Page 57 of Win Some Love Some
“Excellent. I’m terrible with schedules.”
“You’ll need to bring me coffee,” I said.
“Coffee, huh?”
I could feel her skepticism.
“The fancy kind. From Common Grounds.”
She smirked at me, shaking her head. Completely onto my bullshit.
“Does the coffee allowance cover me too?” she asked.
“Of course. You can get that cold foam, cold brew, whatever thing it is you like.”
“You make a hell of an offer, Nick. Coffee and a job.”
She pushed her hand out over the table.
“You’re going to do it?” I asked, stunned that it was so easy. I expected way more push back.
“Congratulations. You have officially hired me, for better or for worse.”
“As long as you don’t break anything, we should be good,” I said. Holding on to our handshake maybe a second too long.
“Don’t make me regret this.” She was trying to joke, but the words landed funny.
I wanted to tell her I never meant to hurt her. But we were never talking about that night.
We dropped each other’s hands and both of us laughed a little awkwardly. We were so far from Normal Nick and Normal Nora, I felt like we were turning into entirely different people.
10
Poker Night at Mal’s
Nick
“Hey, did I see Nora opening the garage with you the other morning?” Sheriff Bobby asked me. Bobby hadn’t changed much in the years I’d been coming to this game, except every year his belly got a smidge bigger. His shirts a little tighter. He blamed it on his wife, who owned the local bakery. She took too much satisfaction in feeding him.
“Fold,” I announced and tossed my cards into the center.
Roy, sitting on my right, turned his head in my direction. “What was Nora doing at the garage? She looking for a car to borrow? I told her she could borrow mine when she needed it.”
“I wouldn’t let her drive that piece of shit truck,” I told him. “It’s not safe.”
“You said it’s perfectly safe.”
“For you. I’m not worried about you getting stuck on the side of a road at night.”
“She’s being stubborn about asking for help. Is that why she was there?”
This is the part where it would be easy enough to lie, but, like Nora always said, I was never good at it. It didn’t matter that she was working for me, I just didn’t need it to be all over town. It was our business. Mine. Hers. Once Calico Cove got involved, it became everyone’s business and that’s how rumors started.
“No. Not exactly.” I stood up and wandered over to the table set up with food in Mal’s card room. He’d taken over the old lighthouse and turned the cottage into something really special. Lots of polished wood and copper accents and one whole room dedicated to our card games. He had a fancy card table and Jolie used to put food down right in the middle of it, but now we had the side table groaning under food that lots of people brought.
I took a slider and shoved it in my mouth, hoping Roy wouldn’t ask any follow up questions.
“Why are you being weird?” Roy asked.
