Free Psyche Souffle (Knead to Know Book 3) by Liz Schulte

Chapter 1
     
     
    “We need a signature Valentine’s Day dessert.” Izzy entered my kitchen, tapping a pen against the notepad in her hand.
    I glanced up. “Good morning.”
    “Morning. I already have the I Love You A Lattes planned, but we need something sweet to go with them.” Now Izzy was tapping the pen against her chin.
    I thought she might want to sit this Valentine’s Day out since she had recently broken up with her longtime boyfriend, but apparently not. If anything she’d gone into overdrive. My bakery was filled with hearts and flowers and cupids, but she seemed happy. Busy, but mostly happy.
    “I’m thinking a decadent, delicious chocolate soufflé for two. It could be heart-shaped and we could call it romance .” She said the word with jazz hands.
    “Huh.”
    “You don’t like it?”
    It wasn’t that I didn’t like it so much as I had never made a soufflé before. I didn’t know how this Valentine’s Day extravaganza was going to go. The last thing I wanted was to be on the hook for making something I wasn’t comfortable with. I had taken a step back and was letting her handle all the store’s promotions and they seemed to be going well. We were busier than ever. “How about a cupcake for two?”
    She rolled her eyes. “What I marketed and sold was a Valentine’s Day package. Don’t you remember? I showed it to you. Customers will have a choice of three desserts. A cupcake, while boring, can be one of those, but we need something they can’t get any other time in the café.”
    I had a vague memory of what she was talking about, but I honestly hadn’t paid a lot of attention. I had things on my mind. Like the fact that my life was once again in upheaval. It had been a couple weeks since I’d seen Boone. It wasn’t easy to bounce back from the whole girlfriend being kidnapped thing. I was trying to give him space and ignore the fact that I missed him for more reasons than I cared to count. Sure, maybe I had a little crush on him, but that hardly had anything to do with it. More than anything I missed my friend who understood what it was like to be different from everyone else. I became a half vampire around the same time Boone discovered he had psychic abilities. As life changing discoveries went, mine was so much worse, but at least he understood and knew about the Abyss, unlike Izzy who had no idea vampires existed let alone that I was part one.
    And then there was Phoenix, the regional commander of the jinn. I still didn’t have any idea what I felt about him, if anything. Jinn dealt in the manipulation of emotions the way I dealt in sugar. You may not always see it, but you can bank on its presence in everything that comes out of my kitchen. That made him hard to read. I couldn’t tell when he was lying or manipulating me, so mostly I assumed he was doing both all the time. But that didn’t keep me from wanting him. My mind and body were determined to be at odds where he was concerned. So like Boone avoided me, I was avoiding Phoenix.
    Anyway, I didn’t remember what her Valentine’s Day package consisted of. “What’s in the package again?”
    “There’ll be live music, and guests have their choice from three desserts built for two, plus a bottle of wine.”
    Wine. Holy crap. I really dropped the ball on this one. I hadn’t applied for the liquor license at all. “We don’t have a license.”
    Izzy’s eyes widened. “What do you mean? You were supposed to take care of it. You said you would.”She pushed her hand through her hair. “It’s too late now. We’re going to have to refund everything. It’s less than a week until Valentine’s Day.”
    Crap, crap, crap, crap. I had to think. There had to be a way to get what we needed—and there was. Just not a way I wanted to pursue. “Couldn’t we do coffee?”
    She shook her head. “No one wants coffee. They want wine. I already have it ordered.” Izzy looked close to tears.
    I sighed. “There might be