Chapter 21
Zoe pushed out of the Cafe and checked the time on her phone. She had about fifteen minutes until the company she’d contracted with arrived to install the point of sale system.
“Zoe.” Kevin hung out of the passenger side window of the police car as it idled behind the cars parked in front of the store. “My mom told me to ask you if she can get your number. She’d like to invite you over for dinner.”
Stepping off the curb, she sidled between a four-door sedan and a boxy SUV. “Sure. It’s—”
“Here.” He thrust his phone at her. “You can text it to her.”
Trading her coffee for his phone, she spoke as she typed. “Hey Mrs. Moore. This is Zoe. Here’s my number:” She finished typing and handed Kevin’s phone back to him, taking her coffee. “Thank you.”
“See you later,” he said.
Tim leaned over so he could see Zoe from the driver’s seat. “Bye, Zoe.”
She bent at the waist and placed her hand on Kevin’s arm, still resting on the window, for balance. “Bye, Tim.”
He winked and she stood, waving as they drove off.
Giddy.
She’d never understood what people meant when they said something made them “giddy,” but that was the only word she could think of that described how Tim made her feel. Other than sexy and horny. She was excited to see him, to see his name on her phone when he called or texted. Even something as simple as his teasing smile when he said goodbye.
The alarm went off on her phone, reminding her she had an appointment. Shimmying back between the cars, she unlocked the front door of the bookstore. She set her coffee on the checkout counter, then pulled out the placards she’d commissioned for the different book genres, sorting them by where they would be in the store. Fiction—front and center. Non-fiction—stuck in the back along the wall.
She’d special order books if someone was looking for something particular, but she wasn’t going to pretend her store was anything other than what it was—a place to escape into a story.
“Excuse me.”
She looked up at the woman standing in the door. “Hi. Are you here to install the point of sale system?” She didn’t look like an IT person, but who was Zoe to judge.
“Uh, no.” She stepped farther into the store. Now that the sunlight wasn’t shining behind her like a halo, Zoe knew her initial judgment was correct. This was not a girl who crawled around on the floor running computer cable.
“Do you work here?” she asked.
“I’m the owner. Would you like to submit an application?”
The girl scoffed. “Hardly. I’m here to tell you to stay away from my man.” Her tone turned hard and nasty.
“Excuse me?” Who was she talking about?
“I saw you together and I’m here to tell you to back off.”
“I think you should leave,” Zoe said.
The girl stared Zoe up and down with a derisive glare, crossed her arms, and cocked a hip. “You really think he’s going to want you for very long when he can have me? Seriously? You’re ten pounds away from being fat. And it doesn’t matter if older women are supposed to be more sexually mature, I can rock his world in ways you can’t even imagine. And let me tell you, I know just how to put those handcuffs to good use.”
“Leave. Now.”
She scoffed again and flipped her long, straight hair over her shoulder. “Just remember I tried to warn you when he kicks you to the curb.” She sauntered out of the store, slipping on a pair of big sunglasses as she left.
Zoe was going to be sick. She turned away from the door, the latte she’d enjoyed only ten minutes before swirling in a bitter mass in her stomach.
“Don’t assume the worst,” she whispered.
What else could she assume? Really, she should be thankful. Better to find out now that Tim was cheating on her than later when she was so much more involved. Or wasshethe other woman this time? Was Tim cheating on the young, blond glamazon with her?
She couldn’t do this again. She couldn’t go through the pain and the hurt because some jerk couldn’t keep it in his pants. And he’d stood there and comforted her while she unloaded about what an asshole Mark had been. He’d even agreed with her.
