Sugar Coated

26

Emil West

    It was my impeccable self-control that kept me from creeping into Andres' room this morning where he was snuggled up with Delaney, that and Jax's firm grip on the back of my neck as he pulled me into the kitchen.

    "Em," He drew out the 'm' in my name, his growl rumbling behind me as he steered me down the hall. It radiated through my back, into my chest, and down to my curling toes. "It's like everything we talked about flees your mind at the earliest opportunity sometimes."

    The plan that's right. It was still somewhat early, though much later than usual for Jax since he usually prepped the pastries in the morning for the shop. We still had at least an hour before customers would start showing up outside, which was perfect because it gave me time to put up a sign letting them know we'd be unexpectedly closed for the day.

    I busied myself with a marker and paper. We had a template we put up whenever my heats came, but this would only be a one-day closure so it wouldn't quite fit.

    "Don't forget the social post as well," Jax whispered when I came back up the stairs. He was doing his best to pull a pan out of the haphazard pile in the bottom cabinet, but there were only so many miracles we could ask for in a day, and that wasn't the one I was going to pray about. I cut my eyes back to Andres' open door.

    "He's usually up by now," I groused as I pulled the carton of eggs out of the fridge. One good thing about being mated to a pastry chef was that we always had breakfast ingredients in the house no matter what. Flour? Yep. Eggs? Yep. Milk? Yep. Fruit? Yep. Any variety of sweeteners whatsoever? Yep yep yep.

    "What're we making?" I hovered at his shoulder. It was a dangerous position most days when he got himself into a frenzy in his element, but I was about to crawl out of my skin with FOMO and couldn't stomach sitting on the counter.

    Jax's sidelong glance caught me wringing my hands, "Would you like to whisk?"

    "What am I whisking?"

    "Batter."

    "What are we making? Pancakes? Waffles? Pastries? Cake?"

    "What would you like, Em?"

    The answer was arguably always waffles.

    "Both?"

    I loved Jackson's thoughtless half-smile. The one that snuck out before he could reign his facial expressions in. They always spoke quicker than his voice did anyway.

    "Very considerate of you, omega."

    I smothered the whine as best I could, but I'd never been a quiet omega, so there was no way to fully hold it back. Jax caught my glance back toward Andres' door again, the unfortunate master of my attention while I waited for the rest of our pack to join us.

    A silver mixing bowl filled with dry ingredients was placed in front of me. A second later Jax dumped in milk oil and...and after that, my attention returned to the door, this time it was the faint alarm I heard that pulled me there.

    "Whisky business, Em," Jax bumped my shoulder, the shoulder attached to the arm that was attached to the hand with the whisk. When he caught my half-hearted whisking and my forlorn glances when nothing came of the alarm, he brought me back. "Give them time, Em."

    That got another sad whine out of me. I almost felt embarrassed by it, but therapy and the time spent with Jax and Andres had helped to break the habit enough that it was another voice in the back of my head that I could pick apart and throw away.