Page 35 of His Determined Bear

“If you could see yourself in a mirror right now, you wouldn’t have to ask that question,” Hunter replied, and I could feel that shrewd gaze on me.

“It doesn’t help your case any that Kian and Papa stopped by today on their walk with the twins,” Gabe said

I groaned and knocked my forehead against the desk.

Shit. My Papa saw me like this.

“Let me guess. he saw the kitchen and decided everything wasn’t okay?” I pushed my hand through my now unruly hair and sighed.

“If I didn’t know better, I would say a bomb had gone off in there,” Hunter mused.

“Haven’t you ever heard of experimenting? I’m just trying to come up with something new,” I said defensively.

Austin snorted, “We’ve seen how you experiment with a recipe, and your space is still spotless. Your kitchen looks like a tornado went through it, followed by a drunk toddler.”

“I guess it’s time to change the locks on my door,” I muttered.

All I got for that response was laughter from my brothers.

“Are you done avoiding yet?” Gabe asked when he stopped cackling like a demented goat.

I shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You know, maybe we should sick Papa and Rhys on him,” Austin mused.

I winced. Yeah, that was definitely not what my rapidly increasing headache needed.

“Listen, Graham, Vaughn called me,” Austin said.

“He’s fired,” I growled.

“Ha, that’s funny,” Hunter snorted.

“He said you’ve been getting in here before he does every day this week. And that by the time he shows up, you have more than half the pastries ready to go, while the other half is already baking in the oven.” My brother kept speaking like I hadn’t opened my mouth.

“The last time I checked, that was my job. You know to run a bakery, you need baked goods.” I shot them a duh look. Although with how tired I was, I probably did not pull it off well.

“Now spill. As you so helpfully pointed out, we have jobs to get to. And you look like you need directions to your bed,” Hunter said.

Resigned that this might never end, I might as well get it over with. My brothers could give mountains a run for their money when it came to finding out what they wanted to know. Which meant they would not be moving until I spilled my guts.

“Are my brownies dry?” I asked.

Hunter's brow furrowed. Gabe's head tilted to the side as if he couldn’t understand what I was asking. And Austin looked at me like I’d said purple pigs had overrun Asheville. They looked between themselves like they each thought the other one had the answer.

“My mate tried my brownies, and he said they were dry.” I wasn’t sure why that was what I led with.

The room was silent for a moment before they broke out in congratulations.

“You found your mate. That’s wonderful,” Gabe said.

“I’m happy and jealous for you bro,” Hunter admitted smiling. “it looks like I’m going to be the last man standing.”

Austin snorted at Hunter, then grinned at me, “I can’t wait to meet him, Gray. Congratulations.”

I hung my head, “He didn’t like my brownies, but I guess I get it, the recipe he gave me was actually pretty good. But I’ve been tweaking mine. I guess I could add his to the menu and call it the Cooper brownie.”

“Cooper? That’s his name?” Hunter asked.

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