Page 102 of Sunshine

“You come here with your family?” Julian rested his chin on his hands again. The soft bustle of the tearoom helped focusme somehow, more effectively than if we’d been in a completely quiet room.

“A lot.” I grinned. “They all love it. Sometimes we come as a group and sometimes pairs.”

“I’ve been an omega so long, I feel like I already have my routine down.” Julian glanced around the room. “But I like this. It’s nice. Different.”

“Good.” I smiled in relief. Maybe this wasn’t such a crazy idea after all.

It didn’t take long before Delia came back carrying a tray with a pot of hot tea and beautiful cups and saucers. They were porcelain, with a gold rim and a flower pattern, and I always felt like a duchess from a period drama when I drank out of them.

“Ohhh fancy.” Julian leaned back and let Delia set his cup and saucer down.

“Our first tea is Eternal Spring. It’s a white tea with rose petals and strawberries. It will wake up your palate without overriding the flavors.”

Delia poured us both a cup of the fragrant tea and left us to our conversation.

“We’ve been coming here as long as Stella’s been an omega.” I sipped my tea. It was soft and fruity with a hint of floral tones. “It wasn’t a shock when Stella’s designation flipped. She had been moody for weeks, and she’d never really liked people in her space, anyway.”

“Luna, too?” Julian sipped his tea, and his face relaxed with pleasure. “Mmm. This is good.”

“She was always really shy, and being the baby of the family probably didn’t help. She flipped designations as a teenager, just like Stella.” I cocked my head. “You did too, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “I wasn’t surprised. For years I’d felt weird cycles of not wanting to be around anyone but also wantedto be cuddled and touched. No sexual frenzy of course, that doesn’t kick in until later. But the signs were there.”

It was nice that biology decided to let omegas ease into the hormone overload. I didn’t want to know what going into a heat would be like if you were sixteen. If it worked like that, there’d be too many omegas who would bond too early and be miserable later in life.

“What about Ember?” Julian took another sip of tea and swallowed. “That’s really nice tea. Did she flip early?”

My throat closed up and I swallowed around the lump. “Yeah. When she was thirteen.” I pushed away the sudden cocktail of grief and panic. It was in the past and gone now.

Julian frowned, picking up on the tightness in my voice. I was terrible at hiding my feelings.

“What’s wrong?”

I tried to smile and settled for a shrug. “Ember’s designation flipped because of a stressor. She was, uhh, in the plane crash that killed our parents. She was hospitalized.”

Julian’s face fell. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

I shook my head. “I know. It’s okay.”

Delia arrived with a three-tiered cake stand. On the bottom were sandwiches cut into triangles, egg salad, and roast beef with horseradish, bacon and spinach quiche slices, and sausage rolls.

The middle level was filled with scones served with strawberry and blackberry jam and clotted cream. The top tier was covered in a range of mini desserts: chocolate eclairs, madeleines, chocolate ganache slices, and fruit tarts.

She also brought our second tea, a light black tea with peach pieces in it.

Julian’s entire face lit up at the sight of the food, and I smiled, some of my sorrow lifting. Of course I missed my parents. Ialways would. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t find other people to fill my life with joy and happiness.

After Delia left, he took my hand, and his expression sobered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

I squeezed his fingers. “It’s okay. It happens. I don’t mind talking about heavy things with you.”

I’d cried on his shoulder more than a few times in the past. One of the best things about dating a man who was already my friend was him knowing so much about me.

“Speaking of…” He looked at me a little nervously before letting go of my hand to serve us both sandwiches on the beautiful fine bone China plates that were the same floral pattern as our cups.

“What’s wrong?” My stomach dropped, and I immediately thoughthe’s breaking up with me.

Of course, the logic that he just asked me to be part of his heat only a few days ago didn’t sink in, no that was too easy for my brain. I immediately jumped to thinking that I had done something wrong, some unforgivable sin.

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