“Oh, really?You shouldn’t have.”I peel back the wrapping from the box.Steve brought me a… Statue of Liberty snow globe.
My smile feels forced.
He reaches for my free hand, lacing our fingers together.His touch feels strange.Not wrong, exactly, but definitely not right.I want to pull my hand away, but I don’t want to embarrass him, so I just kinda let it hang there like a limp fish.“This is cute.Thank you.”
He smiles at the snow globe.
“Do you… um… want a cup of something?”I ask, desperate to escape the weirdness between us.
“Coffee is fine.”He leans in closer, tucking a piece of hair that’s escaped my ponytail behind my ear.“You know how I like it.Extra cream,” he murmurs against my temple.
Why is he acting like this?I slip my hand free and bring his gift behind the counter, sliding it onto the shelf beneath the register.I pour his order into an orange mug made to resemble a traffic cone and add extra cream.
When I set the mug in front of him, he doesn’t immediately pick it up.Instead, he leans forward, resting both elbows on the counter.“Thanks, sexy.Can I also get an egg white omelet with onions and cheese?”
What’s with the nickname?I shake off the unsettling feeling twisting through my stomach.“Sorry, the kitchen’s closed.Our cook burned her arm.”Speaking of Mrs.Nelson, I need to check my phone in case Willow sent an update.
“That sucks.”Steve blows a raspberry through his lips.“Is there any way you can make it?”
Yeah, it does suck.
What sucks even more is his entitled attitude.“That wouldn’t really be fair,” I say.“Everyone else had to make do with pastries.”Even my beloved barnacles got stuck with croissants.If anyone deserves a hot breakfast, it’s them.They’ve spent more money in this place over the years than any other customers.In those first months at the beginning, I’d have been in the red if it weren’t for them.
“Yeah, but none of them will be rocking your world later tonight.”He waggles his brows.
Jeez.Steve’s not going to be rocking anything tonight, but this is neither the time nor the place for that conversation.We can set the record straight after I close up this afternoon.
He reaches across the counter to give my arm a tender squeeze.“Come on, Chloe.I drove all night to get here.It’s the least you can do.”
I never asked him to drive all night.I never asked him to come to Inner Shores early.I never asked for any of this.
Tilly rushes through the door, her long, red hair flying behind her.“I’m here!I’m here!”
“Looks like help has arrived,” Steve says with a grin.“Now, how about that omelet?”
I suppose it’s not that big a deal to make him breakfast now that Tilly’s here.She can handle the customers, and I can work the grill until lunch.I’m not the greatest cook, but I can try.
Plus, if I feed Steve, he will be more likely to leave.“Give me a few minutes.”
When I step into the kitchen, Ethan doesn’t look up from the sink.The apron he had on has been balled up and discarded on the counter.
Nervous butterflies take flight in my stomach as I cross to the fridge to grab three eggs.“You don’t have to do that.Tilly is here now.I can handle the dishes.”
Ethan knocks the faucet handle with his wrist, rinsing the mug in his hand before dipping it into the bleach water and setting it on the drying rack.“I said I’d help, so that’s what I’m doing.Helping.”
“I appreciate it, but you don’t need to anymore.”
“Don’t you have an omelet to make?”
I wince.“You heard that, huh?”
He glances over his shoulder, not at me, but at the kitchen door, as if he has X-ray vision and can see through the wood to New York Steve.“Who is that guy?”
No one who matters.“That’s Steve.”
“I got that part.What I don’t understand is why you’re back here making him breakfast.I get that your cook is hurt, but… I don’t know.Am I wrong that he’s not just another customer?”
I clear my throat.“Steve and I… In the past, we have… dated?”In the loosest sense of the word.
