Page 19 of Seduced By Two Alphas

“I know.” I sighed. “I know all of that, Jack. I woke up this morning feeling like crap for even suggesting it.”

“You don’t have to feel like crap,” Ken said. “Your head was in the right place. I knew why you wanted to do it. But like Jack said last night, that’s a lifetime commitment. It’s not something any of us should take lightly.”

“Dillon’s pregnant,” I pointed out. “It wasn’t a decision he made. He didn’t even know it was possible until it happened, and he’s happy.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Ken said. “People have unplanned pregnancies all the time. My point is… Hell, I lost my train of thought.”

That made me chuckle. “If it happens, it happens.” I gave a firm nod. “I…I want to…” Why was I finding it so hard to tell them what I was thinking? God. “I want to find out if I’m your mate.”

Jack’s hands tightened on mine as Ken sat up.

“Are you saying you want to sleep with us?” Jack asked. “I’m just making sure that we’re on the same page.”

“I’m saying my life has always been a mess, so why start trying to straighten it out now?” I laughed when Jack frowned. “Kidding! But my life really is a mess. It didn’t start getting better until you two blew into town.”

“Yeah?” Ken smiled.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Look at my choice in men. Someone has to save me from making another disastrous decision. The only right choice I’ve made in life was opening this café. Oh, and making friends with Dillon.”

“And hiring us,” Jack added with a grin.

“That’s my point,” I said. “My life has evened out with you two in it. You care about me, protect me, and keep me sane.”

“Then we’ll let things naturally progress.” Jack stood. “In the meantime, I have food to cook and Ken needs to get his ass back to the front of the house before Brandon screws up all the orders.”

“I’ll help.” I stood. “Kitchen or server?”

“Kitchen,” Jack said. “You can finish making the pies for the week while I try to clean while we’re slow.”

As I walked out of the office, I felt lighter inside. Like the weight I’d been carrying on my shoulders had lessened. It wasn’t completely gone, but I no longer felt as if I was sinking with no life preserver in sight.

Jack and Ken were my life preservers.

But Ken hadn't left the kitchen yet. He was waiting outside the office door, a cupcake in his hand. When had we started making cupcakes? The frosting was pink with little sprinkles all over it. The frosting wasn’t professionally done. There was more lumped on one side than the other, and from what I could tell, whoever had decorated it tried to do a twist at the top, but it looked more like a blob.

“What’s this?”

“I tried my hand at baking.” Ken shrugged. “Jack helped, but I think that only made it worse.”

“I never said I was a baker,” Jack stated from behind the chrome counter by the deep fryer. “I followed the recipe, but it might be a little dry.”

My heart melted as I stared at the wreck of a cupcake. Hands down, sweetest gesture of my life. “You guys did this for me?”

“Don’t go looking to add that to the menu,” Jack warned. “Not if you want to keep your customers.”

“He might have baked it, but I frosted it.” Ken looked pleased as punch, which only made him appear ten times more adorable when there was a slight blush to his cheeks.

“Stop sucking up,” Jack growled. “It was a dual effort.”

“That’s what I just said!” Ken rolled his eyes.

Ken leaned in closer and whispered, “We got plenty of leftover frosting if you want to put it to good use later.” He must have seen how I was looking at the cupcake. “It’s okay, you know, if you’re not brave enough to taste it. It was the thought that counted, right?”

I wanted to try it and wanted to put it in a case to preserve it because Jack and Ken had done this for me, had put their effort into baking just to give me a nice surprise.

Why did I feel like they’d given me something I’d never had before? Not the treat itself, but something sweet and thoughtful. No one I’d dated had ever done that for me. The others hadn't put any effort into our relationship, yet Jack and Ken had, and we weren’t even dating. They’d done more for me than any past boyfriend.

If I stood there and thought about it, they’d always been sweet and thoughtful toward me.

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