Page 13 of Cold Foot Sentry (Wreck’s Mountains #6)

Tammy couldn’t think past the buzzing in her head.

She gripped the cool handle of her coffee mug tighter and stared at the wreckage of the kitchen table. Or…what used to be the kitchen table. Now it was just a pile of rubble.

They’d broken it while fucking.

She pursed her lips against a baffled smile.

She’d been a part of an experience that demolished furniture. She and Tawk had done that. Together.

One thing was for sure and for certain—sex with him was not vanilla or predictable at all.

She recalled the warmth of his dragon wings curled around her, and the texture of them against her bare skin. She hadn’t even realized shifters could do partial Changes.

The alarm on her phone startled her, and she spilled a splash of coffee rushing to get to it. She hated the grating noise, but it was the only alarm tone that was guaranteed to wake her up in the mornings.

One more day until graduation.

One day since Aaron had threatened her feeling of sanctuary in Darby.

Seven hours since Tawk had fucked her senseless.

And…she checked the time on her phone…fifteen minutes until she needed to be dropping her cupcakes off at the community bake sale. Shit!

How long had she been standing here remembering how Tawk had made her body feel last night?

Tammy chugged her coffee like a sorority sister on tequila and rinsed her mug in a rush. She didn’t even bother to put it into the dishwasher before she was flying into action, running containers of cupcakes out to her car.

One last quick check in the mirror, and she was ready.

It wasn’t until she’d locked up the house, rushed to her truck and put the key into the ignition that she remembered the damn dead battery, or whatever was wrong with her rig.

“Please magically work,” she huffed on a breath as she twisted the key in the ignition.

Her rig roared to life immediately.

Wait…what? It had never sounded like this before.

Tammy sat there frozen, listening to the strong idle of her truck.

“Hold up,” she murmured to herself as she shoved her door open and jogged to the front of her 4Runner.

She shoved the hood up and her mouth fell open as she saw the brand-new battery installed.

Arms locked above her head, propping up the hood, she moved her head to study around the battery. He’d done extra too. Holy moly!

Shocked, Tammy let the hood fall and pushed the top down to make sure it latched securely.

She stood back and stared at her rig. White exhaust was billowing from the back, and it sounded so strong.

When had he done this? The parts store must’ve opened at six this morning, and he came back and worked on it?

But…she frowned. He’d left so quickly after he’d slept with her last night. Almost awkwardly fast. He’d been very quiet.

But…then he’d woken up early and bought the parts and installed them without her even knowing?

Her heart was hammering in her chest, and there was this strange fluttering sensation in her middle.

What did all of this mean?

A slow smile stretched her lips.

He liked her.

No man would’ve gone through the effort of waking up early and purchasing car parts and installing them if he didn’t care. He could’ve slept with her and never talked to her again. Lots of men would’ve probably done that, but Tawk had made sure she had a good ride to her errand this morning.

That held weight with her. She respected it.

Shaking her head in pleased surprise, she climbed back into her truck and zoned out driving to Vaughn Gait Field. This space was usually used for a weekend farmer’s market, but today was the community bake sale, and the vendors were in full swing of setting up their tents and booths.

This was a once-a-year event, apparently, and she’d signed up just to do some networking in the community.

Tammy was still the new girl in town, and sometimes the Cold Foot Crew was busy.

She liked small towns and wanted to get to know what this place was about, and community events were a good way to see what was what, and who was who around here.

Plus, she genuinely enjoyed baking. Usually, she baked alone to relieve stress, but it had honestly been fun making these cupcakes with Tawk last night. They had made a good little team.

She wondered what he was doing. Probably sleeping.

He hadn’t left her place until late and then got up early to fix her car.

He was probably crashed at the hotel. Maybe she should get him some coffee and drop it by his room later.

Maybe the front desk could point her in the direction of his room.

Or bring him a couple of leftover cupcakes.

Something to say thank you for what he’d done to her car, and also to her body last night.

He'd loosened up some tension inside of her that she hadn’t realized she was carrying.

Today, she felt like a million bucks.

There was no walk of shame, and she felt zero percent bad for a one-night-stand with him.

She just felt…steady.

She harbored no regrets at all.

“What a ho,” she teased herself under her breath with a little laugh.

She parked and hopped out, pulled on a hoodie because the morning was crisp and cool, and then pulled out the first two containers of cupcakes. She made her way through the cars in the grass lot and at the clearing, scanned the tents for Harley’s tent.

Harley and Timber had signed up for this a month ago, before Tammy had even known about it, so when she’d signed up, her cupcakes had been siphoned over to a tent called Sugar and Spice.

Harley’s tent was bright orange with a big sign that read Shifter Sweets on the front.

She and Timber were busy organizing pastries under it.

They waved when they saw her. “I’ll come by in a minute,” she called.

“Need help?” Harley asked.

“Nah, it’ll just take me a few trips. Where are the guys?”

“Working,” Timber answered.

Tammy nodded and headed down a row of tents, scanning the signs for Sugar and Spice. It was a cupcake-only tent, and a big cartoon cupcake with legs and arms and a smile was painted onto a big sign in front.

She greeted a lady who was setting up a stack of free stickers for kids next to the payment center at the end of the table under the tent.

“Sign in right there,” the woman said with a grin. “Are you Tammy?”

“Yes!”

“I could tell from the cupcakes. You’re the only vanilla flavor in this tent. I’m Laura.”

“It’s good to meet you,” she said, setting the cupcakes where Laura pointed.

She shook her hand and felt the nerves slip away by the moment.

She would spend some time in this tent today in case Laura needed any help, and the woman seemed genuine with her smiles and was chattering about the menu she’d printed out last night and put in a pretty antique white picture frame.

“I’m going to grab the rest,” Tammy said. “I’ll be right back.”

“If you need help, grab one of those guys,” Laura said, pointing down the row. A trio of men were setting up tents for vendors, and her view of one in particular had her heart stuttering inside of her chest.

Tawk clicked one of the canopy legs into place and bent down, grabbed another heavy canopy from a pile of them and strode over to the next empty spot.

“From the looks of it, you’ve just spied the hot one,” Laura said quietly. “He’s got a lot of us ladies chattering. We think he’s a shifter.”

And hot he was. Tawk was wearing a heather gray T-shirt that clung to his muscles, a backwards baseball cap, and jeans over work boots. She was staring, so when he turned and looked right into her eyes like he’d known she was here the whole time, she knew she’d been busted.

Hi , he mouthed.

She gave this lame little wave, just wiggling her fingers.

Laura laughed. “Girl, I get it. I’m happily married, and old, but good Lord, if I was single and about fifteen years younger, I would be chasing that man. No ring on that finger. Not that I am checking. Again, I’m happily married. That’s just what Joanne said.”

“Joanne,” Tammy mumbled softly, watching Tawk set up another canopy with the confidence of an Alpha male who knew exactly what he was doing with this show.

“Joanne is a couple tents down. She’s with Cornerstone Baked Goodies. Girl, these cupcakes are good.”

Tammy ripped her gaze from Tawk’s butt in those fitted jeans to Laura, who was indeed chewing a bite of one of the cupcakes Tammy had brought.

Laura held up a few dollar bills and put them into the cash box.

“I’m making sure we don’t have any duds in this tent,” she said with a wink.

“That and this is my favorite flavor. I was excited when the list came out and yours had been given to my tent. Simple sells the best here, every single year. And all proceeds go to Darby sports league. It’ll cover the kids’ equipment for three sports this season.

Anything leftover goes to the toy drive in the winter.

This is the biggest the bake sale has ever been before…

” Laura was rambling in a friendly way, but Tammy was distracted by Tawk as he talked to one of the other guys and gestured over toward her.

He nodded at the guy and then sauntered straight for her, looking like a damn supermodel. His eyes were bright, and glowing, and the smile on his lips reached them, making him look even more handsome. He didn’t even look tired. He looked…happy to see her.

“Good morning, stranger,” she said as he approached.

His grin grew. That man could carry a smile, good Lord. He tilted his head toward the parking lot. “I’ll help you bring in the rest.”

“Bring in the rest,” she repeated softly.

“Of the cupcakes.”

“Oh! Right. The cupcakes. Of course. That would be…very helpful.”

Movement caught her eye as Tawk headed in the direction of the parked cars, and Laura was under the Sugar and Spice tent with two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Heat dumping into Tammy’s cheeks, she shuffled her feet to catch up to Tawk’s long strides. “Um what are you doing here? Besides stalking me, obviously,” she teased.