“Exactly.”
“Ms. Donut came in yesterday, didn’t she?”
I pause. What did I—oh. And who—ohagain.
I try to hide my heating face behind a casual sip of coffee, but I don’t think he’s buying my attempt at a non-committalhmm.
He grins, anddammit, he’s still adorable when he grins.
“Stop talking about that,” I order. “You’re Duke. You’ve never been here. I’m giving you the grand tour.”
He leans back, draping his arm across the tabletop behind us in one ofthosemoves. “Apologies. Please continue.”
As if I can justcontinuewhen I’m wondering if he likes me as much as I don’t want to like him. “That building? The A-frame on Main Street just two blocks down from City Hall? That’s the salon where my mom has worked my entire life. The building next to it, the one with the blue roof, is an ice cream shop where I had my first kiss. The building on the other side, the brown one, is a gift shop that once caused the biggest drama the Tooth has seen in years by selling taxidermy chipmunks that weren’t ethically and humanely sourced.”
He frowns. “The GrippaPeen guy’s dad is a taxidermist.”
“Yep. The gift shop didn’t take them off sale, but ownership changed within a year, and the new people did.”
“That sounds like it could be a warning to your new boss about behaving himself.”
My ass is getting cold. Jitter’s keeping Grey warm instead of me. And mention of mynew bossmakes my face have a reaction that I can’t suppress. “Speaking of, have I told you that my cousin is a complete and total thunder-twat who sold my family’s café to a guy who can be the world’s biggest prick but Iget it. I understand a lot of his issues and I don’t blame him for how he feels.”
Grey ducks his head and sucks in a heavy breath.
I mean it though.
I don’t blame him. Ihaven’tblamed him. But if I’m talking to Duke, then I’m going to talk toDuke. Not Grey. “I have to find a solution to a problem of saving my café while letting my new boss get the peace he deserves in the next twelve days or else I’m facing the very real possibility that I’ll lose something that means the world to me. And the best person to help me find the right solution for justice is angry with me right now, and even if she wasn’t, I willneversay that platycuntapus’s name to her. She deserves time to mourn and recover and find her new normal. Not questions about how to make him pay for what he did.”
Jitter whines and sets his head on Grey’s knee. Such a good dog.
I don’t even have to look at the man to know he’s struggling with this too. My dog’s telling me.
And the fact that my dog hates it when Grey’s upset hurts too.
The only other person Jitter loves this much is Theo, which I’ve never quite understood, but I think I’m getting it now.
Jitter has a finely-tunedpeople have hurt you and I want to love youmeter.
I study Grey, making sure he’s not gripping anything for support or getting that distant look in his eyes like he did Sunday night when I thought he was going to pass out in his doorway.
He seems fine though.
As fine as I assume he can be in this position, anyway.
“You don’t think you can find a compromise for your boss,” he says.
“I think it hurts to watch your life’s purpose go up in smoke through no fault of your own.”
He looks away. “That is its own particular brand of torture.”
I know he knows. He told me as much Sunday night. We both know he’s doing the same to me that his partner did to him, exceptI still get it.
“What did Chandler do to you?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer.
I wonder if Emma knows.
