AllFreeNovel
Share Us
At that moment, Josh came up the stairs into the coffee shop, holding an enormous bouquet of flowers. “For you,” he said, presenting them to me with a flourish.
“Oh, uh, thanks,” I said. “This is a surprise.”
“Well, this whole store revamp thing is a big deal for you, and I wanted to congratulate you. I think I haven’t come across as very supportive, but I just want what’s best for you. I didn’t think that would involve working in a bookstore, but that’s my issue, not yours, and I can see how much happier you’ve been lately.”
He was saying all the right things—too right, come to think of it. He sounded like he’d been perusing the self-help section before coming up to see me because his whole speech was right out of one of those “learn to communicate with your mate” books.
While I was still thinking about how to respond, the phone rang, and then Florence called out, “Katie, they want you downstairs to help kick off the treasure hunt.”
“Oh, sorry, I’ve got to go,” I said, then remembered that I was still holding that huge bouquet of flowers. Florence reached over and took them from me, and I headed off again.
“Apron!” Florence called after me, and she took the apron from me once I’d untied it. I nervously smoothed my hair as I hurried downstairs.
“We couldn’t start this without you,” Owen said, now sounding less bashful than he had earlier. There was a small crowd of customers gathered around the table where we were handing out the treasure hunt clues. “Do you want to do the honors?” Owen asked me.
“The honors?”
“Start the hunt.”
“Okay, on your marks, get set, go!” I called out. The contestants instantly dispersed. “That seems to be going well,” I said. “And I’d better get back up to the coffee shop because it looks like we’re going to be busier than usual.”
“I’m sorry, I should have hired someone to take your place before now. That detail slipped my mind.”
“Take my place?” I asked, suddenly alarmed. Was he angry that I hadn’t kissed him the night before?
“I’d planned to make you the assistant manager in charge of marketing and get you out of the coffee shop entirely—that is, if you don’t mind. I should have talked to you about that earlier.”
“Well, yeah, that sounds wonderful,” I said. “But for today, we’re swamped. The new coffee is going over really well already. You may have to hire a couple of new people.”
He grinned. “We make a pretty good team.”
“Yeah, I guess we do.” I had that same sense of gravity pulling me toward him that I’d had the night before, and again I resisted it. Before the temptation could overwhelm me, I hurried up the stairs to the coffee shop.
I paused at the top of the stairs when I saw that Josh and Florence were in the middle of an intense conversation. I hadn’t thought they knew each other all that well or that they’d have anything to talk about other than making small talk about me, but they seemed to be arguing.
“I thought your assignment was clear,” he said to her, and I moved behind a display so I could eavesdrop without being seen. What assignment could he possibly mean?
“Hey, I’m just the sassy best friend in this scenario,” she said. “If you knew the source material, you’d know she’s supposed to ignore my advice. I’m the person she’s supposed to resist, and I’ve been giving her plenty to resist, trust me. I can’t help it if you aren’t holding up your end of the script.”
“Not holding up my end? What more do I have to do? I brought flowers!”
“I wouldn’t call telling her that she might as well give up finding a job and marry you a good campaign for Mr. Right. That’s Mr. Wrong behavior.”
“That wasn’t my idea. That was in the scenario.”
“Then you’ve got a lot to overcome. Someone set you up for failure.”
This made no sense. It sounded like they were in on some kind of plan together. I slowly backed away, heading toward the stairs, as Josh said, “I guess I’ll just have to reset things. Supposedly, this shouldn’t have worked on either of them, especially on her, but it has, so it looks like we had bad information. We can still fix it, and then no harm done.”
I’d just reached the stairs and was ready to flee when Josh left the counter and strode over to me. “Hey, there you are, darling,” he said with a smile. “How’d your contest go?”
I tried to get away from him, but he moved faster than I did and caught my wrist. “Don’t touch me!” I cried out and jerked away from him. I lost my balance and would have fallen down the stairs, but he caught me, and I was too stunned and shaken to get out of his grip. He held me tightly, staring into my eyes, and then I got dizzy. Everything went blurry and dim.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself still staring into his eyes, but I couldn’t quite recall what I was doing on the stairs. All I knew was that my heart felt like it would burst from love as I looked at him. “You saved me,” I whispered.
He smiled in what looked like great relief and released his iron grip on me to brush my cheek with his fingers and sweep my hair away from my forehead. “Of course I did. Are you okay?”
“I–I think so,” I said. “I’m a little dizzy, though.”
