Page 1 of Take Me Slowly: Part 1
1
LEAH
"He'sa goddamn motherfucker who needs to stay up on the mountain."
"Yeah he does. We’ll make sure…"
I kept my eyes on my phone, ignoring the men who strode into Snowdrop Café, talking loudly, like they owned the place.
"What'll it be?"
I glanced up at the server who stopped beside my table.
Her wild curls were peppered with grey, warm blue eyes and a worn t-shirt with 'Carly' embroidered on the breast.
"Just a coffee, please," I said. "Nothing fancy."
Carly smiled. "That's good, because we don't do much fancy around here." She gave me a wink before bustling away to make my coffee.
"Right. Thanks." I dropped my gaze back toward my phone, not really paying attention to anything on the screen.
Instead, I absorbed my surroundings. The smell of coffee, bacon and waffles with a hint of syrup. The muted sound of people sharing breakfast at tables around me. A quiet huff of laughter, followed by a louder giggle. A mother having breakfast with her child at the next table over. Sharing a moment of togetherness.
My gaze rose, traced the exposed beams that stretched the length of the ceiling. Live edged and raw, they'd probably hung there for over a hundred years. I bet they had some stories to tell.
"You think he'd get the message by now." Still talking loudly, the two men settled into stools at the bar top that ran across the front of the window, from beside the door, to the corner wall.
"Some people take a bit more…encouragement." One of them turned around, his deep hazel eyes settling on me for a moment before looking toward Carly. "Can we get a couple of coffees and full breakfasts over here?" He glanced at me again before swivelling around and returning to his conversation.
Carly placed my coffee down in front of me and rolled her eyes at his back before disappearing in the direction of the kitchen.
I forced back a smile, curled my hands around my cup and lifted it to inhale the smell. Maybe Aurora Hollowwasn'tfancy, but the coffee smelled good. For a while I let it take me away from here, soothe my jangled nerves and let me remember a time before.
A childish peal of laughter dragged me back into the present. The reminder wasn't entirely unwelcome. Who could resist a laughing kid, after all? And reality wasn't too bad.
Today.
I looked over to see the kid holding a piece of bacon in her hand, grinning.
"Hey," her mother protested. "That's my bacon." But she didn't seem to mind, even when her daughter popped it into her mouth with a cheeky grin and chewed vigourously. She caught my eye and shook her head while smiling.
"I can't take my eyes off my bacon for a moment."
"Itisbacon." I returned her smile. "Who can resist?"
"Not Sarah." She nodded towards her daughter. "You new in town?"
"Is it that obvious?" I winced.
"We don't get so many visitors this time of year," she said. "Especially in the middle of the week. Mostly folks come during the summer and winter. Right after school goes back, things get real quiet. For a little while. I'm Fiona Jameson." She leaned over and offered her hand. "This ratbag is my daughter Sarah."
I shook her hand. "Leah."
"Are you staying long?" Fiona asked.
"I don't know," I admitted. "Right now, I'm playing things by ear."
"If you need a place to stay, the cottage beside mine is vacant," she said. "Sarah and me, we're pretty quiet."
