Chapter Thirty-One Georgia
“ Y ou. Here.”
“Nice to see you, too,” I roll my eyes and follow Georgie to the back door of the shop, joining him in the small parking lot.
“Hm. Have a good weekend?” Georgie crosses his arms and stares into the currently empty lot, the Night Market barren at six in the morning.
“Wonderful.” I try to be discreet, but my grin blazes across my face.
A tiny grin cracks through my brother’s scowl. “Good.”
There’s a minute of mutual awkward silence, then throat clearing. “Tell me about him.”
My brother is inviting me to talk during the start of the morning rush when things are moving fast and heavy in the kitchen and starting to buzz in the shop itself.
I lean into him suddenly. “He’s my person. He’s my Claire.” Tears bubble up and spill down when I blink. “He’s been so lonely and so hurt, for so long. He’s not perfect, but he’s so perfect for me. When I’m with him, I’m not lonely inside. I can ask him for help—”
“Holy crap.” Georgie’s eyebrows dart heavenward, and one of his huge hands comes to rest on my back.
“He listens to me—and he talks to me. He opens up to me and... It’s amazing. It’s safe. And it’s good. And it’s happy...” I pinch myself. “I get mates, now. Soulmates. I get that thing about having a piece of yourself belong to someone else, and when you find them, you get it back. Or maybe it’s a piece of him that belongs to me, and we’ve been waiting—- Oh, I don’t know, Georgie, but there’s a spot that was empty and now it’s full.” I fold myself deeper into his arm and sag against him in happy relief. “I never would have met him without you. Well, maybe I would have because he knew Dad growing up, but he came for your wedding.”
“So if you two break up, you’ll kill me?”
“We’re not going to break up.”
“Good. But—”
“I don’t care that it hasn’t been long. I know what I know.” I tap my chest above my heart. “He belongs with me.”
“Okay. Okay.” Georgie nods seriously. “I knew with Claire right away, too. What do you need me to do? Should we ask Diana and Cindy to cover more?”
“What? Why?”
“Because you’ll need time to date this person. Claire and I were always together in the kitchen.” Georgie’s eyes briefly glaze over.
I decide not to ask—but I think Douglas and I aren’t the only ones who’ve made out in the walk-in at this point.
“Oh! Douglas is an accountant. He’s going to take over some of our bookkeeping so that I can concentrate on expanding the catering and private events side.” I pat his back. “Get your grumpy green butt back in the kitchen and start making double batches.”
“Just don’t overbook us.”
“We have twice the oven space now, and twice the bakers.”
“Claire has to spend more time on cakes, but... yes, we do have two full kitchens and two full-time baker-chefs.” He crosses his arms. “But I know you. Sometimes you get excited and go overboard.” He gestures to the new addition on the side of our building. “Like this.”
“Hey! This worked out!”
“Yes... So far. Remember, enough work for two bakers, not ten.”
I smirk. “Then you and Claire better get busy producing the next generation. You can’t leave Douglas and me with all of that responsibility.” I smirk and slide back into the building.
Georgie follows me, spluttering. “I just got married! You’re not even engaged! Wait, when you went away for the weekend, you didn’t—”
“Something is burning in the kitchen.” I dart away and Georgie curses, running back to his stove.
“Nothing is burning!” he howls.
Not true. Parts of me are on fire. I’ve finally got a taste of lovemaking, of mating, knotting, of being filled until you’re not sure where you end and they begin...
I’m on fire for Douglas.
“THE PINE LOFT COFFEE Shop.” I push the phone under my ear and finish making change for Diana.
“I’d like to get a takeaway order.”
My face scrunches up. “Douglas?”
“Aye.”
“What can I get you?”
“The manager.”
“Normally, I hate hearing that. Speaking.” I giggle.
Diana arches one eyebrow and walks away snickering.
“That’s what I want to take away . The manager—and her bookkeeping orders for the week. I think she ought to come over for dinner. I need to make a better start on the accounts if I’m going to be of any use to you. And... I haven’t been to the shops, so I actually would like to place an order for takeaway.”
“Oh, I see... Well, it’s Monday, one of our later nights. You can pick up your order after seven.”
“Hmm. If I tip, will you deliver?” His voice is rife with suggestion, smokey and seductive.
I have to lean on the counter and turn my face toward the back so customers don’t see me smothering moans and biting my lip. People are going to wonder if I’m having phone sex.
“H-how big of a tip?” I whisper.
“Well, if I remember correctly, it was big enough that you screamed the first time, but you sounded happy about it.”
My thighs are clenching so hard that I wobble and have to put my hand on top of the milk steamer for balance. “Very happy.”
“I promise to give you an hour at my desk.”
This time, a moan pops out. At his desk? Or over his desk? Spread across it? Will he sit in his chair with his head between my thighs? Will he stand over it and fuck me at the perfect hip height? When he knots me, we’d better do it on that comfy-looking black leather office chair he has. I want him to be able to sit down...
“Georgia?”
“Delivery by 7:30 or it’s free,” I breathe out shakily.
“Sounds good. I miss you.”
“Miss you, too.”
“Love you.”
“Love you.”
I turn back around to find Diana, Claire, and Cindy staring at me. Diana looks enraptured, Cindy smirks, and Claire is beaming.
“Did you just say the L-word?” Claire squeaks, my sister-in-law balling her apron into her fists in excitement.
“She said the L-word!” Diana jumps and claps her hands, ponytail bouncing around her head.
“Damn, I’m telling you, there is something about monster sex that messes with dating. I think I started to fall in love with Lennox on like... the third day I met him. Get it, girl!” Cindy fist-bumps me and walks off.
“Order up!” Georgie roars, and people scatter like frightened pigeons, Diana to pick up the order, Claire to go to her kitchen, and me back to the line that’s started to form.
THE DAY FLIES. IT ALWAYS does—and it occurs to me that work always took up such a big space in my thoughts. Every thought was related to “What’s next? How to make it better? What makes the customers happy?”
Not that it’s a sacrifice to think about The Pine Loft and the patrons here. It’s home. They’re family.
On Wednesday nights, I have book club at White Pines, and that’s fun.
But for the first time... My mind goes beyond work and beyond a group, to someplace private, something just for me. Just for two.
Thinking of going home doesn’t seem lonely.
Going home means finding him.
“You look happy.” Claire is beside me, sliding another batch of muffins into the display case.
“Same, sis. You look radiant.”
Claire blushes and sighs. “I have a family again.”
“You’ve been family since my brother laid eyes on you,” I tease.
Claire looks toward the kitchen with an utterly besotted grin. “Maybe the four of us could double date?”
I try to picture Douglas and Georgie making small talk. All I can envision is a lot of grunting and folded arms.
Claire must be picturing the same thing because we wince as one.
“Um. We could grill something and eat it together?” Clair suggests.
“It’s a plan. Amazing how they turn into giant marshmallows when we’re alone, right?”
“Like, the most romantic, dirty movie of my life. Oops! I didn’t say that. I mean, I didn’t mean to say that. Out loud. To my sister-in-law, oh God.” Claire puts one hand to her cheek.
“Absolutely filthy, wonderful marshmallows.” I firmly shut down the part of my brain that does visualizing, but I get it. “It’s nice to have someone who is like, your big, strong defender on the outside and a sweetheart when you’re alone.”
“Exactly. Especially if you don’t have anyone else,” Claire whispers.
“Or you think you’ll end up alone.”
There’s a long nod, silence between us during the late-afternoon lull.
Claire’s face switches from knowing to firm. Decisive. “You should go home early today.”
“Huh? No, we’re open until seven tonight, and I—”
“You should go home a little early. Six. We’ll close up. We live upstairs, we don’t have a long commute.”
Another hour alone with Douglas?
“Best sister ever.”