“Morning, Nessie,” he said without inflection.
“Good morning, Ghost.” She plastered on a smile, but it was more of a customer service smile than a genuine one. “Your usual?”
“Thanks.” Without another word, he strode over to one of the tables by the front window. He dropped into the end seat, back to the wall, eyes on the street and Craig Foster’s office.
Nessie grumbled something under her breath.
“Okay.” Naomi swung around to face her. “What’s going on with you this morning?”
“Nothing,” Nessis said a bit too quickly.
“Really? You practically hissed at Owen when he walked in.” There she went, using his real name again. She had to stop letting it slip out. He was Ghost. Period.
Nessie opened her mouth to deny it, but closed it again without saying a word. After working the dough furiously for a beat of stubborn silence, she finally sighed and straightened. She dumped the dough into a bowl, covered it, and set it aside to proof.
She dusted her hands on her apron and finally faced Naomi. “I’m sorry. Jax came home upset last night. He and Ghost had some words, and I’m just… I don’t like seeing Jax sad. I guess I’m being over-protective.”
Dammit. That explained the note of vulnerability in Ghost’s voice when he called last night. As she’d suspected, it had never been just about the broken mug.
The bell above the door jingled again. Nessie smiled and waved as Ruthie Campbell and Margery Pendry came in. They waved back and chose one of the booths near Ghost’s seat.
Naomi glanced over at Ghost, but he was still focused on the street, not paying any attention to their conversation. Still, she leaned over the counter and lowered her voice so the town’s two biggest gossips wouldn’t overhear. “What happened?”
“Jax didn’t really say.” Nessie selected two mismatched mugs and crossed to the coffee pot warming next to a fancy espresso machine. “He came home all quiet and broody. Didn’t sleep well, and he was still grumpy this morning. Whatever it was, it hurt him.”
That sounded about right. She was starting to know Owen—Ghost.Ghost, dammit.The man didn’t just push people away when he needed space—he threw them off a cliff without a parachute.
“I could talk to him,” she offered. “Ghost, I mean. See if he’s willing to clear the air between them. He might open up to me.”
Nessie scoffed and slid the two mugs across the counter. “Want a crowbar? I have one in back.”
Yeah, she probably would need a crowbar and maybe a few sticks of dynamite to get anything out of him in the light of day.
“Can’t hurt to try.” She picked up the mugs. “Mind if we hang out here for a bit? We’re waiting for someone.”
“That’s what the tables are here for.” Nessie shrugged and turned to grab an everything bagel from the pastry case. She set it on a plate with a pat of cream cheese shaped like a little flower.
Adorable.
She slid the plate across the counter. “Ghost’s order. Do you want anything?”
Naomi studied the menu. “I’ll take the egg and cheese breakfast sandwich on a croissant.“
“Excellent choice. I’ll bring it right out.”
The bakery was filling up. Margery and Ruthie already had their heads together, no doubt fueling the rumor mill. Clyde Jensen and Marv Dorsey argued over whether the horseshoe league was rigged. Levi Wiley dragged his laptop into the corner booth to work on his novel.
If the bakery had a pulse, it was this: the slow thrum of town gossip, sugar, and the illusion that nothing bad could ever breach these walls.
Ghost sat alone at the window table. He looked like he always did. Blank. But Naomi noticed the little things now—the tightness around his eyes that said he hadn’t slept much last night either, the tension in his shoulders, the way he tracked every movement around him even while pretending to look bored. The blue light from Nessie’s OPEN sign caught the side of his face and made his eyes go pale, cold as the river in spring.
She wondered if he knew she could see the cracks in his armor.
She turned back to Nessie. “Listen, I get why you’re annoyed, but try not to take it out on him while we’re here, okay? He had a rough night, too.”
Nessie had been pouring two more mugs of coffee, but stopped and looked over with wide eyes. “How do you know what kind of night he had? In fact, why are you here with him so early?”
Naomi held up her hand. “Don’t, Ness. It’s not like that. He’s just doing me a favor, helping me investigate Leelee’s disappearance.”
