Page 83 of Knot That Serious

“Go back to sleep, Jack,” she told him before opening the front door and slipping out.

Her morning at the bakery flew by, prepping and decorating and baking and chilling and cleaning. It was a lot sometimes, but she was freshly energized, bopping her head and shaking her hips to the music she played from the store’s speakers.

Raj messaged her at eight a.m. Good morning, my sweet.

Her cheeks turned red.

Jack kept his promise and didn’t show up until the lunch hour arrived and Eli’s feet were hurting.

“Thank god,” she said after her current customer left the counter. “I can’t wait to sit down.”

“Busy morning?” he asked.

And for a moment, it felt like it always did. Like they were just Eli and Jack, and neither one of them was dating an alpha and threatening the very foundation of their entire lives together.

“Oh,” Eli said as soon as she walked in the door to their apartment. “Don’t you have a job?” she drawled.

I knew it had been too easy to get out of the bakery. Should’ve known.

“Aw, come now,” Beckett said, standing from the couch and setting his laptop back down in his spot. “I can work from anywhere, pretty much.”

“Why are you here?”

“Be careful—from that tone I’d almost say you weren’t happy to see me.”

Eli glared at him.

“I’ve been instructed not to ask about Raj, don’t worry. I do give great foot massages, though.”

The dull pain through the soles of her feet ached anew at just the thought of relief.

“I’m going to shower,” she told him, and made her way to her room.

“Will you come sit with me after?” he asked.

Eli shut her door instead of answering. Then she opened it. “I’ll think about it,” she called out before shutting the door again.

Her lips twitched as she stripped on the way to her attached bathroom, and tossed her clothes spattered with flour and icing and chocolate into the hamper. Aprons really only helped a little bit.

The water was steamy and perfect and she tried not to think about the alpha in the other room, with very little success.

Had Jack sent him? Why was he here, if not to ask her about Raj?

“You could ask him,” she told herself, her voice melting into the hush of the spray.

After work was washed off, she dressed in comfy clothes and caved, trailing out into the living room.

Beckett wasn’t on the couch, but his laptop was neatly placed at the lower right edge of the coffee table.

She heard a quiet clatter and followed the music toward the kitchen to find him nodding his head and flipping something in a pan.

“How do you feel about omelets?” he asked.

Eli took a seat at the breakfast bar, leaning over to sniff the bouquet of flowers. They really did remind her of Beckett with the extra greenery added. It was nice.

“They’re okay,” she answered.

“Well, this one is going to change your mind,” he said, and she watched him lift the pan off the eye of the stove and slide the contents onto a plate.

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