“What happened?” Theo asked, his blue eyes bouncing from her to Noelle and back.
“Ryan broke up with her last night,” Noelle explained, cutting off the tirade that was on the tip of her own tongue. She clicked her teeth shut and lowered her eyes to the florals in her hands. “She’s on a man hating binge today.”
Leaning on his forearms on the counter, he ducked his head down to catch her gaze. “That true, Val?”
“I don’t know that we can even call it being dumped. We were only casually dating for a couple months. Dating after divorce is its own special kind of hell,” Val added on a mumble, turning to place the peony and rose bouquet in a vase. She reached for a strip of white satin ribbon and tied it around the vase in an artful bow. “Your brother said Ryan was a waste of time. I didn’t listen.”
“Well, yeah, there’s that,” Theo laughed gently, his hands gesturing in front of him where he was still leaning against the counter. “I won’t tell Beau he was right though. It’ll go straight to his head, and his ego is already out of control.”
“Go back to work, Theo, and leave me to my wallowing. I’ll never hear the end of it if you tell Beau about this,” she muttered, though a hint of a smile tugged at one corner of her lips.
He grinned widely, his smile dazzling. “You can have today, Grumpy Pants.”
“Get out of here, we’ve got work to do,” Val laughed, waving him off with the scissors still in her hand. “Tell your brother we will be over for lunch.”
Theo pushed himself up off his forearms and winked at her. “You know he’ll come over here if you don’t.”
When he had disappeared through the door and they heard the telltale tinkle of the bell as he left, Val leaned on her elbows across the counter and whined, “I really don’t want to go to lunch today. Can I please just stay here and pretend nothing out there exists?”
“Absolutely not, because I don’t need big burly Beau freaking Collins coming in here like a damn bull in a China shop pissed off because you refused to put anything in your body other than four triple espressos,” Noelle snapped, though her eyes softened. “You know he takes that promise seriously.”
Val nodded, her nose stinging with tears at the memory, but pushed it aside, not ready or willing to let the grief wash over heragain. Not today, at least not right now. There was too much work to be done. This was their busiest day of the year, after all. Second only to Mother’s Day.
“Ugh. Fine. You’re a pain in my ass, you know that?” Val groaned, dropping her shoulders.
“Middle child,” she mumbled around a bite of a chocolate chip muffin, pointing to her own chest. “It’s in the job description.”
CHAPTER 2
At quarter to one, Willow and Noelle finally begged for mercy, stating they were starving and couldn’t work under these unfair conditions—never mind that they had both eaten two muffin’s a piece—so Val taped a sign to the front door that read ‘Out For Lunch. We Will Be Back in Fifteen Minutes’.
Willow then crossed out the ‘Fifteen’ and wrote a giant ‘30’ across the page, which made Val roll her eyes. Noelle locked the door and the three of them hurried down the snow-covered brick sidewalk toBeau’s. Mid-February in northern Michigan meant snow. Still. Lots and lots of snow.
The wide glass windows that lined the front ofBeau’swere frosted from the cold, and when they whisked their way through the door the heat was welcome after the chill from outside.
A long, wide counter ran the length of the back of the room. Polished concrete floors, red brick walls, and a black painted ceiling made the space striking aesthetically. The black metal and wood topped tables dotted around the center of the room were filled with customers, as were the black leather booths along the far side of the room. They passed a row of bar height tables with round stools, most of the seats occupied. Two plush black leathersofas faced each other with a low wooden coffee table between them in front of the front windows. Patio lights were strung from the ceiling, casting everything in a warm glow.
The three of them stepped forward up to the counter, where Theo stood, typing into a touch screen tablet suspended on a stand. He grinned as they stepped up. “About time you all showed up. Beau stepped out for a few, so y’all are stuck with me. The usual, Noelle?”
“Actually, I just want a bowl of the beef barley soup and extra bread,” she said, pulling open her purse. “And a giant cup of coffee with—”
“Hazelnut, yes I know,” he laughed, tapping away on the screen. He turned to Willow, who smiled and opened her mouth, but he said, “Blackened Chicken Sandwich, extra avocado, no bacon.”
She nodded, laughing. “You and Beau are mind readers, I swear. May I get the Valentine’s White-Hot Chocolate with extra whipped cream and heart sprinkles, please?”
“Extra whip and extra sprinkles, you got it,” he chuckled, then turned to Val, leaning on the counter. “I know what you would normally get today. But since we’re man hating, what are we switching to? And I’ve been instructed that you don’t get any more espresso, no matter how much you beg. Sorry.”
Val rolled her eyes. “Fine. May I please have a regular coffee with French vanilla, whip, and a dash of cinnamon? And I’ll take the Caesar salad, please.”
“Extra Parmesan?”
“You know it,” she laughed as he tapped the screen. Noelle passed him her credit card, but he waved her off, despite their protests. Val stuck a twenty-dollar bill in the tip jar before they wandered off to find an empty table.
They found a booth along the far side of the room toward the back. Willow and Noelle slid into one side of the booth, Val on the other. Classic Slow Rock music drifted to them over thespeakers embedded in the ceiling and in the corners of the room, loud enough to hear over the din of voices, but quiet enough to still be able to hold a conversation without shouting. It wasn’t long before their names were called out, and Willow slid out of the booth to grab their drinks, coming back with two mugs of coffee and a sugary confection with red and pink heart sprinkles all over the mountain of whipped cream on top. A paper straw with pink hearts was stuck into the whipped cream.
Val took her coffee with a normal amount of whipped cream floating on top dusted with cinnamon, brought it to her lips, and took a sip. It was hot and delicious. They were chatting about the orders that had already gone out that morning, and others that were still waiting to go out for the afternoon delivery when Theo showed up at their table bearing a small black tray laden with food. He set Val’s salad down in front of her, then Willow’s sandwich, and finally Noelle’s soup with extra bread, the end pieces they cut off their house made bread loaves.
He scooted into the seat next to Val, picking up one of the chunks of bread and dipping it into Noelle’s soup, then popped it into his mouth. She swatted his hand away with a shocked, “Hey!”
