11. Chapter Eleven

Staring at a sleeping Julianna cradled in my arms, I was convinced she was one of the most beautiful babies I had ever seen. Not that I was biased or anything. I had spent time with babies and younger children while obtaining my degree in early childhood development, so I felt like I had something to compare her to.

She had an abundance of thick hair that was black as midnight, and already seemed like it was wanting to curl. I wondered if it would have some wave or curl to it when it got longer. Mine had annoying, unruly waves that I always needed to tame, so I wasn’t surprised. Grayson’s hair was cut short on the sides, a bit longer on top, so I couldn’t tell if his hair also held any curl to it.

Julianna’s dark lashes rested on her rosy cheeks, and her skin had the very slightest, lovely brown tint to it. It wasn’t really noticeable until she was resting against my never-saw-the-sunlight pale skin. I wondered about Grayson’s ancestry, with his dark hair and eyes, and tanned skin. It would be nice to know so I could tell Julianna something of her heritage.

The thought of calling my mother and father to tell them I’d had the baby made my shoulders tense. We hadn’t spoken in months, not since I had decided to buy the Little Cubs Daycare. Mother had ranted at me about throwing my life away, missed opportunities, and questioning how on earth I thought I could just pick up and move across the country. Along with some choice words on her opinion of me buying a daycare center. She had completely forgotten about ‘that frivolous degree you insisted on getting in early childhood education, because really Wyatt, what an absolute waste of your genius that was’. Father, as usual, had kept quiet and just nodded his head every once in a while in agreement with Mother.

To shut her up, or give her a new topic to be disappointed with me about, I had added fuel to the already burning fire and informed them that I was pregnant. That I was keeping the baby, and I would raise the child on my own, as the alpha had been a one-night hookup and I didn’t even know his name. Should I have left everything after I was pregnant out of the conversation? Probably. I had certainly never had a flare for dramatics before, but I figured my mother would blame it on omega pregnancy hormones. Which she had, with a haughty sniff of, “That wasn’t necessary Wyatt. I honestly don’t understand why you are acting this way.”

Blowing out a breath, I winced as I shifted positions in the extra-large hospital bed. They were made that way on the maternity ward, so that an alpha could lay with their omega. Hold them in their arms and take care of them and their new pup.

“It’s just you and me, little miss,” I whispered to my sleeping daughter, lightly running a finger across her soft cheek. “We got this.” If I said those words on repeat enough times, it had to eventually be the truth.

Stretching a long arm towards the nightstand next to the bed, I remembered I didn’t have my cell phone. I could very easily use the landline phone in the room. It wasn’t like I needed my cell to remember my mother’s phone number. I had an eidetic memory after all. I remembered every single number stored in my phone.

Deciding I would wait to call my mother in the morning, mostly because I wasn’t up to listening to her sighing with heavy disappointment into the phone, I leaned my head back against the pillows and let my eyes drift shut. I should really put Julianna back into the plastic bassinet, but that felt like it would use more energy than I possessed and would probably hurt. Besides, if they weren’t going to let me have her in the room with me tonight, I wanted to hold her for as long as possible until they snatched her back.

“Knock knock!” The overly cheerful voice and light rap on the door had my eyes blinking open sleepily. Had I fallen asleep? Julianna was still secure in my arms, sleeping, so if I had it had only been for a moment.

Miss Rose, the lovely older omega whose daycare I had bought, breezed into my room, not waiting for an invitation. She was followed closely by another elderly woman, dressed in a beautiful lavender kaftan that complimented her bright red hair. There was no way that was her natural hair color, but it might have been once upon a time. The many, many gold and silver bangles that adorned her age spotted arms jingled lightly as she moved.

“Wyatt, how are you?” Miss Rose inquired, moving closer to the bed, and peering down at the baby in my arms. “Oh Wyatt, she’s just breathtaking! May I?”

Before I could even wrap my head around what she was asking me–or what she was doing in my room for that matter–she expertly scooped my baby from my arms and had turned to the other woman.

“Gigi, will you look at this darling?” Miss Rose–just call me Miss Rose, darling, everyone does–gasped, “She’s stunning!”

The other woman–Gigi, apparently–peered at my daughter with sharp green eyes. “She looks like our mysterious sheriff.”

My eyes widened at her statement and I sucked in air so fast, I choked. Good thing I was in a hospital since the two women paid my coughing absolutely no attention, their eyes awestruck by my daughter.

“She does, doesn’t she?” Miss Rose nodded, before handing Julianna off to Gigi. Gigi promptly made herself comfortable in the rocker recliner in the room, gently rocking my baby.

What in the actual fuck was happening?

“Now Wyatt,” Miss Rose had my attention, “here are your keys, phone, and wallet. We didn’t find a bag in your car, so you tell us what you need from home and we’ll get it for you. Or send one of the boys for whatever you need.”

“Boys?” I croaked, finally done choking on my own spit.

“She means my grandsons,” Gigi supplied with a smile. “The Sinclairs. Not sure you’ve been here long enough to have heard of them. There’s four of them, plus their mates. And a few adopted ones.”

Blinking at her, I felt like it was taking my brain two seconds longer than it should to catch up to what was going on. Must be the drugs pumping into me from my I.V. that was making me slow to catch up. “Sinclair? Like Dr. Sinclair?”

Gigi cackled, “Yeah, he’s one of them.”

Miss Rose rolled her eyes. “The Sinclairs aren’t her actual grandsons. She just claims them all.”

Gigi huffed, “Lachlan and Finn Sinclair are married to my grandsons, that makes them mine.” She waved a bracelet clad arm dismissively, “The rest are just…bonus. And don’t act like you don’t treat that sweet Ryan like he’s not your own flesh and blood. Because you do, Rosalind, and we all know it.”

“Don’t call me that, Geneva, you know I hate it. And Ryan is like my family, that is a fact. How could you not just want to hug that boy?”

“Um…” All the words I knew seemed to have left my brain. “How?”

“How did we know you were here?” Thank the Goddess Miss Rose seemed to be able to fill in all the missing words I couldn’t seem to form into a coherent sentence. It felt a little like two whirlwinds had blown into my room and were taking over my life. At my slight nod, she smiled, “Oh that. We were in the line of traffic when you almost caused that accident. We had no idea it was you at first, or what exactly the holdup was when Becks walked over to your car looking all in charge. Until we saw you being loaded into the ambulance.”

“Well, Becks stripping off his shirt and parading around diverted most people’s attention for a minute or two,” Gigi supplied helpfully, fanning her face. “How a man his age has abs like that is truly one of the seven wonders of the world. If I was twenty years younger.”

Miss Rose snorted loudly. “More like thirty, and you wish. Though I wouldn’t mind taking a nap on those abs, not going to lie.”

Gigi gave me a mischievous look, “I bet Wyatt knows all about our sheriff’s abs, now don’t you, young man?”

Heat flooded my face, and I just stared at her wide-eyed. How did everyone seem to think they knew about Grayson and my relationship? I mean, yes, admittedly, Julianna looked startlingly like a tiny, female version of Grayson. But people resembled other people all the time. And we didn’t even have an actual relationship. We had a few hours in a hotel room. He was just a stranger I had picked to lose my virginity to and explore the sexual, submissive side of myself I had never had the opportunity to. Or allowed myself to.

Julianna had just been a surprise repercussion of that encounter. It wasn’t even like we hadn’t had safe sex. Because we had. We so had. I was aware enough to know that Grayson had put on a knotting condom, and then doubled down with spermicide after. The odds of a pregnancy resulting between the two methods was about 1 in 200. I just happened to be that unlucky one.

Not that I would trade my daughter for anything in the world. Because I think I’d loved her as soon as I had seen the positive pregnancy test. And while I had the means to find out who my nameless alpha was, I had chosen not to. Being saddled with a baby hadn’t been part of the plan, and I certainly didn’t need an alpha in my life. Especially a virtual stranger I would have to try to somehow co-parent with.

Or worse yet, he might be one of those alphaholes who would decide to invoke the antiquated Alpha’s Law rule. The one that for some unknown reason was still active even if it was seldom ever used. The one that said an alpha could take their child away from the omega parent, no questions asked, and without cause. Omegas could try to fight it in court, but it was an expensive venture and they seldom won.

So, yeah, finding the alpha that unintentionally knocked me up wasn’t something I had ever been planning to do.

I should probably calculate the odds of me winding up buying a business and moving to the town across the country that Grayson was the sheriff of. But my brain still felt a bit off, and my ever-present exhaustion of the past few months didn’t seem to want to go anywhere, despite me having the baby. The pain medication and antibiotics being pumped into me probably weren’t helping either.

Gigi winked at me, not expecting me to answer, and went back to admiring my daughter.

“Now Wyatt,” Miss Rose made herself comfortable in the padded chair next to my bed, “I don’t want you to worry about anything with the daycare. I know this little one’s arrival was earlier than expected, but no worries.”

“But I was supposed to take over Monday.” Resting back against the pillows, I frowned, feeling overwhelmed by all my very thought-out plans that were suddenly up in the air. It was like Julianna had just taken my plans and tossed them up like a stack of papers, and I was slowly watching them all float randomly to the ground. “I haven’t even met any of the employees, and you are supposed to be retiring. I’ve messed up everything.”

Swiping a hand over my eyes, I tried to wipe away the wetness so neither of the sharp gazed women would see. Damn hormones. They were one of the side effects of my pregnancy I would not miss. I had cried more in the last six months than I had in the six years before that. It was annoying, yet I couldn’t seem to stop it, no matter what I did.

Miss Rose waved a hand in the air. “Pish posh, it’s no bother for me to stay on another few weeks. Well, six weeks, because you can’t bring Julianna to the daycare until she’s that old, but you know that.”

She shot me a look that told me she magically knew I had been thinking of just casually working a few hours a day, and bringing the baby with me, until she was at the state mandated age. “I’ve nothing going on except my knitting and crochet classes at the hobby store. Brendan Sinclair will just have to wait to start his knitting lessons. Trust me, he won’t be bothered about it. And, even if he was, he’d just have to wait, so it’s a non-issue.”

“But–”

“Boy, hush,” Gigi cut in, “it’s more important for you and this little girl to bond, and for you to heal. Goddess, the dark circles under your eyes have circles. Growing a baby is hard work, and you look like a slight wind could blow you over. Did you not eat the last few months? You certainly don’t look like you were blessed with the pregnancy glow.”

Blinking at her bluntness, I picked at the light hospital blanket with one long finger. I should find her rudeness, well, rude, but no one else had seemed to notice the state I was in during my pregnancy. My mother certainly had not worried about my health, and if my father had, he hadn’t spoken up. Mother had been more concerned with trying to find enticing projects that would make me stay in New York, and possibly earn more accolades, than if I was eating or sleeping enough.

My own doctor had brushed off my anemia, instructing me to eat more iron rich foods. He had never rechecked my blood work, or been concerned that I didn’t seem to be gaining enough weight. The baby was gaining and growing, and healthy, and that had seemed to be satisfactory to him.

To have this stranger, within minutes of meeting me, having already taken note of so many things about my person was startling. But it also left me with some kind of weird warm feeling in my chest.

The way these two omegas were just taking over and stepping up to see that my business was taken care of, so that I didn’t need to try to rearrange employees’ lives who I hadn’t even met yet, was astounding to me.

“Oh, my Goddess,” my head swung up and the words left my mouth in a rush, “I have movers at my house! I just left them there, unloading the moving truck. That was hours and hours ago!”

I honestly didn’t even know what time it was. It just seemed like a ton of time had passed since I’d left the burly alphas carrying in my furniture and boxes with a panted, “I’ll be back!”

Gigi stood, handing my just starting to fuss daughter back to me. “That’s our cue, then.”

Julianna let out a screech that had my ears nearly ringing. “And that’s your cue to feed this princess. We’ll head on over to your house and make sure the movers haven’t run off with your silver.” Gigi pulled the plastic bassinet over and opened the built-in drawer underneath it, like she had plenty of practice of how these things worked. Deftly, she pulled out a diaper, wipes, and baby butt cream, laying them next to me on the bed.

Jiggling Julianna to try to soothe her, I could feel the panic on my face as I looked at the two women. It suddenly hit me, in startling color, that I had no clue what to do with this tiny, squalling infant I had made. I’d been counting on getting a few weeks of practice in at the daycare before having an infant of my own. I had not one ounce of practical experience with a newborn at all. And now I was responsible for one. Why had I thought that I could do this? What had I been thinking? Anxiety tightened my chest and throat.

“Change her diaper, then feed her,” Gigi smiled softly at me. “There’s no bottle here for her, so I assume you’re going to nurse her?”

My head moved in an up and down fashion. “I was going to try. I’m open to bottle feeding because my omega dad had trouble with his milk coming in, but I want to try.”

“Good for you, but don’t let anyone give you any bullshit if chest feeding isn’t for you, or your milk isn’t coming in. It’s not as easy as it looks on TV, let me tell you, and there’s no shame in bottle feeding. She’ll likely scream and carry on like you’re killing her while you change her diaper. Just ignore her dramatics. She’s fine. Got a healthy temper on her it seems, but there’s nothing wrong that some milk in her belly and a dry butt won’t cure.”

“Now, we’ll be back with some things for you and make sure everything is locked up tight at your house,” Miss Rose ran a hand over Julianna’s dark head, not at all fazed by my red-faced, screaming baby. The woman had run a daycare for the past twenty plus years, so I imagined she had tons of experience with crying babies. “You’re going to be fine, Wyatt. No one knows what they are doing when they become parents, so stop thinking that just because your I.Q. is higher than probably this entire building, that you should automatically know what to do. Parenting is fifty percent instinct and fifty percent flying by the seat of your pants. You’re going to make some mistakes, but at the end of the day if everyone is healthy and in one piece, we call it a win.”

She leaned over and planted a kiss on the side of my head, running her hand over my messy mop of light brown curls, much like she had done to Julianna. “Don’t worry about a thing. We take care of our own here in Sweet Alps.”

Overcome with emotions I couldn’t even begin to unravel and decipher, I gazed at her. “I just moved here, I’m not a part of this town. Not really.”

“Oh,” she chuckled, moving towards the door, “I think Fate decided otherwise months ago.”

With a whoosh of the door, the two ladies who I thought might have just unofficially adopted me, left me alone with my decidedly unhappy baby.

Taking a deep breath, I laid Julianna down on the bed and picked up the tiny diaper, turning it this way and that, until I had it facing the correct way. “We got this, don’t we, little miss?”