Page 37 of Crushes and Confections

“Perv,” I said affectionately, loving the new shift between us.

Since we were already downtown, we walked over to Thai, Thai Again, to grab some takeout.

Michelle saw Riley and me first when we walked through the door, waving to us excitedly.

“Table for tw—four?” she asked, confused. Her eyes darted to the alphas, who were very clearly standing too close to be anything other than with us. Thankfully there wasn’t judgment there, only curiosity. In this town, everything could be turned into gossip.

“Actually we’re going to place a takeout order tonight, Michelle,” I told her. “Ri and I will take our usual and then whatever these two want. Have you had a chance to meet Adrien or Vance yet?”

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Michelle,” Adrien cut in. His voice was strong and confident, and I was so proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone. It was strange to be proud of someone who was a new addition to my life, but at this point, I knew how uncomfortable he likely felt. “Did your daughter enjoy her treat?”

“She wouldn’t stop raving about it,” she said before turning towards me. “He made the cutest little unicorn out of chocolate for Vanessa. Between your cake and his chocolate she was literally in birthday heaven. I didn’t know the two of you were friends!”

“More than,” Adrien corrected. “I’m glad to hear Vanessa enjoyed it.”

It was an innocent comment, one that probably wouldn’t have blown up in any other town, but Michelle had gone to school with our parents. And her daughter Vanessa? Yeah, she was our age and just living her best life with rainbow cake and chocolate unicorns apparently.

“Oh. My. God.”

“Michelle, really—“

“OH MY GOD!”

Riley grabbed my hand, bracing for impact.

“ARE THEY COURTING YOU, CLAIRE?”

The volume in the restaurant came to a stand still, everyone turning around to stare at us.

I nodded my head, squeezing Riley’s hand tighter. “Riley too.”

“You’re lucky I’m madly in love with you,” he said under his breath. “Need I remind you we haven’t even told our parents yet?”

“I guess we better get on that now,” I hissed back. Truthfully, I found this hilarious, though I did hope the alphas were coping alright.

Cheers rose around the restaurant, Vance and Adrien stepping closer to us as if to protect us.

Michelle shouted back into the kitchen before coming around and wrapping her arms around us, pulling in the alphas too.

“Oh, I’m so happy for you! We all knew Riley and you would end up together, and now you found your pack too! When is the courting ceremony? I need to make sure I get my camera for it.”

“Well, they just asked us today,” I said, trying to defuse the situation.

“Oh not a problem, I’ll give Janet a ring and your moms and we’ll get right on it,” she said before pulling away. “Lots to do.”

A second later Riley and my phones went off, both of us letting out a groan as we let go of each other’s hands and sent a text off to our parents.

“I know you warned us this was a big deal in Holiday Hollow, but I’m beginning to think I underestimated that,” Adrien said.

“I’m almost thirty,” I said. “You have to know it’s basically unheard of to be an omega and be unmated at my age. No one here cares, of course, as long as I’m happy, but they’ve all been holding their breath waiting for Riley and I to settle down.”

“There won’t be any settling with us, omega,” he said with a growl.

“I’m going to hold you to that, alpha. I’m proud of my life and what I’ve accomplished.”

“You should be,” Adrien said, his green eyes blazing into mine. “You’re parfait, mon chou. I’m grateful life led us here.”

Warmth washed over me at his words, and suddenly all I wanted was to be home with him already. I wondered if he would feed me noodles while I sat on Vance’s lap.

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