Something else that never changed was the fact that I couldn’t bake. Not even muffins from a box. My mate had put in some long hours trying to train me after I begged him, but I just didn’t
But I could still help with things that required strength or organization. Like using Jenga skills to fit a large order in a not very large van. Folding the page, I tucked it in my shirt pocket and grabbed a clean apron from the shelf. If I’d learned one thing it was that flour would get on anything no matter what, and my dark-blue button down with theBake a Little Lovelogo on the pocket would not benefit from a coating of white fluffy dust.
Andi, an alpha herself, teased me at first about doing grunt work but she stopped when she saw how much pleasure I got from doing it for my omega. But she insisted her independence came first. “It’s okay for you,” she said, “but I’m happy on my own, thank you very much.”
I carried the bags of flour and other items in and went back to sweep out the van before loading the racks of bread. One of our first investments after the event at Animals had been a lift gate for the van. So much easier than lifting things over and over. Also, less loss due to product getting dropped.
With everything loaded, I went back in to see if there was anything else I could pick up while I was out, and also for another kiss. After my delivery, I would go back upstairs to our temporary office space in the living room to work with Andi on our upcoming events. Then lunch with my omega.
Any wonder I looked forward to every day?
Chapter Sixteen
Augie
Now that I had more staffing, I was taking off every Sunday, giving myself a two-day weekend. It felt like such an indulgence at first, but I needed it. I was already well into my third trimester and starting to slow down again. Pregnancy was wild like that. In the beginning, I had no energy, and then suddenly I was Super Omega, able to take on the world. Now, I was reverting back to those early days of barely being able to stay awake.
I woke up a half an hour earlier, but still hadn’t rolled out of bed yet. Once I moved, I’d need to pee, and I wanted to capture a little more sleep. But I’d also somehow managed to get on my back in my sleep, and it was making that nearly impossible.
“Alpha, can you help me?” I was whiny and I didn’t care.
“Always.” He got up from the chair he’d been sitting in, drinking his coffee. He’d gotten used to getting up early with my work schedule and had been up and about since before I opened my eyes for the first time. “What do you need?”
“I need help getting out of bed.”
The first time I struggled with this, I was too mortified to ask for help. But I’d gotten to the point where I didn’t even care anymore. Heck, I was willing to ask a stranger on the street if I dropped something and needed it picked up. I was growing a full human being, more accurately a shifter baby, and if that meant I needed assistance, so be it.
He helped me up and out of bed, and I waddled to the bathroom to freshen up. When I came out, he had sliced hot bread on the table with a bowl of scrambled eggs. It wasn’t the breakfast of champions, but it had become my favorite go-to meal.
“How’s the bakery looking?”
I needed to let go and not keep checking up on it. Although I wasn’t quite able to do that. Thankfully, Dante humored me. I suspected he’d be the same way in my position, his business being just as important to him as mine was to me.
“It looked good to me. No one was running around trying to find where they left something or to get a tray of cookies out of the oven before they burned, and there was no line out the door.”
“What are you trying to tell me?” It sounded like things weren’t all sunshine and rainbows down there, by the way he worded his morning report.
“Nothing.” He crossed his heart with his finger. “I promise. I just don’t know what to say, other than it’s fine. And when I say ‘it’s fine,’ you tell me ‘it’s fine’ is always a lie.”
“Because it is.”
“I didn’t say you were wrong. I know better than that.” He kissed my cheek. “Now, eat your breakfast. We’ve got lots to do today.”
“What do you mean we have lots to do today? It’s our day off.” It was the only one we regularly had together.
“I mean, I have plans for us.”
I would have pushed harder, but that bread was calling to me. I slathered it with butter and took the first of many bites. The loaf was nearly depleted when I was officially full. It might not be the healthiest way to eat, but boy, did it taste good.
Once I was done eating, my mate rushed me to leave. I barely had time to say hello to Sierra and to tell her to call if she needed anything. He was more eager for this surprise than I was.
“I’ve got this,” Sierra assured me and pointed toward the door, the one my mate was already dragging me to.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Last time he took me on a surprise trip, it was to get paternity clothes. I had plenty now, so I knew it wasn’t a repeatof that. It shouldn’t have surprised me when we pulled in front of the new baby boutique in town.
