Page 11 of The Alpha and the Baker

“I see,” I murmured, desperately scrambling for an exit to the sidetrack I hadn’t intended for us to get on. “Biscuits and gravy?” I asked.

“What? Oh! Yeah, that looks yummy.”

I didn’t know if she was just being gracious and accepting my fumble so we could move past it, or if she was just that tipsy, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Oh, I assure you, they are very yummy. Especially if you have them with any of the smoked meat.” She giggled slightly, and I sent her a curious look. “What?”

“Just remembering something you said earlier. You really do love smoked meats.”

“We all do,” I said with a laugh. “I think it’s a requirement of being in the McCallister pa— family .”

“I wonder what kind of familial gene leads to that.”

I knew the answer to that, but I couldn’t exactly tell an inebriated human woman that we were all shifters and craved vast amounts of protein, particularly meat.

We could derive a lot from cheese, eggs, even tofu and other meat substitutes, which helped quite a bit in the modern age, but when it came down to it, we shifters were omnivores in our human form but largely carnivores in our wolf form, mimicking the wild animals that we were connected to.

“Yeah, I wonder,” I said instead.

We made a few more comments back and forth about the possibility of a genetic love of grilling, but soon both Felicia’s and my plates were piled high. From there, we went over to the drink table, and she bee-lined back to the bucket of ice full of the kids’ drinks.

“We have other non-alcoholic stuff if you want it,” I said. “You don’t have to drink the juice.”

She just looked at me with this sweet, somewhat bleary-eyed expression on her heart-shaped face.

I’d already noticed her strong cheekbones before, but they really made her bone structure so striking.

“No, these are perfect. I haven’t had one of these in ages.

My mother used to buy these for me as a treat. ”

“Did she?” I asked, probably a bit more curious than I should be. But I had a strange desire to find out more about this interesting woman. I’d never imagined that when I’d scrambled to find a bakery that morning, I would stumble across someone who intrigued both me and my wolf.

“Yeah. We couldn’t get them very often, ya know?

She was a single mom, so she had to scrimp and save all the time to make sure we never went hungry and that I could excel in school.

But even with all that weighing her down every day, she still found a way to bring so much joy to my childhood.

We’d go to parks when she had the energy, and no matter how tight things were, she always made my birthdays special.

When I broke my leg when I was ten, and I know that was expensive, she never once brought up money. ”

Felicia tapped her fingers idly against the side of the plastic barrel, and I got the impression that she was lost in thought.

“She was so cool, my mom. I know there are a lot of stereotypes about Asian parents, but I really couldn’t have asked for anyone better.

She genuinely made the world a better place, and I’ll always be grateful to her for how she raised me.

I genuinely wouldn’t have my bakery if it weren’t for her.

She always wanted me to know that I was loved and that she supported me. ”

I didn’t miss the bittersweet melancholy in the woman’s tone as she swayed there gently, the people in line behind her waiting patiently.

Normally, there was a lot of hustle and bustle to keep things flowing in the line, but considering the enhanced hearing of shifters, I knew everyone in our immediate area could hear her weave her beautiful words about her mother.

It didn’t take a lot of brain cells to figure out that her mother must have died.

I… I couldn’t imagine that.

Even though I’d lost my father far too soon, that had been early in my life.

The tragedy had brought my mother and I closer together than ever.

She supported me in everything, and I was immensely grateful for that.

I knew one day it would be her time to go, but when that happened, I would have a lot of family and support to help grieve her.

Did Felicia have anyone? It didn’t seem like it.

But it was touching, really, to hear her talk about the woman who raised her in such a breezy, sort of tipsy earnestness. There was no guile to her, no deception. She wasn’t trying to convince me of anything. She was just recalling beloved memories with a lovely soul who she missed.

It didn’t surprise me that her words moved me—I liked to think I’d always been a fairly empathetic person—but what I hadn’t expected was to get a little choked up.

And now her answer about her family never meeting up took on an entirely new meaning.

It seemed that not only had I stuck my whole foot in my mouth, but I had decided to chew the boot and the laces.

“She sounds lovely,” I said quietly, not wanting to interrupt Felicia’s concentration but also feeling like I needed to say something.

“She was,” Felicia said with a faraway smile.

“She really, really, was.” She heaved a sigh, and the softness in her expression faded.

“I think she would have loved something like this. To have a family that was so big that you need a field to party together. But it was always just the two of us. And now...”

Felicia took a deep, steadying breath, and honestly, I needed to as well. I wasn’t really on the verge of crying, but my throat was definitely tightening, and the backs of my eyes most definitely stung.

“Now it’s just me.”

That wouldn’t do. That wouldn’t do at all.

Sure, I had just met her, but I was certain right down to my core that she didn’t deserve the loneliness that so layered her tone. Sure, maybe humans couldn’t actually use subharmonics to communicate like a shifter, but I swore I could hear it staining her words as clear as day.

I had to do something. It wasn’t in my nature to let people be in pain. So, I cleared my throat, and tried to sound as chipper as possible. “Well, Gammy McCallister already thought you were one of her many nieces, so for today, you’re definitely family here.

“You’ll never have to be on your own when you’re around the McCallisters.”