I glanced toward the baking aisle.
“No. Nothing from scratch, nothing out of a box. Hie thee to the bakery section. That-a-way. Cheesecake, pudding cake, donuts, pie. Baked by someone who knows how to turn off an oven before the fire department shows up.” He made shooing motions.
“I can bake,” I muttered to the dragon pig. It justoinked and wagged its tail.
“You’ll have plenty of time to sulk in the bakery department.” Crow dug around in his pocket and held up a bottle cap for the dragon pig. It pecked it out of his fingers in one quick swipe, chewed and swallowed.
“Stop bribing my pig,” I said.
Crow laughed and made more shooing motions.
I worked my way back to the bakery, much more slowly than the speed-run-power-walk Crow had just performed.
Chicken wasn’t a bad idea, and serving it cold left some leeway if Ryder got delayed. I pulled out my phone and checked for messages. None.
I thought about calling him again, decided that was too much, but maybe a text wouldn’t be a bad idea in case the job site was too noisy for him to hear his phone ring.
Dinner tonight? Picking up enough for two. Dessert too.
I read it over again, added a little heart and sent it before I did any more second guessing.
“All right,” I said to absolutely no one, “what dessert says, ‘Hey, we need to talk’? Pie? Crullers?”
I took my time to case the joint. I waffled between the key lime pie and the raspberry sour cream pudding cake. Finally decided on the cake, which would go well with whipped cream.
I toted my bounty back to the deli aisle, but Crow wasn’t there. A quick scan down the rows, and I finally spotted him by the wine.
“Dessert.” I dropped the plastic box of cake and spray can of whipped cream next to the dragon pig. “Are you done sticking your nose in my personal business?”
“Hardly. Beer—he likes the Haystack, right?” Crow held up our local brew made by Chris Lagon—our local gillman.
“Wine—you like red, right? Not what I’d pair with chicken, but it will make the lemon pepper pop.” He put a bottle of red with a boring label in the basket.
“Good-bye, Delaney,” I said. “Didn’t mean to take over your life like you aren’t an adult who has been shopping for herself since she was seventeen. Didn’t mean to treat you like you don’t know how to put one simple meal on the table.”
Crow grinned, and there was a flash in his eyes. Not god power exactly, because he’d put that down to vacation here, and I knew it was stashed out at Frigg’s place. But all the gods had a little something that made them stand out from mortals if you knew how to look for it.
Crow’s looked a lot like bossy busy-body.
“Maybe it’s that attitude of yours that’s pushing him away,” he mused.
“Watch it.”
“Or your cooking skills. The lack of them.”
“Go away.”
“Or that your job gives you more power than him, and his masculinity feels threatened.”
“Now you’re just—”
“My masculinity feels just fine, thanks.”
I couldn’t help it, my heart went all fluttery. My cheeks and neck seared hot as a fire-red blush rushed under my skin. Ryder had that effect on me. Ryder had had that effect on me since we were in grade school.
Crow gave me a big wink. “Ryder, I didn’t see you there.”
I turned. It took me several seconds before I had the brain to speak.
