Page 7 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
‘And over there is my arch-nemesis, Macaulay Sullivan.’
‘The trivia guy?’
‘Don’t be fooled by the trivia, Jeanie. He owns the pub next to your café. Watch out for him.’
Logan scoffed. The only trouble between Annie and Mac was that they had the hots for each other, and neither would admit it. But he was not about to get into that now.
‘Anyway, he’s over there with Greg and Shawn, the owners of the pet store on the corner.’
Jeanie nodded, taking it all in, and Logan wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled out a notebook and started making a cheat sheet. She seemed like the note-taking type. Not that he cared what type she was. He was here for the coffee, to help the town, and to avoid a zombie apocalypse. Not to think about what Jeanie’s handwriting looked like, or if she would make little doodles in the margins.
She probably would.
‘And over there is the Sharmas, who just opened a new restaurant further down Main. They have the best tandoori chicken,’ Annie informed Jeanie.
Hazel jabbed Logan in the side, pulling his attention away from Annie’s tour. ‘Are you going to tell me how she managed to get you here? You never come to these things,’ she whispered in his ear.
‘Just being helpful. You know, neighborly.’
‘Neighborly?’ Her voice rose incredulously, like he’d never done a neighborly thing in his life.
‘Yeah. I can be helpful.’
Hazel snorted. ‘Helpful, sure. But coming to a town meeting? That’s way above helpful for you.’ She pushed her glasses up her nose and gave him a thoroughly obnoxious grin. ‘I think you have a crush.’
‘I do not have a crush,’ he hissed through clenched teeth, ridiculously worried that Jeanie would hear them. ‘I am not a twelve-year-old girl. I just want a decent cup of coffee.’
His annoying little friend shrugged. ‘Okay, sure. Just a helpful neighbor that wants coffee. Got it.’
He glowered at her but all she did was smile innocently. He didn’t have a ton of friends; he probably shouldn’t murder this one.
He settled back into his rickety old chair, arms across his chest. A crush. Absurd. He barely knew this woman. Other than the fact that she wore cutesy pajama pants, had the brightest smile he’d ever seen, and held a baseball bat like a major leaguer. Other than that, he knew nothing. And that’s how he wanted to keep it.
The smoke had barely cleared from the last time he’d crashed and burned in front of the entire town. He wouldn’t be repeating those mistakes anytime soon. Next time he dated someone, he would keep the whole thing far away from Dream Harbor. Maybe one of those nice long-distance relationships everyone was always talking about.
Not that he wanted to date Jeanie.
He just wanted coffee.
Mayor Kelly stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat. Logan groaned internally.
‘Welcome, Dreamers,’ the mayor said with his signature goofy smile.
Kill me now.
‘First order of business.’ He pushed his glasses up his nose in a manner so similar to Hazel's that Logan felt an involuntary softness for the man. ‘Sullivan’s Pub will now be hosting a trivia night on Tuesdays, starting at eight o’clock.’
Logan could feel the anger radiating off Annie. Or maybe repressed sexual desire. It was impossible to tell the difference. Her baking class started at six. People could do both baking and trivia, but he knew Annie would not accept that logic. Mac had infringed on her night.
Mayor Kelly waited for the excited whispering of the crowd to die down. People were already calling dibs on team members. Mac had the balls to turn around and wink at Annie. She started to rise, fists clenched at her sides. Logan grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back down into her seat. He held on an extra minute to make sure she didn’t spring up and dive across the room to strangle Mac. Or kiss the smirk off his face. Either one would hold up the entire meeting.
‘Okay, moving on. Next up on the agenda is the proposed stop sign on the corner of Mayberry and Cherry Lane.’
‘Forget the stop sign, Pete! When are we getting our coffee back?’ Leroy yelled from the front row.
Logan felt Jeanie tense beside him.
‘Yeah! I can’t drink my wife’s weird herbal tea one more day!’
