Page 82 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
‘As long as it’s not Twizzlers, I’m good.’
‘I only eat those when I’m ghost hunting.’
Jeanie laughed. She swung her legs out of bed, his shirt riding up her thighs. She pushed strands of hair from her face. The delicate skin of her neck and chest was red from the roughness of his beard.
Jeanie brought a hand to where his gaze had stalled right above the enticing V the shirt made. He was staring. He was staring and not getting her food like he was supposed to be doing.
He shook his head and strode over to the kitchenette. He did most of his eating in the big house, but he kept some stuff here for occasional late-night snacking, or for when he was hiding from his nana. Which this past week had been kind of a lot.
Jeanie joined him and was rooting through his cabinets like she lived here.
God, did he love that idea.
Not yet, but someday. He could picture it so clearly.
Jeanie caught him staring at her again. A delicious blush crept up her cheeks. ‘What?’
He cleared his throat. ‘Nothing.’Just picturing you being here forever.
‘Ooh, Cup a Noodle! I haven’t had these in a million years.’ She pulled down two of the styrofoam cups filled with dried noodles and seasonings. ‘I want these.’
‘Okay.’You can have whatever you want.
She grinned at him.
He boiled the water while she made herself comfortable at his little table. Outside the weather was gray and cold. Logan wouldn’t be surprised if there was a layer of wet snow on the ground tomorrow morning. But today it was warm and cozy inside his little apartment and suddenly it seemed like plenty. Like more than enough, like the only thing his life had been missing before was this woman at his table, wearing his shirt.
The kettle whistled and he poured the water into the plastic cups, watching as the noodles magically plumped up and the broth turned golden. He carried them to the table.
‘Yay!’ Jeanie clapped. ‘I love these things. We used to eat them during late nights at the office. So bad for you, but so good.’ She sighed as she breathed in the salty scent of the noodles. And for the first time since he met her, the mention of her old life didn’t send Logan into a panic about her leaving.
He believed Jeanie. He trusted her. And he knew this thing between them was more real than anything he’d felt before.
She happily slurped her noodles, her legs tucked up under her. The rain ran in streams down the window behind her.
‘How do you think Noah did at the café?’ she asked after a few minutes of slurping and chewing. It was after four, so the café was now closed for the day.
‘Fine, I’m sure. He tends the bar for Mac. He knows what he’s doing.’
Jeanie nodded. ‘It was nice of him to help out.’
‘He’s a good guy.’
‘I think he has a thing for Hazel,’ Jeanie added, with a secret smile.
Logan choked a little on his noodles. ‘Oh, he definitely does.’
She giggled. ‘They’d be good together.’
Logan shrugged. He still didn’t feel the need to weigh in on town gossip, even if it was out of good intentions for his friends. If Noah and Hazel wanted to be together, that was their business. He loved this town, but he still wasn’t about to join the book club anytime soon.
‘I think you should tell Dot about Norman,’ he said instead.
Jeanie wrinkled her nose like the idea did not appeal to her in the least. ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to cause more drama.’
‘Jeanie, that was really shitty what he did to you. He was tormenting you.’
She shifted in her seat. ‘Tormenting seems a bit strong.’
