As she said it, the blonde turned and looked at something off to her right. Whatever it was, I had no idea. But when she smiled in that same direction, the smile looked smug, as if to say,"I told you so."
What wasthatabout?
Chapter 6
Lexie
It was early afternoon, and the candy store was packed with customers. This was no surprise, considering that today was the first Saturday after Thanksgiving.
The Christmas shopping season had officially begun, and I was doing my part to make it extra jolly.
Here at Quimby Brothers, we didn't only sell candy. We also sold fresh roasted nuts, flavored hot chocolate, and gourmet coffee beans along with frozen yogurt during the summer.
Of course, I planned to be long-gone by then. Even though I was grateful for the job, I hadn't gone to college to work part-time at a candy store no matter how much I loved the place.
Today, I was working at the main counter, where I had the happy task of giving people exactly what they wanted, whether it was a dozen chocolate macaroons or a pound of roasted peanuts.
Almost nothing came prepackaged, which meant that customers could choose the exact portions they wanted. It was old-fashioned, and I loved it, even on days like today, when I was having a hard time keeping up.
I was so caught up in what I was doing that I didn't notice him right away. But then, when Ididnotice him, I felt my eyes widen with surprise and yes, maybe a little dread.
It was Cole Henster.Of course.
Today, he was wearing jeans and a red ski jacket. He was standing on the far side of the store, browsing our selection of gift baskets. Why, I had no idea.
I mean, a grump like him would never give anyone a basket, not unless it was filled with coal or something infinitely worse.
Like reindeer poop.
And since we didn't sell any poop baskets, I fully expected him to slip out of the store just as sneakily as he'd slipped in.
But he didn't.
Instead, he moved toward the short aisle containing rows of wooden barrels filled with coffee beans. We had at least two dozen varieties, flavored and unflavored, in regular and decaf, too.
When it came to coffee beans, the customers served themselves, bagging up as much as they wanted and grinding them on the spot, assuming they didn't have a grinder at home.
He was still lingering in the coffee section when a female voice asked, "Are you okay?"
I gave a little jump. The voice belonged to the customer I was supposed to be serving. At her request, I was packing up a pound of cashews.
I'd been multi-tasking – using the appropriate scoop to collect the nuts and drop them into a small white paper bag while keeping one eye on my old boss.
I gave the customer a reassuring smile. "Sure. Why do you ask?"
She looked down toward the glass display case that separated her from me. The case contained a variety of bins, some filled with nuts and others filled with candies. The setup enabled customers to watch while we packaged up their orders.
With a laugh, she said, "It was full two scoops ago."
I looked down. Sure enough, the bag wasn't merely full. It was overflowing. I winced. "Oh. Gosh, sorry about that."
The woman had shoulder-length brown hair and looked to be around my own age, give or take a few years. She lowered her voice to ask, "Is everything alright?"
Nope.
Not with Cole Henster on the loose.
Still, I gave a jerky nod. "I just spotted someone, that's all."
