Starved. What time is it, anyway?” I followed him, my feet bare and cold. “Let me get my slippers.”
I returned to the kitchen to find a meal in progress. “It’s late afternoon, so I figured we’d go with dinner. Do you mind leftovers?”
“Not at all. You’ve made so many delicious things, but I thought I’d gobbled most of them down.”
“Most, but there’s enough left of each that I think we can have a small buffet.” Judebustled around, heating each of the dishes and placing them on the table while I set it. It was one job he’d let me do so far.
Fortunately, we had plenty, despite my pigginess, to satisfy our appetites, and when we were finished, we retreated to the living room and curled up together in front of the fire. “That was delicious as always,” I said, tucking him close to me. “I’ll take your leftovers over a fancy restaurant meal any day.”
“I hope that doesn’t mean we’ll never dine out.” He thrust out his lower lip in an adorable pout. “We are in Oliver Creek after all.”
There was a question…where would we live? We still hadn’t talked about anything past the snowfall and new year, even though we did mate. I was still a little worried that he might realize at some point that I was too much to deal with. My remaining brother and most of my cousins felt that way at times.
But as to eating out? “Omega, we will go anywhere and do anything you like. Of course we’ll go to restaurants. It will be my pleasure.”
We sat for a while, watching the flames leap and dance when my gaze landed on the mantel and mademe think. “Omega, you love everything about the holidays, yes?”
“Well, not everything. I know there can be tension for some families but I do love Christmas. It’s so much fun for me to be able to bake cookies and other treats that give others pleasure.”
“But you do bake all year?” I had some ideas brewing. “It’s your full-time job?”
“I started out baking just for the holidays for extra money, but gradually I got more orders and then I quit my job as a waiter to do it full-time.”
“What are your dreams?”
“I have my business, and now I’ve found my mate. I have my little home…I guess a family one day.”
A family. I could just imagine how he’d look rounded with my child. “What I was thinking…you said you’re happy with your business the way it is, but what I wondered was whether you might want that brick-and-mortar we were talking about.”
“You mean the donut shop?”
“Or cookies. I know I saw a bakery in town but maybe you could findyour own niche.”
“I’m okay, really. Maybe someday, but it will be a big investment, and I don’t have that kind of money.” He rubbed his cheek on my shirt. “I’m pretty happy right now.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time building my business, and I’ve gotten a few offers to buy it. I was thinking, if you would consider keeping me around, that I could accept one of those offers and move here. It would give me enough to set up a new company for me as well as the bakery for you. If you want it.”
He sat up straight. “You would do that for me?”
“I kind of get the impression you like Oliver Creek, and I did a few minutes of research. It’s growing fast. I could easily get in on that market, and so can you. If you want…me. Even if you don’t, I’d help you.”
“Alpha, of course I want you. And honestly? I’d love to have a real shop. But it would only be a loan. I’d pay you back every penny once the bakery is on its feet. I wouldn’t want to compete with the others here, but a strictly cookie place? There’s room for that.”
“Then we’ll get started on it all after the first of the year.”
“Why wait?”
I stood up and brought him with me, lifting him into my arms. “Because I plan to keep you very busy between now and then.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jude
“Happy anniversary!” Ripley walked in with a bouquet of flowers. The first bouquet of the spring with pink and white tulips. It was gorgeous. Flowers of spring always were.
I panicked inside, my chest seizing up. Had I forgotten something? How could I forget an anniversary, I reminded myself. We hadn’t even been together a year.
“Anniversary?” I asked, shutting the oven door on our dinner. My mate loved my lasagna, and the afternoon would be busy with the order for a baby shower due the next day.
