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He leaned again over the counter, not as close as before, but he was still making an effort. From the corner of my eye, I saw Mia turning her back to us, so I leaned as well, but my wariness was hard to ignore.
She was fastly served—thank God for April—then headed out. As she passed us, she gave me a bashful smile that left me out of sorts. It was hard to read her. Did she have feelings for Benjamin? I observed her intently, trying to notice signs I hadn’t before.
At a closer inspection, she appeared to be exhausted. Her clothes were disheveled, there were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked almost despondent. Since this was the first time we were seeing each other from a little distance, I was just at that moment noticing there was a significant scar close to her left eye, marring her eyebrow.
I watched her walk away, and from the glass panels, I saw her get in the driver’s side of a car parked in front of Beans but not drive away.
“So what do you say, Forest? Are we set for tomorrow?” I was pulled away from my inspection. He stretched his hand to carefully clean some flour I had on my cheek, and his hand lingered, his thumb lightly stroking my face.
I softened my stance at his sweetness. I appreciated his effort in making us come back to our flirting stage, so I made my part. “Anything to help your image in this unforgiving town.”
“Then it’s a date.”
His triumphant smile helped ease some of my concerns. But as I saw him get in the passenger seat of the car with Mia, I hoped I wasn’t getting myself into a situation I couldn’t handle.
We drove in silence for a while, heading to Bryants & Walker. We were whacked, not to mention frustrated, after being away for the last few days following a lead that turned out to be a dead end.
We couldn’t all go away for it, so Danny was dealing with our private cases from the towns nearby, and Zach was managing the local assignments and contacting our liaison from the FBI for some new information while keeping an eye on Haley and Gabe so she’d feel safe.
Only Mia and I were available to go away, and it was frustrating to come home with no answers. Maybe that’s why she was oddly quiet the whole time. We were running on midnight oil, so I came up with a perfect solution: go to Isabella’s coffee shop to grab something to eat.
I was anxious to see her again. Texting her wasn’t enough. I was so excited about the prospect of seeing her that I forgot I hadn’t mentioned to Mia what was going on. If I analyzed it more closely, I was reluctant to tell her.
She was the person who knew me best, sometimes even more than Zach did. This whole Isabella thing was new to me; it felt different, which scared me.
I wasn’t a relationship kind of guy, I knew nothing about it, and considering my upbringing, I was positive I’d be bad at it. I was the guy women chose to have fun with, but nothing more, and that was okay, because that was all I had to offer.
So my feelings for Forest were as foreign as they were terrifying. Chances were, I’d screw up sooner rather than later. I already had this dreadful sensation that watching her walk away would ruin me.
Maybe that was why I didn’t tell Mia about her. If I kept all those feelings my little secret, no one would witness my failure and distraughtness when I screwed things up.
Especially Mia and her family. After everything they did for me, I couldn’t bear their disappointment. I admired them too much for that.
But I knew keeping it to myself wouldn’t work. Mia knew me too well for that.
“I’m sorry I interrupted you back there. I had no idea that the girl you met before was the owner. If I knew you wanted to talk to her, I’d have stayed in the car.”
“No worries. She’s just some woman. You know me, I flirt with everyone.” I tried to dismiss it, but as I said those words, I felt a heaviness in my gut. My words tasted sour.
Mia’s lips thinned, and she glanced at me from the corner of her sharp eyes.
“We’ll meet tomorrow night for a date, but that’s it. Just a ‘welcome to Holy Water, there’s not much we can offer’ type of thing.” I had no idea why I offered that information, with a side of deceit. I was way too excited for it to be “just a date.”
She took in a deep breath and shook her head lightly in what appeared to be disappointment. After a few moments, she broke our silence again.
“I’m worried about Danny.” I expected a comment on my idiocy, so she surprised me with the change of topic. I should be relieved, but I was disheartened by it. For some odd reason, I needed to talk to her about this whole Isabella situation. I knew I was way in over my head and I needed guidance.
But I turned, wary about what she blurted.
“What do you mean?”
She slowed the car a little, gaining some time for us until we got to the company. “Andrea,” she snarled. It was no secret she didn’t like Danny’s wife. Neither of us did. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but she’s being shifty.”
“How so?”
“She’s been draining him out of money, always demanding more, and I know it’s not to take care of Fee. The poor girl can only count on Danny and his mom.” Sonia Delgado was indeed a marvelous woman, and Danny’s saving grace. “Then last week...” She shook her head, her lips as tight as her knuckles holding the steering wheel. “Right before I picked you up for our trip, I saw her getting into a car with another man and kissing him. I couldn’t get a good look, but I knew it was a man and he wasn’t Danny.”
“God, I hate that witch.”
