into the shower after shedding his clothes, and he felt a heaviness inside of him. Why couldn’t he be one of those takes-life-as-it-comes kind of omegas? He felt too much with his heart and couldn’t just forget about someone, especially after they had the kind of mind-blowing sex they’d had. He wouldn’t even have gone up to Jack if he hadn’t been drawn to him in the first place, let alone slept with him. The more he thought about it, the more guilty he felt for walking out as he had.
Fuck. Nothing you can do now… right?
He washed quickly but stood under the hot water till it started cooling, taking a moment to breathe. By the time he was dressed, the smell of bacon wafted up from the kitchen.
He laughed as he headed down the stairs. When he got to the kitchen, his mom was busy working away at getting him breakfast.
"Ma…this wasn’t necessary." He wrapped his arms around his mom and kissed her on the cheek.
She smiled. "Just because you’re thirty doesn’t mean I can’t still feed my baby boy a healthy breakfast. Besides, I enjoy doing it, so don’t deprive me of these little things."
Eli held up his hands to surrender. "I wouldn’t dare. And I really appreciate you staying the night for me."
He heard the sound of Damon talking through the monitor, and he smiled.
"Sounds like your sweetie is up," Eli’s mom said as she flipped the bacon.
"Sure does," Eli grinned. He ran up the stairs and rounded the corner, stepping into Damon’s room just as the little tike sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes and looking up at Eli with a wide, toothy grin.
Eli smiled and went to him. "Morning, baby boy."
"Good morning, Daddy," Damon said back, lifting his arms to be picked up.
He swooped him into his arms, hugging him tight to his chest, breathing in that wonderful toddler smell. Gods, Eli would never get tired of this.
"Ready for some breakfast?" Eli asked.
Damon nodded eagerly and squirmed to be let down and then ran out of the room, Eli following close behind him, laughing.
His kid was like a ball of energy, always had been. He never stopped. Eli loved his son’s enthusiasm for everything, but some days it felt like he was growing up so fast, and sometimes all he wanted to do was keep Damon a child a little while longer.
If only he could.
Time never stopped, and he was getting older. He’d probably never find… Don’t go there, he cautioned himself and continued after Damon down the stairs.
Eli walked into the bakery-cafe and, like always, it made him smile. It was all his. Well, his and his mom’s. But still. He made his way into the kitchen to find Jace already there, not that he was surprised. Neither would he be by the third degree that was sure to come. And of course, his friend did not disappoint.
"So, I’ll take you not responding to my messages as a good sign," Jace’s eyes were alight with curiosity.
Eli raised a brow. "Hello, Jace. Good morning, how are you? I’m great thanks for asking."
"Yeah… yeah… all that." Jace waved him off. "Now, the good stuff."
"If you mean the cookies that are supposed to be going in the oven." he shot a pointed look at the tray of half scooped M&M cookies.
"Multitasking." The "duh" was heavily implied as Jace went back to kneeding the dough. "That doesn’t get you off the hook for telling me how last night went. Or I could take the lack of response to mean it went pretty damn well." Their eyes met and Jace wiggled his brows, making him snort-laugh.
"Fine. Be boring." Jace huffed when Eli simply stared at him refusing to budge. "Did you have fun at least?" he asked. "After we saw you leave the bar with that fine piece of alpha, I hoped you’d be in good hands. Did he treat you well?" The brow wagging returned. "Or do I have to put on my boxing gloves?"
His face flushed and he looked away from Jace, grabbing the order forms from under the counter. "We have a couple of meetings today with people who want cakes, don’t we?" Eli asked, trying to direct the conversation away from that topic.
"You don’t get to change the subject with me, Eli Redding. Just answer the question. I’ve come this far with you. Can’t a bestie at least get a little detail for his trouble? Or was it bad?" Jace gasped "Oh my