“Oh right, your mom is a human. I forgot.” Tammy pushed the hotel bottles gingerly into her pocket. She could’ve just put them in her truck, but they felt like a good luck charm. She was going to think more about the meaning behind him bringing her these later, when she was alone and had time to process. “You are desensitized to us normies, I bet.”
“You are anything but a normie,” he said low, and then opened the door to her backseat to take another armload of cupcakes out.
“Um, I’m glad you’re here, because I wanted to thank you.”
“For what?”
“For working on my car. It started right up. I want to pay for the parts though. It doesn’t feel right that you had to buy those.”
He studied her face with curiosity swimming in his eyes. “Independent woman.”
“Very.”
“And stubborn,” he said flippantly as he walked away.
“Stubborn and proud!” she called after him, grabbing the final container of cupcakes. Calling her stubborn wasn’t an insult.
She bumped the door closed with her butt and trotted after him like a puppy, carefully holding the cupcakes out to absorb the shock of her clumsy gait. “I was thinking about bringing you a little present at your hotel later today,” she said as she caught up to him.
“What kind of present?” he asked.
“Coffee. Or maybe a couple of cupcakes.”
“Good. Food presents are okay.”
Well, that was a weird thing to say. “Are other presents not okay?”
“Well, you gave me a coaster yesterday and now I have to carry the damn thing around in my pocket or I feel empty, so I’m pretty sure you should keep your non-perishable presents to yourself. My jeans are too tight for anything else.”
She giggled and felt her body relaxing as she fell into step beside him. Tawk was unique. Unique, and handsome, and had sex appeal for days, and grabbed every woman’s attention, and had that raw alpha nature that drew her in, and he was carrying her coaster in his pocket.
She didn’t know why, but she really liked that.
“Um, thank you for the dickening last night,” she said under her breath.
Tawk belted out a laugh. “Did you just say dickening?”
“I remain forever grateful, as does my body.”
His canine teeth still looked sharp as he grinned at her. “See? You’re interesting.”
Well, you’re hot.She thought it, but didn’t say it out loud. She was determined to be a cool girl around this one. Men like him didn’t need to know how much women like her liked them. It would go straight to their heads.
“Anytime you need…dickenings…just let me know,” he told her, and while she was reeling from that statement, he turned his smile to Laura, and introduced himself.
Laura had pulled a few of her friends from town to her tent and Tawk chatted with them politely while Tammy organized her cupcakes on the viewing table. A couple of the new ladies were signing in, and had brought cupcakes too.
“I need to go say hi to Harley and Timber,” she told Tawk when she was done.
“Okay,” he said, and as if he’d been dismissed, he began walking back toward the group of guys that were working about a dozen tents away now.
“Um, do you want to go over there with me?” she called after him. “Maybe Jess will be there.”
He turned, and cocked his head, studying her face. He nodded once and strode for her and escorted her toward Shifter Sweets.
The next few hours flew by. She had fun hanging between Shifter Sweets and Sugar and Spice when the event started and the customers were flooding it. She met so many nice people. Her shifts were thirty minutes each, with fifteen-minute breaks in between. On her breaks, she and Tawk meandered from tentto tent, sampling baked goods, and purchasing their favorites. By the time her shifts were done at the bake sale, her entire passenger seat was stacked with sweet treats to take home.
She made a promise to Laura to do the event next year, and to try and get assigned to her booth again.
