Page 89 of Where Roads Lead

How can I stop this?

I couldn’t offer to drive her myself. Theo would be pissed. Ava would be pissed. And it was my café, after all, that I’d be leaving in someone else’s hands again.

It just didn’t make any sense.

No, there was nothing I could do but let it happen.

Theo loaded her bags into the back of his car and hurried to open the door for her before she had a chance to reach for it herself.

She looked at him in surprise, thanking him before climbing in.

“Thanks for letting me leave a little early, boss.” Theo winked before climbing into the driver’s side.

My chest tightened.

“Thanks for helping out today,” I responded flatly, watching him start the ignition.

“Bye, Will.” She waved from the passenger seat of another man’s car.

“Bye, Elsie.” I nodded back at her, wondering why it felt like some final farewell, despite the fact that I saw this woman nearly every day lately.

Theo pulled out of the parking spot, and like the sick masochist I was, I watched the car until it pulled down the street and turned the corner.

It’s just a ride home, I told myself.

But I knew what being stuck in a car with Elsie Cameron could do to a man, and I under no circumstances wanted Theo to suffer the same fate.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Elsie

Amonth in Colbridge passed by like a year in Boston.

It was slow, tranquil, and easy.

Sure, there were problems, but the kind found in a small-town seemed infinitely more insignificant compared to what I’d left behind.

In other words, Colbridge was exactly what I needed.

Somehow, without me really noticing, I’d stumbled headfirst into a life here.

I had a home, chilly as it may be. A cat, ever-needy as he may be. And a routine that I very much looked forward to each day.

Annoying Will Hughes had become as much a part of my days as feeding the cat or writing a few thousand words.

“Your coffee,” he said, placing the iced pumpkin drink in front of me.

I didn’t usually wait in line anymore. Will would see me pop in and set my laptop up, and he’d bring it over to my table a few minutes later.

I think he liked the break of getting to step out from behind the counter every once in a while. He’d sometimes sit and talk for a minute, and usually popped back over intermittently throughout the course of the day.

And really, I don’t think he minded me as much as he used to.

“Thank you,” I told him, before making a show of looking around the place.

“What is it now?” he asked, knowing there was something.

“Nothing.” I sighed dramatically. “It’s just that…”