“What are you doing here? Dammit, you owe me a cup of coffee!” she fumed, her hands still planted firmly on her hips.
“Hi, darlin’, it’s nice to see you, too,” Kasey Corcoran murmured in that drawl that always made her belly do somersaults, ignoring her exclamation. “You’re kinda cranky in the morning, aren’t you?”
Shaun seethed, clenching her teeth together so tightly her jaw ached. “You spilled my coffee. What are you doing here?”
Reaching around her, she watched as he plucked a fresh cup from the stack and set it down on the rail before filling to the brim, then snapped a lid onto it. Picking it up, he held it out to her. “Better?”
“No!” Shaun snapped, though her fingers closed around the cup, her fingers grazing his. She dropped her gaze to the floor, where the mess of her first cup still covered the tile. “I should clean this up.”
“It was my fault,” Kasey murmured, finally stepping back from her. She sucked in a much-needed lungful of air as he retreated from her bubble.
“You still haven’t explained why you’re here,” Shaun mumbled, though she did take perverse pleasure in watching him sop up the coffee mess with a handful of napkins. Frank was unaware of what had happened as he grumbled to himself from behind the cashier counter.
“I was going to get some coffee,” he said as he straightened, tossing the wet napkins into the trash receptacle beside them.He grabbed a sanitizer cloth and wiped his hands on it before tossing it into the trash as well. He was dressed in well-worn jeans and a faded grey Henley shirt with the sleeves pushed to his forearms. The small V created by the two buttons undone at his throat gave her just a peek at his chest below his sternum. A white, Texas Longhorn ball cap was on his head, and the lower portion of his face was shadowed with several days’ worth of dark blonde facial hair growth. When her eyes continued their upward trajectory, landing on his, she glared at him when she realized his eyes were following her perusal of him, his lips upturned at one corner.
“I meantin Petoskey. In northern Michigan. What are you doing here?” she repeated on an annoyed huff.
He shrugged those impossibly broad shoulders, making the muscles beneath his shirt bunch and move. He proceeded to pour himself a cup of coffee, a light roast, then lidded it before turning back to her. Leaning close, he whispered conspiratorially, “I came here just to annoy you, darlin’.”
Shaun rolled her eyes and stepped around him, heading toward the cashier counter where Frank waited. Setting the coffee on the counter with more vitriol than necessary, she zippered open her wallet to fetch several dollar bills out of it.
“I’ll get both coffees,” Kasey said from over her shoulder, speaking to Frank, who answered with a grunt before accepting the cash that Kasey extended.
“I don’t need you to pay for my coffee—”
Her words stopped on a gasp when his fingers gripped her chin, hard enough to bite a little, tilting her face up so she was looking at him.
“Do you have to argue about everything?” he asked roughly, and her damn traitorous heart clip-clopped in her chest at the feel of his fingers on her skin. His eyes searched hers, and then he murmured, “You can say thank you. It won’t kill you.”
Wrestling her chin out of the grip of his fingers, she glared up at him. “Thank you,” she gritted out through clenched teeth, barely above a whisper.
His eyes lightened in amusement, but before he could respond, Shaun heard a loud gasp from their left and then a squeal of “OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod” as a blonde head came into view. “No. Freaking.Way!You’re K.C.! Number 33!”
Shaun rolled her eyes and let out a derisive snort as the blonde woman rushed over to stand in front of Kasey, essentially shoving Shaun out of the way. Shaun made a face at Kasey over the woman’s head and Kasey’s eyes narrowed just the slightest, and then Shaun slid out the door before he could disengage from the overzealous Nascar fan.
She had just climbed into the truck and closed the door when he hurried out of the gas station doors, his eyes scanning the vehicles until he found her. He came toward her driver’s side door as she started the engine, and he rapped his knuckles on the window.
She stared straight ahead out the windshield, chewing on her lip as she contemplated whether to roll the window down or not. Glaring at him from the corner of her eye, she sighed heavily and pushed the button to slide the window down.
“Did your fan ask for a picture?” she asked, her tone acidic.
“You’re prickly this mornin’,” he murmured in that belly melting drawl as he folded his arms across the windowsill so he could lean in close, ignoring her question. He balanced his coffee on the edge of her window, fingers wrapped around it.
“Kasey, it’s barely six am. I didn’t sleep well last night, my coffee maker took a shit this morning, and you spilled my replacement cup. Sorry I’m not feeling particularly loquacious.”
“Hey, I bought you a fresh cup to make up for it,” he said, grinning winningly at her, which just made her gnash her teeth together harder.
“And you never answered my question.”
“Yes, she asked for a photo. Yes, I took the time to let her take a selfie. Hazard of the trade.” His grin widened and she rolled her eyes. Lord, they were getting a workout today.
“That’s not the question I was referring to,” she snapped.
“And which questionareyou referrin’ to?” he asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, still leaning on his forearms on her windowsill.
“What are you doing here? Why are you in Petoskey? Isn’t this a little outside of your usual route?”
“I’ll have you know that I have very important groomsmen duties that require my attention,” he murmured, grinning again. He bobbed his eyebrows once. “Don’t tell me you didn’t get the invite to the engagement party.”
