“Oh, hey.”Sage grinned.“I hope you like pancakes.”
Will really,reallyliked Sage’s blue eyes.They were warm; certainly warmer than Peter’s.
“Is there syrup?”Will dared ask.
He would be good without syrup, and the pile of fluffy golden-brown goodness on the counter made him salivate, but if there was syrup, then this would be heaven.
I haven’t had homemade pancakes with syrup in…I’m not even sure.Grandma made them once, didn’t she?
Sage stopped swinging his hips.“Oh.Shit.I put the last of that in my coffee yesterday.”
“Why’d you put syrup in your coffee?Who does that?”
Will clamped his mouth shut.Think, then talk.Don’t make him mad.Be nice.
Sage shrugged and flipped another pancake before moving the pile he’d already made to the Formica kitchen table opposite the stove.
“I ran out of sugar.”Sage frowned.“Hmm.Can you do strawberry jam?Homemade strawberry jam?”He cha-cha-ed to the fridge and opened it.Will saw a good dozen jars of what looked like a selection of homemade jams.“Or blackberry, if you prefer.There’s plenty of that.”
“I like strawberries.”
Will sat down at the table, hoping it was okay to sit.There was a big clock in the kitchen, an antique-looking one with a smiling face painted on it mounted on the wall above the table.It ticked the seconds away.Apparently, they’d slept past the point where lunch was normal.But no one had made Will breakfast in ages, and he wasn’t going to complain, even if there wasn’t any syrup.
“Awesome.”Sage put down the jar in front of Will and took plates and cutlery from a cabinet and drawers.
Will liked watching the witch move, the way he spun from one place to the next, then back to the stove to take a pancake out and pour more batter.It all seemed to be so effortless, and he moved to the music as if he were a trained dancer.
Will eyed the food in the center of the table.He was already salivating, couldn’t wait to dig in.
“Why aren’t you eating?You don’t do gluten or something?Any allergies?”
Sage’s question broke Will’s daydream about fried batter.He cleared his throat and looked at his plate.
“It’s a wolf thing.Like, the alpha eats first, you know?”
Sage broke out in giggles.“Oh, fuck, dude.Did you just call me ‘the alpha’?Because if you did, I might like it, but I’m also really not.”
“It’s just…it’s just a wolf thing.”
Will wasn’t used to explaining this.He’d never had to before.He’d been with pack all his life, and for the last four years, no one had cared, so he’d eaten what and when he could, whenever he was given food.
“Well—” Sage flipped another pancake.“—can you eat if I tell you to eat?”
This might be a test.Peter told me to behave.If it’s a test, I want to pass.I don’t want Sage to think I don’t respect him or that I really have no manners.
Will swallowed the saliva that was pooling in his mouth.“I’ll just wait for you.”
After a moment, Sage accepted that with a shrug.He covered what was left of the batter with plastic wrap, put it into the fridge after turning off the stove, then sat down at the table.
After Sage started eating, he watched with a wide grin plastered on his face as Will demolished half of the pancake tower with focused speed and precision.
Strawberry jam is even better than syrup.Who’d have thunk.This stuff is divine.Will glanced up.Did he make this?Can he make pancakesandjam?
Will stopped chewing only briefly when Sage got up to get the pot from the coffee machine and poured himself a mug on the way from the counter to the table.When the witch sat back down, Will resumed his chewing, but he was watching Sage.Sage was eyeing his coffee with a deep frown.
“You know, I forgot the sugar again yesterday,” Sage said.
Then he looked at the jar of strawberry jam.Will had used a spoon to scoop it out and slather it on his pancakes, and the spoon was still in there, the rose design on the end of it catching the afternoon light.
