Page 79 of Safe With You

She stood and gathered the empty napkins and paper plates from the table.

“Give me a few minutes to finish opening?”

“Take your time.”

While Luna finished opening, I organized the shot list we’d made.

By the time she unlocked the front door, Chapter & Charm had started waking up around us.

The first customer came in less than five minutes later.

I tried to return to my notes, but mostly, I watched.

Luna crouched beside a little boy long enough to help him find a book about construction trucks, then stood and pointed his mother toward the children’s section without making either of them feel rushed.

“You’ve been staring at that same page for five minutes.”

I looked up.

Naomi stood behind the café counter watching me.

“I haven’t.”

She raised an eyebrow.

I glanced at my laptop.

The same seven lines I’d written earlier stared back at me.

“Thinking.”

“Mhm.”

I knew that sound.

I’d heard Luna make it enough times.

“Don’t start.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to.”

“Wasn’t.”

“You definitely were.”

Naomi smiled and turned toward the espresso machine before I could ask what exactly she thought she’d noticed.

I went back to my notes.

This time, I actually worked.

By the time Luna made it back to the table, I’d finished putting together the shot list and organizing the ideas we’d discussed into something we could actually use.

We spent another twenty minutes going over the details, stopping whenever someone needed her at the register or Naomi called her toward the café. By the time we finished, the cinnamon rolls were gone, my coffee had been empty long enough for the residue at the bottom of the mug to dry, and Chapter & Charm had settled into the steady rhythm of a weekday morning.

I closed my laptop.