Page 58 of Deep Tide

“I’ll go help Rachel,” Siena said. “See you around, Owen.”

“Later.”

“I’ll be in in a sec,” Leyla said as Siena walked away.

Owen watched as the workman used a drill to install a metal bracket.

“I didn’t know you were doing this now,” Owen said.

“Yeah, you did. I told you about it Tuesday.”

“I thought you were still taking bids. I didn’t know you’d decided already.”

“I wanted to get it done,” Leyla said. “This system includes cameras at both doors, and one inside that covers the register. And it’s synced to my phone, so if anything comes up, I get an alert.”

“You went with the expensive option.”

“Yep.” She looked at Owen. She couldn’t see his eyes well behind his sunglasses, but she sensed something was on his mind. “So, what brings you here?”

“I stopped by to say hi.” He turned to her. “I wanted to see how you were doing.”

The tone of his voice put her on guard.

“You’re just in time,” she said. “I need a hand with the dairy delivery.” She strode over to the sidewalk beside the door, where a delivery truck had just unloaded a trio of milk crates. She grabbed the top one. “Can you get the other two?”

“Sure.”

Owen stacked the two remaining crates, and Leyla propped hers on her hip as she opened the door and held it for him.

She followed him down the hall to the kitchen, which smelled like rosemary. All the staffers were out front, and a tray of fresh focaccia bread sat on the work island.

“Put it over there by the reach-in,” she told him.

Leyla set her crate on the island and started unloading jugs of milk into the fridge.

“So. How are you doing?” Owen asked, handing her a jug.

“Fine. Busy.” She arranged the containers by fat content. “We suddenly got slammed with calls, and now I’ve got two events lined up next week, plus six new cake orders.”

She turned, and Owen was watching her, his brow furrowed. “I meant how are you?”

She grabbed a carton of half-and-half. “I need to take this out front. One sec.”

She strode to the front, where the tables were packed with lunch customers. Siena was on the register, and Wade and Rachel were busy at the espresso machine. Rachel’s cheeks were flushed, and she had a line of shot glasses in front of her.

“Oh, good,” she said when Leyla set the carton on the counter. “I need to fill the carafes.”

“Thanks. Hey, do we have any jalapeño-cheese croissants left?”

“They’re eighty-sixed.” Rachel glanced over her shoulder. “We still have some ham-and-cheese, I think.”

Leyla scooted past her to the pastry case. She grabbed some tongs and plucked the second-to-last ham-and-cheese croissant off the tray and dropped it into a pastry bag.

She returned to the kitchen, where Owen was looking at his phone.

“We’re out of jalapeño,” she said, handing him the bag.

“Thanks.”

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