Page 62 of The Harborer
When she emerged from the bathroom, he was up and dressed, and the bed had transformed back into a couch.
“You’re not sleeping in?”
“I told you I was coming with you this morning,” he announced. “I’m your deputized barista.”
“You were serious?”
“Absolutely. You need help for the morning rush, right?” He spread his arms wide. “I’m at your disposal.”
“But you didn’t get much sleep,” she spluttered.
“Neither did you.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I was there, remember?”
Oh Gaia, do I ever!The exquisite ache between her legs would remind her for the rest of the day.
She gathered up her phone and her day pack. “It’s your day off,” she reminded him.
“Yeah, and I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.”
She stopped and gawked at him.
“Just so you know, I’m only doing it for the coffee.” He winked at her, and she burst out with a laugh.
“Then you may have all the coffee you can hold.”
They drove separately—she needed to get back over to her apartment and sort her new life—arriving at Mountain Coffee’s parking lot long before the sun was even a threat to lighten the sky. Soon it would clear the peaks, and its rays would paint neon pinks and oranges in stunning brushstrokes.
“You always start this early?” he asked as she unlocked her back door.
“Pretty much. Or I let the morning shift in before I head back home. But that’s unusual.”
“Nobody else ever opens?”
“Hailey sometimes. Noah’s done it for me too.”
He nodded, seeming to tuck away this tidbit of information.
While he wasn’t familiar with the back end of a coffee shop operation, Shane took direction with a whistle on his lips and a spring in his step. How he could be so cheerful while running on two hours of sleep, she had no idea.
“Someone revved my engine this morning,” he teased when she asked him. A flush of satisfaction crept up her neck.
They talked as they worked side by side, something she definitely wasn’t used to. This was mostly a solo operation, though she would have loved to have a helper at her side on a regular basis. But it never seemed to work out that way.
He hefted a heavy container of milk into a hopper. “What motivated you to open this place in this particular town anyway?”
She topped off bins of beans for grinding. “My cousin and I drove through after college graduation, and I fell in love.”
When he didn’t say anything, she shot him a glance and quickly amended. “Not with a person but with the San Juan Mountains, and especially this quaint little town. I guess you could say it called to me.”
Fall River had beckoned her with its spiritual whispers. They were a siren’s call too irresistible to ignore. Besides that, she saw its hidden charm and the potential buried beneath layers of mining dust. The town had been in the early stages of rebirth, and she had smelled opportunity in its chilly mountain air. “We went looking for coffee, but no stores offered it—well, notgoodcoffee.” A convenience store on the outskirts of town with a watered-down, burnt version in one flavor didn’t count. “I could already tell that to be successful here, a businesshadto be located on Bowen Street.” It was the town’s main drag and its only paved street. When she had spotted the boarded-up storefront that would eventually become Mountain Coffee, it was a sign. She had been spurred to act.
“You were right. Good call. Goes to show what I was talking about earlier. You’re a savvy businesswoman, Amy.”
The praise filled her with a rush of warmth. She craved more. “Savvy?”
He opened a box of pastries that had just been dropped off and began arranging them in their display case the way she’d shown him. “Yeah, you think of stuff the rest of us miss, like giving out free coffee during the Boarding Call. That was genius. Couple that with you always going out of your way for other people, and it’s no wonder your shop is so successful.” He paused, parked a fist on his hip, and eyed her. “You built this on your own, Amy, and you did it without screwing anyone—unlike some business owners around here. That’s why Charlie picked you to be on the town council. Don’t forget that.”
“I did, didn’t I?”
