Page 20 of A Roommate for Ronny

“Oh, sweet mate. I could never be mad at you.”

Thinking back, he might’ve been telling the truth, as impossible as that sounded. I couldn’t think of a time he’d snapped at me. Sure, there were times that we talked about things that upset each other, but that wasn’t the same as anger.

“I’m sad because”—I sniffled and buried my head into his chest and mumbled the rest—“you need to work, and baby and I are getting in your way.”

Ronny held me tight as I let it all out. Once I was calm enough to have the conversation, he helped me up and off his lap.

“I want to show you something.” He took me to the side table and grabbed his tablet, tapping away.

“Why are you showing me this?” It was his bank account, and that sucker had a lot more in it than I’d ever seen in my life.

“I’ve been saving for a long time, and I didn’t spend my movie money. And there’s more coming with royalties and all that.”

“Okay.” If he was trying to say it was worth it for the money, I didn’t need something to make it worth it. I just needed him to be happy.

“I want to spend this money, all of it. I think if we’re patient and wait for the perfect place, we’ll be able to get something nice. Then, when the baby comes, you don’t have to work if you don’t want to because there will be no mortgage.”

We hadn’t discussed how the first year was going to go. I strongly suspected I was going to be in the not-wanting-to-work category, but I wasn’t opposed to working either. My job was at night half the time, and our little one would be sleeping. We wouldn’t miss much together, especially if I cut down to just the nighttime shift.

“I don’t understand.”

The next thing I knew, he was down on one knee holding a ring box like something out of one of the movies he aspired to be part of.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot since the premiere. I used to think that was the life I wanted, that that’s what would make me happy. But the second I scented your pregnancy, I knew that true happiness came from us being together and raising a family, not being away from home working messed-up hours, doing publicity tours, and having people recognize me everywhere we went. What kind of a life would that be for us and for our children?”

He opened the box and two rings sat there side by side. One for each of us. I’d been so wrong about why he was quiet. He wasn’t wanting more fame. He was wanting less.

“You’re already my mate, Ronny. And we already have the couples’ rings. Why the new ones?”

“You’re human and I want to follow your traditions. too. So please, will you do me the honor of marrying me? We can buy a house and live together happily ever after.”

“What about your career?”

“I love acting, and I’ve been working behind the scenes trying to figure out a way to act and still be a family alpha. I’m thinking, what if we started a community theater where I could help bring my love of acting to others.”

I tackle hugged him, and then we both landed on the ground. I peppered his face with kisses, repeating “yes” over and over again until Bosco landed on me with a thump.

“Is somebody jealous?” I looked over at his adorable little nose just inches from mine. “I’m guessing the little stinker learned to spell, and he wants his T R EA T.”

Bosco let out a meow. Sounded about right.

Chapter Fifteen

Ronny

Brach hung up the phone and turned to face me, his expression unreadable.

He was getting bigger every day, and although he got a little grumpy about it from time to time, the healer assured us that everything about his pregnancy was as textbook as a human/wolf version could be. One of the things our mixed mating made hard to estimate was a due date, but they believed we had a bit of time yet, in which we needed to get our act in gear and everything ready for the baby.

“Omega mine? Was that bad news?”

“No,” he said. “It wasn’t bad, just…well, I don’t know what to think.”

“Tell me about it.”

“That was Jones, and his neighbor is moving to another state. They want to sell their home for a price he feels is a real steal.”