Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
T he next morning began early for her, but this time, Suzannah was ready. When she stepped through the door at the back of the bakery, she came face to face with Hetty.
The older woman shook her head with a smile. "I feel like I've been taken back in time to my youth." She clapped her hands over her rounded chest and grinned. "Would it be too much to ask that the next time I stare into the mirror, I'll see myself as young as you are?"
Suzannah stepped forward and hugged. "You called me young."
When they broke apart, she grinned. "You are!"
Suzannah reached up to the hook inside the door and picked up the apron that was there. "Maybe there is something to it. I feel like I'm at home here."
Hetty clapped her hands. "Of course you are! This is your home. It's where you always should have been and now that we have you here, you're not allowed to leave."
Suzannah tied on the apron and looked up at Hetty. "Yesterday you told Ash that there you didn't have any honey bread? Did I hear that right?"
"That's right." Hetty preceded her into the kitchen and took some of the pastry dough they'd made the night before and set it on the table. "After Ash's parents passed a few years ago, he stopped coming down the mountain to visit us."
She peeled back the plastic wrap over the top of the oversized bowl and sprinkled flour onto the surface of the table before she flipped the bowl over on top of it.
"When they did come to the bakery, honey bread was his favorite. His mother used to make it for the family, but later in her life, her hands weren't as nimble as they were when she was younger."
Suzannah prepared the other table the same way that Hetty had and tipped a bowl of dough onto her table as well. "Were both of his parents shapeshifters like he is?"
Hetty put some flour on her hands and started to knead the dough. "No. His father was, but his mother was like you. A human who Ash's father recognized as his mate."
Hetty's voice sounded wistful, and her face held a gentle smile.
"You knew them well?"
Suzannah was copying Hetty's movements as they both worked on the dough.
"Very well." She gestured at the bakery room at the front. "His mother would come down with Ash when he was younger, and he'd sit down with us while we visited with Leni."
"I wish I had been able to meet his mother- Well, his parents, but I mostly I would have loved to meet her. He's so gentle with me and patient."
Hetty grinned and nodded her head. "He's a product of both of his parents. And while I didn't know Anton as well as we knew Leni, I can tell you one thing for certain about him."
Suzannah crossed the room to get some of the baking trays from the stack they'd built up the night before. "What's that?"
"There's two, actually." Hetty pointed at the ends of both tables and Suzannah placed them down. "First. Anton was a grumpy gus whenever I talked to him, he didn't believe in small talk with anyone."
Suzannah nodded, listening to Hetty's voice as they started on the rolls for the oven. Cinnamon rolls on her table and cinnamon and raisin rolls on Hetty's.
"And second, Anton loved Leni as if he was born to do it." She paused and smiled at her thoughts. "I guess he was, given that they were mates. True love we humans call it."
True love.
The thought was as comforting as it was scary.
"And you're human like me."
Hetty bobbed her head. "Yes." She sighed. "We can't all be perfect." Then she grinned at Suzannah, and they laughed as they worked. "Betty was too."
Suzannah worked on, visiting with her thoughts for a bit before she realized that she'd gone silent.
Realizing that she hadn't been holding up her end of the conversation, Suzannah apologized.
Hetty waved off her apology, creating a light cloud of flour in the air above her table. "Really, my dear. There's no need to apologize. You're playing catch up to the rest of us. Getting a crash course in Mystic Mountain history. It can't be easy, but it sounds like it's... exhilarating."
Suzannah remembered the kisses from Ash the night before.
And the way he'd described what their mating would be like.
She'd slept after that, but while she slept, she'd had dreams about Ash.
About the things that they could do together.
When she woke up in the morning, she'd been flushed with heat and her body had been humming with anticipation.
"Yes," she whispered her answer, "very exhilarating."
Hetty laughed and fanned herself, dusting her red hair with flour. "Oh, my..."
She sighed as she lifted the baking tray from the table and walked it toward the ovens. "I can see that this is going to be exhilarating for me, too."
They both laughed at that.
When Hetty was done putting the trays in the oven, she dusted her hands on her apron and looked up at Suzannah with a shrewd eye. "So, when you came in yesterday, you said you might be able to make some honey bread?"
Suzannah blushed, feeling a little worried. She'd volunteered the information on a lark, but now she was sensing that it might have been a mistake. "Yes. I said that. I remember a recipe they taught us in Home Ec."
Hetty's eyes opened, and she smiled brightly. "Want to give it a try? The recipe we used was Betty's and she never wrote it down. She would always tap her head and say that it was all in her head for safe keeping."
Suzannah hesitated, feeling her heart kick against her ribs. The bread had been a favorite of Ash's. If she made some and it wasn't good...
Almost as if Hetty had sensed her struggle, she waved her hand at the pantry. "Why don't you take a shot at it. If it turns out as good as I'm sure it will, it will mean a lot to Ash."
Suzannah felt her shoulders lift up at the other option. "And if it doesn't?"
Hetty waved off her concerns. "If it doesn't turn out that we, we try again."
When Suzannah hesitated, Hetty continued on.
"Just like how it took me years to become this amazing," Hetty held out her hands with a flourish, "some delicious pastries and breads take their own time."
There really wasn't an argument against Hetty's words.
There was no harm in trying.
"Okay," she nodded. "I'll give it a try."
When she stepped into the pantry, Suzannah took a moment to remember the recipe that she'd memorized so long ago.
This was all so different from the job she'd held for years.
Almost chained to her desk, she'd been floundering and waiting for something new to inspire her.
And now?
She felt the rhythm of her heart speed up. Excitement building up inside of her. If she couldn't make them good now, she'd learn how to do it.
This was her home now. She had the rest of her life to look forward to.
A sh had spent the morning cleaning up around his cabin. It wasn't messy by anyone's imagination but with the possibility that Suzannah might come to see it sooner or later, he wanted to make sure that she was pleased with what she saw of his home.
They hadn't spoken of where they'd live together after they'd sealed the mating bond, but he'd avoided that conversation for a reason.
Suzannah had just moved to Mystic Mountain.
She was meeting people and getting to know her Great Aunt by spending time in her space.
Figuring out where they would spend the rest of their lives seemed like just more pressure.
He'd cleaned his bedroom and the bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen from top to bottom, his bear egging him on.
All of that before he heard the knock on his door.
He wasn't surprised to see Celeste, True, and Katherine on his doorstep.
Ash had heard the four wheeled drive SUV coming up the winding road toward his cabin. And the instant the doors opened up, he'd scented the women who'd come to visit.
Ash opened the door with one hand while he tried to wipe at the sweat he'd worked up with a rag in the other.
True Salazar was the first woman to speak. "Goodness! So this is what the grumpy bear looks like without his fur."
True was mated to Xavier Salazar and panther shifter who lived on the mountain as well. She had the sharpest wit of the women and no fear of using it.
"Good afternoon, True." He nodded at the other two. "Ladies."
"Ash." Katherine was mated to Locke Ascher, a lion shifter, and before she came to Mystic, she had been friends with True. They were always close to each other.
Celeste Winter was the last to step inside his home.
She put her hand on his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Hello, Ash. It's good to see you."
"Celeste."
His gaze followed her as she walked in and that's when he noticed that the three women came bearing gifts.
Ash looked at the bags that they were placing on his kitchen table and shook his head. "Did I miss something?"
Celeste's smile deepened as she leaned her hip against the table. "We just came over to see how you were doing."
As lovely as Celeste was being, he knew there was something more to the visit from the ladies.
Worried about it, he had to work to focus on a question that popped into his head. "I want to thank you and Aaron for going to the diner and bringing Suzannah home."
Whatever True and Katherine had been talking about was dropped as they turned toward him.
Smiling they gathered closer.
Celeste didn't miss a beat. "Of course, We were happy to help. We had no idea that she would be your mate."
Whenever Ash had spent time around Celeste, he always found her energy to soothe his bear.
She wasn't his. She was Aaron Winter's mate, but she was kind, endlessly kind.
"I can't tell you how happy I am for you."
Before he met Suzannah, he might have shied away from her words.
She was the mate of his friend.
He might have been jealous of his friend's happiness, but he would never wish them ill.
Being around them reminded him of his parents and the way that they fit into each other's souls like puzzle pieces. He'd wished that he could find that for himself...
And now?
"I hope I make her as happy as you are."
Celeste's expression softened and he could see the way her eyes were shining. "You will, Ash. I've always known that you'd find your mate."
His bear was sunning himself in Celeste's regard.
If Ash were to let him out, he'd probably roll over his back for a scratch.
There was a singular note of outrage from his bear.
What? He shot the question at Ash.
Why would I want her touch? He scoffed. We have our mate. She can touch me as much as she wants. She's the only one we need.
"Uh oh." He heard True's voice in her throaty tone. "I know that faraway look."
Katherine agreed. "Don't tease Ash."
True bumped shoulders with her friend. "I'm not teasing. We've all seen our mates do the same thing. Talking with their beasts. They can be right there with us physically and suddenly they're deep in conversation inside their heads."
Ash looked at True and then back at Celeste, worried. "I... I don't want Suzannah to think I'm not there for her."
"Oh, Ash." True moved closer, standing near his shoulder. "I'm not complaining. It's just something that we learn about our mates. It's another part of their personalities. Don't worry about it."
He shook his head. "I'm going to worry. I have to worry." He looked at True, his heart pounding painfully against his ribs. "What if I do something and she decides it's not worth staying for? That I'm not worth staying for?"
Ash felt a strange stillness inside of him.
He'd said the truth to these women.
He'd told them his fears before he was able to acknowledge those thoughts to himself.
And to me .
He'd been talking to his bear for as long as he could remember.
Over the years, they'd fought with each other. They'd teased. They'd even snarled and bit at each other.
But this was only the second time that he could remember his bear offering him this kind of comfort.
The other being when he'd lost his parents.
He tried not to worry about another kind of loss.
"Ash?" He felt Celeste rub his arm with her gentle touch.
All three women had their own cubs with their mates, but Celeste had been a mother twice over with two children college and two about to enter elementary school. She was one hundred percent a mother.
"What..." he licked at his lips and found them dry and tight. "What can you tell me about being a human? How can I help her to understand what's going on between us."
Katherine's cheeks heated and she shifted from foot to foot. "It's hard to say. I think all three of us had different experiences with our mates." She gestured at Celeste. "You knew Aaron for years before he told you who he was, as a shifter and as your mate."
Celeste nodded. "He was under the impression that he should let me raise my children before he complicated my life." She held up her hand when True looked like she might argue. "I wish I'd known sooner. When my husband left us, I had my hands full raising my children. If Aaron hadn't been there for me through the years, I'm not sure I could have done it."
Katherine and True looked at her with equal measures of love and concern. The three were great friends and they were always looking out for each other.
She smiled at her friends. "Don't worry. During our time together, he's certainly made up for the time that we were just friends ."
They all shared smiles at that admission and Ash was tempted to hide his face in his hands.
Celeste gave his arm a squeeze. "Are you okay?"
"Me?" He grinned. "Of course, why do you ask?"
Katherine shrugged her shoulders. "When Celeste was talking to you, you looked like you were a little... off."
Ash knew what she was talking about. "I think the world of all of you, your mates, and your families, but hearing the details-"
"I hardly see Celeste's words as details." True had no problem challenging him. She liked going to toe to toe with her mate, too. "It's just facts."
Ash nodded. "I see, but for me it's like..." he gestured helplessly as he tried to find an accurate analogy, "sausage."
The look on the faces of all three women told him he'd gone horribly off the mark. Or that he should explain a little more.
"People like them, but not everyone wants to see how they're made."
Celeste was the first one to react, smothering a smile.
True had the most to say. "Gross, but I can see your point."
And Katherine cut to the heart of things. "We're just happy that you've have your mate now and we wanted to offer our help." She gestured at his home. "We thought we'd come over and see if we could help get things ready."
Ash was at a loss. "She's living at her Great Aunt's house behind the bakery, but I have been cleaning the place from ceiling to floorboards to make sure that when she does come to see my home, she's not ashamed."
Celeste nodded, but he could see the gentle rebuke in her gaze. "She wouldn't be ashamed."
"I just want her to know that I care about her. About her feelings."
They all reacted to that, but it was True that spoke up. "You might be a pretty grumpy bear most of the time, but as a mate, you're a big cuddly bear."
His instinct was to grumble and growl about her words, but when he spoke, that wasn't the case.
"She's everything." He put his hand to his chest and felt his heart pounding a heavy rhythm, pushing his blood through his veins. "And I've waited so many years to find her I'm going to make the most of it. I don't ever want her to regret it when she does decide to become mind forever."
Celeste looked like she might start to cry at any moment.
But before he could really start to worry, she spoke up. "She's not going to regret it, Ash. If there's one thing that's true for all of us, it's the fact that we're loved. Fiercely so."
True nodded. "Xavier and I can argue... a lot, but the best part of fighting is the way we make up."
"With Locke," Katherine covered her heart with both hands, "I know that he's always there with me, by my side. We're always there for each other."
"And this time, next year," Celeste gave him a brilliant smile, "maybe she'll be with us helping to welcome a new mate to Mystic Mountain. So, if you need us-"
"Or, our men," True added.
"Yes, our men, too." Celeste's smile could light up a room. "We're all here for you."
Ash nodded because he couldn't trust himself to speak.
He knew that the town of Mystic Mountain was there for him.
Whatever petty squabbles that happened would always happen, but he knew that if there was ever a need, the people would help each other.
Here he was, mourning the loss of his parents and sulking in his grief, but he had friends who would help no matter what.
Friends that came together like family.
He was truly lucky to be a part of this community.
"Thank you," he smiled at the woman, "from both of us."