Page 46 of Adoring Fletcher
I swallowed my nerves. “I’m freelance?—”
“You’re way too young,” he said, shaking his head. “Adam would never?—”
“I would never what, Father?”
Mr. Sinclair straightened as Adam came out of the house and joined us on the lawn. He waved a hand dismissively at me, like he couldn’t be bothered with my foolishness. “Hire an Omega as a groundskeeper! Honestly, Adam, what were you thinking?”
My heart picked up speed. Adam frowned at his father, then glanced over at me. I gave the tiniest of nods to tell him to play along.
Adam huffed. “Why not? He does a good job.”
“Groundswork is an Alpha’s business,” his father argued. “An Omega’s work is in the kitchen.”
Adam’s nose wrinkled. “Well then, you’ll be happy to know he does that too.”
Mr. Sinclair blanched. “What?”
Adam sighed and gestured me closer. I walked over to him slowly, keeping my gaze down. “Father, this is Fletcher. He’s my roommate-slash-housekeeper-slash-groundskeeper. I’m renting him a room in exchange for work.”
Mr. Sinclair’s eyes literally bulged out. “Wh-What?! You’re rooming up with anOmega?”he blurted out, flabbergasted. “Haven’t I raised you better than this? Adam?—”
Adam shook his head. “What does it matter, Father? He does his job well. My house has never been so spotless, and my lawn has never been so green. All summer, it flourished.”
“And what about the winter?”
I shrugged. “I guess I could go door to door and offer snow-blowing services?”
Adam gestured to me, a smile on his face. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He just needed a place to stay for a few months to be able to save up for?—”
“Is he the reason you’ve been dodging my calls?” Mr. Sinclair practically snarled, and my heart bottomed out. Shit. We were sunk. We were so sunk. He knew!
But Adam only sighed, sounding bored with the whole conversation. “You’re overthinking this, Father, truly. He’s a friend. You might not fraternize with Omegas, but I don’t see a problem with it, and since this is my life and not yours?” He shrugged.
“No. I’ve been dodging your calls because I’ve been busy with work, and because I don’t want to date every last Omega you put in front of me. I told you before, I’m not ready to settle down. Besides, I’ve been volunteering in my free time, and?—”
“VOLUNTEERING?” Mr. Sinclair screeched. “ASINCLAIR?VOLUNTEERING?”
Adam sighed again as his father went off on a rant, and honestly, I felt kind of bad. There was no volunteering, but I knew why Adam brought it up—to skew the conversation away from me.
Putting my earbuds back in, letting the music envelop me, I began raking leaves once more, but my heart just wasn’t in it.
29
ADAM
We laid together,naked, but neither of us satisfied. Exactly the opposite, actually. My phone had gone off four times already, and we were onto the fifth. It buzzed itself across the nightstand and onto the floor with a clatter, where it continued to ring, muffled but no less annoying.
I buried my face in Fletcher’s belly, my good mood and my boner both gone. Goddamnit. Fletcher ran his fingers idly through my hair, his fingertips smoothing along my scalp.
He sounded sad as he said, “You need to answer him.”
“I don’t want to,” I said flatly, annoyed at the very idea of it.
“I know, but…” Fletcher sighed softly. “He’s going to get the wrong idea. I’m afraid he already has the wrong idea.”
“About what?” I turned my face so that I could peek up at him, and the expression on Fletcher’s beautiful face made my chest ache.
His lips curved into a frown, his brows pinching together as he said, “About…us. It’s obvious that he thinks Omegas are used only for breeding purposes and nothing more. We have no use to him. You don’t need to shield me from that truth. You said, before, that your parents weren’t great people, but Adam… If youdon’t do what he wants, he’s going to claim that I’m the reason why you won’t date anyone.”
