I opened my mouth to say sorry, and Theo picked that moment to lick my face.
“Is that a dog?” Avery asked. “Oh my God, are youpetting a dogwithout me? What kind of best friendareyou?”
I paused to take a photo to send them later, checking the time in the corner of the screen. Four minutes left. Still plenty of time, and nowhere are you?text from Amelia just yet.
“His name’s Theo.”
“Hey, Theo,” Avery crooned through the speakers. Theo’s ears perked up. “I bet you’re such a good boy. Bring him home for me.”
“I’m not stealing a dog for you,” I said, scratching behind Theo’s ears. My thigh was still protesting, but I wasn’t giving in that easy.
“You’d give me a kidney if I needed it,” Avery said.
“Well, yeah,” I agreed. “The kidney’s mine to give.”
“Order’s up,” Iggy called over the counter, sliding two coffees—both hot, so thingshadchanged—and a paper bag across to me. I stood, biting back another pained sound, and tucked the blondies into my dance bag so I’d have both hands free for coffee. “Tell Amelia I said hi!”
“Are you sure you don’t want money for these?” I asked. Were all small towns like this? It’d been a long time since I’d last been in one.
“Positive. I know you’ll be back once you’ve tried those.” Iggy grinned at me.
“Gotta go,” I said to Avery, hanging up—I hoped—one-handed and dropping my phone into my dance bag as well. Two and a half minutes, still on schedule. I grabbed both coffees and headed straight for the door.
A poster for an open mic night partially hidden behind an overgrown fern in a hanging basket caught my eye just as I was approaching the door.
The single broadest chest I’d ever seen in my life came through the door while I was distracted and forced me to step back at the last second. My thigh, already mad at me for crouching without a warmup, seized up so painfully it brought tears to my eyes.
I stumbled forward and crashed directly into the owner of the enormous chest. Coffee-first.
Blood rushed in my ears, heart racing. I froze.
“Whoa, hey, are you okay?” a voice asked.
The voice of a man I’d just thrown two hot coffees over. He was holding my arms, holding me steady. Just as well, because I wasn’t sure my knees were working.
“I amsosorry,” I said, nearly deafened by the pounding in my ears. The adrenaline rush made me weak enough to tremble. The last time I’d had an accident, thelasttime… “I didn’t see you, and then?—”
“Hey, I know, it’s fine,” the man said. Voice calm.
I took a breath, breathing in motor oil and masculine sweat and clean cotton.
My eyes fell on the name badge sewn to his overalls. Cooper.
And the logo above it. Big Dick’s Lube and Service.
“Areyou okay?” Cooper asked again.
“Fine,” I said. “Fine, as long as you’re…”
“I’m fine,” he said. I managed to look up, then, and met warm brown eyes. Kind. Crinkling at the edges. “I was just coming in here to get a coffee to throw on myself anyway,” he added. “Can I replace yours?”
I blinked at him, then glanced across the street to the dance studio. My two minutes had to be up by now, and Amelia was waiting for me, and I didn’t want to fuck this up on my first day.
“Uh, no, I… I have to… I’m sorry,” I said, squeezing past Cooper to escape from the coffee shop I was definitely never going back to. “Send me the cleaning bill,” I called out as I hobbled across the street, thigh burning as hot as my face was, and slipped into the safety of the dance studio.
2
COOPER
