“Yeah, but, uh, something came up.” He was already half-turned, seeming restless. “I’ll see you tomorrow? Meet at base around eleven or twelve? I’m not working but I’ll be there. Just show up and we’ll take a few runs.”
So, it wasn’t another date. And he was ditching her for…whoever just called.
“Uh…sure,” she said, the response just as vague.
“Sorry! Bye!” With a quick wave, he jogged down the sidewalk, disappearing into the crowd before Nicole could gather her thoughts.
She stared after him, hot chocolate cooling in her hands.What just happened?
Pulling her jacket tighter, she stood and started back toward Sugarfall. Maybe Gracie would be back by now.
Nicole needed her cousin’s voice of reason—someone to tell her whether she’d just imagined the chemistry, or whether Cameron was too good to be true, and what to do when one got dumped in the middle of a first date.
Nicole slippedinto Sugarfall by way of the back door, getting hit by the warmth of the kitchen and a rush of butter and vanilla and heat. Gracie stood at the far counter with her sleeves pushed to her elbows, coaxing glossy ribbons of white over a tray of her famous cream puffs.
She glanced up, her golden brown eyes widening, her strawberry blond hair pulled back in a tight pony tail.
“What are you doing here, Nic? Aren’t you supposed to be on a date? I was hoping it would go through dinner.”
Nicole made a face that probably needed no translation.
“Oh, no. What happened? Hang on. You deserve one of these.” She grabbed two of the prettiest pastries and swept them onto a plate. “Come on.”
They wove out to the front, where the bakery patrons had thinned to an afternoon lull. Nicole followed her cousin across the black-and-white checked floor to a two-top by the window.
Gracie wiped it, and set down the plate. “I’ll grab napkins and—what are we feeling? Coffee? Tea? Something stronger that I’m not licensed to serve?”
“A tea, I guess,” she said glumly. “I just had hot chocolate.”
Gracie returned with two thick mugs, strings from the bags hanging out the side. She sat and angled her chair toward Nicole, all attention. “Okay. Talk.”
Nicole looked around. “You didn’t bring Benny back here after camp? How was it?”
“He’s home with Red. It was good, I guess.”
“Did he make a friend?” Nicole asked.
Gracie rolled her eyes. “Quite the opposite. A darling little girl who just might be smarter than Benny is threatening to win the end-of-camp talent show where each kid shows off tricks that their dog learned. So he doesn’t have a friend, but a sworn enemy.”
“Oh, no.” Nicole pressed her hands to her cheeks. “That’s not what we wanted.”
Gracie smiled, waving off the problem. “Forget camp. How was your date and why is it over already? Didn’t you guys meet here like an hour or two ago?”
Nicole nodded, eyeing the cream puff, but not hungry. “The ‘date,’ if you could call it that, was amazing. That’s the problem.”
Gracie gave a confused look. “’Kay. Elaborate.”
She did, sharing the whole date—such as it was. As expected, Gracie listened intently without a single interruption, a trait she dearly loved in her cousin. After she finished, Nicole looked down at the cream puff, but only saw the look in Cameron’s eyes when he took off and left her on a park bench.
“So, he just…disappeared?” Gracie asked, processing it all.
Nicole broke off a piece of the pastry, watching Gracie’s signature cream ooze out, but she really had no appetite.
“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I have ears—there was definitely a woman’s voice on that call.”
“It must have been work,” Gracie said. “Patrol gets called in last-minute, right?”
“Why not tell me that?”
