“I know. A friend of mine has a café a few towns over and she stocks it,” I rushed out, relieved.
“A friend, huh?” Agnes arched a brow.
“A happily married grandmother many times over,” I supplied, quickly, realizing my error and that she thought it was a girlfriend of mine. Damn it, already I was mucking this up.
But Agnes was smiling and something inside me loosened. Marginally.
“That’s very thoughtful,” she said softly.
“Aye, well.” I cleared my throat. “I have my moments.”
An awkward silence stretched between us, filled with all the things neither of us was saying. Agnes busied herself pulling the tea tin from the bag, turning it over in her hands like it was something precious.
I should ask her now. Just say the words.Have dinner with me.
“So,” Agnes said, at the same moment I said, “I was wondering?—”
We both stopped.
“You first,” she said.
“No, you go.”
“Graham.”
“Agnes.”
She rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. “I was just going to ask what brings you by. I’m assuming it wasn’t just to deliver tea, lovely as that is.”
Now. Do it now.
“Actually, I was hoping you might give me a book recommendation.”
What?
That was not what I’d meant to say. That was the exact opposite of what I’d meant to say. My brain had apparently decided to stage a mutiny at the worst possible moment.
Agnes raised an eyebrow. “Is that right?”
“Aye, it’s the way of it.” I lifted my chin, challenging her.
“Graham Kincaid, voluntarily reading something that isn’t a whisky catalog or a rugby score?” She pressed a hand to her chest in mock surprise. “Should I alert the press?”
“Och, I read.”
“Menus don’t count.”
“I read actual books. Sometimes.”
“Name one.”
I opened my mouth. Closed it.
Agnes’s grin widened. “That’s what I thought.”
“Okay, fine, maybe I’m not the most literary person in Loren Brae. But that’s why I’m here, isn’t it? To expand myhorizons. Maybe I feel like becoming a man of culture and refinement.”
“And this sudden urge for self-improvement has nothing to do with finding an excuse to come bother me during business hours?”
