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Wringing my hands around the hem of my cardigan, I tentatively approached the long line at the counter. I would have to get used to being around people who knew me again. People who knew everything—no more hiding in the anonymity of a big city. In this town, everyone knew everything.
When my mother first called me a week ago and told me about her car accident, I hadn’t known how to process it. She would be fine, eventually, but she’d been injured enough that she needed someone to help her day-to-day around the house. And mostly, she needed someone to help run the small consignment shop she owned.
Somehow, I’d agreed to do both. The moment I drove up to the creekside bungalow I’d grown up in, I regretted my decision. There was so much history there. So many memories that I’d been trying to run from for the past nine years.
“What can I get started for you today?”
My head snapped up at the sound of a familiar voice. I blinked up at the barista, stunned that the line had moved so fast and also stunned at the pair of amber eyes staring right at me.
Ruby Rivera’s smile fell as she tilted her head to the side. The last time I had seen Ruby was the night that everything changed. The night she had come to Thea’s Halloween party, wrapped in the arms of Reid Ramsey, Ruby’s then boyfriend and Thea’s older brother. Her hair that had been long last time I’d seen her had been cut short, to above her shoulders. Her face had more lines to it, and her cheekbones were angled and sharp.
“Are you…okay?” Ruby asked as I gaped at her.
I gave my head a slight shake and cleared my throat. I needed to get it together. I’d never been close with Ruby, but running into her behind the coffee counter was not what I expected. She came from a wealthy family and had always talked about how excited she was to bust out of this tiny town someday and do something with her life.
Perhaps things do change, sometimes.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice catching. “I’ll take a…coffee, please.”
Ruby’s eyes narrowed as she took me in, from my hat to the big sunglasses I hadn’t taken off. My pulse spiked, and I prayed she didn’t recognize me.
“What kind of coffee?” she asked slowly.
My cheeks heated. I needed to get myself together. “Can I, um, get an iced coffee without the ice?”
Ruby’s nose wrinkled at the request. It was odd, I knew, but I didn’t like the way the ice watered down the coffee and I wasn’t a fan of hot coffee.
“Sure,” Ruby said stiffly, typing in the order on the screen. “Anything else?”
“Can I get that with no straw?”
Ruby paused. “We only have straw lids for our cold drinks.”
I pressed my lips together. I hated being that annoying customer, but I also couldn’t help myself from being a bit particular. “That’s okay. I don’t need a lid.”
“You don’t want a lid?”
I shook my head.
Ruby pursed her lips but sounded perfectly cordial when she spoke. “Okay, then. One iced coffee with no ice and no lid. Anything else?”
“Nope,” I said, relieved that I was done speaking with her. She didn’t seem to have recognized me. She gave me my total, and I paid with cash, leaving a good tip for the trouble.
When I got my coffee and took the first sip, I had to literally stifle my moan. It was so good. Better than I remembered.
“Thank you,” I said softly as I stepped away from the counter, coffee in hand.
With a much better attitude already, I checked my watch.
I’d only been here fifteen minutes. Mom was in bed, taking a nap. I had planned to go to her consignment shop, Flutter Nook Gifts and Treasures, a little later tonight after the downtown businesses closed to check things out. Mom was adamant the place needed to open back up as soon as possible. She was losing money every day, according to her, and her insurance claims from the accident were taking longer to deal with than she expected.
Without thinking much about it, I stepped deeper into the shop rather than heading to the door. I’d forgotten how beautifully cozy this place was. The cafe counter sat at the front, with tables set up in the middle between the sections of books that took up the bulk of the space.
The shop was two stories tall, the top level open to the bottom in a U shape. On both levels stood rows of bookshelves. I walked along the scarred, original hardwood floors, gazing up at the old tin ceiling tiles that sparkled in the sun streaming in through the giant windows.
It had been so long since I’d been here, and as I walked between the tables toward the staircase, nostalgia hit my chest like an ache. Even when we were too young to be drinking coffee, Thea and I had spent a lot of time in this place. We’d order steamed milk with vanilla flavoring and pretend we were older and sophisticated as we stalked the kids section of books in the back corner. We’d buy cookies and eat them, curled up in the bean bag chairs with our favorite mystery series.
My fingers reached for the gold half heart on the chain around my neck as I climbed the stairs to the second level. It was a cheap, tacky thing, but it meant more to me than if it had been encrusted with diamonds. I was shocked it had lasted all these years, but also incredibly grateful. The necklace was a present from Thea when we graduated from high school. She had the other half of the heart on an identical chain. A symbol that we were only one half of a whole.
