Page 15 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
‘Oh, and I thought we might get hungry.’
She watched the corner of his mouth hitch up. ‘We might.’ He ran a hand down his beard, his gaze still on the food. ‘Not sure I’ve ever been this hungry though.’
Jeanie might have been embarrassed if she hadn’t caught a glimpse of the other side of his mouth rising. She’d made him smile.
She grinned at him in return. ‘Well, we have the whole night ahead of us. I haven’t stayed up all night since middle school sleepovers, and we always had a lot of snacks for those.’
‘Sure,’ he said, the amused look still on his face as he tore open the pack of Twizzlers and pulled one out. Aha! She knew it.
‘When’s the last time you heard the noises?’ he asked, lowering himself into the chair next to hers, getting right down to business. He tore off a piece of Twizzler with his teeth and chewed.
‘This morning.’ She sat down, too, taking a bag of sour cream and onion chips with her. ‘You really like those things? They are objectively the worst candy.’
‘Objectively, huh?’ He studied the red licorice in his hand and then took another bite. ‘There’s been studies done on this?’
Jeanie laughed. ‘Probably. It’s common knowledge that they’re the worst.’
Logan studied her a minute too long, causing the heat to rise in her cheeks. He took another bite. ‘A woman with strong opinions.’ He nodded, as if deciding something. ‘I like that.’
Jeanie stuffed a handful of chips in her mouth before she could say that she liked his shirt and his face and his entire personality, even though she barely knew him. Instead, she just nodded between loud, crunchy bites.
‘So, do you have strong opinions about ghosts, too?’ he asked. ‘You really think that’s what’s going on here?’
Jeanie shrugged. ‘Maybe. It seems to be as good a theory as any.’
Logan raised an eyebrow as if to say,really?But he didn’t voice his thoughts on that out loud.
‘Plus, the mayor and everyone else seemed really convinced this was a good idea. I mean me and you ... I mean, you helping me with this.’
He huffed. ‘Yeah. This town is full of great ideas.’ Oh, no, she was afraid of this. He didn’t want to have any part of this crazy stakeout thing. She should have known. She’d cornered him into it and then the whole town basically jumped on board.
‘You don’t like it here? Dream Harbor, I mean,’ she asked, avoiding her real question for the moment.
‘I love it here. It’s my home.’
‘Oh. It just seemed like you maybe didn’t.’
Logan ran a hand down his beard. ‘Do you have siblings, Jeanie?’
A bit of a left turn, but they were here all night. Good to keep the conversation going. ‘I have a brother who lives out in California.’ In fact, she’d been on the phone with Bennett an hour ago as she’d tried to pick out snack food. It had been his bad influence that convinced her to get way too much of everything.
‘Okay, well you know that feeling that no one is allowed to say bad things about your brother except you? Like even if he bugs you, only you can say he’s a pain.’
Jeanie smiled. ‘Yeah, I get that.’ In third grade, she’d uninvited two girls from her birthday party for accusing Ben of knocking down their snowman. And then she’d had to sit on him until he confessed when she realized he’d probably done it. It was a very confusing time for her.
He nodded and bit into another Twizzler. ‘That’s how I feel about this town.’
‘So, you love them even though they make you crazy.’
‘Exactly.’
‘And you’re here against your will because the mayor sent you to help the new girl?’
Please say no. Please say no.
He shook his head, his dark eyebrows pulling together. ‘I’m not here against my will.’Phew.
‘Okay...’ She hadn’t forced him into this insane evening of ghost hunting, but she couldn’t help but feel like there was more to the story, like Logan had some other theory for why the town wanted him here.
