“Anything else?” he asked.
Emma’s stomach twisted, reminding her how she hadn’t eaten since the motel and that was a long car ride ago. “Do you have any…?”
His glare intensified, the pencil poised over the pad as if he’d snap it in half if she asked the wrong question. Her throat dried and she struggled to swallow. Fighting through it, she asked, “…food?”
“Yeah, I think there’s a pastry or two in back. What’s the name?”
“I’m Emma. What’s yours?”
He meant it for the order. She realized that the second the question slipped from her mouth. He cracked another bemused grin and darted his icy eyes up. “It’s Nick. Here’s your coffee.” He passed over the mug along with a carafe of milk.
She scooped it all into her hands. The heat had caused the yellow logo of the hardware store to melt away into a blue cartoon moose accidentally nailing his antlers to the wall. After blowing across the top, she began to raise the mug to her lips.
“That’ll be three-fifty…” Nick paused in entering the order into his old cash register to look right into her eyes. “Emma.”
THE WORLD HAD lost its damned mind. Usually, this was the part of the day when Nick could take his first breather. But every Tom, Dick, and jackass woke up this morning to assault his coffee shop. The usuals huddled around their tables, mugs at the ready while they enjoyed watching the calamity unfold.
“Skylar!” Nick shouted.
“What?” she screamed back louder.
He turned from the mindless horde snapping selfies to the only newcomer with any sense. She’d set up shop on the stool by Sam’s and kept twirling a spoon in her mug. With a red knit cap on her light brown hair and her puffy overcoat fluffed to the sides, she reminded him of a little wren in the snow. Didn’t help that she was perched on the stool as if about to take flight.
“You found the pastry yet?” Nick called to his single helper wandering in the back. “Shouldn’t be more than a minute,” he added to the woman when the crash of tumbling metal burst from the back.
“Sonnofa…” A blonde head popped out of the door, followed by a lanky arm propping up a plate. “This is all I found,” Skylar said, not explaining the sound.
Hopefully, a donut was good enough for Emma. He took the plate and his hand flash froze.Where the hell did she find that thing?“What was the crash?” Nick asked.
“Don’t worry about it.” Skylar beamed her smile, wider than ever since she lost the braces.
He groaned and pulled on the door of the microwave. The old metal box gave in, but it wasn’t until he put the frozen donut in that he remembered there was no juice. “Uh.” Nick approached the woman with her mitts wrapped around her mug. “I’m afraid your ‘pastry’…” He sneered at the warping of the word to fit a donut from god knew when. “…is a little cold.”
As Nick placed the plate on the counter it crackled like breaking the ice on a lake. With the tip of her finger, she touched the donut. The icing shattered. Nick grimaced and reached to yank the plate away when Emma plucked up the pastry.
“My coffee should warm it.” She dipped a quarter of the donut in, her brown eyes a richer hue than the chocolate frosting sliding into her drink. The smile didn’t waver for a second, which usually set off every nerve in Nick’s body. But Emma’s smile made him want to give one back.Almost.
As she raised the dredged donut to her lips, Nick winced. He dashed to the register and slammed his palm to the old buttons. “Let me refund you,” he said.What did she pay?He snatched onto a fiver and held it out to her.
Emma’s coral-pink lips wrapped around the edge of the donut and her eyes closed as she struggled to take a bite. Before she could complain, he slapped the bill down on the counter. She chewed quickly, covering her mouth with her hand. “You should keep it,” she said, pushing the bill toward him.
“That thing has to be freezer burnt to hell. I can’t charge you for it.”
“It’s not too bad…” She gritted her teeth and took another bite. “And this coffee is delicious.” Abandoning the ancient donut, she hefted her mug up and took a long drink. “Best I’ve had in…in months.”
Nick beamed at her words. Even if she was being nice for the sake of appearances, he pulled the bill back and dropped it in the register. As he closed the drawer, he looked at her. “Tell you what, free refills for the abysmal donut.”
She smiled wide, revealing a touch of chocolate on the side of her mouth. “Sounds like a good deal. Oh…” Her eyes fell and she fidgeted with the donut. Spinning it around and around in a circle, it took a beat before Emma whispered, “Could I have some sugar? I don’t handle black coffee well.”
Laughing, Nick bent under the counter and produced a whole stack of sugar packets. “Here.” He added some Equal then a palm-full of half-n-half cups. “Just in case.”
Her cheeks turned as pink as her lips. She cupped her hands around the bounty before he slipped away. Her fingers—one hand frozen from the donut, the other warm from the coffee—brushed his. Nick glanced up in surprise and found himself falling deep into her eyes. Everything about her was tiny—little mouth, petite nose, short body, but her eyes were wider than the moon.What lucky sot got to dunk into her?
“How long until our lattes are ready?”
The impudence ripped Nick from his romantic delusion. He looked to the pile of people standing patiently in line. “They’re ready when they’re ready,” Nick said noncommittally.
The back door swung open and Skylar finally bothered to get to work. She carried the wash bin to the regulars’ tables, plopping the mugs and silverware wherever they landed. The clink reminded Nick of the horror that awaited him in the back. “Gonna tell me what happened in the storage room?” he asked.
