“What does it say?”
“It says,I guess I’ll come to you.”
Assa frowned. “That doesn’t sound like spam. Could be a wrong number.”
“Maybe? I mean, if someone was going to talk to me like this, I’d have him in my contacts, right?”
Assa switched on a burner, setting the temperature tohigh.
Twenty minutes later, Ryde raced in through the front door. Assa closed it behind him, waving at the omega who’d dropped him off.
“Hey, Pop. I need to take a shower.” Ryde bounced on his heels. “The line was too long at the pool and now I’m all itchy.”
“Make it a quick one. Dinner will be ready soon.”
Assa was scraping pesto out of the food processor when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Wes said. “Stay in the kitchen, okay?”
Assa nodded, grateful he could hear the shower running upstairs.
Wes looked through the peephole. His shoulders relaxed before he swung the door open. “What in the world?”
“Professor Pashuk,” Assa heard an unfamiliar voice say as their visitor stepped into the entryway.
It was the beta who’d been staring at him in the library.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Wes
“Asher?”
Wes was surprised that he recalled the younger man’s name. It had been close to a decade since he’d seen him.
“You, uh, remember me?” Asher’s hands twisted together. He darted his eyes around the living room.
“Of course. You were one of my students in Warburton.”
“That’s right. In another life. But I’ve been in Bellwether Province for a few weeks, and I was hoping to speak with you.”
Wes stepped aside. “Alright.”
He motioned for Asher to sit on the couch, trying to imagine what could have brought him there. They’d been cordial as professor and student, but not close. Their only real interaction was the day Asher asked him about adoption laws.
Cold awareness seeped into Wes’s veins.
Until this moment, he’d never put it together. They had adopted Ryde mere months after that conversation.
Asher cleared his throat. “I wish I were here just to say hi. I know it seems crazy that I’m showing up on your doorstep out of nowhere. It would be better if I had time to do this slower and soften the news.”
“News?” Assa came in from the kitchen.
“Oh. Hello.” Asher looked sheepishly at Assa. “Sorry if I weirded you out earlier. I promise I’m not a creep.”
“What happened earlier?” Wes asked.
“I noticed this man staring at me in the library before Olin showed up,” Assa said. “I didn’t realize he was a friend of yours.”