Page 71 of Hummingbird and Kraken

Declan couldn’t tell whether it was tragic or adorable, but it was definitely giving him the distraction that he needed right now. Shipping Ro with his crush was infinitely preferable to wondering where Geir was and when he’d come back.

Or if he’d come back.

Or what the shifters might do to Declan if he didn’t.

Chapter 25

Declan

An hour later, Ro was back with an enthusiastic four-year-old. Instead of driving, they’d walked through the forest, which is why it had taken a bit longer.

“Thank goodness you’re here.” Declan welcomed them in, then headed for the kitchen and started getting out bowls.

“What are you doing?” Ro asked from the doorway.

“Stress baking.”

He handed May her own bowl and spoon, which she promptly set on the floor and started stirring with an impressive number of clangs. Oops. He handed her a plastic spatula and took away the metal spoon. How could one small person make such a big noise?

Despite the volume, this was definitely what Declan needed right now.

“Stress baking?” Ro asked.

Declan answered at a whisper, so that May couldn’t hear. “Yeah. Because I made a whole blueberry cobbler last night that I didn’t even eat, but my boyfriend’s missing and your future boyfriend is freaking me out about it, so we need to make brownies. Here.” He thrust the cookbook at Ro. “Find the recipe and then get the eggs.”

Ro just stood there for a moment. Probably the “future boyfriend” comment. But Declan had definitely seen it. That crush wasn’t one-sided at all. The two of them just needed to get over themselves and have hot shifter sex. Not that he wanted to imagine his friend getting busy, but thinking about Ro’s tragic love life was much safer than worrying about his own missing guy.

“It should be under desserts, kind of toward the back,” he prompted, determined to stay positive.

“You’re too much,” Ro finally said, shaking his head. He seemed to say that a lot around Declan, but Declan took it as a compliment, now. Ro liked that Declan was too much. And Geir didn’t seem to mind either. He really hoped that everything was OK with his kraken so that he could stay.

God, his brain was all over the place today, and it seemed like Ro’s was, too. They definitely needed brownies.

Ro started flipping through the book. He handed it back, then pulled out the eggs, the carton dwarfed by his large hands.

“Thanks!” Declan pinned down the recipe book with the flour. It was already starting to stay open to the dessert section on its own. “Oh… I know what we need. Music!” Declan pulled out his phone. He was really craving the internet because he only had a hundred or so songs on his phone and he was getting tired of them.

Still, stress baking needed music. Otherwise you couldn’t dance.

He pulled out the flour and sugar, shaking his hips as he made his way across the kitchen. He danced back to pull out the cocoa and the chocolate chips. You could never have too much chocolate. He could feel his good mood coming back already.

“Alright, we’re going to need two eggs. No, better make it four. We’re going to need a lot of brownies to get through this. I want you to have some to take back to your man.” This was going to be step one of Declan’s plan.

Ro groaned. “He’s not my man.”

“So you’re telling me that you’re not bringing food to the guy you want to mate with? I thought that was, like, animal psychology 101.”

“No, I mean… I bring him food. It’s just not like that.”

“And then he eats it and says it’s good, and then what happens?”

Ro looked down shyly. “We usually talk for a while afterward.”

God, so cute. “I think you should tell him.”

“I really can’t.”

“You know,” Declan said softly. “I think of myself as kind of between genders.”