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Everything was falling into place. Now all I had to do was get my brother on board with the three of us starting a business.
Nineteen
I picked up the stack of dishes on the side table in the reading nook. It was becoming my permanent residence lately. I had the want ads open in the local paper, as well as a number of online applications half filled, but Gage’s words kept encroaching on my poor brain.
I wanted to talk to Macy about maybe expanding. Maybe just helping out to start. She was so busy all the time and she and her staff of four could barely keep up through the lunch rushes. The morning was pure chaos. I even jumped in a few times behind the counter. Macy had simply given me a harried glance and didn’t say a damn thing.
I might not have her magical abilities, but I could pour a regular pressed coffee. I could refill the various milks and condiments. It was the least I could do since I usually mooched a table from her most days. I wasn’t used to being bored. I hated it.
Gage usually kept me occupied most of the time. Both of us researching baby stuff, going to a few appointments.
Sex.
Lord, the sex. We kept trying to get to know one another, but then he’d laugh at something I said and he’d invariably lean in to kiss me and then there went the research. And our clothes.
Mostly our clothes.
The weeks had been a blur of baby stress and Gage’s inventive sleepwalking traps.
My new doctor didn’t know a whole lot about sleepwalking, but she was researching it. She’d advised a follow-up visit to discuss her findings and an ultrasound in the coming weeks.
All in all, we were finding our footing. The days were getting longer and warmer. I’d
showed him a few of my favorite spots on Main Street and we were finding new places to explore together. Both of us were starting over. It was like dating, only things felt a little bigger and a lot more claustrophobic. When I got too overwhelmed, I still had the tendency to push him away.
That was how I ended up in the coffee shop half the day.
Lately, he’d been a little preoccupied during the day. Always on his phone.
Sometimes he shared emails from his agent, who was forever trying to woo Gage back to the racetrack.
I hated that my stomach got knotted up the minute he put his hands on his phone. Eventually, he’d have to figure out a way to change careers. Or he’d simply fall in line. How many times could Harry call him or text him before Gage simply said yes?
“Moose!”
I looked up from the paper I was not looking at.
Ellie and Jodi called out the happy sing-song name. And right on cue, our favorite afternoon shy-guy filled the doorway. Large shoulders blocked the watery sunshine spilling into the café. He averted his gaze before lifting his head.
Though he wasn’t the most sociable dude, he had a way of looking at a woman as if she was the center of his universe.
Especially when it came to Vee.
“Hi, ladies.” Moose—also known as Murphy Masterson—was a regular. Almost everyone was in a town as small as Crescent Cove, but Moose came in every day without fail at one in the afternoon. Right after the main lunch rush, but before the teens got out of school and took over my reading area for schoolwork and gossip.
I might need to bring my cup up to the counter for no reason whatsoever.
Except maybe to make fun of Vee when she caught sight of Moose.
I shifted to the side of the counter.
Vee came out of the back where she made her crazy confections. She smoothed her brightly colored braid, toying with the tail as she got to the register. She changed her hair like I changed my underwear. Today, it was done in pink and purple streaks. “Hi, Murphy.”
“Miss Veronica.”
I resisted the urge to lean on the side counter with heart eyes. They were so danged cute.
Yes, there was no shortage of romance around me, and shockingly, I actually felt charmed by it. Maybe because my own romance was going surprisingly well.
