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The invitation that arrived in my mail was probably meant just for me, given that address was hand lettered, and so was the brief note inside, in the same handwriting as the note from Owen returning my check weeks ago.
I wanted to be surprised at the personal invite and at the details of this place. Nearly fifty miles from my shop, in a different county, and it wasn’t an anime gaming café. Like Anne said, it was just a coffee shop.
The part of my brain that had been listening to Sadie said this was more proof they cared aboutme, not my shop.
Their parking lot was packed, which made sense. They had a name, even if they were only serving coffee. But them putting up a place like this was no more competition for me than a Starbucks would be in the same location.
I’d gone back and forth since about whether or not I wanted to come.
“We can go home,” Anne said. “You saw.”
But now that I was here, I wanted to seethem. Of course, that would lead to wanting to talk to them, which could lead to... what?
If they’d been using me for my shop, and they brushed me off now, at least I’d know. If they liked me for me...
“I want to see what it looks like inside.” I had no idea anymore what was a mistake. “But I’ll stay in back. I just want to see what they’ve done, and then we’ll go.”
The interior was beautiful—anime meets abstract. Owen and Kingston’s influences were evident in the decor, borrowing from what I’d seen of their other shops, but it was also its own unique design. If someone told me the shop owners were usually my competition, I wouldn’t believe them.
When my gaze fell on Kingston working the register, any thoughts about my environment vanished in a surge of longing tinged with pain. He was smiling, chatting, and sexier than I remembered.
Which was saying a lot.
I dragged my attention away long enough to search out Owen, but I couldn’t find him. So, I stared at Kingston some more.
“Do you want to go talk to him?” Sadie asked.
I shook my head, despite theyesscreaming in my skull.
Anne nudged me toward a just emptied and wiped-down table in the back of the dining room. “Sit. We’re going to go get drinks and coffee, and then all three of us can agree that it’s not nearly as good as yours is.”
“What if it is, though?” I asked.
“It’s not,” Sadie said.
I was going to be waiting at least a few minutes, given the line. Perfect time to stare at Kingston while he was too busy to notice. Was that pathetic? The chubby girl stalking her crush.
The gorgeous curvy woman staring at a man who cares about her. The correction in my head was in Owen’s voice.
“You’re the most stunning thing in this room.” This Owen voice was external, and made butterflies dance in my stomach. I looked up to find him standing next to me. “I told Kingston you’d show.”
My heart slammed into my ribs so hard, I could only hear him. “You think you know me that well?” I managed to keep my voice steady anyway.
“Parts of you.”
If this was Kingston, the comment would be followed by a comment about how intimately he wanted to explore more parts. “Oh?” It wasn’t my best comeback, but I still didn’t know how I wanted to react to them.
“Weverybriefly considered using this as a chance to give you a huge, public apology.”
I hated that idea.
“We agreed you wouldn’t appreciate it,” Owen said. “I was surprised Kingston saw things my way.”
Because Kingston had been listening when I spilled my heart and my secrets. He hadn’t even hinted that he might use my past humiliations against me. The opposite, in fact. “Did he tell you why?”
“A very reasonabletaking this public forces Lyn’s hand and that’s wrong.”
“He didn’t tell you anything else?”
