“She did,” I confirmed. “She also saved some special pastry for you.”
She looked at the box next. “Did she really?”
I nudged the box toward her. “She did.”
“Ohh,” she breathed.
When she had her seat belt on and she was situated with a scone in one hand and her coffee in the other, I swung the truck around and headed to her work.
“How’d you know to go there?” she asked.
“One coffee shop in town, babe.” I chuckled. “Other than Starbucks, and you don’t strike me as a franchise girl.”
“I’m not,” she admitted as we came to a stop near the diner in town.
She looked over and froze, her gaze lingering on three people in the front window of the diner.
Cody, Vito, and Mable.
She looked away, not saying anything, and took a small bite of her scone.
“These are my favorite,” she admitted. “Which Reyelle knows. Every good memory I have from childhood was spent at Shade’s house with Reyelle.”
“Shade, your friend that gave the lime to Mable?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
Birdee’s shoulders slumped. “He’s a great person. Truly, he is. He’s just…protective. For the longest time, Mable was enemy number three for me.”
“Who was number one and two?”
“My mom and dad,” she admitted, purposefully not looking at the diner and the three laughing people there. “Shade’s protective. He saw everything from my point of view. He was always there for me when I needed someone. But he does have impulse control issues. I don’t think he would’ve normally done it if he’d had more time to think about his actions.”
I snorted. “He’s lucky he only lost his job when he did that.”
“I know,” she sighed. “He’s really a good person. Will give you the shirt off his back. But he’s seriously got issues when it comes to the people that he loves being hurt.”
I was thankful when the light turned green and she finally allowed some of the tension in her shoulders to relax.
She reached for the coffee, and another thought occurred to me. “Reyelle mentioned you have a heart condition…”
“Long QT syndrome,” she answered before I could form the question. “I’ve always had issues with dizziness and fainting. In college, though, I started having seizures. When I went to the doctor, they found that I had a prolonged QT interval. That’s part of the heartbeat in layman’s terms. I’m on beta blockers now that help with it, but I was told that I can’t have any caffeine at all.”
“What about chocolate?” I asked.
“I’m going to pretend to not have heard you. As far as I’m concerned, chocolate doesn’t have caffeine.”
My stomach clenched.
“But it does…”
“La-la-la-la.” She covered her ears with a hand holding a scone, and the other holding her coffee.
My lips twitched.
“I’m doing way better. I have some palpitations at night when I go to bed. Some dizziness. But overall, I’m doing okay,” she said. “Thank you for the latte and the snacks.”
“They’re yours,” I said as I pulled up to her job and shut the truck off. “I’ll help you get it all inside.”
She grabbed her jacket and I grabbed the pastries and her drink, as well as my own.
