Page 88 of The Alpha and the Baker
“Oh my gosh, I love it,” I said, handing it to him and turning around. Cas brushed my hair away from my neck and fastened the necklace. I rested my hand on the smooth stone. “I have to see what it looks like on me,” I said quickly before running to my bathroom upstairs.
I was a little out of breath when I got to my bathroom, but it was worth it to see the necklace in flattering lighting. It was slightly longer than most of what I would wear, resting just below my décolletage, and yet it feltright.Like it was exactly where it needed to be.
“Cas, it’s beautiful!” I called down after realizing my love wasn’t beside me. For some reason, I’d expected him to follow me. Silly of me. I hadn’t communicated that. “Come see.”
“Uh… just a minute,” he called back. Something about his tone instantly aroused my suspicions. Why did he sound like he was trying to be sneaky?
Necklace momentarily forgotten, I hurried back down the stairs. I wasn’t quite sure what could be going on, but considering the week I was having, I figured it could be anything from the Brouchard pack coming back from the dead after centuries or Santa Claus himself.
But no, it wasn’t zombie werewolves or a cultural figure. Instead, it was the delivery service.
I frowned. “Why is that here on a Monday after work?” Maybe it wouldn’t throw most people through a loop, but running a bakery left me with a very particular schedule. I wasn’t used to things happening out of sync.
Shit, had I somehow put in a double order? While I was doing a lot better financially, having that much go to waste would be a good way to ruin that.
“I don’t know,” Cas said in such a completely fake innocent tone that I instantly knew this had something to do withhim.
I narrowed my eyes. “What did you do?”
“Nothing crazy. It’s the supplies you’d need for the bake-off. I figured it wasn’t fair for you to pay for it all.”
Further narrowing of my eyes. “Those supplies wouldn’t need an entire truck.”
“Yeah, well, while I was at it, I also might have ordered your coming week’s supply list.”
I couldn’t believe it. I was utterly speechless. Every time I thought Cas was as kind and thoughtful as he could possibly be, he went and topped himself all over again.
“How did you even know what I would need?” I asked incredulously.
For some reason he seemed even more sheepish at his answer, which was weird since he was pretty much the ultimate Prince Charming. “I, uh, took photos of all your ingredient lists, then wrote down what was low while I was cleaning. Oh! And Itook this.” Crossing over to the bag he’d left on the counter, he pulled out my notebook. “Hope I didn’t cause any issues.”
“Sothat’swhere that went,” I said, hastily taking it. “I thought I lost it.”
“Sorry about that, a necessary deception.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” I said, hugging him with my free arm. “Babe, this is incredible. You didn’t have to do any of this.”
He kissed the top of my head, and I nearly melted right there and then. “Like I said, pack watches out for pack.”
“And I’m pack now.” I tried to say it without any question, with all the confidence I could muster. It was still so new to me.
“As long as you want to be,” Cas said before kissing me. I clung to him, half-afraid everything would vanish in a flash. I wasn’t used to things going so well or easily in my life. It felt like a trick was waiting right around the corner.
Actually, maybe that was the fairies.
A knock on the door had us separating, and just in time because I’d actually managed to forget about the delivery within seconds of kissing Cas. There was something about the tenderness of his embrace and the way his lips moved against mine that never failed to capture all my attention.
“We should probably get that,” I said with a laugh, disentangling myself from the man.
“Yeah,” he said, grin crooked and a heat to his eyes that told me we’d likely be having another late night. “We probably should.”
Felicia
Party Animals
“Turn right in thirty feet.”
I did what the GPS said, surprised by how close to the city I was. After my drive to the McCallisters’ reunion, I’d expected the Ramirez pack to be equidistant from any urban area, but no. The address I was pulling into was maybe only ten minutes past the suburbs, which was great considering they hadn’t paid a hundred-dollar delivery fee like Cas had.
