Page 15 of Haunted Ever After

“And the banana bread,” Cassie shot back with a smile. “I’m a sucker for cinnamon.”

Sophie looked from Cassie to Nick. “You two are a match made in heaven.” She slipped the book back into her bag as she stood. “You should come on the tour tonight. On the house. There’s plenty of room. I cap it at twenty, but I’m sure you heard, I’ve only got three people tonight.” She waved the notepad in emphasis. “Call it a housewarming present. You can get a little history of your new hometown.”

Nick cleared his throat. “Maybe I’ll tag along.” He picked at an invisible spot on the countertop with a thumbnail, his voice elaborately casual.

Sophie raised her eyebrows. “I’ve done this tour for five years and you’ve never gone on it. Since when are you interested in local history?”

“Hey, I love this town. You know that. I’ve always meant to go on your tour, just haven’t gotten around to it.” He shot Cassie a look. “Like, how many times did you go to Disney when you lived in Orlando?”

“Not enough to justify the annual pass.” Okay, that was a lie. She made her money back on her trips to the Food & Wine Festival alone. And then she spent it all again on the food and wine. Cassie got what he meant, though. When you had a tourist attraction in your backyard, it was easy to forget it was there.

But Sophie wasn’t fooled. Her smirk was subtle but it was there. “Sure.” She tore the top page off before handing the notepad back to Nick. “See you tonight.”

The sound of the bell chiming followed her out the door, and Cassie turned her attention to Nick. “All this ghost stuff. It’s really a thing?” It was getting to be a lot. She was okay with cutesy names of various shops, and the iconography almost everywhere she looked. That was touristy, and it was fun. But serious questions about ghosts in her house, and a haunted history textbook as part of the local school’s curriculum? That…that was a lot of ghosts.

She desperately wanted Nick to make a joke. He was good at those, and she could really use some snark right now to counteract the shiver that was building at the top of her spine. But his nod, while friendly, was serious. Not a stitch of snark in sight. “It’s really a thing.” He straightened up then, moving to clear away her empty dishes that he’d left on the counter. “I know it all seems gimmicky, something to bring in tourists. And in some ways, it is. But…” He paused, staring hard at the rag in his hand before tossing it in the sink behind him. “It’s a thing,” he said again. “I’m sure Sophie’ll explain it tonight better than I can.”

Cassie didn’t want to end the conversation there, but Nick seemed done. Which was probably for the best. She had a lot of work to do. Especially if she was spending tonight on a walking tour of Boneyard Key instead of catching up on work. She turned back to her laptop, waking it up.

The bell above the door chimed again, and a dark-haired man walked in, raising a hand in greeting to Nick as he headed straight back to the kitchen. “What the hell, man! Nothing’s been set up back here!”

“Sorry!” Nick called. “Been a busy morning.” He rolled his eyes at Cassie, and she stifled a giggle. “I gotta get back there.” He pointed to the kitchen.

She nodded. “See you tonight, then?”

“It’s a date.”

Cassie’s eyes flew to his, taking in the hesitant smile that flashed across his face before he turned to go. She couldn’t keep an answering smile from her face as she pulled up an email to respond to. Maybe she’d stay for lunch after all.

Seven

“A date, huh?” Ramon was a cheerful guy in general, but the glee on his face right now was next level.

“Keep your voice down!” Nick threw a panicked glance over his shoulder, but the door to the kitchen had swung shut behind him. Cassie couldn’t hear them back here unless there was yelling. And neither of them was the yelling type.

“I’m just saying!” Ramon opened the walk-in fridge, checking the stock of everything he’d need for the lunch menu. But he kept talking while he did so; the man was a multitasker. “It’s nice to see you so…” He trailed off as he stepped all the way inside, and Nick was tempted to close the door on him. Just for a couple minutes, until he stopped talking about Nick’s love life.

Instead Nick crossed his arms and leaned a hip against the prep counter. “See me what?” He knew what Ramon was going to say; he just needed to hear him say it.

“You know…” Ramon emerged with a block of cheese and a slab of roast beef, carrying them over to the slicer. “Interested. It’s been a while, you know? Since Madison—” This time he abruptly stopped talking instead of trailing off. Mentioning Nick’s ex’s name around him tended to have that effect.

Nick concentrated on taking a slow, deep breath. Hearing her name wasn’t the arrow to the heart the way it used to be. She’d left him years ago, and she’d been checked out of the relationship for long before that. But nothing hurt like your first love. Especially when you never had the chance to fall out of love. She’d made that decision for them both. Every so often Nick would wake up in the middle of the night and ask himself: Why hadn’t he been enough?

He wasn’t still carrying a torch or anything; Madison had doused it long ago. But it was why he didn’t date anyone he expected to stick around. He was never going to set himself up for that kind of hurt again. He had his café. He had his town, his friends. Most of the time that was enough.

But now…

It’s a date.

A date.

The words haunted Nick all through lunch service (Cassie had stayed, gotten a chicken Caesar wrap, and proclaimed her undying love for Ramon. It was a goddamn sandwich; you’d think he’d made her a five-course meal) and into the afternoon. When he flipped the CLOSED sign on the door, locked up the place, and went around to the back stairs, the words echoed in his head to the rhythm of his steps. It’s a DATE. It’s a DATE.

What had he been thinking? He hadn’t been, obviously. He’d been a desperate dude who just asked out a girl he barely knew. A girl who mooched off his Wi-Fi and his electricity, and whose only redeeming quality was her love of cinnamon.

And her big brown eyes.

And her dark hair, especially that one lock that fell out of her bun to curl along her cheekbone and down to her chin, following a path he wanted to trace with his fingertips.

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