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“You been doing okay here?” He stood close. She took a step back, grateful at least for the counter between them.
“Sure, sure, we’ve been doing fine.”
“I asked how you were doing. Or did we become queen while I was gone?”
She glared at him, safe behind her irritation. “Do you deliberately make up ways to harass me or does it come naturally?”
His grin was slow and easy. “Yes.”
Chris rolled her eyes, appalled to feel color coming into her cheeks. “What’ll you have?”
“Just coffee.”
“I’m working on a new blend, want to try?” One thing she really liked about Zac—he knew his coffee. “Forty percent Colombian, roasted Full City, then the rest is split fifty-fifty, Mexican roasted French and Kenya roasted City.”
“Sounds interesting.” He didn’t even blink at her use of vocabulary indicating the level of roast.
“I’ll be right back.” She went into the back office to scoop up grounds from the batch she’d been playing with into a paper cup. “Here, see how it smells to you.”
He leaned forward and sniffed quickly, then inhaled long and slow. “Nice. I’ll try a cup.”
“Good.” She put a clean filter in the dripper and wet it from the kettle kept at a temperature just under boiling. Then she dumped the water out and put grounds into the filter.
“Have you talked to your sister lately?”
“Sure.” She poured carefully, moistening the coffee as evenly as possible. “We’re in touch all the time.”
“I miss her. How’s she doing in New York?”
Chris glanced at him, then put the kettle down to wait for the coffee to preinfuse. He didn’t look particularly distraught, but then maybe he was one of those stoic guys who never showed emotion. “Good.”
“That’s all you can tell me? Good?”
“What do you want to know?”
“Is she happy there?”
“Yes. She’s loving it.”
“Is she getting out much?”
“It’s New York—are you kidding me?”
“She dating anyone?”
Damn. That was the one question she didn’t want him to ask.
“Oh, well, I mean...” She picked up the kettle again, started pouring slowly in a circle, pretending to concentrate so hard that she couldn’t say any more.
“I’m not surprised. What’s he like? Do you know him?”
“Zac...” She put the kettle down again. “I’m not really comfortable talking about this with you.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know what she’d want to keep private.”
He looked at her as if she’d grown horns. “Eva and I have, like, zero secrets from each other. If she’s found someone, I’m happy for her.”
“Really?” Chris stared at him curiously. This was the reaction of a man who could be planning to marry her sister someday?
“Yes, really. Why would I lie about that?”
“I...guess I thought you had feelings for her.”
“Chris.” He leaned in. Up that close, his blue eyes were mesmerizing. “Do I strike you as the kind of guy who would be okay letting a woman I had deep romantic feelings for run off to New York and screw whomever she wanted?”
Chris should check the coffee to see if it had finished dripping and needed another pour, but she could not take her eyes away from Zac’s. She was pretty sure they had been glued there. She wasn’t even that sure what he’d just said. Something about having feelings for Eva. Or no, something else. She broke their gaze, hit mental rewind and paid attention that time. “How would I know what kind of guy you are?”
“If you stick around, Chris, you might find out.”
She poured the second round of water over the grounds, more flustered than she wanted to admit, even to herself. “I’m leaving in a week and a half.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Of course I have to. I have a life to go back to.”
“Yeah?”
She was exasperated with him all over again. “Yeah.”
“What about Eva? If she’s having fun with someone, she might not be ready to come back here.”
