22. Sunshine
Chapter 22
Sunshine
T he next few days fell into a lovely routine where every morning I went to work and every evening, instead of going back to my cottage, I stayed with Pack Kahele.
Before I knew it, it was the end of the week. Julian had a shift on Saturday, which was the day that Talia and I had set aside to catch up. I had family dinner on Sunday, so I decided that it made sense for me to spend Saturday night at my own place.
When I got to Cupcake My Day, the doorbell jingled as I pushed through the door. Talia was behind the counter talking with Aine, a petite raven-haired beta. Aine was around our age and was one of the other bakers who’d decided to share the space while they built up experience alongside their client base.
Talia waved at me to join them. “Sunshine, you’re here.”
Aine waved one flour-covered hand. “Nice to see you again.”
“You too.”
“You can chitchat later,” Talia said as she grabbed my arm, nearly bouncing. “I want to show you my latest creation.”
When she dragged into the kitchen, my senses were hit with the scent of cocoa and citrus and… alcohol?
Talia spread her hands out with a manic gleam. “I’ve been baking for days. We’re going to start offering bachelorette packages.”
I scanned the cupcakes. The flavors were all some sort of combo with alcohol. Black Cherry Kirsch, Mimosa with champagne and orange, and Pina Colada cupcake that smelled so much like Julian I expected him to be in the room with me. Maybe I could get Logan to make us Pina Colada torte and then we could eat it off Julian’s stomach.
A flash of heat went through me before I forced my focus back to Talia’s creations.
Talia cut pieces of each one for me to sample. The Salted Caramel Rum flavor was delicious, but there were a few flavors I didn’t get, particularly the Mint Julep. It was too minty, and yet also somehow too sweet.
“These are fantastic.” I smiled at Talia.
“I know, right?” She gestured at the stainless-steel counter covered in chocolate and mint leaves. “It’s going to be a big hit. Let me know if you have any wedding events coming up soon, and I’ll add some boxes of cupcakes for free, as a friend perk.”
Unease fluttered through me. Once again, Talia was trying to connect her business with Cosmic Bonds. Plus, I didn’t have the power or authority to officially sponsor her cupcakes.
“What?” Talia’s face fell. I must have shown my dismay…and now I felt guilty. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head, taking the coward’s way out. “I just have a headache. I’ve been slammed the last few days.”
Slammed at work and also by Pack Kahele, the dirty voice in my mind whispered.
“Awww.” Talia offered me a chair. “Sit down. I’ll get you some water, and something to eat.”
“Thanks,” I said, now feeling like a jerk.
Talia made us some bagels and sat down with me. “Did you get Mrs. Cullen’s account? I know you’ve been stressed about that.”
“I did,” I smiled, joy bubbling over again. “I was so scared she wasn’t going to understand what I was trying to do.”
Talia bumped my shoulder. “Give yourself more credit, Sunshine. You’re brilliant. You take boring, everyday charity events and find something special to focus on.”
I sighed. “I keep feeling like I have to do better each time.”
“You don’t,” Talia said. “You’re trying to give each client an amazing party that matches their vision. That doesn’t always mean something huge and over the top.”
“True.” I licked some cream cheese off my finger. “It just feels like it’s all going to come crashing down. Everything is perfect right now, but…” I shook my head
“Everything is perfect, but it can also get better.” Talia nudged me. “If you’re feeling this on top of the world, you should make a move on Julian. No time like the present.”
“Yeah…” I felt my cheeks warm up. “About that…”
“You didn’t! ” Talia squealed.
“ I didn’t,” I said, grinning. “ Julian did though. I’m officially dating Pack Kahele.”
Talia squealed louder as she jumped up and down, clapping her hands together. “I told you they like you.”
“Yes, yes, you’re always right.” I laughed. “They were trying to wait for me to be ready for dating.”
“And?” Talia waggled her eyebrows as she sat back down. “What changed?”
I shrugged. “Julian and I were uhhh, snuggling on the couch, and then we kissed.”
Talia beamed, bouncing in her chair. “That’s it, go for the omega first this time.”
“This time?” I shook my head. “I wasn’t hunting a pack. I just…developed a crush on all of them.”
“Because they’re competent and sexy.” Talia shoved my shoulder gently. “You’re too insecure, so you never notice when guys actually like you.”
I’d thought I had a healthy appreciation of myself. I liked myself and I knew I was awesome, but I’d had a lot more crushes go unrequited than not. I also hadn’t been hit on like Talia and Becca had.
None of that mattered now, because, somehow, Julian, Luca, and Logan wanted to date me. I let out a happy sigh. “I’ve got a family dinner tomorrow and then we’re going to hang out again.”
“‘Hang out’?” Talia shook her head. “Make them take you somewhere nice. Make them show you how much they want you, instead of just settling for what you have now. Video games on the couch are nice, but this is romance .”
“First of all, they already said they were going to do all that.” I looked down at my bagel. “I like fancy dinners and dates on the beach, but it’s more important to me that we feel comfortable in our day-to-day lives.”
And I already felt more comfortable with them on that score. Asking for a sweeping, whirlwind romance seemed like reaching for the moon when I already had the pack of my dreams.
Talia raised an eyebrow. “That might be okay for a little while, but make sure they work for it. Just because you’re not an omega doesn’t mean they don’t have to woo you.”
“They’ve said they’re going to woo me,” I replied quickly. “Everything’s happened fast, and we’ve all just been enjoying each other’s company. You know how I like snuggles on the couch.”
“Yes.” Talia handed me another bagel. “Just don’t let it stop there. You deserve a pack that loves you to death, one that doesn’t treat you like you should be glad they’re paying you attention.”
“They don’t treat me like that,” I said, with certainty. They all acted like I hung the moon. “But… thank you.”
“So, you’ve all been busy staying indoors then?” Talia grinned. “I hope they’re good in bed!”
My mind flashed to the three of them tag-teaming me until I came so hard I’d blacked out for a few seconds. “Oh, yeah. They’re amazing.”
“Good. Now that you’re dating them, you can go on double dates with me. I’ve been flirting hot and heavy with this alpha that comes into the shop.”
My stomach dropped. Double dating wasn’t on my top list of fun events, but especially not when things were so new.
“Sure,” I said. “Give me some time though. Luca wants to take me to Heartbeat, and Logan and I are hitting up the Farmer’s Market.”
Talia wrinkled her nose. “The Farmer’s Market is all you. No, thanks, I want more romance than random vegetables.”
I bit my lip because I knew she wouldn’t get it. Logan was so focused and intentional about everything to do with his menus. She didn’t understand that, for me, talking ingredients with Logan like getting to see another piece of who he was.
I couldn’t explain that to Talia, so I let the conversation shift gears.
I spent the rest of the day helping test out cupcake flavors and giving feedback. After a few false attempts, Talia managed to get the Mint Julep cupcake to taste like mint and not sugar-flavored toothpaste, and I was able to go home happy.
When I walked through the door to my cottage, I looked around and realized that things just didn’t smell right anymore. It had seemed smarter to stay the night at my place, but I was already missing them.
At least I could still connect with them through the group chat. Julian texted all about his day. I told them about Talia’s cupcakes, Luca talked about a big case he was working on, and Logan mentioned that rhubarb might be in season.
The next day, I drove over to the resort. It was a normal family meeting, but the reality was that I always found it hard not to worry that something would be wrong. Maybe clients were complaining about me. Maybe Mrs. Cullen had gone directly to Raina to tell her how horrible I’d been.
I knew the chance of that happening wasn’t likely, so I managed to talk myself down off the ledge. Work was fine. I was dating the pack of my dreams. And as far as I could tell, none of my family members were acting any differently to how they did usually.
Instead of going to the lodge, I followed Terran to where the others were sitting at the picnic table in the big field. Wildflowers had sprung up amongst the meadow grass, adding their purples, blues, and pinks. Raina and Zephyr had already brought out snacks, and I set the plates and napkins I brought on the picnic table.
I looked at my sisters. Stella was glowing, but Luna was still looking pale. She had bags under her eyes and kept glancing around like she was waiting for someone to jump out of the bushes. Before I could ask my baby sister how she was feeling, Luna turned and asked Stella how her pack was.
Stella beamed. “Awesome. We’re getting Tony’s later on and having a little beach date.”
While I was happy that Stella was so happy, I couldn’t take it any longer. “What’s wrong?” I asked Luna, tucking some hair out of my face. “You’ve been off for weeks. We don’t want to pry?—”
“I want to pry,” Raina interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest.
Luna sighed and looked down at the table. “I’m pregnant.”
I stared at my little sister, looking at her stomach. She was still thin, so she wasn’t very far along. Suddenly, the fact that she’d been leaving work early and had been more overstimulated than usual made sense.
“You and Halos haven’t…” Raina frowned.
I hid my smirk. Luna had a massive crush on Halos, one of the gardeners at Half Moon Nursery.
Luna grimaced. “No. But he knows. When I was in Vegas…”
Ember whooped and jumped up and down. “Oh my gosh, you had a wild weekend in Vegas.”
Luna didn’t look happy about these events. “Yes.”
Ember kept jumping up and down, her red hair escaping its ponytail. “Oh we’re gonna be aunties and uncles, yes.”
Zephyr frowned. “You weren’t in heat…”
“It’s not impossible,” Raina huffed. “Just unlikely.”
“Oooooh, we need to do a tarot reading, stat.” Ember bounced over to her bag.
“We don’t have to.” Luna crossed her arms over her stomach.
“Oh, but we do,” Ember said.
“I told the fathers,” Luna added firmly. “There’s an alpha-beta bonded pair, Colton and Quinn, coming into town tomorrow.”
Luna seemed happy about that, but sad at the same time. I looked at her a little harder. “That sounds like there’s more than just the bonded pair.”
Sure enough, my little sister shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Raina growled. “Don’t forget, I still have his number.”
I glanced between my sister and cousin. Raina knew more than she was telling the rest of us. I would have to corner her later and make her tell me. Why hadn’t Raina told me something was wrong with Luna?
“I don’t need him.” Luna looked surprisingly defiant. “I have you all, I have Halos, and apparently Colton and Quinn want to make this work.”
“You’re absolutely right you have us.” Terran put his hand on Luna’s shoulder. Some of his calm beta-ness seeped through to her. She let out a sigh, and the tension left her shoulders. “We’re here for diaper duty and beyond.”
We all sat talking together, surrounding Luna with family for the next couple of hours. In the back of my mind, I thought about being an aunt.
Luna was having a baby, without a pack. I didn’t want to look up the statistics about an omega having a baby unbonded, but that was a problem for later. She wasn’t going to be on her own, because she was dating Halos, and two of the dads were coming to work things out with her.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask how it’d all happened. She must have decided to throw caution to the wind and have a fling while she was at her Garden Show in Vegas. It had been about two months ago, so the timing seemed right.
After Luna left, I dragged Raina off to the side.
She held up her hands. “Before you bite my head off, I didn’t know she was pregnant.”
Some of the hurt and anger dissipated. So Luna and Raina hadn’t been keeping a huge secret from me. Just a small one.
It was selfish of me to be upset that Raina knew before I did. Maybe if I hadn’t been so wrapped up in my own events, I would have noticed that Luna was sad and exhausted.
“I knew Luna was seeming overstimulated,” I said, unable to hide the defensiveness in my voice.
“I went over to her cottage a few times. I thought she had the flu.” Raina shrugged, picking up the plates. The rest of our cousins and siblings were talking about three or four events coming up, giving us time to have a “Mom Talk” as they called it.
“What guy were you talking about when you said you have his phone number?”
“She said she met some guys in Vegas.” Raina glanced at me. “Asked me to get their contact info. I thought she was pining, maybe going into heat early.”
“Are they nice?” My proverbial hackles raised. “They could be jerks.”
“We’re going to make sure they aren’t,” Raina said, her voice promising murder. “And she’s been growing closer to Halos too. He’ll be around to help her manage the baby daddies.”
“Ooof.”
I thought my life was complicated. Luna was pregnant through a one-night stand. “Did she talk about bonding?”
Raina shook her head. “Not yet.”
“That’s…uhhh…an interesting turn of events.” I bit my lip. My sister’s predicament put my own complicated life into focus, and I felt a rush of relief.
Raina nudged my shoulder. “How are you?”
“Me?” I blinked, up at her. “You heard I landed Mrs. Cullen’s event?”
“I did.” Raina beamed, and for a minute I let myself feel proud of my accomplishments. “But I was more talking about how you smell just like Pack Kahele.”
I blushed, my face getting hot. “Yeah, that’s going really great too.”
“We told you they liked you.”
Raina looked so pleased with herself, I laughed. “Yes, you were right. What every alpha wants to hear.”
Raina gave me a hug. “Good for you.”
I said goodbye, then drove back to my cottage, and ended up just curling up into bed.
My skin was buzzing, and I kept shifting positions, unable to get comfortable. My brain wouldn’t shut down with so much to occupy it. Luna was pregnant, and she didn’t really have a pack. Pack Kahele liked me, but it didn’t seem real yet. Workwise, my events were going well and just getting better and better as time went on.
My mind tried to pick out all the ways each different aspect of my life could fail horribly, but I pushed each thought aside. I didn’t intentionally decide to dwell on negative things, the thoughts were just there. Ignoring them only ever made me feel vaguely worried throughout the next day, and I’d finally worked out it was better to address each thought as unlikely and move on.
Life really was great, and I deserved happiness. It was okay to feel happy. Even though it felt like a trick, a trap for the next big, horrible thing to catch me off-guard.
By the time I’d gone round and round in my mind, I was tired of my own thoughts and slept poorly the rest of the night.