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1
NICKY
“Nicola,” Mom tutted, filling every syllable of my name with her own special brand of disappointment.
It didn’t matter that I was thirty-three because apparently the urge to shrink when your mom usesthattone never really goes away.
“You’re never going to find anyone at this new job of yours,” she continued. “You can’t just work all night because you dislike people.”
I bristled. It wasn’t that I disliked people, it was crowds that overwhelmed me. And I damn wellcouldbe a night librarian for the dual purpose of spending my time with books and avoiding most of the general populace while still helping the library function. This pilot project for the city wasperfectfor me.
“Mom, leave Nick alone,” Sidney, my younger brother, piped up. “She can work nights if she wants to.”
Ah, Sidney. The family's golden boy with his new bride and charm up the wazoo. I both loved and envied him. His recent marriage to Allie had turned mom's spotlight back onto me now that he was settled, and I’d almost forgotten how exhausting that was.
Mom rolled her eyes. “You didn’t get your wife because you worked nights.” She gestured to the beautiful, dark-haired omega that had officially joined our family not two months earlier.
“I mean, if you want to gettechnicalabout it, I definitely got with her because I worked nights.” Sidney grinned and gave me a cheeky salute.
Allie burst out laughing, and I couldn’t help but join her. The two of them had first met while Sidney was working as a Heat Helper and nurse. He’d been Allie's chosen alpha for her first heat, which meant he’d fucked her around the clock—a fact that I did my best to ignore when I saw them. They hadn’t properly gotten together until half a decade after that experience, but it had stuck, and I loved the woman who’d snared my brother.
“Mom, you know I’ve been dreaming of being a spinster since I was little,” I said. “You’re trying to crush my dreams over here.”
Mom rolled her eyes again. “We balance out then because you crush my heart each time you show up alone to a family dinner.”
“Luca shows up alone.” I crossed my arms over my chest. Mom was always gentler with him than with me, so I didn’t feel too much guilt over throwing him under the bus.
Luca shrank in his seat.
“Lulu is my baby boy and if he never finds anyone at all, that suits me fine. He can stay with us forever.”
“Ouch.” Sidney laughed and slapped a hand to his heart.
“Oh, hush. I always knew you’d leave me,” said Mom. “You’ve been independent since the time you could walk.”
I pushed my meatballs around in my pasta. Mom had been poking me about finding someone since I was a teen. And I had. Several someones through my late teens and twenties. Alphonse had been my longest and most recent relationship, but I’d hightailed it out of my engagement with him when he moved overseas. Mom had been heartbroken.
I hadn’t had the masochistic urge to dive back into the dating pool since. I hated modern dating a bit more than I hated Mom harassing me about being single, so I’d given myself a break with it when I’d left Alphonse and adopted my cat, Spud. To her, it had been my first step to becoming a cat lady, but to me it had been the most peaceful stretch of my life thus far.
Sidney's engagement had been a blessed distraction as Mom focused on bridal showers, engagement parties, and wedding planning, but with all that out of the way, she had picked back up on the needling.
I sighed and turned to Dad, who sat quietly at the end of the table ignoring the entire conversation. He was a beta like me and the rest of our immediate family except for Sidney, who was the only alpha. Conflict of any sort had never been Dad's strong suit, and he left all the parental poking and prodding to Mom.
Sometimes I lamented my dynamic when I got to hear about the lives of alphas and omegas, but mostly I found it to be peaceful. Worrying about heats and bonds and all that sounded draining. The two-week heat leave to get fucked silly or take care of your partner did sound appealing, though.
Dad patted my hand and gave me a sympathetic look. “No shame in being a late bloomer or finding contentment in your own company.”
“Her own company isn’t going to give us any grandkids, Manuel,” Mom snapped. “She's going to be so lonely as she gets older if she doesn’t snap up someone decent now.”
Dad rolled his eyes. “Give our girl what time she needs. We have three children and none of them need to have babies for us.”
“Yes, but—”
“Maria.” Dad's stern tone had me smiling around a mouthful of spaghetti. “You didn’t like it when your parents bothered you about children, and I suspect Nicola isn’t fond of you bothering her.”
“I’ll give you grandkids,” Allie piped up. “But maybe not right this second.”
I high-fived my sister-in-law. “Allie taking one for the team.”
