“On second thought, that’ll give me nightmares,” he said, and then turned into Joe’s Grab ’N Go.
Sitting up straighter, I braced my hand on the door. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Listen, Ollie. I’ve skipped out on comin’ here for months now, but I’m hungry, and you could use a decent cup of brew to help snap you out of that funk.”
“For fuck’s sake, I don’t want to be here. And I’m not in a funk.”
“Hmm. Yeah, you might need something a little stronger than coffee.” As he put Big Bertha into park, he began to grind his hips on the seat and sang, “Oll-ieee needs a big…dick…right in his?—”
“Okay,” I said loud enough to cover the rest of his words. “Hurry up, then.”
“Oh no, I’m not going without you.”
“Mike—”
“Stop,” he said, his humor fading. “Just stop being so scared and paranoid for one damn minute. You can’t avoid this place because you think you’ll run into Reid. And even if you do run into him one of these days, you’re gonna have to face him sooner or later, because this town’s too damn small for it not to happen eventually. And I know it’s gonna hurt like fuck, but you’re not a pussy. Are you? You a pussy?”
I snorted. “No.”
“Good. Now get out of the rig.”
When I didn’t make a move, Mike leaned across me and popped the door open. With a sigh, I unhooked my seatbelt and climbed out, slamming the door after me for good measure. When he rounded the front of the rig, he put his arm over my shoulder and gave me a shake. “Atta boy. Make sure to apologize to Joe for hurting his feelings by not visiting.”
Mike pulled open the door, and as we entered the convenience store, he called out, “Joe, my man. How the hell are ya?”
“Well, I’ll be.” Joe’s face lit up, and he slapped his hand on the counter when he saw us. “Where you boys been?”
“Starving.” Mike winked at him as he filled up a basket full of baked goods from the counter and then leaned over to put his hand on Joe’s shoulder. “Good to see you, Joe.”
The old man frowned and wagged his finger at us. “You’re never too busy for coffee and cakes, you hear me? You gotta eat, or all these fritters will go to waste and I’ll have to throw them out.”
“Don’t ever do that. We won’t be staying away again.” Mike nudged me. “Right, Ollie?”
“Uh, yeah. Right,” I said.
“You better not,” Joe said, as Mike gave him a salute and went off to grab a drink. “All of a sudden, three of my regulars, poof, gone. I tried not to take it all personal, you know.”
My brow furrowed.Me, Mike, and…?“Three?”
“Mhmm. You two and there was another guy, but I heard he had a bad accident a few months back.”
“You mean Reid?” Just being reminded of him made my chest ache.
“Yeah, you remember him? Such a nice fellow. Shame what happened to him.”
“You, uh, mean he hasn’t come in lately either?”
“No, but I can understand why. Heard he lost his memory and everything. Can you imagine? He probably doesn’t even remember he drinks coffee, and I had a new latte machine all set up and everything.”
As Joe continued to ramble on, all I could hear was that Reid hadn’t been there. I’d assumed life would be back to normal for him, including his latte habit. All those months of avoiding this place only to learn he had been doing the same. Although maybe he wasn’t purposely staying away like I was. Maybe he still didn’t realize he liked coffee. Or maybe he wasn’t recovering as well as I’d hoped.
Shit.
“Hey, Joe, you have any more of those onion ring chip things? You know what I’m talkin’ about?” Mike asked, his voice carrying across the store.
“I do in the back. One second,” Joe said, and then held a finger up. “Sorry, Ollie, I’ll be back. Don’t you be a stranger, now.”
“I won’t,” I said, and this time I meant it. What a silly fucking thing to do, stay away from Joe’s or anywhere because there was a remote possibility I could run into Reid. Hell, Iwantedto see him, but what I didn’t want was to see the way he’d look at me, like I was nobody in his world.