He shrugged. “Maybe. But I like living in Europe. If I want to spend the weekend in France, I can. Or take a train up to Scotland. Everything’s so close.”
Lila smiled, though her chest felt tight. “That does sound lovely.” She glanced at his empty cup. “Would you like another coffee?”
“Oh, sure, I’ll take a tall, if you don’t mind.” TJ said, nodded at the cat curled up in his lap. “Could you add a couple pumps of cream?”
“Sure.” Lila fixed his coffee, stirred in the cream, and brought it back. “Here you go. If you let Muffin get away with it, she’ll stay there through lunch.
“Yes, I know, and I have to head out soon. I told Mary and Paddy last night I’d take them to Stone’s Emporium. They want to buy their own air popper.”
Lila pressed a hand to her mouth to hide a giggle, then laughed outright.
“Oh, admit it, it was funny,” he admonished.
“Nowit’s funny,” she said, shaking her head. “It wasn’t at the time. Good heavens, I’ll be finding popcorn kernels for the rest of the week.”
He snorted. “I’m sure you will. But everyone else thought it was great.”
She remembered the customers laughing and tossing popcorn at each other instead of complaining. Maybe TJ was right. Maybe she did need to lighten up.
“As long as they don’t burn the place down, I guess these little mishaps are okay.” She gave him a crooked smile. “Running the festival booth will seem boring after all this.”
“It’ll be fun, and a nice break. I can handle selling coffee if you want to wander and see the other booths.”
“Oh, trust me, I will.” She hesitated. “Still feels wrong leaving everyone behind to run the shop while we’re off having fun.”
“They’ll rotate shifts. And remember, there’s two days of festival.”
She nodded. He was right about that too. “So, you like cats?” she asked, trying to keep the conversation going.Good grief, what am I doing? Get back to work, Lila.
“Yes, I do,” he said. “But with all my traveling, I couldn’t give a pet the attention it deserves. I’m a cat-less cat lover, I suppose.”
She smiled. “What about a bird?”
“No, but I do have fish. When I’m gone, my neighbor feeds them.”
“That’s nice.” She fidgeted. “Well, I’d better get back to work.”
She turned on her heel just as more customers came in. She was going to have to watch herself; she was perilously close to falling for this man.
Lila helped a few customers and let Cyrus chat as long as he liked. The old man had donned a bow tie and tweed jacket that morning. He looked quite dapper as he struck up conversations with everyone. Lila marveled at how easily he talked to strangers.
At the hotel she had to work fast. There was never time for talk. This place was different; here, people lingered.
When the crowd thinned, she washed dishes, wiped counters, and brewed more coffee. The pies sold out… again. Polly had baked this batch. She told Lila she usually let Mary, Irene and Grandma do the baking while she enjoyed the goodies. But she thought they needed a break so pitched in.
Lila finally sat down to eat her lunch and noticed TJ wasstill there.She walked to his table. “You’re free!” she said with a grin. “Muffin’s gone.”
He laughed. “Well, what do you know? I hadn’t noticed she left.”
“Are you hungry? I can fix you a sandwich.”
His face lit up. “Could you? What do you have?”
“Turkey croissant’s good. I had Tilly’s pastry vendor add them to our usual order so we could try them out.”
“Sounds perfect.”
Lila glanced at his laptop. “Still working on your emails?”
