Page 19 of A Roommate for Ronny

The other cast members had been standoffish at first, but some of them had softened toward me, and I felt sure that if I worked with them in future, most would get over it. And if they didn’t, I had a life with or without their friendliness. There was always a tension among them, as if they feared someone new might be a threat to their own success. The man who walked off the set had been blackballed, rumor had it. He wasn’t currently filming anything, nor was there anything on the horizon.

Some days, I’d felt like I was in over my head. Others, I just enjoyed the craft.

And when I realized my omega was carrying our child, that added an extra element of concern. Any big projects were likely to take me away from home for extended periods of time. Would I expect my mate and child to come along? Not likely.

As I fought the urge to toss and turn, not wanting to keep my mate awake, all those thoughts ran through my head on a screen as big as any my movie was showing on. The various possible futures played out. First, I continued on as I’d always planned, accepting the best parts and trying to get home to spend time with my mate and child whenever possible. The plusses and minuses of that option were clear. I would enjoy my work, gaining the acceptance from others in the industry in time. My family could live in a beautiful home, my children attend the best schools, and my mate shop anywhere he liked. To many, that would sound wonderful.

To me, it was completely the opposite.

My mate and I belonged together. As much as possible. When we were apart, I missed him. Add in our young, and I probably wouldn’t be very good at my job. So, yes, I could bring them along with me, at least until our child was old enough to go to school and have a schedule of their own. In some instances, that would be fine. If there was a nice hotel or maybe a rental home. If we were filming in the same area for long enough that they weren’t constantly having to pack up and move.

If my hours weren’t so long that I never saw them anyway. And based on my own experience as well as the conversations I’d overheard, the hours were almost always long. The only thing that cut them off were craft unions. So, I’d be pulling my mate away from home so he could be all alone in a strange place. With a child. No, not a good option. But both of those would provide a good income for my family. They would never want for anything.

Except my company.

From the moment I scented my mate’s pregnancy, plan A and B were no longer possible. But what was plan C?

A way to practice my craft, support my family, and give us the life we could all be proud of. But I had no idea what it was.

Chapter Fourteen

Brach

After we got back from the premiere, Ronny changed. It wasn’t overt. The other people at Animals probably didn’t even notice, but I did.

He was quiet. If I wasn’t actively seeking conversation, there was none. And when I walked in on him, I usually found him very pensive. The worst part was, I couldn’t figure out why. I could ask him like a grown-up, but I wasn’t sure how to approach it. “You seem weird,” didn’t feel like the best way to discuss things with the love of my life.

Instead, I hid behind a smile like a coward.

At first, I thought it was my pregnancy that had him so withdrawn. That he wasn’t ready to be a father yet and thought it was too soon, despite how positive he’d been when I told him. And that had me going down a path that led me straight to him wanting to focus on his career and me spending months alone with our child. It didn’t take much to get me to the darkest possibility lately. I blamed the hormones.

Thankfully, that theory was put to bed quickly. One night as I was nearly asleep, I heard him talking to our baby.

“Do your daddy a solid, sweetie, and don’t kick him or give him bad dreams or acid reflux, okay? He’s very tired and needs his best sleep.”

It was so sweet, and that alone would’ve been enough to put me at ease, but he kept going. “And, if you do, I can make it up to you. I will give you all the wolf-back rides you could ever want. Does that work?”

It wasn’t just that night that he showed his excitement over spending time with our baby. He bought a handmade quilt featuring a wolf with all different-color fabrics, and so many books. The guy had taken after Mrs. Jones in that department. Our baby already had an entire toddler-sized bookshelf filled with reading material for when he was ready for story time.

None of that changed the fact that something was definitely off with my mate. And I could pinpoint it back to the premiere. I’d been with him the entire time, and I might not know all the lingo of that world, but no one said anything that sounded off. Which had me thinking maybe it wasn’t what happened at the event but what it represented. Did he want to keep going full force ahead on his career and was too worried to tell me?

Doing another film meant him being away again. I didn’t like it two weeks into the first time, and we hadn’t met in person yet. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like now.

I tried not to overthink it. Thanks to hormones, I was failing miserably at that, which was how he found me crying as I brushed my teeth one night before we went to bed.

“Mate, not feeling good?” He put his wrist on my forehead. “I don’t think you have a fever, but—”

“No. I feel fine.” I let out a little hiccup, the tears not stopping, my mouth still filled with toothpaste. I quickly finished up and tried to tell him again that it was nothing, but my mate didn’t believe me. He was right not to.

Ronny scooped me up and carried me to the couch, settling me on his lap and holding me close. “If you don’t tell me what’s wrong, I can’t make it better.”

“There’s nothing to make better.” There was, but there was nothing we could do about it that wasn’t going to make one of us miserable.

“Don’t make me call Bosco over here and say you have a T R E A T. You’ll have a furry shadow until you take care of that.”

I had to give him credit. That got a chuckle out of me.

“Don’t be mad at me.”