, and change the world with your conservation projects,” I assured, eating a meatball.
Ashton put an arm around her. “Are you feeling better now?”
“I don’t know why I’m so hung up on being the wrong omega. Why does it matter? We had a really good time.” Kai gazed at me.
“Your feelings are valid. With everything you’ve been through, I can understand that it would hurt you. I promise you that this doesn’t change what we think of you or our time together,” Ashton assured.
“Thank you, that means everything.” Kai leaned her head on his shoulder.
“I don’t understand what Claire was thinking.” I frowned. “Couldn’t she just tell her auntno?”
Kai explained everything, filling in the gaps that Jackson had left out.
“Omegas do that for each other?” I’d never heard of that.
“In Claire’s world, they do, and I love that for them. I just don’t know if I love it for me. But I do love how it turned out for us,” Kai said.
“We’re good?” Ashton hugged her.
“We’re good,” Kai reassured.
“Good.” I gave Kai a hug too. “What was your favorite part of the game?”
Kai thought for a moment. “It was fun seeing you play. I’d love to see you play again sometime.”
“You’re probably already in classes by the time the season starts up again. Maybe when you’re on winter break our team might be playing LA or a West Coast team, then you and your brother could come,” I offered.
Kai nodded. “That would be fun. If you play a team in Vegas, Auntie Cookie would probably love to come and watch the goalie stretches.”
We all laughed. As we finished dinner and the bottle of champagne we talked about random things.
“There are still a few hours before we need to get you back to the hotel. Unless you want us to take you now so you can sleep,” Ashton offered.
“I can sleep on the plane. But I should probably be back at the hotel by one. I still have a couple things to pack, but won’t take long,” Kai said.
“That works perfectly. We have practice tomorrow anyway,” I replied.
“What do you need?” Ashton asked.
“Do you want to go out? Would you like to watch a movie? Should we get out that bottle of whiskey and do drunken puzzles? We can have that cheese course or some other course, maybe the fruit course? Is that a course?” I asked as we cleaned off the coffee table.
“Small bites.” Kai bit my arm.
I laughed and tickled her.
“I like the idea of drunken puzzles. I read a book once where they made it into a drinking game.” Kai put our champagne glasses in the sink.
Ashton got down the whiskey. “I like that idea. Steven, would you like to choose a puzzle?”
“Sure.” As long as it made them happy I’d do whatever they wanted.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kai
An alarm blared and my eyes flew open. What was happening?
“Hey, Starshine. We should probably get you back to the hotel. Your clothes are in the dryer. I know most of them probably shouldn’t go in the dryer, but we’re out of time.” Ashton came over to the bed, shut off the alarm, and kissed me on the forehead.
