Page 37 of Claws and Effect (Paranormal Dating Agency #87)

THIRTY-SIX

T he next morning over breakfast, Zyle mentioned needing to handle additional business downtown.

“Take your time,” Laykin said, already formulating her grandest plan yet. The moment his car disappeared, she dialed Frances Rubin.

“Good morning, dear,” Frances answered warmly. “How’s my impossible son treating you?”

“Wonderfully,” Laykin admitted, a smile in her voice. “Actually, I need your expertise. Would you happen to have the recipe for buttermilk fried chicken and honey biscuits?”

Silence greeted her request, then a soft intake of breath. “He told you about those?”

“Not exactly,” Laykin said. “Let’s just say I have my sources.”

“He hasn’t had them since his father’s last birthday.” Frances’s voice grew tender with memory. “It’s about time someone made them for him again.”

“I want to surprise him tonight,” Laykin explained. “Something special, just for us.”

“The key is soaking the chicken overnight, but since you’re on a deadline...” Frances launched into a modified recipe, her excitement palpable through the phone. “The secret to the biscuits is freezing the butter before grating it into the flour. And don’t overmix!”

“Thank you,” Laykin said sincerely. “This means a lot to me—to both of us.”

“You love him, don’t you?” Frances asked suddenly, her perceptiveness catching Laykin off guard.

The question hung in the air, voicing what Laykin had barely admitted to herself. Did she love Zyle Rubin—the arranged mate who had somehow become essential to her happiness?

“I do,” she whispered, the truth of it settling into her bones like certainty. “I really do.”

“Good,” Frances said, satisfaction evident in her tone. “He deserves someone who sees all of him, not just the parts he shows the world.”

After ending the call, Laykin stood motionless in the kitchen, the weight of her admission washing over her. She loved him—not the political match, not the convenient alliance, but the complex man with all his layers and contradictions. The man who pretended to be made of stone but treasured poetry and action movies with equal passion.

The realization should have terrified her. Instead, it filled her with a fierce determination. Tonight, she would show him exactly what he meant to her even if she couldn’t yet say the words aloud.