Chapter 81: Grocery Shopping
Rosalie:
By the time the clock struck four in the afternoon, I found myself standing outside Eiden’s house for the second time that day, nervously smoothing invisible wrinkles from my dress while waiting for him.
He had told me the previous morning that we would be going shopping together after he finished work, and despite having agreed to it, I still wasn’t entirely sure why my heart insisted on beating this fast.
It was only shopping. People went shopping together every day. Friends did it. Families did it. Colleagues did it. There was absolutely no reason for me to suddenly feel as though I was preparing for something far more important. Unfortunately, my body clearly disagreed with my brain.
Merely a minute later, Eiden stepped out from his house. Dressed in a simple charcoal shirt with the sleeves rolled neatly to his forearms and dark trousers, he somehow looked even more handsome than usual.
He smiled the moment our eyes met, and the warmth in that smile immediately eased some of the nervousness twisting inside me.
"Ready?" he asked, opening the passenger door of his black SUV for me before I even had the chance to reach it myself.
I couldn’t help smiling back as I nodded. "Ready."
The drive took nearly forty minutes, carrying us farther than I had expected. We drove through winding roads surrounded by forests before the scenery slowly gave way to a lively little city resting at the very edge of Nightfang Pack’s territory.
It wasn’t nearly as large or crowded as the human cities I had heard about, yet compared to the quiet towns scattered throughout werewolf territory, this place looked remarkably busy.
Cafés lined the streets beside family-owned bakeries, flower shops spilled colorful blossoms onto the sidewalks, bookstores and boutiques stood shoulder to shoulder, while an open-air weekend market had transformed the town square into a lively sea of voices and laughter.
The moment we stepped out of the car, several people greeted Eiden warmly. Some addressed him as Doctor Thorn, others simply called him Alpha Eiden with genuine respect. He remembered names. Asked about elderly parents. Checked on recovering patients. Congratulated a young couple carrying a newborn baby.
I quietly walked beside him, watching interaction after interaction unfold, and found myself understanding exactly why people respected him so deeply. He never acted like someone above them. Every conversation felt sincere. Every smile genuine. Every word carried warmth that couldn’t be faked.
At one point an elderly woman insisted on pressing a small paper bag filled with homemade cookies into his hands despite his repeated refusals, and when he finally accepted with a helpless laugh, she turned toward me with an amused smile.
"Your boyfriend works too hard," she whispered conspiratorially.
Before I could explain, she waved goodbye and disappeared into the crowd. My cheeks immediately warmed while Eiden simply chuckled beside me without teasing me even once. Somehow... that only made me even more aware of him.
Our actual shopping turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. We wandered through grocery aisles discussing ingredients, comparing vegetables, debating which tea tasted better, and occasionally laughing whenever I accidentally placed something into the shopping cart only for Eiden to quietly replace it with a fresher one. Apparently his standards for vegetables rivaled those of professional chefs.
At one point I reached for a bag of apples at exactly the same moment he did. Our fingers brushed lightly against each other before instinctively curling back. It was the briefest contact imaginable, yet the mate bond immediately responded with a gentle warmth that spread through my chest.
I quickly withdrew my hand while pretending to examine another basket of fruit, silently blaming my racing heartbeat on the summer heat.
However, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Eiden clearing his throat before calmly selecting the apples without commenting on what had happened. Not once did he make me feel embarrassed. Not once did he tease me. He simply respected every small boundary I unconsciously placed between us, and somehow that consideration only made my heart soften toward him even further.
By the time we finished shopping, the back of the SUV was filled with neatly packed grocery bags. We stopped once more at a small bakery where Eiden bought fresh bread still warm from the oven before insisting I choose a dessert.
I protested that it wasn’t necessary, but he merely folded his arms and waited patiently until I reluctantly pointed toward a strawberry cheesecake. His victorious smile at such a tiny victory somehow made me laugh.
On the drive back, conversation flowed more naturally than ever before. We talked about books, about Grandma Maggie’s bookstore, about the ridiculous number of mystery novels we had both somehow ended up reading despite always guessing the murderer too early.
He asked about my own novel, though he carefully avoided requesting to read it after I admitted how embarrassing I found that idea. Instead, he simply encouraged me to keep writing because, in his words, "someone who writes with genuine passion eventually reaches readers who can feel it."
The sincerity behind those words lingered with me for the remainder of the drive.
The first shades of orange and pink had begun coloring the horizon by the time we reached his house.
Evening settled gently over the surrounding forest, bathing everything in golden light.
Together we carried the grocery bags inside, making several trips between the car and kitchen. Without thinking much about it, I naturally began helping him unpack everything.
Vegetables went into the refrigerator. Dry ingredients into labeled containers. Tea into a neatly organized cabinet that somehow contained more varieties than I thought existed.
We moved comfortably around one another inside the spacious kitchen, occasionally reaching for the same shelf or drawer before quietly stepping aside for the other.
At one point I stood on my toes trying to place a container onto one of the upper shelves only to realize I couldn’t quite reach.
Before I could look for a small stool, Eiden stepped behind me.
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