Page 9 of Roman
Evan shook his head. “No. If I really want something, I can always ask for it later,” he told me. “But I have a container of cupcakes and another of cookies at home. I think it’s safe to say that I’m covered for now.” Evan gave me another smile. “I’ll be back at six when you close up. We can go to the cookout if you want. The council is going all out. It’s not just burgers and hot dogs. We’re talking complete spread with briskets, steaks, burgers, dogs, all of it. All of the sides too.”
I moaned internally. I’d not eaten much lunch because I’d been a bit too nervous. But at the mention of all of the food, I wassuddenly ready for it to be closing time so I could have some of that delicious-sounding food.
“See you soon,” I told Evan. He waved as he walked away from the counter. I rejoined Konrad and Elias, jumping in to help. “Sorry,” I told them.
“Don’t be,” Elias said. “It’s expected that your brother come in and see how things are going for you. He’s showing you support, which is amazing.”
I nodded. It was. Evan had always been supportive of anything I had ever wanted to do. I looked up just in time to see one of the gargoyle twins that I’d been asking Evan about approach the counter. He was the one that had the shorter blond with him. The blond was now holding an adorable little girl. I couldn’t stop my smile if I tried.
“Hello, cutie,” I said as I reached out and waved to the toddler. “Can she have a treat?” I asked who I was certain were her daddies.
“She can, but she will make a mess,” the short omega holding her said.
“Oh, I have the perfect thing for that.”
I turned and found Elias already holding up the chocolate chip cookie. One-half of it was dipped in chocolate, and we’d been gifting them to the kids all day.
“How are you doing, Phineas?” Elias asked.
“I’m good. Tired lately, and I can’t figure out why.”
He took the cookie from me, and his daughter squealed in delight as it was handed to her.
“Can I get the two of you anything?”
“Is it possible to get a few of these brownies here, as well as some of these…are they donuts?”
I smiled up at the gargoyle. “You can. Is there anything else?”
“Not for us,” he said before he turned around. “Raiden? Is there anything you and Alexander want?”
The other blond man popped forward in the crowd and looked at the cabinet. “Ooh.” He gasped. “Are those beignets?”
I smiled. “Yes. Did you want some of those?”
“Yes. As many as I can.” He looked over at who was obviously his brothers-in-law and opened his mouth. “We need to let Matteo know. He and Justin will need to know that there are beignets here.”
I offered a smile as I pulled out the tray of pastries and started putting them in the box. “I think they were here earlier? Short vampire with curly hair? They had a pair of little ones. A girl and a boy?”
“That was them,” the man told me. Then he looked over at the shorter blond. “I can’t believe they didn’t let me know there were beignets here.”
“Are there any cupcakes?” another voice asked. I started to feel tingles in my body as I finished filling the box with the beignets, and when I looked up to hand the box across the counter, I found myself staring at a tall man with somewhat messy sandy-blond hair and blue eyes. He offered a smile before he turned his head toward the toddler he was holding.
“Roman wants cupcakes,” Raiden said. “Do you have any left?”
I looked back up at the gargoyle and nodded. “Yeah, they’re…” I glanced down at the cabinet that Elias was standing in front of.
“I sold the last six we had about two minutes ago,” Elias told me.
“There’s some more in the back. I’ll go get them.” I quickly rushed away and noticed that the tingling in my body started to soften as I left the front. There was no way. Not today. Not now. How was that even possible? I was twenty-two. Evan was twenty-seven. He should find his mate first. Besides, I didn’thave time for a mate. And there were so many people in the bakery I’d never be able to figure out who it was.
I grabbed the new tray of cupcakes, these ones with rainbow swirl frosting, and took them back to the front. I slid the tray into the cabinet and then looked back up at the gargoyle. More people had joined their group, and I had to blink a few times. There were two sets of twins? Really?
“Do you have any maple donuts?” the new twin asked. I nodded slowly.
“Yes,” I said. I glanced around and found who I thought was Roman, who had asked for cupcakes. “How many cupcakes did you want?”
“Four? Is that too many?”
