Chapter 2
August
“Whoa, dude, did you make all of those?”
I turned to see Oliver, call me Olly, from the driftwood shop staring through the glass candy case at the treats inside. The raised floor let me see over it as Olly drooled over the confections.
“Every last one,”
I replied.
“Wow. How long did all of this take to make?”
“Well, not as long as you might think, considering some have the same base ingredients, which is always helpful,”
I explained as Olly slowly made his way from one end of the case to the other.
“Licorice, taffy, lollipops, hard peppermints, soft peppermints, sour candies, extreme sour, gummies, jellies, is there even a difference between the two?”
he murmured as he checked them all out.
“Yup, there really is.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh.”
“Gonna tell me what it is?”
he asked, peering up at me with a hopeful expression.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Trade secret,”
I replied, winking.
“Sure,”
Olly said, giggling as he shook his head. “You’ve even got root beer and cream soda flavors.”
“Don’t forget the red cream soda. It gets offended when you do.”
We giggled at that while Olly finished perusing, his expression morphing from awe to confusion by the time he was through.
“All of these and no chocolate?”
he said, peering up at me with a wounded expression. “How could you be so cruel?”
“What, no, seriously?”
I said as I leaned over the case and looked inside. “Did I really forget to make chocolate?”
Olly looked again, then nodded, his smile having turned into a pout. “I don’t see any.”
It took all my self-control to keep from giggling again. “Are you sure?”
“Dude, I am always sure when it comes to chocolate.”
I hummed and straightened back up again. “Did you, by any chance, take a right instead of a left inside of the bakery?”
I couldn’t help but giggle when Olly frowned, raised each hand, made an L with the thumb and forefinger of both hands, and frowned again.
“Ummm, maybe,”
Olly hedged, looking completely uncertain as he looked around.
“Everett, my littermate, is the chocolatier,”
I explained. “His shop is on the opposite side of the bakery.”
His smile bloomed again, and his tongue poked out a little. “Ohh, nice! I bet you guys never have a shortage of sweets at home.”
“Nope, not when my aunts and my oldest siblings run the bakery, too.”
“Lucky!”
he declared, and he was right, too, we were truly lucky to have so many talented cooks, bakers, pastry chefs, and candymakers in the family.
“So, can I wrap anything up for you, or should I just lean here and watch as your dust trail forms on your way to the chocolate shop?” I asked.
“Gregor would have my head if I raced out of here without getting him something,”
Olly said as he leaned closer, voice dipping to a conspiratorial whisper, despite the fact that the only other people in the shop where halfway across the room. “Don’t tell anybody this, but he’s got a wicked sweet tooth.”
“Really?”
I whispered, leaning over so we could continue our conversation. “And what are his favorite flavors?”
“Watermelon, strawberry lemonade, lime, green apple, mango, blackberry, and peach,”
Olly rattled off. “He loves anything lemonade flavored, just about. He absolutely hates cherry, like everything cherry flavored as well as cherries themselves. You’d think a cherry somewhere had personally slighted or even insulted him with how much hatred he has for them.”
“Well, you’re in luck. I have a ton of flavors that aren’t cherry, and they’re just begging to be bagged up and sent home with someone,”
I said. “Want me to put together a little assortment for him?”
“At the rate he goes through candy, better make it a big assortment,”
Olly declared. “I wouldn’t even begin to know what to choose with how many options there are. It’s amazing.”
“Thank you,”
I said. “It’s a dream come true. Why don’t you go get your chocolate? I’ll have everything wrapped up by the time you return. Just how big of a sweet tooth are we talking here?”
“When we were kids, our siblings used to call him The Candy Monster,”
Olly explained. “At Halloween, the biggest challenge we faced wasn’t where to go to get the most candy, it was how to keep it safe from The Candy Monster once we got home.”
“Bet you guys have some awesome stories of how you managed that,”
I said, already giving serious consideration about which candies to select for him.
I don’t know why it suddenly mattered so much to me to pick ones he’d loved, just that I cared and wanted him to smile when Olly gave the box to him, even if he wouldn’t know who’d assembled it. Maybe it was because of those carvings and the attention to detail he’d put into them. Though vastly different mediums, I thought he’d get the artistry that went into the candy I created. It was nothing like the kind you’d find bagged up and stale in the supercenter candy aisle.
“Yeah, we do,”
Olly said. “Remind me to tell you someday when neither of us is busy.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,”
I said as he made a beeline for the glass doors between my shop and the bakery.
He’d find the chocolate shop was on the other side of the dining room, and no doubt be in there for a while once he saw all the truffles, cream filled, buckeyes, fudge, nut-clusters and decadent cordials Everett had in his cases.
Lining up baggies on the counter, I prepared to put together the most amazing assortment since the one I’d assembled for my senior project back in culinary school. Taking all the flavors Olly had listed into consideration, I packaged up lemonade twists of the strawberry, blackberry, and peach varieties, the added in a couple blueberry, just to see if he’d like them, too.
Having Olly pop in today was nothing short of miraculous. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the jolly man’s prickly brother, and the way he’d covered up his snarl with so much coughing that I’d been afraid he was going to hurt himself. He’d smelled like wood and the ocean. One wavy lock of his chocolate brown hair had tumbled forward to land on his forehead, and my fingers had itched to brush it back, if only to see how soft it was. Bushy and wide, his beard had still been neatly trimmed and combed, the hair waving when he’d laughed.
I’d noticed the way it had caught him off guard when the first chuckle spilled out. The man clearly didn’t laugh often, but once he’d gotten started, he’d struggled to regain his composure the same as Olly and I had. He hadn’t seemed upset about enjoying the moment, either. I hadn’t missed the look that had passed between him and Olly when Gregor had given me the price. For whatever reason, the man had given me a discount, probably a big one, if the surprised look on Olly’s face had been any indication. Something told me that Gregor didn’t do that often, if ever and if he had, it was only for family.
True to my word, I had it ready when a grinning Olly returned with a ribbon-tied box.
“Looks like you found enough chocolate to put you in a sugar high for at least a week,” I said.
“I’m hoping for two, which means I’ll have to carefully portion them out so I don’t overdo it.”
“Something tells me that’ll be easier said than done.”
“No shit, it just might prove to be the challenge of a lifetime.”
We laughed at that, then Olly paid and took off with his treasure trove of goodies. I’d barely rung up the purchases of my other patrons and sent them on their way when Everett came bounding over, smelling of chocolate and the maple cream he was so fond of. Being in Maine, maple was a staple, and people had already fallen in love with his different twists and flavor combinations.
“Dude, oh my goddess, you will never believe what just happened,”
Ever said as he skidded to a halt beside the counter.
“You finally got your maple maltballs to turn out the way you wanted?”
“I wish.”
“You figured out which notebook you wrote Gram Gram’s recipe for chocolate-covered honeycomb candy in?”
“No, and I’ve looked everywhere,”
Everett insisted. “I’ve paged through every notebook in my office and the ones back at the house to, and nothing. I know I wrote it in one of the small ones, because I’d deliberately taken it that night because it fit in my pocket. With Aubry and Rebel running around, I figured it would only be a matter of time before grubby little fingers found it and colored me a whole storybook, right on top of the notes I’d taken.”
I giggled at that, because we’d both made the mistake of leaving notebooks and ideas scribbled on napkins, only to return to where we’d left them to discover that they’d been colorfully adorned or absconded with.
“Ain’t that the truth,”
I said. “But at least their stories are always entertaining.”
“Yeah, they are,”
Ever said. “It wouldn’t surprise me any if they became storytellers or even authors one day.”
“Wouldn’t that be a thing to see.”
“I’d be proud to read their stories to my hoglets one day,”
Ever said. “If I’m ever lucky enough to find my mate.”
I smiled, feeling my insides turn to goo at the thought of holding hoglets of my own one day.
“Oh, now what is that look for?”
Ever asked.
“Just wondering what got you all wound up and bouncing off the walls on the way over here?”
I asked as I leaned against the counter and feigned a nonchalance I didn’t feel. “I know, you finally made the chocolate peanut butter espresso beans you promised Uncle Gene?”
“Oh shit, I need to get those done,”
Everett groaned, smacking a hand to their face.
“Damn, okay, well then I’m gonna stop guessing now, before I wreck your entire day.”
“After the conversation I just had, I doubt anything could wreck this day, though I think I’d better stay late tonight and get those espresso beans done before Uncle Gene marches down here and attempts to make them himself.”
“Yeah, you make sure you do that before he burns your kitchen to the ground and half of mine, too.”
“Something tells me that it’s that half of yours that you’re truly worried about.”
“Perhaps.”
“But I doubt that’s the reason for the dreamy look you got when I mentioned hoglets.”
“Maybe I’ll tell you, after you dish on who you were talking to that made the day so great after the way you stormed in here this morning,”
August offered. “What was that all about, anyway?”
Ever groaned and shook his head. “I’d rather talk to you about the conversation in the shop. If I start telling you about this morning, I’ll just get pissed all over again.”
“All right, then tell me who put that smile on your face,”
I insisted.
Ever’s cognac-hued gaze brightened like they held a piece of the sun, his grin growing even more.
“Oh my god, he was hot, and a total sweetheart,”
Ever said with a sigh that was, well, about as dreamy sounding as he claimed I looked.
“Really?”
“Oh yeah, even if he did smell a little like something vicious.”
“Vicious how?”
I asked, suddenly very alert and a little worried for my brother, who’d gotten himself into trouble more than once by trusting the wrong shifter.
Unlike me, Ever was an Alpha. Over the years he’d had to struggle to assert himself among those who scented him as prey and gave no consideration to the rest of his designation, assuming all prey animals to be Omegas. They weren’t, but try getting an Alpha lion shifter to respect an Alpha hedgehog and you’d soon have a good idea of how stubborn and immoveable some predators were.
“Just, you know, he smelled like a predator, but only just a little, like maybe he’s only half,”
Ever said, shrugging. “He didn’t act like one, though. He was bouncy and did this little shimmy in front of the display case when he got a look at what was inside. He was totally into the chocolate, like, I swear I saw drool on the corner of his lip before he licked it away.”
“Sounds like you fought a cocoa connoisseur,” I said.
“Dude, first he asked me if I had a slice of chocolate-covered heaven, at which point I showed him the Boston cream cake truffles, then the triple chocolate cake ones, then he asked for chocolate-covered sin,”
Ever said. “So I told him that every one of my chocolates was sinfully delicious but if he was looking for sin dipped in chocolate he’d have to come back after we closed.”
“You didn’t!”
“Oh my god, I did and I don’t feel the least bit bad about it, either,”
Ever said. “You didn’t see this guy.”
Snorting, I decided to keep my lips sealed and wait to see what else Ever revealed before I divulged what I knew.
“So what did he have to say to that?”
I prodded, when Ever fell silent and just started grinning again.
“Well, he didn’t get all grumpy and act like I was being too forward if that’s what you want to know,”
Ever said. “He just asked when that would be, so I told him seven, and do you know what that crazy bastard said?”
Shaking my head, I slowly tapped my fingertips on the counter. “Nope, I’m waiting for you to tell me.”
“He said he’ll see me at 7:05 with a steak dinner as long as I promised him some of that sin-dipped dessert.”
Chuckling, I shook my head, because I could picture Olly saying that and wondered if his brother was as prone to rash and impulsive decisions as he was. I sure hoped so, because I intended to drop in on the growly Gregor soon in the hopes of figuring out why the man’s scent, and demeanor, were so appealing.
“So, how exactly do you plan to pull off this date and Uncle Gene’s espresso beans?”
August asked.
Ever froze, mouth half open as he glanced from the clock, to me, and then back over to his shop, where our cousin Iris was manning the counter and the small line that had formed there.
“Shit,”
Ever muttered, then shrugged, his devil may care grin coming back full force. “I guess it’s a good thing I told him to wear clothes he didn’t mind getting dirty. Either way, I have a date tonight.”
“Well, from the sound of things, teaching him to make a bit of chocolate might go a long way toward saving his wallet from the hit I’m sure it took after you finished ringing him up.”
“It may not have been as big of a hit as it should have been,”
Ever admitted. “I slipped a few things in that I may have forgotten to charge him for.”
Chuckling, I couldn’t wait to find out if I was right about who it was that Ever had met. “You didn’t happen to get his name, did you?”
“Of course I did, no way was I letting him leave before he told me. It’s Oliver, but he said that everyone just calls him….”
“Olly,”
I finished for him.
“Oh come on, you know him?”
Ever grumbled, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Please don’t tell me you’re calling dibs?”
“Nope, he’s all yours. It’s his brother I want to know more about.”
“His brother? Oh, now you’ve gotta tell me what’s going on.”
“Nothing yet, but I’m hopeful,”
I explained, lowering my voice as several customers entered the shop. “His brother made the driftwood sculptures I told you about.”
“The ones you won’t let me see.”
“Like I told you, they are already wrapped and waiting for Tilly’s party. You can see them then. It’s worth the wait, I promise you. His craftsmanship is amazing.”
“Is that the only thing that’s amazing?”
“So far. Olly was over here giving me hell for not having chocolate,”
I explained. “But he bought a bunch of candy for his brother before he left. Now that I know Gregor’s favorite flavors, I plan to whip up a few things just for him.”
“Are you going to deliver them yourself, too?”
“Sure am. With any luck, I’ll land a date this week, too.”
“So that’s who you’re standing here mooning over,”
Everett said, smacking me on the arm.
“I think he’s my mate.”
I clasped my hands over my mouth and mentally kicked myself for blurting that out where anyone could hear. Not that Ever was guaranteed to keep it a secret, either. When that hedgehog got excited, words spilled from his lips with the same speed as when he filled his chocolate molds. Fast, fast, fast.
Ever scooted closer, until our shoulders brushed, allowing us to speak in hushed whispers without being overheard by others in the room.
“You think, or you’re certain?”
Everett asked.
“I-I-I was only around him for a little while but ever since I left his shop, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him,”
I said. “And last night, I dreamed about being pinned down beneath him, and oh my goddess, Ever, it was the best dream. I did not want to get out of bed this morning.”
“Which is also why you made a beeline to claim the washer once you did,”
Everett giggled, nudging me.
“I may have gotten a little overly enthusiastic,”
I admitted, snickering a little. “It’s been awhile.”
“TMI, bro, TMI.”
“Like you weren’t planning on coming in tomorrow and telling me all about your date tonight.”
“There could be some truth to that.”
“Uh huh,”
I grumbled, nudging him. “Get on back to your shop and let me deal with my customers.”
“And those special treats you intend to whip up, too,”
Everett shot back.
“Just make sure you don’t forget Uncle Gene’s espresso beans,”
I called after him, giggling when my sibling turned and discreetly flipped me the bird, before returning to his chocolates.