Page 4 of Love & Lattes at The Mermaid Cafe
“That’s what I’m worried about.” Marina taps her coffee cup, studying me with narrowed eyes. “I saw the way you two looked at each other—like the Love Boat had unexpectedly come in.”
“You and your over-active imagination.” It’s closing in on four p.m. and time to close. I’ve been in the café for twelve hours and I need to put other business owners on notice for the tour tomorrow. “Move along, Marina.”
“There will be kisses,” Marina predicts, moving slowly toward the door.
How long has it been since I kissed a man?
I blink. That type of thinking led to trouble.
Instead of arguing, I open the bakery case and reach inside for what has replaced kisses in my life—chocolate.
“Even if you eat that truffle, there will be kisses,” Marina predicts again crossing the small dining space toward the door.
Her comment doesn’t stop me from eating the truffle and enjoying it. “Sometimes, you need to live dangerously.”
Or, as they say, dance with the devil under the pale moonlight. If only for a greater purpose. In this case, protection from whatever threat Cade represents to Mermaid Bay.
I’ll be fine long as I don’t kiss the devil.
Instinctively, I reach for another truffle.
“I feel it in my bones,” Marina mutters as she opens the door. “Trouble and kisses are blowing in with the tide.”
Chapter Four
Cade
The Oregon coast is ruggedly beautiful in the morning light.
Pine trees line the skyline to the east except for a bluff with neat rows of vineyards. Craggy outcroppings rise in the waters along the west-facing cliffs. White-capped waves pound continuously on the shoreline. And the bracing wind… It’s an acquired taste.
I shrug deeper into my jacket.
While I wait for Lena and the clock on a nearby church ticks closer to ten, I lean on the wooden, splintering boardwalk railing and breathe in the salty air. The atmosphere in Mermaid Bay isn’t luxury or spa-like, a specialty of my family’s development company. This isn’t a destination for sunbathing or paddleboarding. This place is meant to be stood in, moved through, breathed in. The bluster and majesty of Mermaid Bay is a reminder that you’re alive.
Even now, I feel different than I ever did in San Francisco. Younger, more energetic.
I mean, forty-five isn’t old and craggy. But I don’t run a mile on the treadmill as fast as I used to or bounce out of bed the morning after having wine with dinner. But today…
Today, all that could change.
But so can Mermaid Bay. And with that change, a change in my circumstances, too. I’ve always looked up to my father, even when I resented him for trying to make sure I wasn’t a spoiled rich kid. He’d blazed his own path to success and I want to be like him. I want to prove I deserve to inherit the family business if only because everyone would know I’d take it to the next level.
“Are you lost?” A deep voice has me turning to find what looks like a weathered sailor—a brawny, bearded man in a blue pea coat with thick, peppery hair that brushes his shoulders. “You look lost.”
“No. Just taking in the view.”
“Before you head up the road to Portland,” the sailor says definitively. He’s pegged me for a tourist.
“No.” I extend my hand. “I’m Cade. I’m considering buying property here.”
That earns me a frown, not to mention, the sailor leaves my hand hanging in midair.
I drop it slowly to my side. “Did I say something wrong?”
“You said exactly what you meant to say.” The man considers me with an increasing air of unwelcomeness.
“I see you’ve met Angus,” Lena says, joining us and hugging the sailor before turning to me and assembling a smile that doesn’t reassure.
