Guinevere laughed so loud, some of the other patrons looked up at them, and Thea shushed her friend.
“I’m sorry,” Guinevere said, though she didn’t look it.“That is the cutest thing I’ve heard in quite some time.I mean, he brings you flowers but pretends they’re for the building so you won’t tell him no.”
Thea sighed.Of course Guinevere had figured that out instantly.
“You need to give him a chance,” Guinevere said.“The man is clearly in love with you.”
“Would you hush?”Thea scolded, getting to her feet as Nathaniel approached the door and making her way behind the counter to gather the rent money.
She carefully avoided looking at Guinevere as Nathaniel opened the door and the bell over the door rang.He took the bouquet he carried to the first open table that he saw, setting it down and carefully arranging it before nodding to Guinevere.She looked on in amusement as he made his way to the counter where Thea stood waiting, carefully avoiding looking at him until the last possible moment.
He was just as handsome as he had been all those years ago when she fell hopelessly in love with him.His beard was less patchy than it had been, though.
“Good afternoon,” he said, his eyes twinkling warmly the way they always had.
But she didn’t want to see them twinkling like that.
“Good afternoon,” she said briskly, reaching to count out the coins for the month’s rent.“This should be it.Will you count it for me?”
“Of course,” he said, keeping his own tone businesslike as he reached over and took the coins from her hand, her darker skin a stark contrast to his.
His eyes glanced up at her, though his head remained lowered, and she could see the smile playing on the edge of his mouth.
But she carefully avoided looking at him—especially his lips.
She knew what those lips felt like on hers, and she didn’t need to start thinking about it now—even if there was a part of her that desperately wanted to experience kissing Nathaniel Alder again.
Chapter two
Nat
Itwashardnotto laugh at Thea as she pretended that she still hated him.Nathaniel could hardly keep his mouth from twitching in amusement as she looked away from him, her brown eyes darting around the room in an effort to look at anything but his face.
At least, it would be amusing if he didn’t wish desperately to know why she was avoiding him.If her dark curls hadn’t been up in a bun, she would probably be hiding behind her hair, too.
He had hoped when she first came to the Northlands that she would be willing to tell him what had happened, why she had never written to him, but she not only had been unwilling to talk about it with him, she seemed actively angry at him.He was at a loss as to why, but at least he had the café as an excuse to talk to her and see her and interact with her—no matter how much she tried to pretend she didn’t want to see him.
He counted the money the way she’d asked, even though he would rather just trust her.She wasn’t going to try to shortchange him.It would go against all her beliefs.
There had never once been a short payment from her, even in the months when the nights grew cold and the visitors grew slim, and he worried that she was cutting her groceries rather than asking him to hold a rent payment until later.
But that was one of the things that he’d fallen in love with all those years ago: how unfailingly honest she was.It wouldn’t be the same if she was no longer that girl…though that girl had been willing to speak to him, so perhaps he should wish for her to come back.
“I want to wish you a wonderful evening,” he said to Thea.His voice was more formal than he would have liked, but when he tried to be informal, Thea didn’t like it.
He would give anything for her to love him once more.
“I’m just going to say hello to Ginger before I leave,” he told her.Her eyes softened at the mention of her beloved cat, and she turned to look at the empty fireplace where Ginger was waiting, looking up at Nat expectantly.
“I see you,” he said to the orange cat as he made his way over to pet her.
It was odd to be jealous of a cat, but at times he was.Ginger had a closeness with Thea that he desperately wished to have again.
“Did you think I’d forgotten you?”he asked Ginger as he knelt down and began to rub her belly.“You are a spoiled little thing, aren’t you?”
“Yes, she is,” a voice piped up from behind him.
Nat glanced at the woman.She looked familiar, but why?He couldn’t place her.
