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“No one ever needs an excuse to hit cake early, Aiden, but in this case, I believe it’s because they missed out on our Heaven on a Plate cake last Tuesday and are determined to avoid a repeat.”
His eyebrows rose. “What on earth is Heaven on a Plate?”
I grinned. “It’s layers of angel food cake, custard, cherry pie filling, and whipped cream.”
“So, a simple trifle.”
“There’s nothing simple about it, dear sir, and there’s been vast demand for it.”
He snorted. “Nothing you or Belle make can beat those brownies.”
“Which is why you eat her out of stock,” Ciara said, amused.
“Eating is one of my favorite things to do,” he replied, with a decidedly wicked smile.
The man wasnottalking about brownies or cakes, and my pulse rate did a happy little skip at the thought.
“Behave yourself, brother.” Ciara glanced at me. “You should leave and stop distracting the man.”
I raised an eyebrow at that, and Aiden shook his head in answer to my unspoken question. She didn’t yet know he’d asked me to marry him—and probably wouldn’t until he was confirmed as alpha. Which I guessed was sensible, given the fewer people knew, the less likely it was to get back to his mother’s ears.
Shewouldgo ballistic when she found out, and there was a part of me that actually looked forward to the inevitable confrontation. An insane part, granted, but still…
The fact I’d already proven myself capable of holding my ground against her didn’t mean much in the grander scheme of things, simply because the wider pack membershadn’twitnessed it. If I was going to live within the O’Connor compound as his wife, then I had to prove to the entire pack that I wasphysicallycapable of doing so.
I saluted Ciara lightly and said, “Leaving now, ma’am.”
“No, you’re not. You’re still standing there giving me sass.”
I laughed and headed out, walking past Aiden and clenching my fingers against the need to brush them across his. The desire that ran through his aura seemed to chase me through the trees, but he was controlling the scent of it pretty well. I wasn’t sure why, given that even if Ciara wasn’t aware we were now engaged, she obviously knew the two of us remained madly attracted to each other.
It didn’t take long to find my way back to his truck. Thankfully, I managed to jump in and drive off without running into Connie. As much as she had to be told the bad news, I didn’t want to be the one doing it. Aside from the fact I really didn’t have the time—or the emotional energy—right now, it was Aiden’s job, not mine.
I parked out the back of our café, then dragged the back door key out of my backpack and headed in. Belle was already in the kitchen, singing softly to some tune on the radio. I dumped the pack in the reading room but hesitated as I reached in to grab and secure the knife. Bad luck tended to come in threes, and instinct was saying there might be one more event to go this morning.
I mentally crossed all things that instinct was wrong, left the knife where it was, and walked behind the serving counter to wash my hands and flick on the kettle. It was easier than fussing about with the coffee machine when you only wanted a quick cuppa. After grabbing a fresh apron from under the bench, I tied it on and went into the kitchen.
“Hey ho,” Belle said. “What’s been happening?”
“You haven’t been following along telepathically?”
“Your mind has been locked down tighter than a cat’s ass, which leads me to believe whatever happened had something to do with Aiden.”
“Yes and no.”
“Meaning?” She swept the cooked and cooled potatoes she’d been cutting into a large tub. With the heat of the last few days, we’d taken to offering potato salad with our meals rather than hot chips, although a surprising number of people were seriously offended by the idea.
“Meaning, two major events have happened since we discovered that summoning circle.”
She gave me “the look.” The one that said “stop the avoidance and just get on with it.” The heat was not having a good effect on her usually sunny disposition.
Either that, or Monty had been too tired to do anything useful when he’d gotten home.
“As has been noted before, Monty is never too tired, too hot, or too sweaty to do something useful,” she said wryly.
“You followedthatthought pretty easily.”
“Because you let it leak out. Your mind remains something of a steel trap. Which is annoying in cases like this.”
