Page 47 of Choose the Bears

“Nice to meet you, Hannah. Do you think the kids could give me a bit of a hand? I’m short one currently.”

I held up my injured hand.

“Can we?”

I felt a little bad, but Ava’s face lit up at the idea, Kaleb going along for the ride. Hannah hesitated, then seemed to remember where she was.

“Yes, but you need to listen to Imogen. No mucking around.”

The light dimmed in Ava’s eyes considerably, making me wonder what she’d seen, but pondering that wouldn’t get her pancakes, so she nodded.

“If you could grab one of those jugs of milk?” I asked the girl.

“Are you sure?” Hannah tensed immediately. “Be careful. Don’t spill any!”

But she wouldn’t. The girl’s entire attention was trained on carrying the milk into the kitchen, though I admit I let out a little sigh when she put it on the counter.

“Good job,” I said. “Now, who’s good at cracking eggs?”

Neither of them were,and I think there was more than a little eggshell in there. I’d found a blender and whipped the mix together that way. They didn’t care, clustering close as I started to melt butter into the pan.

“Not too close,” I said. “This is gas and those flames are hot. Now, what kind of animal do you want as a pancake?”

“Animal pancakes?” Ava asked with a quizzical expression. “There’s no such thing.”

“Sure there is. You just wait and see. I’m going to make…” My cheeks flushed as I remembered last night’s dream. A power fantasy if ever there was one, I’d re-imagined Asher as a polar bear, ready to tear my enemies limb from limb, right before— “A bear. A polar bear because the pancake mix is pretty white.” Using the jug, I managed to pour out a mangled looking bear into the pan.

“That’s not a bear,” Kaleb scoffed.

“It kind of is. That’s the head, those are the paws.” Ava gestured to the pan. “He needs a blueberry for an eye!”

She leapt down from the chair she was standing on, ducking back into the dining room and retrieving a berry before handing it to me to place in the pan. It made the bear pancake look a bit owl eyed, but the kids seemed happy about it. When cooked, I slid it onto a plate and then cut it in two for the kids, adding some honey for sweetness. Lemon and sugar would’vebeen better, but we had to make do with what we had. The kids declared it tasty, demanding more bears, right as they walked in the door.

“And what do we have here?” Kyle sniffed the air and then prowled closer, the kids starting to giggle. “That smells a lot better than cereal.”

“Pancakes!” Kaleb declared, holding up a chunk of his with glee.

“Is everything OK?” Hannah appeared in the servery window, but when she saw the guys, she couldn’t help but shrink back slightly. Kyle’s smile faded as he moved himself deliberately away from the children.

“Just following the amazing smell. You cooked pancakes?”

There was a temptation to step back, downplay what I’d done, but why? It was no great feat.

“Yeah, Kaleb here was sick of cereal, so I saw we had the makings of some pancakes, so I made them a few.” I held up the bowl. “I’ve got some more of the mix if you want some.”

“Get them made into bears!” Ava said, cutting the head off hers viciously. “And put blueberries in for eyes.”

“A couple of blueberries coming up,” Kyle announced, the kids launching themselves at him, wrapping their arms about his neck and climbing onto his back as he stomped around to the dining room. They giggled as he threw a couple of berries in the air, catching two out of three in his mouth, and while that had me smiling, Hannah looked sad.

“He’s so good with the kids.” That longing look broke my heart, because it didn’t seem like she was lusting after the guy, just wanting this kind of behaviour from the children’s actual father. I’m guessing instead he was the one who gave her that shiner. “Kaleb just adores him.” She seemed to notice Lucas standing there finally. “All of you”

“Kyle’s the one with the rapport with kids. I…” I caught his blush as he looked my way. “I’m not bad at cooking though.” He stepped closer. “Let me. I was going to make you breakfast anyway.”

I looked at the ingredients strewn across the kitchen bench tops and then had a terrible realisation.

“Oh.” I stepped away from the range. “These were your eggs. You?—”

“Don’t mind at all.” Lucas seemed to grow in confidence by the second, shooting me a secret smile. “Really, but… you could make it up to me by letting me make the rest of the pancakes.”

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