Page 26 of The Alpha and the Baker

“Oh! I read about that place,” she said enthusiastically. “I’ve been wanting to go since it opened, but it’s so hard to find time.”

“I’m glad to have helped us find that time. Hopefully it lives up to our expectations.”

“Fingers crossed!”

Once I was on the road, the conversation stalled a little, if only because my GPS tended to interrupt us every few sentences.

I would have loved to have gone without it, but I wasn’t familiar with the area where the restaurant was.

It was deep in the center of the upper-class part of the city, which was pretty much fairy territory through and through.

It wasn’t like shifters weren’t allowed there, but we didn’t like to hang around the contract-wielding magical folk.

But what we did talk about was pleasant.

I hadn’t realized that Penny and Polly had swung by for a custom order, but I was happy they’d done so.

I hadn’t wanted to pressure anyone into supporting Felicia’s bakery, but I had hoped that after tasting her goods, a few people would have taken the initiative on their own.

Speaking of which, I needed to check Wisdom and Charity’s baby registry.

I always made sure I attended such milestone events.

It wouldn’t be the end of the world if I missed one, but I liked to think that it showed my pack how involved their alpha was.

I wasn’t interested in being an aloof leader who only showed up in times of challenge.

I wanted to be a fixture that everyone knew they could trust and come to in times of conflict.

“Here we are,” I said with more than a bit of relief when I pulled into the parking lot.

I’d been a bit worried that the place would be fancy enough to have a valet, but thankfully it didn’t.

I didn’t know why the idea of an unknown employee driving my car made me so nervous when I wasn’t even that attached to it, but it definitely grated against mine and my inner wolf’s nerves.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that they’re so busy,” Felicia mused before I got out of the car and circled around the front to open her door for her. “It is a Friday night. I guess I haven’t been out in a long time.”

“Same boat here,” I said, offering her my arm once again.

I liked that it was becoming such a natural thing between us so quickly, because the way her hand rested on my forearm and her body heat radiated into my side made me feel incredibly masculine.

“I feel like I’m never motivated to leave our land during the winter. I mostly want to hole up and sleep.”

“Well, I don’t quite have land, but I feel the same in my apartment. Winter is for baking bread and reading books while snuggled up under warm, cozy covers.”

“That sounds perfect, to be honest.” And if my mind went to picturing Felicia in pajamas while doing exactly that, well, that was my business. “Add a fire going, and it’d be perfect.”

“Hah, it would, but I don’t know of many apartments in the city that have fireplaces.”

“Fair enough, fair enough. Perks of living out in the country.” Not only did my modest cabin have a fireplace, but it also had a wood stove. As a wolf, I ran hotter than humans, but I still enjoyed a nice, toasty home while a blizzard raged outside.

“Pros and cons, I’m sure.”

“Absolutely.”

It was nice to be able to speak without the GPS interrupting so much, but our streak ended when the hostess addressed us.

“Party of two?”

“Yes,” I said, giving her what I hoped was a polite smile.

I was in such a strange position of feeling relaxed and excited in Felicia’s presence, but also incredibly nervous.

Like I was going to mess up at any moment.

It certainly made a conflicting sort of mix within me, and my wolf wasn’t the biggest fan of it.

Probably because he didn’t understand the conflict. His logic was far simpler.

Compatible female is mate. Strong. Kind. Good with pups. Excellent, go mate.

It was a bit more complicated than that, but I didn’t bother explaining it. After all, I had to concentrate on my date.

“It’ll be a twenty-minute wait. May I have the name?”

“I have a reservation. Under McCallister.”

“Reservation? One moment.” The woman looked down in her book and turned a couple of pages before smiling. “Ah, Mr. McCallister. I’ll notify your server you’re here. Would you like a particular wine to be ready for you at the table?”

“No, thank you. I plan to do your tasting flight I saw on your website,” I said.

Although I wasn’t big into wine or beer, I figured Felicia deserved to be wined and dined.

I wasn’t big on alcohol, but when I did occasionally imbibe, I preferred the shifter-specific stuff brewed by my kind.

There were always interesting recipes and depths of flavors that I just couldn’t get with human stuff.

“If that’s all right with you?” I asked Felicia.

“Oh yeah, I would love that, thank you.” She blushed slightly, which only enamored me more. Knowing that I could make such a strong, self-determined woman flush did wonders to my ego. “I have a glass every once in a while, but I’d love to try some new things instead of the same ol’, same ol’.”

“Of course, sir, ma’am. It’ll be just one moment if you’d like to stand to the side for just a few moments.”

“No worries.”

The wait was more like ten minutes, but I wasn’t worried about it.

The place was fancy, all right, but not over the top.

There was definitely a lot of mood lighting that made me wonder how well the humans around me could see.

I couldn’t exactly turn to Felicia and ask how her species fared with dimmed lighting.

Yeah, that would definitely blow the lid on the whole shifter thing.

“Your seats are ready,” the hostess said, gesturing for us to follow her. It was better than her shouting my name or having one of those annoying buzzer things in our hands, that was for sure. So far, not so bad.

But things started to go downhill once we sat and our server approached us.

“Can I start you off with something to drink?” she said with no introduction, but that wasn’t a big deal.

Maybe she didn’t like to give her name because too many creepy old men tried to use it to hit on her.

I was under no illusions about just how difficult it was being a service worker, let alone a tipped service worker.

I just hoped that the gratuities she was getting were hefty.

“Ah yes, I mentioned to the hostess that we’d like to do your wine tasting flight.”

“She didn’t tell me that.”

The response was so quick and so terse. Felicia was just as taken aback as I was. I got over it, though. Maybe the hostess had repeatedly dropped the ball, and our server was a bit frustrated on a busy Friday night. Completely understandable.

“Right, well, we would like that, and I’d like a water as well.”

“Water for me, too,” Felicia added on.

“’Kay.”

And then she was gone.

Felicia and I exchanged looks, and I could tell we were thinking the same thing. I knew she probably also had some choice words since she dealt with all sorts of customers, but neither of us said anything.

Or at least we didn’t until the server came back, her face screwed up in a sour expression.

“We’re out of two of the wines,” she said, her tone making it sound like our fault.

“Ah, I see,” I murmured, and although I was starting to get a little flustered at how the date was tanking, I was also a little amused by the absurdity of it all. “Are there other varieties that could?—”

“No substitutions.”

Now, I liked to think that I was a patient, understanding guy, but I had a limit. And apparently, the waitress had just hit it. I could empathize that her job wasn’t easy, and she probably got blamed for a lot of things that weren’t anywhere near her fault, but she had no reason to snip at me.

“You know what,” Felicia replied quickly, her own tone having grown thorny. “I think we should go.” My stomach sank. Had my date really torpedoed so fast? “I think I saw a couple of food trucks down the block. Wanna go get some street meat?”

She wasn’t abandoning ship! And now that she’d mentioned it, street meat sounded awesome. If there was ever a time that I didn’t want a gyro, I was either dead or replaced by some sort of body-snatcher.

“Actually, that sounds great.”

The two of us stood up, and in less than twenty minutes of entering the restaurant, we were back outside.

“I can’t imagine they’ll last long if that’s how they treat their customers,” Felicia remarked with a laugh as the cool night air hit us. “I get accidentally running out of something, but not offering any substitutions? Whack! ”

She said it with such dramatic emphasis on that last word that I couldn’t stop the sharp laugh that punched its way out of me.

“Maybe she was just having a bad night.”

“I hope that was just it, because jeez. She made me feel like an inconvenience for being there.”

I nodded. “Yeah, like we were relatives who showed up at her place without asking.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it was like.” She tipped her head back and laughed, and my gaze locked onto the elegant column of her neck.

How was literally every single inch of her so utterly gorgeous?

So enrapturing? “Oh, BTW, we gotta get a lot of napkins. I do not want to get anything on this dress, and I always manage to drip something on me.”

“You could always get something without sauce,” I teased. “You know, for safety’s sake.”

The look she gave me was comedic gold. “I would rather die.”

“Fair enough.”

We both shared a laugh and, much to my delight, the first cart we came across was full of my favorites. I ordered a falafel plate, a gyro, and some kebabs before looking at Felicia. “What would you like?”