Night Shift (Grizzly Cove Book 3) by Bianca D'Arc

pancakes as some sort of dessert.
    Dessert with breakfast? She wasn’t going to argue. She knew from being around her brothers-in-law that bear shifters ate an awful lot. Zak would probably pack away most of this feast, but she wouldn’t mind tasting at least a little bit of each of the dishes he was preparing.
    She walked up to him, and he turned with a smile, leaning down to kiss her.
    “Mmm. Good morning,” she said, still a little sleepy. “Wish we didn’t have to get up so early today.”
    “Sorry. Have to. I’m on duty at nine. I hope you don’t mind I took a look around up on the roof then helped myself to some of the produce you grow up there. It’s really amazing what you’ve done with the garden.” He seemed so wide awake—bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as the saying went—that she couldn’t cultivate her usual morning grumpiness.
    Especially not after the night before. He’d shown her things she’d never known existed about pleasure. If their interlude in the grass had been hot—before being disrupted by a sea monster—last night had been explosive. Chernobyl-meltdown explosive, but in a good way.
    His lovemaking was powerful, but not harmful in any way, except maybe to her heart. Yeah, after what they’d shared last night, she was well and truly in love with the guy. Bear. Man. Bear guy. She shrugged. Whatever.
    She was still groggy when Zak stepped away and poured her a cup of coffee. He placed it in her hands with a smile, and she sipped.
    Heaven. Somehow, Zak had a talent that even made regular coffee beans taste better. He was some kind of genius in the kitchen, she was quickly discovering.
    They sat down to breakfast side by side at the kitchen table, spending the time together just enjoying each other’s company. Tina wasn’t a morning person as a rule, but just being with Zak improved her disposition. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling, and everything he’d cooked tasted out of this world.
    “You ever think of opening a restaurant?” she asked between bites of the fluffiest, tastiest eggs she’d ever eaten.
    “All the time.” He looked almost shy as he answered quietly. “I love to cook. Always have. But my life’s path hasn’t always been of my own choosing. Being a shifter limits you in some ways.”
    She contemplated his words as she nibbled at her small serving of spicy potatoes. “But the trade off is pretty awesome.” She smiled at him and was glad to see the humor return to his expression. “I think you’d be a great restaurateur. I’d help. And the bakery could supply all the bread you need. Unless… You don’t bake, do you?”
    He chuckled. “No. I don’t have the patience for it.”
    “Okay then. So what’s standing in your way?” She sensed a problem she could help solve. She’d already been through the creation of two new food businesses—the one here and the original in Portland. She’d learned a thing or two.
    “Mostly, it’s a matter of money,” he revealed. “I don’t have enough to build my house and start a business at the same time. I thought maybe after I got the house built, I’d begin saving up for the restaurant, but I don’t have the kind of funds some of the guys do, and I don’t really want to be indebted to any of them. I’ve run the numbers, and it’ll be years before I could even think of turning a profit in this remote a location, even with the projections Big John has on increasing tourism in the summer months.”
    “I’m impressed. It sounds like you’ve really looked at this seriously,” she said, meaning every word. She hadn’t dreamed there was such depth to her deputy. “But if it’s what you really want to do, there’s got to be a way to figure out how to make it happen. Like I said, I’ll help. In any way that I can.”
    “I appreciate that, Tina. I really do.” He held her gaze for a moment before returning to the project of demolishing the huge portion of eggs and bacon he’d dished up for himself.