Page 12 of The Alpha and the Baker
“Sounds good,” I said, tipping my head before returning to my van. Yeah, maybe it would have been easier to have an extra set of hands, so I didn’t have to make three trips, but I wasn’t exactly gunning to rush off. And I figured since I was waiting for Cas’s signature, I had time to burn.
So, I enjoyed the fresh spring air and the warm sun shining down on me while I hauled a second cake, then the third. Thankfully, most of the questions had died down, which was good because I no longer had Polly and Penny to field them for me. I truly was amazed at just how many different faces there were. It seemed less like a family and more like a community get-together.
As I was setting down the third cake, I felt a tug on my shirt. I whirled in surprise, only to see an older woman in a wheelchair, her eyes a bit cloudy but a gentle smile on her face.
“There you are, sweetheart. I’ve been looking for you!”
“For me?” I questioned, but when the elderly woman tilted her head to the side, I cleared my throat and spoke up a bit. “For me?” I repeated. While everyone had been quite friendly so far, it was another thing entirely to be so warmly greeted by someone’s grandma.
“Of course! You know I love to hear about baking adventures. Why don’t you wheel an old lady over to the tent and tell me about your morning before it gets too loud?”
Now there was friendly, and then there was… whatever this was. It puzzled the hell out of me, but at the same time, I’d never met any of my grandparents. My father had been an orphan, and my mother’s parents died soon after him of the same sickness. Maybe this was completely normal. It wasn’t like I was an expert or anything.
“Are you sure you mean me?”
“Girlie, I may be half blind and deaf, but this ol’ wolf still has her nose on her! I’d smell that jam and sweet cream anywhere.”Her tone became contemplative and a little sad. “Unless you need to be elsewhere. I know a young lady like yourself has better things to do than indulge Gammy McCallister.”
Oh no, I wasnotabout to upset a sweet old lady.
“Don’t be silly,” I said quickly. “There’s nothing I’d like to do more. Let’s get you into the tent, shall we? And maybe then I can get you a drink and tell you everything you wanna know about making the cakes.”
“What was that?”
I repeated myself just a bit slower and louder.
“Oh lovely! You’ve made an old woman’s day, you know.”
I smiled softly to myself. Man, this day had turned out nothing like I had expected, but maybe that was a good thing.
“All right then, let’s roll!”
Castiel
A Good Host
Despite the utterchaos when I got home, I couldn’t get my mind off the baker. I couldn’t tell if it was my own preconceived notions, or if she was an exception, but when I’d run into the quaint little shop, I’d expected an older man or woman. Someone with plenty of wrinkles, who had been baking traditionally longer than I had been alive.
Instead, I’d been greeted by a woman around my age—perhaps a little younger—with a dazzling smile, a heart-shaped face, kind eyes, and a rear end that even her relatively formless uniform couldn’t obscure. I like to think that I didn’t make a habit of objectifying women on sight, but the moment she’d opened her mouth and that honeyed voice had slipped out, I’d been gobsmacked. I was surprised I could even remember the reason I was there because my olfactory senses were overwhelmed with the incredible scent drifting off her. The pomegranate of her shampoo. The grapefruit of her lotion. The vanilla that seemed baked into the very fabric of her white uniform, and the Maillard reaction wafting from so many of the delicious treats from the front of her shop. It was an assault on my nose, all right, but a most pleasant one.
I hadn’t wanted to leave, and perhaps if I didn’t have the reunion to rush to, I would have found an excuse to stick around longer. Then again, if I didn’t have the reunion, I wouldn’t have been at her bakery in the first place. Funny how life worked out that way.
So, yeah, perhaps I posted myself at the road leading up to the meadow, doing plenty of tasks while keeping it within eyeshot. For a bit, it really seemed like I would be there to take the cakes from her and perhaps eke out a little bit more of an interaction, but then I was called away to help set up the bonfire.
Part of me wanted to refuse, but considering it was fire safety, I just couldn’t. Besides, it wasn’t like anything could happen between me and the beautiful baker. She was a human, and although I looked like one, I very much wasn’t. Besides, part of our contract with the fairies was that we had to keep the existence of all Wild Folk secret. Our existence depended on humans not knowing about us. Heaven knew they found enough excuses to kill each other over silly differences like religion and skin color. I hated to think what they would do to an entirely different species.
Especially a species they might see as a threat.
By the time I was sure everything was ship-shape for the bonfire, I rushed back toward the main drive only to see three cakes already sitting on top of cooling mats on the dessert table.
Damn it. I had missed her. I’d figured she’d want to secure final payment through me, but putting down the deposit gave her permission to automatically charge me. It looked like I had missed the chance to see her again.
Probably for the better. The flirting had been fun, and her scent had been divine, but it wasn’t like I could even carry on a relationship with all of my duties as an alpha. After all, my one serious relationship hadn’t exactly gone all that well, and since then I’d only dated casually. Nothing that lasted for morethan a few months. Maybe I simply wasn’t meant to have a relationship.
And speaking of relationships, I didn’t even know if she was single. Sure, there had been no ring on her finger, but that didn’t really mean anything. She was a baker, after all. I was almost certain that even if she was married, she’d likely have to take that off while handling food all day, lest the ring ended up in some sort of baked good.
Still, I had been looking forward to it, so I was a tad disappointed. Not enough to ruin the day in any capacity, but it definitely gave me pause. Enough pause to realize that I hadn’t sat down since I got home, and I really wanted to dive into the appetizers. It was almost time to eat, with all of the main courses being brought out, but we likely still had fifteen or twenty minutes left, and no one would object to me stuffing my face a little.
So, I headed to the tent, figuring I could check on some of the elders like Gammy McCallister and Uncle Jeb. But I was almost all the way there when Penny came marching up to me. She looked so fiercely determined that for a moment I was worried I had done something wrong, but her face broke into a grin once she reached me.
