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With the way gossip spread in this town, I would have thought the news of a rival coffee shop would have had people racing to tell Lena. Maybe at the time not enough people knew and were still loyal to Deja Brew?
All I knew at the moment was that the timing for a new coffee shop and two disasters in a row for Lena, which clearly benefited this place, was awfully convenient.
There was nothing to do about it now, and the woman seemed nice enough, but I made a mental note to do some digging. It wouldn’t be hard to verify if she had the proper permits and everything was in order. If I happened to find any information that told me she’d intentionally come after Lena in the process, then so be it.
At the very least, I was going to keep an eye on Mountain Jewels Coffee until I figured out why the hell it was driving my instincts crazy.
Chapter 18
Lena
I flopped back on Jude’s leather couch, looking at the ceiling. Every piece of me was tired. The last few days had been nothing but a craze of getting Deja ready to reopen. Accepting deliveries on new supplies, cleaning everything in the kitchen until it shone. Having Ben look at the ventilation system and him giving the all clear.
Every night, I had to kick out Evie, and then Jude came and found me, head buried in scrubbing something or organizing the pantry. Tonight, he’d simply picked me up, turned off the lights, and walked out the door.
I could have protested harder, but it was going to be fine. Most everything was done by this point. We could start baking in the morning and hopefully be open again in the early afternoon.
The good news was the customers were sympathetic. There were only a couple who didn’t seem okay with my explanation of what I was doing to prevent another mishap of the same kind. But my offering a boatload of free coupons definitely smoothed a lot of feathers.
My entire body felt so boneless, I didn’t want to move. Which was saying a lot, because I desperately wanted to snoop around Jude’s house when I could muster the energy to stand.
This was the first time I’d ever been here. I’d only ever known approximately where he lived, but I never knew he had a gorgeous house in the middle of a property that was downright lush for Montana, even in winter. Beautiful woods around an older-style, two-story house.
He was adorably nervous about letting me come here, but I begged and begged until he said yes. Now, he was in the kitchen, cooking dinner.
From here, I saw a small room with a security setup that rivaled the one at the ranch. Cameras covered every inch of his property. But given everything he’d gone through, it made sense. I would want that kind of reassurance too.
Jude appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, a glass of wine in his hand. He laughed when he saw me, and I thought about what the girls said—that he really only smiled with me. It was a pity, because Jude’s smile was the best thing in the entire world. “You okay? You look like you melted.”
“I kind of feel like I melted,” I sighed, reaching up to take the glass when he handed it to me. “But I’m trying to rally so I can snoop around your bachelor pad.”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s hardly a pad. It’s hardly anything at all.”
“Don’t say that.” I knew where he was coming from, but I didn’t agree. The house was plain and not decorated, but the bones of it were gorgeous. If this were my house, I would have a fucking field day.
Slow your roll, Lena. Don’t think about it yet.
Jude’s eyes narrowed. “What was that thought?”
The man was too fucking observant. “Nothing.” I sipped my wine. “Nothing to worry about.”
He slid onto the couch beside me. “Are you going to tell me? Or am I going to have to pin you down and deny you until I get it out of you?”
My eyes went wide. “It wasn’t a big thought, and you wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t I?” His gaze was full of mischief, and I knew he absolutely would, and he would enjoy every second of it.
“Fine,” I sighed. “I just thought if this were my house, I would have a great time decorating it because the bones are beautiful. That was all. I didn’t want you to say it’s nothing because it’s not. It’s just plain.”
“It is plain.” He didn’t sound offended in the least. “Let’s go back to the first part of the sentence.”
“We don’t have to.”
Jude took the wineglass from my hand and set it on the coffee table before he pounced. Pounced was the wrong word, because Jude was an absolute predator, stalking me with grace and ease until I was fully pinned beneath him on the couch. “I think we do.”
As I looked up at him, it was easy to see he was tired. It was written in the lines of his face, and I felt it in his body, even if the same body was making what he wanted very clear. “You’ve been running yourself ragged between the ranch and me. I’m sorry.”
“I’m fine,” he said.
