Page 14 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
Good, he thought. Hold on to that feeling. Because that was exactly what would happen again if he got involved with Jeanie. The town was already obsessed with her being here. One, because she was new. Two,because she was serving them their life-giving coffee. And three, because she was a beautiful ray of sunshine.
Nope. Cut it out.That’s exactly the kind of nonsense that’d blinded him to reality last time. Jeanie just got here. Not to mention she had no experience running a small business. And she was used to living in Boston. Logan absolutely could not get involved with someone who had one foot out the door. Again.
No more dating flight risks. No more dating with the town watching.
Two simple rules to remember. Surely, even a man with a history of making horrible decisions regarding women could do that.
He stopped in front of the old fence that kept Harry Styles, his rescue alpaca, safely out of the driveway. Or attempted to. He was always finding the shaggy animal everywhere he shouldn’t be, including with his head halfway in the kitchen window munching on the screen.
He gave the old boy a good scratch on his head, Harry giving him a flick of his ears in thanks. His grandmother had let the small group of girl scouts, that had dropped by with her cookie order one day, name him, but Logan had to admit, it suited him. There was something very confident about this alpaca, something that said he could sell out stadiums to thousands of screaming fans, too, if he wanted. He’d just rather be here, munching grass instead.
Logan scratched him a bit longer, letting his old memories drift away before heading to Jeanie’s. It was a cool night even though it was only early October, and the wind rustled the dry leaves across the fields. The moon was full and bright overhead, with a stray cloud casting a shadow across it every now and then.
As good a night as any for a ghost hunt, he supposed.
He bid Harry goodbye and hopped in his truck. Might as well get this whole absurd night over with, he told himself, even as his stomach flipped with a new emotion he refused to identify as excitement to see Jeanie.
ChapterSeven
Jeanie reorganized the snacks for the fifth time since she’d laid them out. She might have overdone it. There were three kinds of potato chips, corn chips, and guac; pretzels in several shapes, a jumbo-sized bag of mini candy bars intended for trick-or-treaters; Twizzlers (which Jeanie hated, but thought Logan might like), fresh-baked cookies from Annie’s bakery; and she had a pizza on the way.
Definitely too much. She straightened the avalanche of chip bags again. The only thing she knew about stakeouts was that they required snacks. Right? That seemed right. Also, she was nervous about spending the night with Logan, so she figured if she kept her mouth filled with snacks, nothing too bad could happen. That made sense. She had this totally under control.
The pack of Twizzlers slid off the table and landed with a slap on the floor.
Yep, totally under control.
She plopped into one of the overstuffed chairs by the front windows. She’d laid out the snacks on the coffee table in the little nook, figuring this would be the most comfortable spot for their stakeout. The rest of the café was filled with small round tables and wooden chairs, perfect for a quick cup of coffee but not great for sitting in all night.
For the past three days, those tables had been crowded with town locals from open to close. It had been hectic and busy and exhilarating. The café ran like a well-oiled machine and Jeanie spent a lot of the time greeting and chatting with people. She was even learning some of the regular orders for her customers. Having a customer come in and say, ‘The usual, please,’ and Jeanie knowing what that was seemed like the pinnacle of café ownership.
Everyone had been very welcoming, happy to share stories of her Aunt Dot and to ask her a million questions about herself. Jeanie had almost felt like she belonged here, or at least like maybe she could belong here.
The best part about opening weekend was she fell into bed exhausted each night and with the help of Logan’s earplugs, and a newly installed lock keeping her safe and sound, Jeanie slept like a baby. And not one of those babies that’s up all night. Like a really impressive sleeping baby.
She glanced at the snack mountain again. She probably should have called off this ridiculous stakeout. She was about to, and she would have, had she not come down the back stairs this morning, flying high on a full night of sleep, and heard it again. Scratching at her back door. But when Norman came in a few minutes later to help her open, he said he hadn’t seen a thing back there.
It also didn’t help matters that good old Norman had told her the history of this building and about the family that had died here. He said it was scarlet fever. Or maybe yellow fever? Some kind of colorful fever that had taken out the whole family.
Apparently, Aunt Dot had made peace with them over the years, but it was Norman’s best guess that the family was not pleased with the change in ownership.
Jeanie grabbed a cookie and checked her watch again. 7.45pm. Logan should be here soon. He seemed like the type to be on time for things. Considerate of other people’s time. Thoughtful enough to bring you earplugs when you couldn’t sleep. Handsome enough to stop traffic. Things like that.
Why was she not supposed to date him?
Oh, right, she needed to get her life back on track first. Figure out how to live in this tiny, odd town. Transform into the quintessential café owner. Calm and cool, maybe a little quirky. The kind of person who paints purple farm animals in her spare time. Like Aunt Dot. A free spirit just living her dream, following her bliss, or whatever. Then she could date the farmer. Maybe. If his friends said she could.
A firm knock at the back door startled her out of her thoughts. It wasn’t the eerie scratching of a long-dead ghost, but the solid knock of the solid man on the other side. Jeanie got up and hurried across the café to the back door and undid her shiny new lock.
‘Sorry, I’m late.’
Jeanie peeked at her watch. It was 8.02pm. She bit down on a smile. ‘No problem. Come on in.’
Logan nodded and followed her across the small space.
‘I thought we could set up here since it’s more comfortable, but now I’m realizing I usually hear the noises out back, so maybe we should move toward the back of the café. I’ve never been on a stakeout before, so . . .’
Jeanie looked up from her rambling to see Logan staring at her snack pile.
