“That’d be great. I’ll take a pastrami on rye with mustard and mayo. No veggies.”
Annabelle saluted with her cup and left. Drinda threw herself into baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies. She had a great slice-and-bake version. Thebeauty of slice and bake was that it was easy to bake more later with almost no effort. She kept a good stack of customers’ favorites frozen and ready to go.
She sang along with an old Keith Urban song as she worked. It seemed like only seconds before she heard Annabelle’s voice.
“Hey, get away,” Annabelle demanded, trying to wedge herself through the half opened front door. “Shoo.”
“What’s going on?” Drinda hurried from behind the counter.
“This crazy dog keeps trying to get inside. I barely got past him earlier.”
“Oh no, don’t let him in. He can’t be in here.” She helped her friend inside and stared at the mixed breed black and white puppy. “He’s adorable, but he looks half-frozen. Look at the size of his feet. He’s going to be big when he grows up. If he gets in here, I’ll lose my license. Maybe I should call the town office. Is there an animal control officer here?”
“No. The police and fire department handle it, unless it’s a wild animal, then theycall Fish and Wildlife.” Annabelle handed her the package with her sandwich.
“What do I owe you for the sandwich?” she asked, not really paying attention, she was too focused on the black and white dog. He was large, but all puppy. Part husky, maybe some retriever or lab. She hated the idea of him shivering outside. Today wasn’t too cold for a furry animal, barely freezing. But if the temperature dropped further, or he had to be outside too long, the poor dog would be in real trouble. He better go home soon.
“The sandwich is on me. Fair trade for the coffee. How are you going to keep him outside?”
“What?” She turned to Annabelle. “I guess I’ll just make sure he doesn’t sneak in and chase him out if he does.” The idea of the poor pup shivering outside, maybe hungry, broke her heart. Maybe she should put up a poster somewhere to help find his owner.
After her friend left, she called the radio station and asked the DJ to mention the pup, and then she put a notice on the Cherry Lake social media buy and sell page that he was hanging around outside her shop. Maybe his owners would see it and stop by to pick himup. She ignored the cartoon of her spilling the coffee on Ford.
The rest of the morning was spent shooing the pup back outside when he snuck in. He had to be attracted to the smell of food, or the heat. He was a slippery devil and kept squeezing in between people’s legs, tracking in snow. Desperate to keep him out, she slipped on her boots and grabbed some bacon.
“Hey, little pup,” she crooned as he munched on the first slice she tossed him. She fondled his neck. No collar or tags. Dang, she was hoping to find his owner. With a second slice of bacon between her fingers, she lured him around the building to the back door. She tossed the slice into an empty cardboard box and hurried inside. Maybe he’d stay there, out of the falling snow, and away from the front door. The box wasn’t much, but it would keep him out of the wind.
She stamped off her boots and slipped back into her snowflake print crocs. Unfashionable, but very comfortable. They were fur lined and cozy without beingtoo hot.
“Hello?”
What was Ford doing here? Wasn’t he working?
Which reminded her, she still had a couple of things to check before he returned for her follow-up inspection.He wasn’t here for that, was he?
She hurried to the front.
Oh no! He was in uniform. This must be official.
“Good morning. How are you on this fine snowy day?” she blurted. “What can I get you?” She smiled her best, albeit nervous smile, silently praying he wasn’t here for professional reasons.
“I’ve got a list.” He waved a slip of paper.
She relaxed instantly and her shoulders slumped in relief. Coffee she could handle. “You do know that I have an app, right? You can order and it’ll be ready when you get here.”
“Actually, I didn’t know that. Besides, if I used an app, I wouldn’t get to talk to you while you made our drinks.” His grin was all charm.
Something warmed inside her. Her heart leapt. Oh no! She was not interested in Ford that way. Nope. Not at all. And why was he flirting? He was flirting, wasn’t he?
“Well, pass me your list and I’ll get started.” She barely kept her voice from trembling with nerves. His effect on her made no sense. He wasn’t the first good-looking man she’d ever met or even the hottest. She sighed. There was still something about him that set her body fluttering. She’d been engaged for a brief time and even her fiancé hadn’t had this type of effect on her.
“You’ve got snow in your hair,” Ford commented. “Were you outside?”
“I just took some garbage out,” she lied with a nearly straight face. She turned toward the coffee maker to hide the heat in her cheeks. She started a fresh pot of drip coffee. She’d learned quickly that many of the fire fighters and some older residents of Cherry Lake preferred plain old drip coffee. Accommodating them was easy and it kept them coming back.
She purchased excellent beans for roasting and they made rich, deeply flavored coffee no matter how she brewed it. Speaking of which, it wasnearly time to roast a fresh batch. She’d meant to do that this morning, but it had slipped her mind.
“The snow is a pain,” Ford said. “I’ve been pushing people out of drifts all morning. I was late for work because there were four people stuck between home and here.” He shrugged. “I had no idea so many people were out that early.”
