10. Sunshine
Chapter 10
Sunshine
T he day of the First Responders' Festival was clear and beautiful. At a cool seventy degrees with a breeze, it was the perfect day for the festival. The air smelled sweet and woodsy.
One of the local fields hosted the event, and it was set out as one long winding maze of booths, tents, and tables. There was a small petting zoo, food trucks near the picnic area, and tents showcasing everything from local microbreweries to homemade jams.
We got there early to set up our own booth. Zephyr and Raina were in charge of the actual white tent, while me and Ember worked on the awning, the table set-up, and the pamphlets.
Stella had brought her pack, and Simon, Evan, and Jerrick were helping her with the crystal display. Crystals were an easy draw for the crowds, and in addition to the cost of admission, we donated the proceeds to the First Responders’ Charity.
West, Ember’s male omega partner, helped organize the intake papers. West and Ember had been together since they were teenagers, and he made Logan look like a chatterbox.
If people wanted, we’d ask them questions about their preferences for partners, and get them set up in the database later. Ember and West would be manning that station while Raina and Zephyr talked about corporate retreats and rentals on the grounds. Luna had her essential oils set up, and I had my event books so people could see the previous gala we’d done. Terran helped wherever we needed an extra set of hands.
“Hey babe, what’s shaking?” Julian smiled at me as he walked over to our tent. All sense left my head when I saw him in his shorts and t-shirt with the fire department’s insignia on it. His hair was pulled into a manbun, and he wore flip flops.
“Hi.” I walked over, drawn to him.
He was just my friend, I reminded myself. Longing filled my chest like a soap bubble ready to burst. When Luca had dropped in on me last week, he’d flirted like he was going to kiss me.
But when I reminded him that they could use our matchmaking services—trying to test the waters in my own clumsy way—he’d repeated what Logan had told me three years ago. They didn’t want to sign up because they weren’t dating.
My heart plummeted. I was already in too deep not to be crushed.
Julian handed me a stack of glossy paper.
“Your calendars, as promised.” Julian nodded at Stella as my sister walked over. “Hey, Stell.”
Stella peered over my shoulder. “Oooh yes, hot firefighter calendar.”
“What?” Simon frowned. He wasn’t wearing a three-piece suit today, instead he had on a polo shirt and khakis that was his idea of laid back.
“Nothing, honey.” Stella waved him off, with Jerrick and Evan smirking.
Luna actually came out from behind her essential oils display to say hi, and soon my whole family was gathered around Julian.
“Where’s your…” Stella frowned, “I don’t know, your firefighter uniform?”
Julian smirked, brushing his hand over the fire department’s insignia on his t-shirt.
“His turnout gear?” I asked her. My sister had to be referring to the heavy yellow uniform that everyone thought about when someone said ‘firefighter’.
I may or may not have deep-dived into research about firefighters when I became friends with Julian.
“Yes, that.” Ember gestured at him. “Not that this isn’t great, too.”
“It’s on the truck. I’m going to be taking turns in the ice bath, so I’m not going to wear it.” Julian turned to me. “I’m here to deliver the calendars and ask Sunshine if she’s jumping in with me. You know, for charity.”
“A bath filled with ice water?” Ember shook her head. “Hard pass.”
A tub filled with water and ice cubes? But also, a tub filled with Julian. I sighed. “Fine. But at the end of the day. I didn’t bring a bathing suit.”
“Yes!” Julian pumped his fist in the air. “Logan said he’ll bring some food by around noon.”
“He doesn’t have to go to the trouble.” I frowned. “He’s going to be busy.”
“He’s bringing food for my fire company, too.” Julian winked. “Don’t take the pleasure of feeding people away from him.”
“Yeah, Sunshine.” Ember elbowed me. “I still haven’t forgiven you for not sharing the last time.”
“Go make friends with Alejandro if you want a personal chef,” I grumbled, rubbing my side.
Julian had a wicked look on his face. “He is single. Not my type, but he’s a really great guy.”
Ember gave me the stink eye and then tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Maybe I will.”
I glanced at the calendars in my hands. It was this year’s calendar and last year’s calendar. I wanted to find which month Julian was on right away, but it felt weird with him staring at me.
“I’ll come over around seven.” I wanted to ask him where Luca was, but I wasn’t going to do it in front of my entire family.
“Hey, everyone.” Talia walked over with a few trays of cupcakes. She looked adorable with her blonde hair in a twist, wearing a white dress and a pink apron with Cupcake My Day’s logo on the front.
Stella and Ember gave Talia identical glares.
I stepped ahead, trying to head off the inevitable confrontation. “How’s set-up?”
“Going great.” Talia stopped at our welcome table. She noticed Julian and then winked at me. “I see your friend is here.”
She said “friend” in such an exaggerated way, I wanted to die.
“You know, Sunshine is still single.” Talia elbowed me as if she hadn’t be obvious enough the first time.
My worst nightmare unfolding before me. I shot Talia a look, but she ignored me. All through high school she had tried to help me be more outgoing with my crushes. I wasn’t exactly shy—nothing like Luna—but the thought of telling someone I liked them, and then having them tell me ‘no thanks’, made me want to crawl into a hole and die.
Sometimes Talia’s attempts worked, and I got a date, and sometimes they ended up in mortifying failure. It was bad enough in high school trying to avoid the hot jock that turned me down, but Julian was my friend.
If things were going to be awkward between us, I wanted to be the idiot who caused it.
“I’m aware.” Julian grinned, and it didn’t look strained to me. If anything, he looked amused.
“What have you got there?” I pointed at Talia’s tray, trying to change the subject.
“Cupcakes!” Talia perked up. “I brought some from our booth.”
The tray had a sticker for Talia’s bakery on the plastic top. She’d brought three trays, more than was needed for just me and my family.
“Sunshine’s also open to dating packs.” Talia nodded at me as she turned back to Julian. “I noticed you don’t have any betas in your pack yet.”
Oh, sweet monkey muffins. “Thanks for the cupcakes, Talia.”
I knew my face was bright red but if I pretended I wasn’t going to die on the spot, maybe the rest of the world would comply.
“We can’t advertise for other booths.” Raina came over, putting a professional expression on her face, and I knew we were in for it. Raina’s alpha designation had come in almost the day after her fourteenth birthday, not that any of us were surprised.
“I didn’t ask you to.” Talia frowned. “I wanted to bring some treats over. You could pass them out to people in your booth, help draw them in. Sunshine helped me with the menu.”
“I bet she did.” Raina gave Talia a level look.
I flinched. Raina did not like Talia. She hadn’t when we were teenagers, and she liked her even less now.
I piped up again. “Raina, it’s fine.”
“There’s a sticker on the trays.” Raina arched an eyebrow. She wore jeans and a t-shirt but still somehow managed to radiate the sort of professional competence that I needed a suit and heels to pull off.
“So?” Talia shifting her weight to her hip.
My stomach twisted. This wasn’t going to end well. No matter how this played out, someone was going to be mad at me. I snuck a glance at Julian. He was watching me, looking concerned. Great, an audience for a family meltdown.
“So that’s advertising for your booth,” Raina explained. “We do not have a business relationship, so it would be disingenuous.”
Talia looked at me. “This is a stressful day for you. I wanted to do something nice. If you don’t want my cupcakes, that’s fine.”
It was not fine, not by a longshot, judging by Talia’s tone of voice.
“Thank you for thinking of me,” I started, trying to figure out how to salvage this in 0.8 seconds.
Talia rolled her eyes. “Of course. Side with your cousin. I’m only your best friend, what do I know?”
“Can you really claim to be best friends when you’re still friends with Becca?” Ember said, glaring at Talia.
“It was a scent match,” Talia hissed. “What would you have done in my place?”
“Can we not?” I said loudly, trying to head the trainwreck off at the pass. The only saving grace was the festival wasn’t open to the public yet.
“I definitely wouldn’t have kept being besties.” Ember ignored me. “If it was a scent match, Becca should have said as much the second she saw Rob, and then the two of them should have sat Sunshine down and had an adult conversation with her. Not fucked around behind her back for three weeks.”
If looks could kill, Talia would have killed Ember. “I’m not Becca, in case you forgot.”
“I didn’t.” Ember gave her a poisonous smile. “If you were Becca, you wouldn’t have been allowed to approach the tent at all.”
My chest pinched and my throat closed up. I knew my family didn’t like that I was still friends with Talia but I hadn’t realized it was this bad. Part of the joy of almost everyone being an alpha or omega in my family was it meant I had a veritable gang of overprotective siblings and cousins.
Of course, it really, really didn’t help that Talia kept trying to get them to agree with her. Talia was a lot of things, but easygoing didn’t make the list.
Part of me was glad Ember said what I had been thinking for a year. If it was a scent match, fine. Tell me that and break up with me. The cheating behind my back was the part that was so hard to swallow.
“I’m going back to my booth.” She dropped the cupcakes on the ground. “I guess this serves me right for trying to do something nice.”
She sounded close to tears. Guilt tore at me, and I stepped over to her. “Talia, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” She shook her blonde hair. “Have a nice day at the festival.”
She walked away, her shoulders tight.
Ember let out a breath. “Sunshine, I know you don’t like confrontation, but she’s going to keep pretending she’s taking the high road until you call her on her bullshit.”
I bent over, picking up the trays of cupcakes. Ember moved to help, and I waved her off. “I got it.”
I kept my mouth shut. There was no calling Talia on her bullshit. Any time I tried to have a conversation about something she’d done wrong, it somehow got turned around to how her feelings were hurt.
Either she was upset that she’d hurt me, or she was upset that I assumed the worst. She was really good at sidestepping whatever point I was trying to make.
I’d learned it wasn’t worth it. I would have to have a more honest conversation with her soon, but whenever I thought about it, I just got tired.
It would be a lot of back and forth about our feelings, and at the end I would feel like I’d accomplished nothing.
And questioning if it was worth it.
“I’ve got to go back,” Julian said, quietly. He was still looking at me like he thought I might start crying.
I wasn’t close to tears. I was just tired and drained. Tired of all the mess.
“Want me to walk you?” I put the plastic trays of cupcakes in the closest trash can. “That way I’ll be able to find it easier at the end of the day.”
Julian perked up. “A fantastic idea.”
I didn’t even look at Raina or Ember, I just walked with Julian down the path of booths.