Page 87 of Packed in the Fire house

“Of course it is!” I said, taking a step back so he could easily access the food. Grabbing a mixing bowl, I made myself busy. No one wanted to dish themselves food with a neurotic omega hovering over them.

“I didn’t know if you were just cooking for your men,” he said as he grabbed a ladle.

Turning to him, I frowned. Did he really think I wouldn’t feed him as well? That was such a bizarre notion.

Then again, an omega cooking for their alphas was somewhat normal… an omega cooking for a firehouse was less so.

Putting my hands on my hips, I glowered at him. “Listen here, Merrick I-don’t-know-your-last-name, if I cook anything in this firehouse, it isn’t just for my pack. It’s for everyone, okay? I was making mealsbeforewe got all… chompy. So, don’t you dare assume any food isn’t for you, or I will clobber you with a wooden spoon, okay?”

The entire time I was berating him, Merrick had been looking at me, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Is that clear?” I asked when he didn’t answer.

He nodded, another little smile gracing his features.

Two smiles in twenty minutes? Clearly, I’m doing something right!

“Crystal clear, ma’am,” he said, before turning back to the chili and scooping a heaping portion for himself.

“Good.” I nodded, the wind under my sails deflating.

“Thank you,” Merrick said as he finished gathering his food and headed toward the table, leaving me to get to work on the baking.

“Actually!” I rushed to speak before Merrick left. “Would you grab that jumbo mixing bowl from the top shelf? I would grab it myself, but the guys freak out if I climb on countertops.” I grinned sheepishly. Walker had caught me one time, and the lecture had been almost an hour long.

Merrick gave me areallykind of look. “Of course, I will… and you shouldn’t be climbing on countertops,” he said as he put his food down and made to grab the mixing bowl in question.

“It’s not my fault you guys built this kitchen for giants!” I grumbled.

“To be fair, before you, Rune was the main cook,” Merrick pointed out.

“Okay, that’s fair,” I agreed. “I guess me being here is only temporary, so I shouldn’t complain.”

“I like having you here, it brightens up the place,” Merrick admitted as he handed me the bowl.

It took a monumental effort to stop my eyes from filling with tears at those words. Inadvertently, he had hit on a sore spot I didn’t even know I had. I knew my pack liked me—they had hammered that fact into my head—but the other firefighters? I had no clue how they saw my intrusion. Gil seemed to be relaxed, but Merrick was so quiet, it was hard to know what he was thinking. And the other guys coming in and out of the kitchen seemed to keep to themselves a bit more. Or had Walker warned them to stay away from me? I wouldn’t have been surprised.

Naturally, I wanted all of them to like me. They worked with my pack day in and day out and were responsible for their safety.

“Okay,” I whispered with a nod, clutching the mixing bowl to my chest.

Merrick smiled at me, grabbed his food, and went to the table to eat.

Bowl in hand, I started pulling out the ingredients for the cobbler, grabbing the peaches from the fridge.

Merrick’s cobbler first, because he never asked for anything, then Blaze’s strawberry cobbler wouldn’t take too much time to whip together.

I was just starting to sift the flour when I was disturbed again.

“Look who woke up early,” Rune said as he walked into the kitchen, a very sleepy Luka in his arms, rubbing his eyes with his little fists.

“Oh baby, I didn’t hear you!” I cooed as I put the flour down.

“He wasn’t crying. I poked my head in to check on him, and he was babbling away to himself.” Rune chuckled. “He’s going to be speaking in full sentences in no time.”

I grimaced. “That’s hard to believe. It feels like just yesterday he was a newborn who couldn’t even hold his head up.”

Rune took in the supplies laid out on the counter. “You baking?”

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