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“I didn’t—” she started to argue, and then she saw his barely contained laughter and realized he was just teasing her.
His hands came out of his pockets and his eyes narrowed into what she had come to expect as his baseline, which was an exacting attitude that landed just shy of judgmental. There was that confidence of his again, firmly back in place, although that massive ego he lugged around still seemed to be somewhere in the back seat. She saw his blue eyes glinting at her as she looked up. Okay, maybe the ego was riding shotgun, but at least it wasn’t driving.
They walked a few blocks away to a small coffee shop on the corner named, The Chipped Mug. Rafe held the door for her as she entered, and she balked when she saw a sea of familiar faces. She scanned them for one face in particular and sighed with relief when he wasn’t there. The last thing she wanted to do was explain Rafe to anyone—or explain these people to him. Bracing herself, she went in and smiled and waved.
“Let’s get our drinks quickly,” Abbe said in an undertone to Rafe. “Before someone invites us to sit.”
He slowed down rather than sped up like Abbe wanted him to. “They look nice,” he said to her over his shoulder, smiling and waving to the group of people who were, to him, complete strangers, but to Abbe were anything but.
“Abbe! Come join us!” a dark-skinned Southeast Asian woman named Avrika said.
Abbe put her hands on Rafe’s back and pushed him toward the counter. “Hi, Avrika, sorry we can’t,” she said, really meaning it. She and her old school buddy had only spoken a few times over the past year, and Abbe felt her throat tighten just thinking about it. “I just have to talk to this guy alone for a few minutes.”
Avrika’s face fell. Abbe had to look away or she knew she’d get emotional.
The group encouraged Rafe and her to join them later. “Maybe later,” Rafe said, like he knew them as well as Abbe did. The more she tried to rush him through, the slower he dragged his feet. That’s when Abbe understood that he was torturing her on purpose. For some reason, he was enjoying this. “Do you know everyone in town?” he asked.
“No, not everyone. I mean, I’m from the area, and I went to Wellesley. With Avrika, actually,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. She turned to the barista. “I think I’ll take an Italian lemonade. It’s a little late for coffee for me.”
“Hot chocolate,” Rafe said to the young man behind the counter, pulling out his phone and tapping it on the console, paying for their drinks before Abbe could even pull out her wallet.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, a little annoyed he’d paid, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“You went to Wellesley?” he asked as they moved down to wait at the drink pick-up area at the end of the bar. “Isn’t that an all-girls college?”
“Yep,” she said, feeling self-conscious. Everyone at Avrika’s table was staring at them and whispering. They weren’t even being subtle about it. Rafe was the kind of guy who caught eyes and made people whisperwho is thatjust by walking into a room. The fact that Abbe was standing next to him made it triple the hot gossip. She was definitely going to hear about this later.
“How wasthat?” he asked, sounding like he doubted going to an all-girls school was any fun.
“It was fantastic, actually.” She was too flustered to carry on a conversation with him. “Can we sit? Like, over there?” She pointed to a small two-person table in the corner.
“What about your friends?” he asked, grinning. He knew she wanted to avoid introducing him.
"My friends are fine where they are and we’ll be fine at that little table,” Abbe said, pushing him through the coffee shop again.
She felt a laugh rumble through him. It felt so good under her hand she snatched it away before she did something stupid, like run her hand down to the small of his back and let it rest just beneath his belt. Charles was right. He had an amazing ass. Luckily, he put it in a chair, removing the temptation.
“You said you grew up here?” he prompted.
“No, but close by. Tiny town off Rt. 9. Blink and you miss it.”
“And you got the house that became the shelter… how?”
“It was my grandmother’s house.” Abbe couldn’t help but remember her grandmother when she spoke. A fond smile lit up her face. “She was a bit of an eccentric. Had a million cats.” Her smile faltered a little. “When she passed five years ago, she left it to me, and I knew it was her intention to turn it into a proper animal shelter. Which also happened to bemydream.”
Abbe realized how much she was telling Rafe about herself and stuck the straw of her lemonade into her mouth just to get herself to shut up. He was staring at her, leaning over his steaming hot chocolate, hanging on her every word. She sipped her drink. She had no idea why she was talking so much.
“She didn’t leave it to your parents?” he finally asked.
Abbe laughed. “No, my parents can’t stay put! They are travelers at heart. As soon as I was off to college, they started booking flights and cruises… I think they’re in Portugal right now. My mom even started a travel blog. She does well with it, too.”
Rafe’s smile lingered as he watched her animated face. “Butyoustay put.”
Abbe shrugged. “I love it here. And I love what I do. Travel is nice, but I’m a homebody. I like to be of service to this community. I couldn’t do that if I was always on vacation.”
“I never take vacations,” he said, shaking his head ruefully.
“Why? Do you have a demanding job?”
