Page 63 of Knot Broken

That was her standard refrain growing up, but right now, it hit differently.

“I’ll listen.” Sitting back on my heels, I dropped the toothbrush to the floor. “Right now I’m scrubbing the tiles in my bathroom, so trust me, tales of the latest stupid thing your boss has done are way more interesting.”

“Scrubbing tiles?” Uh-oh. Mum’s Spidey senses were activated. “Did you get that gel I told you about? It does wonders… But why are you cleaning your bathroom on a weekday? Have the jobs dried up? This bloody economic downturn is affecting businesses left and right. Another shop closed on Main Street.”

“Mum—”

“What’re you going to do? You know Smith’s Decorating are looking for a painter at the moment. You could⁠—”

“Mum.” Apparently being half an alpha was useful. I could inject just enough command into my voice to stop her in her tracks. “The business is fine. We’ve actually got more work than we can handle right now.”

“So why aren’t you doing it?” she asked with a sigh.

“We’ve had to go on a temporary sabbatical,” I replied in carefully calm tones. “Grey and Tex, they’ve found their mates.”

“They what! Why didn’t you start with that?” I shook my head, able to imagine Mum hurrying around the kitchen to put the kettle on. All major life events needed tea to go with it. “Letting me go on about the economy.” I heard a click and then the clunk of mugs being put out. “Who is she? It’s a girl, right? I know omegas can be male and⁠—”

“Nadia’s a girl, woman,” I corrected myself. “And she’s…” Right then, the tiles faded away, replaced by a crowded cafeteria. You give a good hug, that’s what my friend’s mate had said, which just had me wanting to step closer and wrap her in my arms. “She’s amazing. Smart, cute, funny⁠—”

“And how did you meet this girl?” Mum asked.

“Ahh… at work.”

That was the safest way of putting it.

“So she’s Grey’s and Tex’s mate, but not yours?”

Her voice had become impossibly soft and somehow that was worse than facing a barrage of questions.

“I am unlikely to have a mate,” I told her. “Remember what the doctors said.”

“Them.” Her huff came down the line. “They don’t know everything.”

“Well, the same team is looking after Nadia right now, because…” I didn’t really want to bring this up with Mum. What happened to me was shared trauma. “It looks like she’s a latent too.”

“A latent? Bloody hell.” The whistle of the kettle interrupted her for a second. “Well, if you aren’t busy, you should come around for dinner tonight and tell me all about it. I’ll make your favourite.”

“Shepherd’s pie?” I said. “With pumpkin in the mash?”

“Which will piss Geoff off no end,” she muttered. Geoff was my brother. As the oldest, it was past time he moved out, but he could never seem to ‘find the right place.’ Probably because wherever he went there would be no Mum to do his washing and cook him dinner. “So yes, I’ll put extra pumpkin in.”

So that’s how I ended up walking in through the front door of the family home, a bottle of wine in one hand and a shopping bag with some apple pie and ice cream in the other.

“Hello, love,” Mum called out as I walked down the hall, finding her in the kitchen, stirring the pie meat in the frypan. I leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “How’d you go with the bathroom? Get it all cleaned up?”

“That and went to the shops to pick this up for you,” I said, presenting the bottle of wine.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said, but her pleased smile and the way her arm went around my waist for a hug made it worthwhile.

“Of course I did.” Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I breathed in the scents of home. Lamb cooking, her perfume that reminded me of white flowers on the lemon tree in the backyard, and home. “The bottle shop guy seemed to think this was a good drop.” Pulling away, I found the bottle opener and unwrapped the plastic around the cork before working it free. “A glass of wine while the food cooks. I bought some dessert as well.”

The pie was slid into the fridge, the ice cream in the freezer.

“Now, that looks like it just needs to simmer for a bit,” I said, eyeing the pan. “How about you sit down for a bit⁠—”

“Muum…!”

The sound of slamming doors and lots of feet made clear I wasn’t the only visitor to the house. My two nephews, Will and Charlie, appeared in the kitchen seconds later.