It was eye-opening. Baking was a very involved thing, a sort of exact science, and it fascinated me to see Felicia move through dozens of steps and techniques as easy as breathing.
The work didn’t drop off even after she opened. We were still pulling things out of the ovens, off the cooling rack, and icing, filling, and glazing. It was so involved, and with every passing moment, I was more impressed with her.
She did all this every single morning, and only got a couple days off a year. I certainly couldn’t do it. Being an alpha wasn’t easy by any stretch, but I would never want to trade places.
“You know,” I said in a quiet moment after a group of three older women came in for breakfast bagels and coffee. It was sweet watching them out of the corner of my eye as I wiped down the glass display case. It tended to attract fingerprints like a magnet, even with less than ten customers in an hour. Magic, I supposed. In the olden days, humans might have blamed it on fairies. If only they knew that the fae were basically full-sized, magically endowed lawyers who had control over pretty much every city in the western world with their iron-clad contracts.
I chuckled at myself at that little pun. The fairies were allergic to that metal. I heard that the effects had ebbed off in recent centuries due to exposure, but I couldn’t help but wonder how much of that was fairy propaganda trying to obfuscate their greatest weakness.
Iron
-clad indeed.
“Do I know what?” Felicia asked, drawing me out of my own mind. Jeez, I’d forgotten I’d even said anything.
“Oh, I was just thinking?-“
“A dangerous habit,” she cut in, and I immediately knew my next line.
“I know.” It was a simple reference to a children’s cartoon, and yet the way it lit up her face made it so worth it. Sometimes it felt like Felicia was incredibly delighted just to be seen.
Which was… well, I wanted her to always feel that way. “But what I was thinking was… I could come and do this again. Not every day, obviously, but I could swing by when I have to go shopping at the market, grab our stuff and store it in your fridge, then help with the rest of your shift.”
For some reason, nerves coiled in my belly. Even though Felicia and I had been having a great time, I still felt a bit too big and bulky in her small space. I would have used the term a bull in a china shop if my wolf didn’t take offense to it.
Felicia stood bolt upright, staring at me with wide eyes, before motioning for me to follow her into the back of the bakery. Had I accidentally insulted her or committed some grand faux pas?
I kept my questions to myself until Felicia stopped all the way in the back corner by the rack of flour.
“Are you serious?” she whispered like she was afraid one of the ladies out front would overhear. I didn’t really understand the secrecy, but I kept my voice low as well. I wished I could read her emotions a little better, but all I got was shock. Her scent was sharp and full of adrenaline.
“Of course. I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t mean it. But if you?-“
“You’d really wanna do that? Haul yourself here at the ass-crack of the morning just to help me? I can’t afford to pay you a livable wage.”
Ah, that’s what was going on. She was so used to doing things on her own that she couldn’t fathom why I’d even offer. It saddened me a little, but it also made my alpha instincts rise. I could provide for her in a way so many had failed to do. I thoroughly believed Felicia could do anything, but I wanted her to know she didn’t have to do it alone unless she wanted to.
“I don’t need to be paid, sweetheart,” I said, taking her hand. It was so much smaller than mine, yet so strong. The muscles in her hands had been honed through years of bringing culinary joy to so many people. “Pardon me if this is presumptuous, but I did assume I would be spending the night beforehand. You know…” I gave her a little wink to lighten the mood, grinning when she flushed slightly. “For convenience.”
“Convenience, sure,” she teased. There was an uptick of happiness in her scent. It was a bubbly, fizzy sort of sensation that tickled my nose and made me smile.
“And if you’re willing to go into teaching mode, I know several young ones in the pack who would love to learn a thing or two here. I’m pretty sure Polly mentioned something about it to me in passing. It would probably have to be an occasional weekend during the school year, but I can name at least three off the top of my head who would be thrilled.”
It wasn’t quite what I expected. Maybe a smile and a laugh, or maybe a gentle refusal about the young ones, but instead tears began to well up in the corner of Felicia’s eyes.
“Whoa, hey, sweetheart, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she murmured, her voice warbling slightly. “It’s just…” She paused and took a couple of deep breaths. I wanted to pepper her with dozens of questions, asking exactly what was going on in her head, but I pushed back that instinct and waited. “I’m just realizing that I’m really not alone.”
“Oh, Felicia.” I pulled her into my embrace. I didn’t know if my heart was breaking for her or celebrating with her, so I let myself hold her until we both figured it out. “I promise you, as long as you want to be in our lives, the McCallister pack has got your back. Even if you and I don’t work out, you’re in for life.”
“I… it’s hard to wrap my brain around. Two weeks ago, it was me against the world. Two days ago, you ran away from me like I had a gun with silver bullets.”
“I know, I know,” I said, patting her back. “And again, I’m sorry I let the panic win. I should have stayed and talked with you.”
She shrugged as much as her arms would allow with how she was clinging to me. “I understand it. I just dropped that on you. I didn’t realize shifters had such scary enemies. If I’d known about the hunters, I never would have sprang it on you like that.”
“Eh, hindsight is twenty-twenty.” I let go of her and cupped her face, brushing away her tears with my thumbs. “You know I don’t blame you one iota, right?”
She nodded, tilting her face just enough to the side to kiss my palm. “Yeah, I know. You’re pretty easy-going for a wolf. Most of what I read online said that your beastly side makes it so you had to constantly stay in control of your anger.”
“You read all that and you still drove out to a pack’s territory all on your own?”
She smiled softly at that, looking only slightly chagrined. “Yeah, I suppose I’m lucky how that all turned out.”
I leaned forward to kiss the top of her head. I’d never been huge into PDA, but with Felicia, it was just so hard to stay away from her. Whether I was ravishing her, comforting her, or just playing around, I wanted to be in constant contact with her. “I think I’m the lucky one.”
“Maybe we’re both lucky.”
We continued to hold each other until duty called and we had to separate. Still, I found time to give her a quick kiss, nothing more than a little kiss, but I put a lot of meaning into it.
“If I manage to get my orders increased a bit more, I could pay one of the young ones minimum wage for a short shift every week. Preferably Sunday mornings, because those are always crazy with the church crowd.”
“Sounds perfect. I assure you, your orders are gonna pick up with all the birthdays and celebrations we have in the pack.”
“You know, everyone doesn’t have to shop here just because we’re dating, right?”
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