“Uh, sure. Right this way.”
Chapter 12
A man could get used to waking up in a big soft bed with lots of covers and pillows that smelled like lavender. Even though Paige’s apartment looked like a Vera Bradley catalog come to life, it was homey and comfortable.
He stretched and was about to get up when Paige stirred.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Sorry, I set an alarm so I’d have time to go home and change before work. It’s a little after five.”
“Yikes.” She yawned. “I guess I could get up. I’m opening the café today.”
Josh gazed at her for a moment. He really liked this woman. She was gorgeous and sexy, of course, but he loved talking to her. He cursed his bad luck for meeting her at a time in his life when these too-short spontaneous nights were all he could squeeze in.
Her eyes met his. He felt some pull in his chest, some gut feeling that this might just be the real thing.
“Paige,” he said, “I want you to know, this isn’t just sex for me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the sex part is awesome, but I don’t, like, want you only for your body.”
She smiled brightly. “Well, thank you. And I agree. I keep thinking, you know, you’re very different from the guys I usually date, but that’s a really good thing. I like you, too.”
“I want to see you again, but I also want to keep everyone’s expectations reasonable. My coworkers tell me after the first year, the work is less crushing all around, but for right now, I’m putting in sixty or seventy hours at work every week.”
She reached over and squeezed his hand. “I know. I understand. We’ll figure it out.”
“Okay, good.”
Paige got out of bed. “You want some breakfast? I can make eggs.”
Josh’s stomach rumbled. “I think you might be my dream woman.”
She shrugged into a robe and laughed as she left the room.
Josh wondered at his luck as he pulled some of his clothes back on. He heard eggs sizzling as he walked out of the bedroom. Bianca, who sat in one of the stools, eyed him warily as he sat at the kitchen island.
“You want your breakfast, too, Bianca?” Paige asked. She pulled a big bag of kibble from a cabinet under the counter and filled the half-full cat bowl on the floor. Bianca gave Josh one last skeptical look and then jumped down to eat.
“Any hot plans at the café today?” Josh asked as he watched Paige lay some breakfast sausages on a plate and put it in the microwave.
“I have a meeting with Diane around lunchtime. She’s the owner.”
“Yeah, Lauren has mentioned her.”
“She wants a postmortem on the fundraiser. We raised enough money to cover everything I want to do, which is good. I’m going to present her with a more formal proposal for the youth programming I want to do at the café.”
“Cool.”
“Everything used to go through Lauren, did you know that? The first year or so I worked at the café, I pitched her all of my ideas and then she pitched them to Diane. But lately, she’s backed off some. I think Caleb mellowed her out.”
“Yeah, she was always kind of a control freak. The last time I had dinner with her and Caleb, they had a little spat about how much time she was spending at the café.”
“Diane makes her take days off. But, basically, the result of Lauren backing off a little is that I’m meeting with Diane directly about financial matters, so I’m going to give her my plan for how to spend the fundraising money after we give half to the animal shelter.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Nah. It’s a good proposal, and I’ve already talked to Diane and Lauren about most of it. The meeting is kind of just a formality.”
Josh smiled as she put a plate of eggs and sausage in front of him. He admired her confidence. She had no hesitation in her voice, and she knew what she was doing at work, which was more than he could say for himself most days.
