Page 42 of Knot His Reality

Lucas clears his throat. “I’ll head inside to make sure everything is clear. No one steps foot out of this SUV until Evan gives the all clear.”

“Of course, Lucas. Thank you,” I tell him as the others murmur their agreements.

Five minutes later, we’re exiting the SUV and heading into Sizzle & Stir. We’re greeted at the door by a male omega and a female alpha.

“Welcome! My name is Pierce, and this is my alpha, Tawny. We’re very excited about your class today.” The omega smiles as he looks between the five of us.

“Class? What kind of class?” Rhys asks, eyeing the white chef’s apparel Pierce and Tawny wear.

I grin. “We’re taking a cooking class! We’re going to learn to make an appetizer, a main course and side, and a dessert.”

“Cooking, you say?” Alexei’s eyes are wide, his smile lighting up his face. “I love cooking. Nikolai is not good, but I am excellent chef.”

“I love cooking but don’t always have time for it,” I admit. “Usually I just grab take-out after work. It’s easier. But since I have the time right now, and I needed a date idea, I figured why not?”

“This should be fun.” Camila’s smiling almost as much as Alexei. “I grew up cooking.”

Rhys makes a face. “What happens when I burn everything? I don’t cook well.”

Pierce chuckles. “That’s quite all right. Each of you will be making more than you can eat yourself. If someone’s doesn’t turn out well, there will be plenty. Plus, Tawny and I will be cooking as well. None of you will go hungry, I promise.”

“If you’ll follow us back to the classroom, we’ll be going over some basic safety before we get the class started,” Tawny advises. “We want to prevent accidents in the kitchen if possible since they’re usually painful.”

“That is because cooking is dangerous,” Nikolai points out. “We should not cook.”

Alexei slaps his brother on the back, sending the alpha stumbling forward. “Do not bekozyol, brother. We will have fun.”

“What doeskozyolmean?“ I ask, completely butchering the word.

Nikolai rolls his eyes. “The literal meaning is goat. When used as insult, he is disgracing me.”

I eye the twins. “If you’re going to insult one another, can you at least do it in English? Because I don’t think the meaning translates well to the rest of us.”

Camila shrugs. “I don’t know. I might start calling people goats when they piss me off. I bet that would shut them right the hell up.”

“You’re probably right.” Rhys snickers.

Pierce and Tawny stand there, watching us with amusement dancing in their eyes. I shrug as I step toward them. “Brothers? What can I say?”

Pierce waves me off. “It’s fine. I think this class is going to end up being a lot of fun with this group. Come with me.”

After being handed aprons and hairnets, Tawny goes straight into her safety talk. It mostly consists of information I already know, but I understand her need to go over it. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

“So what will we be making?” Alexei asks once she’s finished.

Pierce smiles. “Remington requested Italian, so we’ll be doingfocaccia col formaggiofor our starter. For the main course,farro mafaldinewith black truffle butter and mushrooms and roasted eggplant. Then, for dessert, we’ll be doing panna cotta.”

Nikolai still wears a frown. “I do not know what most of that is,” he admits. “It sounds hard.”

Moving over to stand beside him, I nudge him with my shoulder. “It’ll be fine, Nikolai. I’ll help you.”

He considers me for a moment. “Da.You will help and we will make best Italian meal together.”

“That’s the spirit!” Pierce calls out. “Now, you’ll find all the ingredients you need in the small fridges at your workstation.”

As we get started, I’m surprised to find out that thefocaccia col formaggioand panna cotta will take the longest, both taking nearly four hours total. We start with thefocaccia col formaggio, mixing the dough in a stand mixer before taking it out and kneading it. Nikolai doesn’t have any issues with this part and before long, we’re wrapping the ball of dough and setting it aside.

It’ll have to sit for three hours before we roll it out and get to the actual making of thefocaccia col formaggio.

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