With zero shame, the guy shot back, "Oh, yeah? Well you wouldn't be saying that if you saw how crappy the service was."
The guy next to him said, "If you thinkthat'sbad, the way I hear it,thisplace serves food off the floor."
The woman in the hoodie turned to face him, her expression curdling like she'd just sniffed a dumpster. "And you're still gonna eat here?"
"Forgeteating," he told her. "I just want a coffee."
By now, I was kind of scared to admit I worked here at all. Silently, I edged away from the crowd and pulled out my cellphone to check the time. I frowned at the screen.It wasn't even ten o'clock.
This gave me two extra hours to do heaven-knows-what.
Return home?
Or maybe I should slip in through the back door and open the shop anyway. Ididhave a key, mostly because I usually arrived long before my so-called boss.
I was still waffling when, from somewhere behind me, a new voice joined the chorus. This one was masculine and warmly familiar, saying,"I'mjust here for the barista."
My skin flushed, my stomach fluttered, and my pulse kicked as I whirled to look. And there he was.Ryder Freaking Vaughn.
Except this time, he was just Ryder, the guy who'd kissed me senseless on Maisie's front porch.
He was grinning.
And just like that, I was grinning back.
51
No Cannons Were Stolen…Yet
Ryder
Tessa was laughing."That'syour idea? A cannon?"
Right on cue, the thing exploded.
The boom ripped through the air with enough force to make half the tourists around us jump. A kid squealed, and a nearby dad dropped his cellphone. Tessa clutched my arm, startled, and then burst into fresh laughter.
"Holy crap," she said, her eyes wide. "You totally timed that."
I hadn't.But if I'd thought of it, I would've, because the look on Tessa's face was priceless. If I weren't so jaded, I might have stared. That combination – the breeze in her hair, the sunlight on her face, and the sparkle in her blue eyes – if there was a picture next to the wordbewitching, it would be all her.
But it was the sound of her laugh – alive and untamed – that hit me harder than a cannonball. I wanted to pull her into my arms and kiss her like crazy until the whole fort disappeared around us.
But I didn't, because Fort Mackinac was a family attraction. And even if this inconvenient fact wouldn't stop a guy like me, I knew Tessa well enough to realize she wouldn't love the idea of making a spectacle for the kiddies.
With a satisfied grin, I said, "No, but if you want a repeat, I'll make it happen."
She glanced at the nearby sign. "But you can't. They're not gonna fire it again for two full hours."
I studied the sign in question. We'd just witnessed the 10:30 cannon firing, and the next was set for 12:30.But so what?
I told Tessa, "You'd be surprised what I can make happen."
She studied my face for half a beat before letting out another laugh. "Well, I think those armed soldiers would have something to say about that."
The so-called soldiers were decked out in historic blue uniforms with shiny brass buttons and tall rounded helmets with brass eagle emblems that glittered in the morning sun.
Their only weapons were smiles for the kids.
