Page 71 of Knot That Serious

All her turmoil was internal, and he’d never be able to tell, because Eli was like Fort fucking Knox when it came to her emotions.

Which, admittedly, were all over the place. She couldn’t even reason it, because she didn’t know why she felt all tangled up and spiky. Eli didn’t want things to change between them either, right? She should be relieved. Instead…

I don’t want anything to change. I like things just how they are.

“What are you doing here?” Jack asked, pulling her from the memory. “I thought you were going to take another day and—”

She shrugged. “I woke up and couldn’t fall back to sleep. Missed the bakery. So I came to bake. I texted Caroline to let her know she could sleep in.”

“Okay,” Jack said, a hesitant tone to his voice. “What about Beckett?”

Beckett, who was supposed to spend the day with her. “I’m sure he’d like to get back to work, too. Don’t worry about it.”

Even if she was acting weird, hopefully he’d chalk it up to just an omega thing. Mood swings after a heat? Sounded valid.

But he still lingered. “Are you… okay?” he asked.

Eli pulled off her oven mitts and slapped them on the counter. “I’m fine.”

But even to her, that snappy tone hadn’t sounded fine. Eli huffed a sigh, loud in Jack’s silence, and glanced over her shoulder. “Are you going to hang around and stare at me or get to work?”

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the nest this morning,” he grumbled.

Eli reached for her oven mitt and threw it at him. He dodged it.

Eli bossed him around the kitchen, putting him to work on the menial tasks she hated.

They tiptoed around each other, as well as Eli and Jack could tiptoe around each other. It remained tense, but Jack was actually helpful. He packed orders while Eli continued baking and decorating. Jack filled the display case and readied for foot traffic while she tidied and began the next item on the list.

They hadn’t worked together for more than a few moments in a long time, and Eli was surprised by how easy it was. It should have made her feel better, but instead, it only fouled her mood further. By the time they reached the lunch hour, Eli was exhausted in more ways than one.

It was suspiciously tranquil in the main room. Any moment now, the lunch crowd would hit them and Jack would be too busy to even notice her slipping out.

She was content to wait with the silence, slowly pulling her jacket on.

“All done?” Jack asked, voice carrying from the door.

Eli pasted a smile on her face and turned to him, nodding. “Yep. Almost ready to leave.”

He leaned against the door frame, arms crossed casually. “So now that you’re not working, you gonna tell me what’s going on with you?”

Eli’s face scrunched up in irritation. She really thought she’d get away with avoiding this. Maybe she still could. “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied, grabbing her keys.

“Oh, really? Because I couldn’t help but notice that you’re furious about something,” he retorted.

Don’t want anything to change.

If that’s what Jack wanted, that’s what he could have. Eli shrugged. “Post-heat mood swings,” she countered. That would explain it. She pulled her helmet out from under the hutch by the back door and huffed as she sat it down.

Jack did not look convinced, and tilted his hand back and forth. “Sure, part of it, if you wanna go with that. But I haven’t done anything to piss you off. In fact, the only thing I could think of that would call for this is… something to do with your heat.”

Eli’s breath caught, but with the whole kitchen between them, Eli hoped he didn’t notice.

“I think we both know your deduction skills aren’t exactly sharp, Jack,” Eli bit out.

She was met with silence, and after a long second of waiting, guiltily stroking her thumb over a scratch on her helmet, she glanced across the room at the alpha.

“Insulting me isn’t going to work,” Jack sang. “Just tell me what’s wrong.”

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