“A big, heaping pile of food,” Maverick replied, giggling as he headed around to Leo’s side of the bed.
As soon as Leo spotted him, he sat up completely, set the pillow on his lap, and accepted the plate Maverick passed him, along with the kiss Mav pressed to his lips.
“Mmmm,” Leo hummed. “Was just about to ask if you were gonna eat with us, but it tastes like you already have.”
“I peeked in and saw you guys were still passed out after shaking the snow off the cabin and decided to go ahead and pig out before I made your plates, since I still have another batch of cookies I want to make. I’m almost certain this is the final tweak too, but you guys can judge for yourselves later, during the blind taste test.”
“Breakfast and cookies?” Leo asked as he cut into the first bite of French toast and let out an obscene moan. “Oh, holy shit, I’m in heaven.”
Mav giggled as he came around the bed and passed me my plate, kissing me the same as he had Leo, then rubbed noses with me.
“I smelled coconut earlier,” I remarked as I caressed his cheek. “Does that mean we get to taste test your snowball cookies?”
“Uh-huh,” he murmured, nuzzling against my hand. “I woke up to pee and decided to try boosting the coconut flavor in the frosting by using coconut milk, then folding in toasted coconut bits, since I didn’t like the way the shredded coconut made the cookies so uneven. Not to mention the mess. The flavor really popped at that point, but it wasn’t quite right in the center, so I made another batch of coconut cream, also with coconut milk, and pulsed a bunch of toasted coconut in the bullet blender and stirred it into the filling. By the time you guys drag yourselves out of bed, they should be ready to taste.”
With him in the room with us and my senses much more awake with the scent of food wafting beneath my nose, it was much easier to reach out along our mental connection, just to touch base with him.
Was the recipe the only thing keeping you up this morning?
That, and I wanted to talk with my folks and let them know what was going on. Mom says that once we’ve had a chance to discuss the features we want our home to have, to text them to her, and she’ll get on it, so we have a place lined up to move into before Leo finishes his two weeks at work.
But she was okay about the way everything turned out?
Yeah, she really was. First she started apologizing, like, eight or nine times, at least, then she started crying, which just got me crying, then it must have really started to sink in because she let out a whoop, woke my old man, and the two of them started firing off a mix of congratulations and another round of apologies before Dad said he was going to coordinate with your dad about the food for the welcoming party when we bring Leo home.
Oh nice, your old man’s barbeque is always melt-in-the-mouth delicious.
“My mates are talking in their heads and leaving me out again,” Leo interrupted.
“Shit, sorry,” I muttered as we immediately ended the conversation.
“I told my folks about us,” Maverick explained. “Briar just wanted to make sure that it had gone okay, since they hadn’t necessarily been pleased about us coming up here together for the holidays. I think Mom had planned to throw another open house at one of the properties she has listed and conveniently invite every eligible alpha in town.”
“And leave you struggling to flee the ball without leaving a glass slipper behind for them to track you with,” Leo quipped.
“Pretty much, not that I’d have been able to slip away unnoticed,” Maverick admitted as I dug into the yumminess on my plate. “Anytime she holds an event like that, she makes sure I’ve got a circle of alphas vying for my attention while plying me with food and drinks. Forget running out of there the way Cinderella did; I’m lucky if I can waddle at the end of the night. Not to mention that there’s always a handful that stick around through the cleanup, asking if I need a ride home. Gods I’m glad that shit is over. She can turn her attention to my brother, Krew, now, thank you very much.”
“And she will, too; you just wait until her annual spring house hop, and you’ll see.” I said.
“My poor brother is gonna wind up swarmed. I almost feel bad for him, but not nearly enough to wish that it was still me.”
“Will be nice to finally be allowed to go again,” I said.
“Why haven’t you been able to go?” Leo asked.
Maverick giggled at that. He’d set the tray aside to take a seat at the foot of the bed while we ate.
“His resting bitchface is so fearsome that he was intimidating some of the other alphas, to the point where they didn’t even try to talk to me, let alone flirt,” Maverick explained. “Mom finally caught on to it and forbade me from inviting him anymore.”
“Which sucks; they really are some cool events, with amazing food and houses that are absolutely to die for,” I chimed in.
“Yeah, she always sells two to three houses following a hop. One year, she sold four of the six she’d lined up for people to tour.”
“That was the year she had caterers do a theme at each one, isn’t it? I asked.
“Yup, the sunset cocktail extravaganza on the patio really helped sell that house by the lake,” Maverick explained. “Especially once folks got a look at the built-in bar beneath the wooden awning.”
“Oh man, having an outdoor space to enjoy would be amazing,” Leo muttered.
