“That’s… good,” I finally managed.
“As long as you’re okay with it.”
I sighed. For all I cared, Andrew Wade and his replacement daughter could disappear. Or better yet, I’d wake up tomorrow and find that everything—from Teddy’s arrival to my father’s reemergence—was just a nightmare, all thanks to my cruelly overactive imagination.
It wasn’t Christmas, though, and Santa Claus didn’t exist.
“You wanted the Fallfest to be bigger, right?” I replied, words hollow to my ears. “Well, now it’s definitely going to be the best yet.”
Georgie’s smile shone so bright I could’ve sworn I lost my peripheral vision for a whole minute.
When we puttered back into the heart of Bluebell Cove, I pulled into a spot on Main Street so we could begin decorating each stoop. The second the outside air wafted in, I drew an exaggerated breath and tossed Georgie a look.
“I’m getting a coffee. Do you want one?”
She laughed and began gathering her hair onto the top of her head. “Absolutely not. It’s practically night time.”
“Oh, I forgot,” I muttered, swinging my legs onto the pavement. “Rhett’s convinced you to have a regular sleep schedule—howboring.”
Georgie rolled her eyes and slipped from her seat, slamming the door shut and arching an eyebrow at me over the truck’s bed. “You’re not going to skulk away and vanish, right? I seem to remember you saying something about being my assistant since you—what was it?” She tapped her chin in mock-thought. “Oh yes, ‘Have nothing better to do.’”
I shrugged my coat on and replied, “I’ll be right back, boss. You won’t even notice I’m gone.”
Whatever she said next, I didn’t hear, because I was already halfway across Main Street, the scent of freshly brewed coffee dragging me forward like hypnosis. I was so distracted by mymouth watering that I didn’t notice a certain blond man I was intent on avoiding.
“Margot,” Teddy breathed, his smile drooping a fraction as the door’s bell announced my entrance.
Heart in my stomach, I sent him a curt nod. “Are you in line?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and took a step away. “Just waiting for my drink. Do you think we could talk?”
“We’re talking right now,” I quipped.
“Please. You know what I mean.”
Cameron appeared at the register, amber eyes darting curiously between us. He was Wes’s younger brother, but seemed more like Wes himself at that age: lanky, terrible with girls, and a head full of bouncing coils.
“The usual, Cam,” I murmured. My hands shot to my purse that most definitely still sat in Rhett’s truck. “You haven’t happened to get touch-to-pay in the last twenty-four hours, have you?”
He grimaced like he’d just insulted my firstborn child. “Sorry, Margot.”
Teddy wordlessly extended his card to me, a tiny grin on his lips as if he was a knight-in-faded-denim. When I reached for it, he snatched it back and waved a finger at me. “This comes with stipulations,” he said.
How much did Ireallyneed a coffee, anyway?
When the bell above the door chimed, Andrew Wade stepped through, proving that I actually,really,reallyneeded a caffeine boost. I whipped back around and ducked in front of the person behind me in line. My heart slammed against the base of my throat, and I gripped the edge of the counter. Teddy’s face had lost all its color.
Knees steadily turning to gelatin, my mind raced through all the possible exit routes. Most involved some level of parkour or destruction of property.
“C’mon,” Teddy murmured, voice muffled by the buzzing in my ears. When I didn’t move, he grabbed my elbow and pulled me into him, pushing me further into the cafe by my shoulders as he shielded me in his chest.
Distantly, I leaned into his warmth for a split-second and cherished the smell of honey and sea spray that felt more like home than home itself. Then it was gone, leaving a chill in its absence as he deposited me into the furthest barstool and proceeded to block me with his body.
“Someone might want to sit there,” I whispered stupidly, partially in a daze from his smell and the far-off sound of my father’s voice sinking its fangs into my brain.
In response, he perched on the edge of the seat, one hand on the back of my chair. I couldn’t control the flush as his blue eyes searched my face. I had been doing so well until my father made another surprise appearance, and it all came tumbling down. Now, caught off guard, I felt just as I always did when Teddy Bowman studied me like I was his favorite subject.
“Did you know?”
