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“Fancy or regular?”
“Whatever you feel like making?” She set Spud back down. “Can I help?”
“Guests don’t help,” I insisted. I certainly wasn’t going to put her to work on her first visit to the packhouse. “Have a seat. Feelings on milk?”
Nicky blinked. “Love it.”
“I’ll get you a café au lait started, and Gabe can grab you the ten million flavours of creamer out of the fridge.”
“It kind of feels like a restaurant here with you guys having so many options for everything.”
“All of our tastes run a little bit differently,” I told her. “We love all the same bases and mix it up with our sauces and flavours.”
“That's nice though,” said Nicky. “I grew up in the‘if your parents made it for you, you’re going to eat it and love it’kind of household.”
“I think most of us did too, but that's part of the luxury of being an adult.”
I fixed up her coffee and sat it in front of her. She added a splash of hazelnut syrup to the cup and stirred it with the spoon Gabe handed her.
The rest of our pack had returned downstairs, dressed in lounging clothes, and gathered around the bar seats.
“Why don’t we eat at the table to give Nicky a little bit more space?” I suggested. “Jasper, can you grab us whatever you brought home?”
Our omega was up on his feet, now dressed in a loose white long sleeved T-shirt and blue checkered pants. He opened up a box of croissants—a mix of plain, cheese, chocolate, and raspberry—arranging them on a tray along with a ramekin of water to steam them while they warmed. He popped them in the oven while Gabe hauled out the eggs and a couple packages of bacon.
“Eggs, bacon, and pastries okay for you Nicky?” Gabe asked.
Nicky nodded. “Absolutely. I love all of those things.”
Jasper fetched himself a coffee and sat down with Nicky, adding a hearty glug of cinnamon creamer to his mug. I let Jasper and Tony occupy Nicky while the rest of us worked on the food—me cracking eggs into a mixing bowl, Gabe laying out the strips of bacon on a cookie sheet, and Billie whisking up the eggs as I added them. I kept an eye on our guest while I worked, noting her warm response to their easy touches and the way she laughed at their stories.
The oven timer went off, and Jasper extracted the pastries, arranging them across two dinner plates, offering first dibs to those of us in the kitchen, and setting the rest on the table.
I nibbled at my raspberry confection, standing next to Gabe as he stirred the scrambled eggs in the pan, the bacon cooking away in the oven.
“How are you feeling?” he asked me with a whisper.
I could only shrug. Nicky was pleasant enough, even if she did have my entire pack in her thrall.
“Do you wanna go out on a date after Nicky leaves?”
I leaned into his side, letting his arm wrap around my waist while I looped mine around his shoulders.
“Yes please. Where do you want to go?”
“It's nice today. We could go to the conservatory, or take a walk at one of those pretty trails outside the city.”
“Tough choice. I’ll have to flip a coin after we eat.” I kissed his cheek, letting my touch linger.
“Or, I could take you downstairs and hold the paddles while you kickbox your stress away.”
He knew me far too well.
“Have I told you lately that I love you?”
“Before I left for work, but I never get tired of hearing it.” He pulled me in and kissed my forehead, though he had to stand on his toes to do so. “I love you, too.”
I breathed him in and ignored the lingering scent of Nicky on his skin. I had to trick my brain into not thinking of her as an interloper. I wasn’t going to lose anyone simply because they had gotten interested in someone else. They were all mine. And they were all going to stay that way.
