Page 78 of Voyeur Café

Crossing her legs underneath her, she pulls a bacon and egg breakfast burrito from the bag and holds it out for me to take abite. The smell must reach Betty because she emerges from my office a moment later. “Ooh, there she is,” Allie squeals when Betty comes over, wagging her tail.

“No human food for Betty.” I make my voice and my glare as stern as possible, but I know she’ll toss the dog a piece as soon as I turn my back.

Watching Allie yesterday had me too distracted to accomplish much on this engine. Her comforting presence allows my mind to focus on the task at hand. She giggles and talks to Betty, giving her half of my gifted breakfast while I work on reassembling the engine.

“I have a question for you, Mr. Pine.”

“I’m interested.”

“I guess it’s not a question,” she hesitates, “Kiara mentioned that you’re having a grand opening party for the bar.”

My hands still. The grand opening is the last thing on my mind. I’ve avoided focusing on the bar lately, outside of the bare minimum I need to do to make it happen. The liquor license will be ready in time, and I’ve met with a few of the reps and vendors I’ll need, but that’s all. I know opening this bar means Allie losingTurbine, and me losing the literal window into her life that let me fall for her.

“Skye suggested it, and I told her to run with it.”

Allie nods silently, encouraging me to continue.

Moving closer, I rest my hand on her knee. “This is the first I’ve thought of it since then, but if Kiara knows, Skye must be making progress.”

“I’ll just text Skye and ask her how I can help,” Allie smiles. The heart on this woman. I’m taking away her building, tearing apart her business, and she’s going to help me celebrate it.

“You don’t have to. I know this has to be hard for you.” I run my fingers back through my hair. “If it helps any, I feel likeshit about it.”

She rubs her hands up and down my arms. “It does not help. I don’t want you to feel bad.” She pauses when I avert my gaze. “Hey, look at me. Of course, you love this building. It’s incredible. Any idiot would want it. How could you have known?” she asks as she grabs my face to bring me back to her. “No more of this, okay?”

“I don’t like you comforting me because I did something that hurt you. I’m the last person who should be hurting you.”

“Get over yourself, Pine.” Holding up one arm horizontally in front of her chest, she says, “This is the bridge,” then pushes her other hand underneath thebridge,saying, “Water under it. Let’s move on, okay?”

Fuck,she’s adorable. I won’t really move on until I’ve found a solution for her, but I drop it for the moment. “Wait, you have Skye’s number?”

“Obviously.”

“Do you talk much?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She pushes on my shoulder. “Now, get back to work. I know you didn’t get anything done yesterday.” Smiling, she takes a long sip of her iced drink and stays sitting on my workbench, keeping me company long after it’s gone.

~

The front door toVoyeur Motorsdings as I finish scrubbing my hands before lunch.

“Hey there,” Brian calls.

“Come to visit your bike?” I ask, pointing toward the rear corner where his restored BMW shines under the overhead lights.

“Something like that. Figure it’s about time I make a decision about it.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“I can’t bring myself to sell it.” He adjusts his black glasses on his nose. “Doesn’t feel right, but I can’t leave it to rot in my garage again, either.”

“Any other ideas?” I take a seat on the leather couch and wave for him to sit in the chair across from me.

“You’ve done a beautiful job with it.” He smiles broadly, crinkling the skin around his eyes. “Even better than it looked brand new.”

“That’s high praise.”

“I mean it. People stare through the glass at it every day.”

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