Chapter 26
August
Waddling in at six in the morning, my breakfast hastily made into a sandwich when my mate had learned that they needed me to arrive at the shop early for a family meeting, wasn’t the way I’d intended to start the day. In fact, I’d planned for two more hours in bed with Gregor, who’d taken the morning off from gathering driftwood just to give us some time to bask in the sunlit space together.
While I’d grumpily gotten up and headed for the shower after the text came in, Gregor had headed to the kitchen and turned the crabcakes benedict dish I’d been promised into two crabcake benedict sandwiches he’d wrapped and placed in a brown paper sack he’d passed over when I headed for the door.
“I’ll bring lunch to you, and we’ll have it together,”
Gregor promised as I paused for a kiss.
Never a peck on the lips, we’d melted together until Gregor’s hands in my hair had left me panting, needy, and on the verge of saying to hell with the meeting and demanding my mate carry me back to our bed to fully indulge in all the naughty things we’d whispered to each other the night before. We’d been too tired for more than teasing and the light caresses that had lulled me to sleep.
“Eleven, please, even with snacking, I’ll be in seafood deprivation by then.”
“Then I’ll make it ten-thirty,”
Gregor promised before leaving my underwear damp following another toe-curling kiss.
Pregnant sex and all the attention Gregor lavished on all of me, and not just the parts between my legs, was the best sex of my life, and I wanted it, right fuckin’ now, despite the responsibilities waiting for me on the other side of my shop.
I could see the rest of the family already gathered around a collection of tables in the bakery dining room, and I paused to blow out a long breath before I joined them, so I wouldn’t be tempted to give in to my hormones and huff at everyone while glowering at them throughout the meeting.
Seeing Everett looking somber at the head of the table clued me in to how serious this had the potential to be, as well as who’d called the meeting. Aunty Eunice sat to his left, but whether she knew what was going on or not was unreadable from the look on her face.
“So, we’re just missing…”
Aunty Eunice started to say when a series of bangs, clangs, thumps and clatters erupted from the kitchen, announcing the arrival of my cousin Iris, who worked behind the counter and occasionally in the kitchen of Ever’s shop. “Glad you could join us, Iris, you were almost on time.”
“I pulled in right behind August,”
she protested as she clattered into an empty seat, a hastily attached barrette falling from her hair to land on the table beside her purse.
Aunty Eunice’s reply, her tone dry and dripping with exasperation, came only after she’d taken in Iris’s disheveled appearance, “And yet he still managed to waddle in here first.”
“My purse got tangled in the seatbelt.”
“It looks as if you slept in the front seat.”
“More like the back,”
she admitted sheepishly. “I had a little too much at the club last night and decided sleeping in the back was better than waking someone to come get me.”
“I see,”
Aunty Eunice said. “We will table that discussion for after the meeting. Now, I believe that Everett has something he’d like to speak to us about, and I for one am curious about what it is.”
“Thanks, Aunty Eunice,”
Ever said, chin propped on his hand as he studied everyone with weary eyes.
There were dark circles beneath them, too.
I’d never seen my littermate look so depressed and exhausted. It scared me and made me wish I’d shown up earlier so I could sit across from Aunty Eunice on the other side of him.
“I, um, I’m sorry for getting everyone up so early, but I wanted to explain what would be happening over the next few days so as to cause the least disruption to the other two shops,”
Ever said.
“Ohh, are you doing a remodel?”
Aunty Clara asked.
“No,”
Everett said with a slow shake of his head. “Chocolate Delight will not be reopening. I’ll be removing all of my molds and chocolate making supplies and equipment to leave the space open and ready for the next business, or an expansion of the bakery space.”
“Wait, what?”
Aunty Eunice said, coming half up out of her seat.
Well, that answered the question of whether she’d known or not.
“I’m sorry, Aunty Eunice, but I don’t see a way of bouncing back from what happened. It’s been months and I haven’t regained even a fraction of the customers I had. I’ve brainstormed ideas, I’ve reached out to people I know in industry, but in a small town like this, there is no bouncing back from the damage that’s been done to my reputation and that of the shop. I’m not going to continue on and risk putting the bakery and August’s candy shop in jeopardy.”
“That’s preposterous!”
Aunty Eunice declared.
“Is it, Aunty? I see the way people still side-eye my shop from the bakery line. I bet they are scrutinizing the food they get and any treats from the candy store just to make sure there is nothing in them. Hell, I still hear people whispering about it. I won’t mess this up for you.”
“Ever,”
I began, standing now as well, so I could see him without looking around everyone.
“It’s a done deal, August, I’m going back home with Gram and Gramps after your handfasting,”
Ever explained. “I landed a job at Gallery 11 as assistant dessert chef, I’ll learn to add to my repertoire, and the distance between me and Olly should get his mom to chill the fuck out and leave the rest of you be.”
“Fuck her!”
I snapped, stomping my foot to emphasize the point and sending a surge of discomfort along my hip and the lower curve of my belly. Okay, best not to do that again.
August, is everything okay?
Okay, so maybe discomfort was too tame of a word, that had actually hurt, and left me breathless and a little clammy.
Yes, I’m sorry if I startled you, I moved too quickly. There’s some drama going on, family stuff, no one’s here causing any issues so don’t come barreling down here. It’s all okay. I’ll explain everything when I see you at 10:30.
Understood, but please take it easy and if you need any help at all, even if it’s just an extra pair of hands to fetch and carry, you let me know and I’ll come ready to spend the rest of the day with you.
Considering the way I was leaning against my chair now that I’d sunk back into it, that was the best offer he could have ever made.
Plan for that, please, I think I’d better stay off my feet today.
Not a problem, sweetheart, I’ve got you.
Love you.
I love you, too, my prickly little hoggie.
Oh, it’s hoggie now, is it?
Well, you did say not to call you Auggie.
Despite the tension in the room and all the other voices trying to reason with Everett, I could smile a little listening to him speak in my head.
“You don’t have to do this,”
Iris said, her shrill voice rising over the others in the room.
“I’m sorry about the job, I know you were saving for that trip to Cancun you’ve been planning but I’m sure Aunty Clara and her crew could use more help with festival season starting,”
Ever said.
“No, that’s not…fuck…this is all messed up and it’s all my fault!”
Iris declared. “I am so sorry, Ever, it was never supposed to go this far. I just…”
Silence filled the room as everyone piped down, their gazes laser focused on her as she went silent and stared down at her hands.
“You just what, child?”
Aunty Eunice urged. “Don’t clam up now that you’ve shouted everyone down. You have the floor. Out with it and maybe you won’t feel the urge to drink too much at the club the next time you go.”
“I was just mad that Ever kept coming down on me for being late,”
Iris admitted, that shrill voice having dipped to a low tone that was difficult to hear.
“Don’t act bashful now that the cat’s finally coming out of the bag,”
Aunty Clara prodded from the other end of the table. “You got mad and did what?”
She sighed, shoulders heaving as she raised her head and finally made eye contact with Ever.
“I put the ants in the candy,”
Iris admitted. “It was meant to be a joke on you. I was gonna leave it on the quality control plate for you to taste, but you were so barky when you asked if it was an orange cream because you were one short, and then you started complaining about how long it was taking me to bring up the new batch, I just dropped it in the box you held instead of getting a good one. I didn’t even think and by the time I did, the lady was there, and everyone was upset and I didn’t know what to do.”
I watched Ever blink, the color draining from his face, right before it turned red as he erupted from his seat. The chair hit the table behind it and knocked the napkin dispenser to the ground with a rattling clatter.
“Anything!”
Ever exclaimed. “You do anything else imaginable but what you did! Even the most ridiculous, ill-conceived idea would have been better than what you did. You ruined my fuckin’ business and to make matters worse, you let me blame it all on a woman who already hates me and help cost me my mate in the process! I just, I can’t even! I-I just…why? Why didn’t you just admit to fuckin’ up from the jump so I could make it right with the customer at least? I accused her of planting it for fuck’s sake. That alone poisoned members of the community against me, what with her being a local and us just fucking getting here. And for you to let all of that happen when I was already having issues with Olly’s mom and her threats? How could you not speak up when you saw where my mind was going with everything? And after the lawyer got involved, you couldn’t think to say something then? You couldn’t say a word until your little job got taken away and you realized that you might not be able to go party down in Mexico with your friends? You selfish little brat!”
“Everett,”
Aunty Eunice cautioned, her tone more than enough to get Ever to pause, suck in a breath and rein it in.
August watched his brother scrub a hand down his face, heard him snarl behind it, and spotted Iris clutching her purse to her chest like she was about to flee.
“Don’t you dare move!”
August snapped, reaching out and grabbing her purse strap.
She tugged, halfheartedly as their eyes met, then slowly, she relinquished her hold on it. August set it down in the middle of the table as she sat back down and folded her hands in her lap.
“I’m sorry,”
she murmured. “I am so, so sorry.”
“Sorry is not the solution that is needed,”
Aunty Eunice said. “Sorry is not the way we fix things in this family. You will own up to what you did, starting with speaking to Mrs. Zabrowski and continuing with social media. That should start to repair Ever’s reputation. You will need to explain everything to the lawyer, too, since Mrs. Zabrowski has now launched a suit against Ever and the shop. You had better prepare for them to shift the focus of that lawsuit to you once the truth is out, and you will pay any restitution that is ordered if they don’t agree to drop it.”
“I will need to make apologies, too,”
Ever said. “I should not have been so quick to jump to assume that she was involved in some kind of plot with Olly’s mom, that was all on me.”
“You had some help from me as well,”
Aunty Eunice said.
“And me,”
Aunty Clara said.
“And me,”
our cousin Bren added.
Even I had to reply, “And me,”
because I’d certainly fueled his thoughts as well.
“I believe that we all owe Mrs. Zabrowski an apology in that regard, I’m afraid,”
Aunty Eunice admitted, “and we will be sure to give her a proper one.
“It changes nothing,”
Ever declared. “I’m done, yesterday was the final day for Chocolate Delights. It wasn’t even worth turning on the lights. I signed on to take that job at Galley 11 and I intend to start on Monday like I promised. I won’t allow my reputation in the industry to be damaged any further.”
“But, once everyone knows the truth, they’ll know you didn’t do anything wrong,”
Iris said. “Your chocolate was perfect until I tampered with it.”
“And none of that matters because of the way I handled it,”
Ever said coldly. “I made accusations I should not have made and refused to accept that the ants being in the chocolate could have possibly happened in my shop. Only it did and I have to own that, too. Clearly, I am not a responsible enough business owner if I cannot even choose the right family members to allow to work for me!”
She flinched and let out a tiny eep when he raised his voice again, the rolling rage in my alpha brother’s voice a reminder to everyone that he was one of the few true alphas in the room. He rarely wielded his voice that way, knowing the way that tone could affect omegas, even family members who’d grown up with him and knew he was safe. I watched my brother fight to regain control before he snarled and stormed off to the chocolate shop, slamming the glass door hard enough that it was a wonder that it didn’t crack.
“I, I should probably go speak to him,”
I said as I stood a lot more carefully than I had the last time and went to go after him.
No one stopped me, not even our other siblings, who knew how close Ever and I were and always looked to whichever of us wasn’t fretting over something to calm the other.
“Ever, it’s just me,”
I called before I entered the kitchen, in case he was in one of those rare moods when he decided to throw something. Never anything metal and never at anyone, but those little floppy silicone molds of his had gone flying more than once.
“August, you can’t talk me out of it, it’s a done deal.”
“I know,”
I said as I waddled to the nearest stool and awkwardly planted myself on it.
“Would have gotten something a lot more comfortable for your visits, if I’d stayed open,”
Ever said, coming to stand behind me so I at least had a backrest to lean against while we chatted.
With five little ones beginning to squirm inside of me, I already looked like I was six months along. Fortunately, six months was all I had to carry them, but that still meant two and a half very long ones in front of me.
“This is perfectly fine,”
I said as he ruffled my hair.
“I can’t wait to meet them,”
Ever said. “I’ll be back the first day off after you have them.”
“I’m glad you’ll be here for the handfasting.”
“Where else would I be?”
“I just, I never pictured us not seeing each other every day,”
I explained. “Then you were gone for that week and that was hard but I still got to see you every day through video chat. Then you were back, and it was so awesome to see you here every day again and get to hang out on breaks and nibble all the little samples you made for me. But now you’re leaving again, and we’ll be back to having a screen between us and that sucks. I wanted you to come watch movies in the nest with me after Sunday dinner, once the nesting area is finished. Gregor wants to start hosting when I’m no longer up to leaving the house. Which I’m afraid is going to be sooner rather than later. As it is, I think I am ready to dial back my days here to two or three a week. Gracie is amazing and can more than handle the day to day refilling of the case.”
“You got lucky, but then, she’s always been as career driven as we are,”
Ever said, squeezing me gently. “I’m so glad she decided to pursue candy and not chocolate so she can be there for you.”
“See, and here I was wishing the opposite, that she’d pursued chocolate, so you wouldn’t have had to resort to hiring iris.”
“I don’t even want to think about her right now,”
Ever groaned. “I already had so much to do before your handfasting to get this place cleaned out, as well as my room. Now I have to make right with Mrs. Zabrowski and Olly’s mom, too. I just want this shitshow to end.”
“Are you going to tell Olly that you’re leaving?”
I asked, afraid of what the answer would be, and that me and Gregor would have to be the ones to break it to him.
“No, staying away from him is the best thing I can do for both of us,”
Ever snarled, the fury in his voice back again. “He’s not ready to come out from under her skirts and stand up to her and I can’t be the one risking everything, not even for the wolverine meant to be my mate. When he grows up a little more, we’ll see what happens. Fate might have just gotten it wrong this time.”
“Fate never gets it wrong,”
I said, pressing my head against his arm.
“Then why the hell is she doing this to me?!”
Sighing, I hugged it to my chest and felt him press his cheek against the back of my head. We used to sleep that way all the time, cuddled together and cocooned in blankets beside our siblings. He was always a little bigger, my first big spoon, and the one I’d shared a million whispered secrets and dreams in the night with. Seeing our little ones grow up together had been one of them, now there was no telling if that would happen or if it would be another one of those childhood dreams we were forced to let go of.
“I wish I knew, Ever,”
I whispered, stroking the back of his hand. “I really wish I knew.”