“No, I’m okay. I’ll have one later.”
“How many is that?” Grayson asked, humor lacing his voice.
My friend hummed. “Three.”
“Sunshine, you keep downing coffee all day, you’ll never be able to sleep.”
“I don’t sleep anyway because you and Tic-Tac hog the covers at night,” she teased.
I cleared my throat. “So, no coffee, then?”
“I’ll take one,” Grayson answered.
Kill me now.
It wasn’t like I couldn’t face him. I mean, before his best friend took me home and made me see God, I saw Grayson as a friend. But now? I knew I couldn’t face him until the sting of Hayes wore off.
“Black?”
“Please.”
Two minutes later, I slid the to-go over to him, keeping my gaze on the stacks. “Here you go,” I muttered, ready to hunt down Sarah as an excuse to get away. As I started walking away, Cardinal called my name.
Dammit.
I clenched my teeth, kept my hands at my sides, and faced them. Just as I feared, Grayson was looking at me, his brows pinched together. Cardinal was shrugging off her coat, hooking it over her arm. “You okay, Margo?” Grayson asked.
“What? Oh, yeah. Just tired from my exams this morning.”
Grayson was a little taller than Hayes, and Cardinal was an inch or two shorter than me. This meant that Grayson towered over her, thus over me, and when he took a step closer tome, every cell in my body wanted to bolt. Grayson was good at reading people—I mean, hello? He ran a private investigations company. The bounty hunter who was good at reading people being engaged to my best friend was usually a good thing. But right now? It was a horrifying thing—because he was readingme.“You look spooked.”
“Just tired,” I repeated, jerking my thumb over my shoulder. “I, uh, need to go ask Sarah a question.”
“Sarah is out this afternoon, Margo,” Cardinal kindly informed me, completely oblivious—thank God—to what Grayson was picking up. My arm fell in defeat, my shoulders slumping as my eyes tracked her every move to the counter. “Rossy should be here.”
Grayson was studying my profile now, his eyes like lasers, burning my skull.
“Right. I’ll go ask him. Can you watch the coffee bar for me? Great, thanks,” I huffed out quickly as I practically ran away, turning down the history aisle. Unfortunately, Grayson worked from home a few days out of the week instead of driving to Portland daily—today being one of those days. After years of serving coffee in this small town, I also knew everyone’s schedule like the back of my hand. Today was Thursday, and after he took Cardinal to lunch, he would go back to their house and work until six, then pick her up. I just needed to hide outin the back for ten minutes and then I would be free to keep pretending that my love life wasn’t a complete and utter disaster.
But the rest of your life isn’t and that has to count for something, right?
I rolled my eyes at the little voice of optimism in my head as I yanked open the storage room door, stepping inside.
Just ten minutes.
Then I could get back to work.
That little plan went to shit when Rossy popped his head inside, a stern look plastered on his face. “Margo what on earth are you doing in here? There’s a line of people wanting coffee.”
“I was just—”
“This is what I was saying about burnout.” He gestured to me. “For God’s sake, darling, you have bags under your eyes. You look dead on your feet.”
I pressed my lips together, not wanting to tell him about the all-nighter I’d just pulled to make sure I passed my exam. “Rossy, I’ll be okay—”
He cut me off, clearly not interested in a word I had to say. “Look, if you can get the Red Snake men squared away, I’ll call Sarah to come take over.”
My stomach hit the floor. “Wh-what? The Red Snake men? What are you talking about—”