Page 3

Gideon

The smash cake and the one for the adults at the party were my favorite things to bake. As I prepared the batter, I always thought of the little person who would be celebrating their very first birthday with their family.

So much promise. They could grow up to be anyone or anything. And their family, their moms or dads, would be there to watch and share in the adventure. I tried not to be envious of that and just enjoy my small part of the whole thing.

Which I usually managed just fine. Fate had not seen fit to give me a mate, but my life was pretty good with my business and friends, and I tried to remember to be grateful for those things. But I still hoped one day to bake a smash cake for a little one of my own.

Shrugging, I began the cake ordered by the panicked customer. He’d given me a color theme but hadn’t actually said what flavor, so I went with my standby of a vanilla bean cake with a vanilla pastry cream filling. The little ones often preferred less strong tastes, and some hadn’t even had chocolate by their first birthday, so vanilla bean was a go-to choice.

After blending sugar and butter until light and fluffy, I scraped the seeds of a full vanilla bean into the mixture. Dry ingredients and sour cream or buttermilk were added in thirds of each until I had a fluffy delicious-scented batter ready to put in three nine-inch round pans and the small one for the smash cake.

Usually I was doing one thing after another so quickly, I didn’t get to take the time to enjoy it, but with everything else for the day completed and the doors locked, I was able to put extra time and care into the decorations for the smash cake and the larger one as well.

Boxing the cakes, I locked the door behind me and headed out to make the delivery on my way home. It wasn’t far out of my way, fortunately, and I’d soon be home having dinner.

The address I’d been given was in a section of town where people often landed when moving here with little money. Our reputation as a thriving town with new businesses opening all the time and job opportunities had brought in not just tourists and investors but people who looking for a new life, and many ended up here, at least at the beginning. A far cry from a city slum, it was still not fancy, mostly small apartments and older homes that could use some work.

I parked in front of the building and carried the cake box up to the door, where I rang the bell. No answer, and I didn’t hear any sounds of a party or even a television inside. After a moment, I rang again, I had agreed to take payment when I arrived, so the thought that maybe the order was a prank did cross my mind before someone called, “Coming,” from inside the house.

I shifted the cake in my hands and waited another minute at least before the door started to open and the scent of fresh, sweet peaches filled my nostrils. The man who answered wore jeans and a T-shirt, but his feet were bare and he had a case of bedhead that surprised me at this time in the afternoon. But his scruffiness just added to his appeal, and my bear surged up from where he lounged deep within me to announce, Mate .

Everything I’d suppressed about my hopes of finding my other half surged to the forefront. He had been here in my town all along, and I’d just not happened to run into him yet. Fate really knew what she was doing.

“Thank you so much for baking the cake and bringing it here. I know it was above and beyond the call of duty.”

“Hi.” I’d never been the most eloquent of bears, but this was sad even for me. When a person met their mate, they should have something to say that they could remember all their life. “I didn’t mind.”

Ugh! Yeah, words just flowed from me.

“No, it was a lot of trouble to go to at the last minute, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

“Really, it’s fine. My good deed for the day.”

His smile lit up his whole face, making him even more attractive if that was possible. “Let me get my wallet.” He disappeared inside and then came back. “Cash is okay?”

“Perfect. I don’t have a card swiper with me.” And usually I would have insisted on a card on the phone for such a special request—if I even granted it.

He counted out the bills, not leaving many in the wallet, and handed them to me. “Oh, and I want to give you a tip.”

“No tip for me.” I wasn’t taking the last of his money.

“Are you sure? It doesn’t seem fair.”

“I’m the owner and baker of the shop.”

“Even so, you went to a lot of trouble.” He still held his wallet as if he was going to insist, but I shook my head.

“Positive.”

“Well, thank you. I will tell everyone at the party about the kindness you did for Wyatt. Most of my guests are daddy playdate friends, so they will for sure need birthday cakes at some point.”

A cloud of peach scent and bear excitement was clouding my brain and hiding something I needed to remember. “We always appreciate the business. Listen, after you help with the—”

“Dada!”

My focus left the omega’s face and dropped to find a little child clinging to his leg. “Oh, this must be Wyatt.” And what I should have remembered. I was here to bring a cake for a child’s birthday party. In the fog of meeting the omega, I hadn’t even considered that he’d be one of the fathers. “Happy Birthday.”

I made my escape as quickly as possible before I could make a fool of myself. For a minute there, I thought I saw a happy future, but now…now, I saw only what I could never have.