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I heard the door open and another man talking to Tundra in a low voice.

Tundra returned. “You got a visitor.”

Ryan wandered past him. He carried a to-go cup of coffee in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other. “I brought you beignets. I had Block make ‘em for you.”

Tundra brought a chair over and put a TV tray on my lap.

I glanced up at him. “Thanks. Did you two plan this?”

“Would it matter?” Ryan asked, handing me the to-go cup.

“I knew he was comin’ by. I didn’t know he’d be this early,” Tundra said.

Silence filled the room. Ryan opened the bag while Tundra brought over a short stack of paper plates.

Ryan handed me a plate with a beignet. “Eat. I know better than to approach you when you’re hungry.”

I sipped the chicory coffee he brought, and ate my pastry. One day I had to steal Uncle Block’s recipe. Beignets would be a great draw for… the thought made me frown. Maybe I needed a new dream. A new goal.

“I don’t like how your expression changed just now,” Ryan said.

I raised my shoulders just a touch. “Yeah. Not many good thoughts going on this morning.”

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked.

I locked eyes with my triplet. “I’ve always wanted to get Uncle Block’s recipe because these would be a great menu item.” I paused, then continued. “But, I’m rethinking a lot of things these days.”

“Mick, hold off on that,” Tundra said, sitting in another chair he’d put next to Ryan.

With raised eyebrows, I stared at him. “What do you mean - hold off?”

He pulled a beignet out of the bag. “Don’t make such an important decision this soon.”

“You make it sound like I’m making a decision after a death in the family,” I said.

Tundra’s eyes slid toward Ryan and back to me. “What happened to you was a pretty close call - can’t stand thinking about it because if we’d been any later getting to you it would have been much worse. That kind of trauma can be stressful, just like someone dying is stressful.”

“He’s right,” Ryan said. “Give it some time. You don’t know what the dynamic will be like with Lark out of the mix.”

I shifted my gaze to Ryan. “You know about that?”

He nodded. “Volt came by, and said Beast was temporary.”

I nodded.

Tundra swallowed a bite of his beignet. “Does Volt know you want to manage On a Lark?”

I opened my mouth to answer, then closed it. My knee-jerk reaction was to say I’d presented it that way almost two years ago…but that was plenty of time for Volt and others to forget my ambitious intentions.

“Mickayla,” Tundra prompted.

“I know I mentioned it in my first proposal, but seeing as Lark’s the reason Dad and the majority of the Biloxi chapter rode out here, for all I know, he hasn’t been keeping Volt and others apprised of my capabilities.”

Tundra’s brows went up again and hell if it didn’t appear triumphant.

“Don’t gloat. As Aunt Heidi says, gloating is never cool.”

“Do you think you’re ready for that?” Ryan asked.