Page 51 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
‘Well, there’s only three people that have a key besides me: Norman, Crystal, and Joe.’
‘Three suspects.’
Jeanie smiled bigger. ‘Yes, exactly. So, Norman.’
Norman. Logan thought about the older man. He’d worked at the café for years alongside Dot. ‘Why would Norman want to mess with the café? He loves that place.’
‘That was my thought,’ Jeanie said. ‘He ran it with Dot forever. Why would he want to ruin what they’d built, right?’
Logan nodded.
‘Okay, so Crystal.’ Jeanie shifted, tucking a wisp of hair behind her ear. ‘I think she has a crush on you.’
Logan choked on his water. ‘What? She doesn’t.’
‘She practically gets hearts in her eyes when you come in!’
‘Absolutely not.’
There was no way Crystal had a thing for him. Crystal who was the prom queen of their high school, and a low-key local celebrity for her stint in a series of mattress commercials. No way. Last he heard Crystal was dating a semi-professional football player, although she refused to say which one. She definitely wasn’t interested. ‘Why would that matter, anyway?’ he asked.
‘Maybe she knows about us and she’s mad and now she’s out for revenge.’ Jeanie’s words ran together like she was almost too embarrassed to say them but needed to get them out.
‘No one knows about us.’ Even as he said it, he was thinking about the two of them the other night in his truck on the damn road. Anyone could have walked by and seen them. Yep. It was possible someone knew, but he still didn’t think Crystal would care. ‘I don’t think that’s it. What about Joe?’
Joe was young, barely nineteen with a lip ring and several neck tattoos. In a line-up, Joe looked like the criminal. But Logan knew Joe. Knew that he drove his own grandmother to aerobics class and had even given Nana a lift several times. It was hard to accuse a kid who took good care of the elderly.
Jeanie shrugged but she looked relieved to move on from her Crystal theory. ‘Joe’s a sweet kid. I don’t know why he would do any of this. Plus, he really needs the job. It doesn’t make sense.’
Logan blew out a breath, happy that Jeanie saw Joe the way he did.
‘What do you think?’ she asked, a furrow of worry between her brows.
‘It is strange, but maybe this stuff happened by accident? Did someone kick the cord out of the refrigerator walking by? Maybe the cappuccino machine really is that temperamental?’
Jeanie twisted her lips to the side. ‘Yeah ... maybe. It just feels off.’ She shrugged.
The last time he’d brushed off Jeanie’s concerns, she’d gotten her window broken in the middle of the night. He couldn’t do that again.
‘Maybe it’s time for another stake-out.’
He caught the glimmer of excitement in Jeanie’s eyes. ‘You think?’
‘Anytime you want me there, okay?’
‘Thanks.’ She stood up and his brain worked frantically to come up with a reason for her to stay. Stay today, stay forever.
The apartment was small. It took him three strides to be in front of her without a plan except to grab her by the hips and tug her toward him.
‘If someone is screwing with you, we’ll figure it out. Okay?’
She tipped her face up to his. ‘Okay.’
He wanted to say more, wanted to ask her if she was happy here, if she liked running the café. If she harbored secret plans to run back to Boston as soon as he let himself fall for her.
She bit down on her bottom lip and held his gaze with her deep brown eyes.
Who the hell was he kidding? He’d fallen for her the first time he’d spotted those hedgehog pajamas.
