Page 20 of Hit the Ground
“Are you doing okay?” Phoebe asked as she punched my order into the register.
“Fine.” I jerked my head to the side. “Who’s that guy, the one with Alice?”
She peered over my shoulder. “Oh, that’s Charlie. He’s on year five of working on his novel. Sometimes, he and Alice brainstorm ideas. I think she’s writing too.”
I turned back, noticing the closed laptop in front of her. What was she writing? And what did Charlie have to say that was so fascinating?
“Why do you ask?”
I faced my sister and shrugged. “Just curious. I recognized him but didn’t know his name.”
She huffed a laugh. “Because you live in your own world. Charlie’s here almost every time you come in. It wouldn’t kill you to pay attention to something other than the ranch and Jesse.”
I smirked. “That hasn’t been proven.”
She waved me away. “Go wait for your drink and get out of my face.”
I reached over the counter to tug the end of her braid. “Only teasing you, Phe-Phe.”
She swatted at my hand, but her eyes crinkled for a second before she gave her attention to the next customer. I moved down the counter to wait for my drink, checking my phone for messages to give me something to do.
I told myself not to look back at Alice. She was none of my concern. Of course, I looked anyway.
Charlie was typing now, his fingers sailing over his keyboard, while Alice sat back in her chair, holding her mug in both hands, her eyes on him but slightly unfocused, like she was thinking hard about something else. The light from the big front windows caught in her hair, making the caramel strands glow.
She must’ve gotten some kind of color added in. Last I remembered, it was so dark, it was almost black. She didn’t need to change it. Her original color had been nice. Real nice. But this was good too. It suited her.
I frowned at my phone. Was there something going on with her and Charlie? He was a good bit older and didn’t seem like he was her type.
Not that I knew what her type was. I barely knew anything about her, aside from the bits I’d picked up in the years I’d been going to Joy’s. She was quiet. Polite. Always smiling at customers, even when they were rude.
She’d grown up in Colorado but had gone to college at Savage University in California, my parents’ alma mater. Four years ago, she’d moved here from San Francisco and owned her littlehouse. She always wore the same pair of silver hoops. Her voice was quiet, but her sneeze was loud enough to make people jump.
She liked to read. Her favorite book wasThe Shadow of the Isle. I’d overheard her mentioning it and looked it up. A fantasy story written over seventy years ago, and she’d read it at least twenty times.
I knew a few things about Alice Clark, but not her type. If I’d been asked after she kissed me, I would have said maybe it was me. Now, I wasn’t so sure.
I really didn’t like being unsure about anything.
Once I got my coffee, I grabbed one of the last available tables, and Deke joined me soon after. We shot the shit for a while, him telling me about his latest carpentry projects and the plan he had for building a deck on the back of his and Phoebe’s house. Between family and friends, it’d get done in a weekend. Luckily for all of us, he’d finally accepted his place in the Kelly fold, so it was no longer a struggle to get him to accept wewantedto help.
We’d finished talking about lumber prices when Alice started packing up her things. She slipped her laptop into a worn canvas bag and tucked her mug onto the dirty dish tray at the end of the counter before heading for the door.
I didn’t think. I just stood.
“You headed out?” Deke asked, his brow raised.
“Yeah,” I muttered, grabbing my coffee and sticky bun. “Catch you later. Tell Phoebe bye for me.”
He nodded, not pushing. One of the many reasons I liked the guy.
I made it to the exit a second before Alice did. Her eyes rounded at my sudden appearance.
“Evening, Alice.” I pushed open the door and gestured for her to go ahead. She passed by me, giving me a whiff of cinnamon and other spices I couldn’t name, murmuring, “Thank you.”
I followed her out, calling her name again as she hurried down the sidewalk.
She paused midstep, turning around slowly. Her hair shifted over her shoulders, catching the fading light. “Yes?”
