“Jackson wants to see you now before you talk to Kai,” Rhett added.
“Okay.” My heart dropped. What happened? Oh, maybe they had a fight with Claire? Somehow those two had sort of become friends. Claire had said she’d be here tonight.
After I finished getting dressed, my hair still wet from my shower, I grabbed Steven. A group of people were heading to Slapshots, but we had otherplans.
We left the locker room to find Kai and the Aunties. Jackson found us first. He was alone.
“Can we talk?” His look went pensive as he approached us.
“Did Claire and Kai have a fight? Is that why they were sad?” I still was unsure why he wanted to talk to us before we saw Kai.
“Kai was sad?” Steven’s look grew worried. “I just thought she was tired.”
Jackson sighed.
Something clicked. “Does this have anything to do with you asking Rhett if we were nice people?”
Steven looked at me in surprise. “He did?”
“Yes.” Jackson shoved his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know how to say this. Kai was a lot more upset than we thought. Claire never meant to hurt them. I didn’t think it was the greatest idea, but I knew you were good guys.”
“What are you talking about?” Steven demanded.
“I asked about you, because Claire was the one that was supposed to meet you in the bar, not Kai. Claire’s aunt knows Marilyn and wouldn’t listen to Claire about not wanting to be set up. The original plan was that I was going to go with her and we’d talk to you. We figured we’d all have a drink, and it would be fine,” he explained.
“We weren’t supposed to meet Kai?” I froze.
“But Marilyn picked Kai specifically for us. We were activity partners, because Kai had a messy breakup,” Steven added, shifting uncomfortably beside me.
“Marilyn picked Claire. But Claire picked Kai. Somehow when Claire and Kai were talking in the bar, she got this idea that Kai could use some fun. Claire gave herdragonfly clip to Kai, and then we left when we saw you two were there. Well, we did stay and watch for a bit, to make sure it went okay. The last thing I wanted was to put an omega in danger,” Jackson added, looking regretful and a little uncomfortable.
Kai wasn’t meant for us, Claire was? What?
Claire engineered Kai meeting us instead of her. I was absolutely horrified that Claire would do that.
“She did what? And you let her? Sure, we were safe, but what? Why not stick to the plan?” Steven’s eyes flashed with anger.
“Claire felt bad for Kai and just wanted them to have a good time on spring break. Clearly, they did. But today at the game Kai figured it out and got really upset about it. Something Claire and I weren’t expecting. We apologized, but I also wanted to apologize to you both, because you were also the unwilling part of this switch. I’m not sure Claire realizes that this affects you, too,” Jackson added.
“It does,” I replied, my voice low. My mind was reeling. We weren’t supposed to meet Kai.
“I didn’t say anything and I should have. I want to be with Claire, but we could have gone about this better,” he admitted.
“That’s why Kai was sad. She found out that she wasn’t the person we were supposed to meet. She must need a hug so badly. We’ll reassure her that everything’s fine.” Steven squeezed my hand.
I squeezed it back, my mind completely blown. Shit. We’d found the perfect omega. Except that wasn’t the omega we were supposed to meet.
“Oh, shit, I hope we don’t get in trouble with Marilyn.” Steven’s look went terrified. “I mean, Kai matched the details…”
“That was the point. Part of what convinced Claire that this would work was that Kai already had sunglasses and dragonflies… and meddling aunts. I’m sure Marilyn will understand,” Jackson assured.
“If we have to redo the bet we’re making you do it.” Steven glared.
I wasn’t sure how that would work, but I didn’t want to have to go on another one of these because of Claire.
“Thanks for telling us,” I replied. Taking Steven’s hand, we left to find Kai. They’d texted that they were in the team shop with the aunties.
“Shit. I can’t believe what just happened,” Steven breathed. “Kai wasn’t the person we were supposed to meet? But we had such a good time. I guess that we can have a good time with the wrong omega, right?” Steven asked me.
