Page 6 of Knotty, Nice, & Holiday Lights
But… why?
I came here to avoid my family, and thinking on it honestly, I don’t miss them. The phone call I’d placed to lie to their faces and tell them I had to work through the holiday and would get a big bonus for it had gone far smoother than I’d anticipated. I mean, they’ll have Christian “The Saint” there, my Alpha older brother and family success story. Not like they’d miss me, the failure Omega daughter.
Before I know it, I’m frowning, and anger is overtaking that loneliness. But it’s still there in the background.
Well, even though I don’t know why I feel this way, only one thing can cure loneliness.
Company.
Chapter Three
“Is there anything I can help with?”
My bones nearly leap from my body the moment Izzy’s voice projects from the doorway behind me. Gripping at my sternum and gasping for breath, I keep my bulging eyes on the loaf of sourdough I’d just taken out of the oven.
Breathing still steadying, I turn to her cringing face and try to smile, though I’m pretty sure I’m grimacing.
“I amsosorry,” she whispers, eyes going wide. “I…” She winces. “I don’t spend time with people in domestic situations often.”
I add another note to my mental “Izzy File.”She’s a loner.
“That’s okay,” I tell her with a laugh, my hand going to the back of my neck. “I know what that’s like.”
At least, I do now.
This B&B had been my parents’ dream, and I’d just been happy to see them happy. I’d helped out whenever I could, but kept some part-time jobs of my own to earn cash during high school and college, but I’d always lived here with them since they bought the place.
Years of living with renovations until the place was ready to be inspected for the business license. When it was granted to them, they’d thrown a party, with the framed paper as a centerpiece, as they celebrated with all their friends.
I was about sixteen when The Cozy Crescent was born.
I was almost twenty-five when I inherited it last year.
“So,” Izzy’s tone is tentative, “can I give you a hand with anything?”
My smile is kind as I shake my head, no. “I just wrapped a little baking session. Are you hungry?”
Her light gray eyes sparkle as she nods, sending her long, raven’s wing hair bobbing along with the motion.
I know I’m staring at her, but I can’t stop myself.
When she arrived, it was like discovering the most beautiful work of art in a museum. You want to touch it, but you shouldn’t, so you admire it from afar, longing to know what those sculpted curves feel like.
But when we stepped outside, it was like walking right into a brick wall of realization.
Her scent, that wonderful lemon blossom scent, invaded every one of my senses, sliding like smooth silk over my skin and wrapping itself around my heart in a warm embrace.
And I was—still am—scared to death.
Izzy Ross is my Omega. My scent match. Something I never in my life expected to actually find, yet still waited all my life for.
What do I do? What do I say? How am I supposed to act?
I never had those overbearing, growling Alpha instincts so many others do. I know I’m more passive and easy-going than some would expect.
Does Izzy like the big, burly Alphas who always want to be in control? Would she ever be interested in someone like me, or would I be a disappointment?
“I’m starving, actually.”
