Page 83 of Not Looking
~October~
“There he is!” Spencer declared as I walked in.
I grinned. “Hey, guys.”
“I was starting to wonder if you’d forgotten your friends now that you’ve got your omega,” Nate teased.
I pulled out a chair and took a seat. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to ignore you all.”
Aaron walked up behind me and squeezed my shoulder as he set a bottle of beer in front of me. “Good to see ya, man. So, how is everything with your new man?”
I smiled as he rounded the table and took his own seat. “Slow, but good. There are times when it feels like his walls are trying to come back up, but I can see him fighting that urge.”
“It’ll be a process, I’m sure,” Robbie said. “It’s not a small thing to let somebody in after that long.”
I nodded. “I know. And I know the best thing I can do is be there for him. Show him that he doesn’t need to build a wall, because he can lean on me if he needs to.”
“So when are you going to bring him around so everybody else can meet him?” Joey asked.
I shrugged. “That’s up to him. He was ok with me telling you all and the guys at work. But I think he still wants to be fairly quiet about it.”
“Sounds like he wants to make sure it’s going to stick before everybody gets excited,” Aaron said.
I nodded. “That’s what I think, too.”
“Do you know what made him decide to be single for so long?” Nate asked.
I shook my head. “I have some ideas, but he hasn’t said anything directly. I don’t want to dredge up old wounds when our relationship is still so new, so I’m waiting for him to be ready to talk about it.”
“Some ideas?” Robbie asked.
I nodded. “Just things he’s said that make it feel like past relationships have gone disastrously sideways. At one point, he told me he’s not the kind of man alphas keep around. That… hurt to hear.”
“Oof,” Joey said. “That’s a heavy phrase.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“Makes sense why you’re waiting for him to be ready to open up,” Robbie said.
“And why he might not be ready to meet us,” Nate added. “It’s better to not bring in a bunch of extra people when he thinks things won’t last.”
I nodded. “I think once he starts to realize that I’m serious about him…” I blew out a long breath. “That’s when he’ll be ready to let others in.”
“Well, the invitation is open whenever he’s ready,” Aaron said.
I smiled. “I hope you all get to meet him soon.”
∞∞∞
Randy was nestled in my arms again, bathed in golden light, while birds outside announced a new day. His face was relaxed in his sleep, and I couldn’t help but smile at the way he’d occasionally nuzzle against me—seeking my scent.
I held him until my body protested at having been in the bed too long, then slipped from under the sheets.
I smiled as Randy shifted to press his face against the pillow I’d vacated.
I pulled on the pajama pants I’d left at his place, and slid my feet into some slippers, then I left the bedroom—Russy on my heels.
The cabin was chill, but not cold enough to start a fire. Though I expected that to change in a week or two. I made my way downstairs and to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.
