Page 24 of The Barista's Beloved

“No. Nothing.” He answered her quickly, and his pace increased to the point where she was nearly running to keep up.

She grabbed his arm. “Whoa. Slow down.”

“Sorry.” He stopped completely. They were near her car. “Are you going inside or just heading out?”

She thought about it. Joan didn’t need her help to gather information, and she’d finished pretty much everything else. “I’m going over to the distillery.”

He nodded. “I’ll leave you here, then. Gotta go save my job and then get some research done.”

“What are you going to tell them?”

He shrugged. “The truth. The entire place went dead when that asshole started running his mouth.”

“Ben…” She swallowed. “You can’t really afford to take any time off, can you?” She knew he didn’t like to talk about his money. Or rather, his lack thereof.

He frowned. “I’ll make it work.” She opened her mouth, but he interrupted her with a sudden grin. “Maybe when I win this case, I’ll get a new lawyer job. Back in business, baby.” He nudged her elbow.

She was too frozen to respond. Ben wanted to work as a lawyer again? Taking on this one case to save Youth Mentors was one thing, but his old job had been the exact opposite. How could he want to go back? He’d said it himself; he’d been miserable. More than that, he’d been fired. Not that she thought he wanted to be a barista forever, but…she realized she had no idea what Ben’s future plans were.

Her heart plummeted. Maybe the man she’d gotten to know these past couple of months wasn’t the real Ben. What if her new friend was actually the midlife crisis version of him? Suddenly she felt like crying.

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