Page 76 of Mistletoe Latte

“Here.” Before her heart stopped her, she handed him the check and didn’t look back.

NICK SKIDDED TO a halt just as Emma handed over the check. Daryl took his time looking it over, then he stared over at him.

Is it genuine?

Did he want to give her the chance to fly away? Was he really willing to let her walk out the door and never come back? Did he, deep down, know that the best thing for a woman like her wasn’t a broken man in a small town cafe?

He nodded, willing to let her go.

“Good. I’ll finish the paperwork. Want me to drop your Soul off in the parking lot for you?”

She looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes wide and vulnerable.

Jesus Christ, man, tell her. Tell her you don’t want her to leave. That she’s the best damn thing to ever walk through that door. That you want to wake up next to her for as long as you breathe.

“What the hell’s going on?” Skylar drifted over, looking wary.

All of Nick’s turmoil snapped on her. “Don’t fucking curse.”

She glared with a full lemon-pucker at him, before looking to Emma. “You’re not…are you leaving? Already?”

The employee door swung open and Rachel sauntered in. She held a fresh donut in her fingers and took a bite while watching. Skylar’s eyes narrowed to slits at the woman before she wrapped her arms around Emma.

“You can’t go. You were gonna teach me how to use primer.”

Emma patted a hand against her back. “It’s okay. There’s lots of tutorials online. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Her drifting gaze skipped past Nick to land on Rachel. “Maybe someone else can teach you.”

“My mom sucks at makeup. She thinks an eyelash curler is used on pasta,” Skylar wailed, clinging tighter to her.

“So, do I move the car or what?” Daryl asked tapping his foot.

Emma peeled away from Skylar’s crushing hug. “It’s okay, I can pick it up after my shift.”

She was leaving.

Of course she was leaving. That was what he wanted, after all. To go back to the way everything was. Him, angry at the world, fighting with his niece, wishing his brother would grow up, ready to toss the customers into the street. It was perfect.

“Why wait?” Nick asked, fuming. “No reason for you to keep toiling away here. Don’t you have an interview to get to?”

“An…?” Emma squeaked as if he shouldn’t know about that. As if he wasn’t helping her to move on to bigger and better things. “Okay.” She undid the little bow on her apron and pulled it off.

“No, you can’t go.”

“It’s okay,” she assured Skylar.

Emma reached for her hat and Nick caught her arm. Her big brown eyes gazed up at him, pleading with him to do the right thing. “You can keep that,” he said. “There’s a ton in back.”

“Thank you.” She blinked her eyelids then wiped at the sides while handing him the apron.

Nick folded it up, watching Emma give Skylar one last hug, then banter with Sam. “I should get my purse from the back,” was the last thing she said. He held tight to the apron still warm from her body and felt something hard inside.Oh shit, her recipe notebook.

Chasing after her, Nick called out, “Wait.” She clung tight to her purse slung over her shoulder but turned from the exit to gaze up at him.

“Emma.”There are a thousand things I want to say to you. To thank you, to plead with you, to find some way to give us more time.“You almost forgot this.”

He handed over her recipe book and she gasped. “Thank you, I’d…I’d be lost without it. I can’t believe I almost left it behind.” She shook her head in disbelief while placing her treasured book in her purse.

Emma held out her hand. “Thank you. For giving me this…for everything.”

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