“I’ll let you get to it, then.” Owen rapped his knuckles on the table twice and walked away.
Ava stared after him, watching him thread between tables and customers with ease. Everyone smiled at him as he passed. He fit perfectly here. In the café. In Cedar Falls. She remembered a time when she fit alongside him, like two halves of a whole. Shaking herself of the thought, she connected to the blessedly fast Wi-Fi and got to work.
Chapter 7
The Inspection
Owen drummed his fingers on the counter, his attention split between Tori and her merry band of followers inspecting the Agatha Building and Ava sitting on the patio. Both sights spiked his blood pressure.
He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous about the Historical Society’s inspection across the street. It wasn’t really an inspection since that was completed when he bought the building, but they were moving faster with his grant application than he expected, considering he submitted it the previous night. Maybe they had nothing better to do.
In any case, they’d been in and out of the building all day, and it put Owen on edge.
Owen had yet to determine if Tori would be professional about their working relationship or if their brief entanglement would influence how she treated the process. He hoped she wouldn’t make things awkward. He had enough awkwardness to wade through with Ava’s continued presence in Cedar Falls.
A flash of blonde hair in his periphery pulled his attention back to Ava. Unlike the past two times he’d seen her, she wore her hair down and around her shoulders. The subtle waves framed her heart-shaped face, the blonde strands catching the afternoon light. The coffee he delivered was long since drunk and pushed aside as she worked steadily on her laptop through the lunch rush and well into the slow afternoon. He’d always admired how her brain worked, how easily she could switch her focus and ignore distractions.
Every so often, she’d bite down on her lip as she stared at the screen, deep in concentration. When he caught the movement, he couldn’t help but stare at her red-painted lips. Ava dressed in red used to be his Kryptonite.
The jingle of the bell above the door brought him back to staring at the Historical Society tittering with their clipboards across the street. Would Ava leave before they finished? She undoubtedly saw the activity happening at the building and he wasn’t ready to reveal what he’d done—what he wasdoing. He’d never thought he’d have to when he bought it.
“Hey, Dad,” a cheerful voice said. Owen’s attention snapped in front of him where Avery and Maddy stood.
“Hey there, bud,” Owen said. He smiled at his son and reached across the counter to ruffle his hair. Avery huffed and pulled away, but his small smile negated his annoyance.
“Thought we’d grab a couple of lemonades and snacks before we left for Farmington. I’m going to sneak them into the movie theater in my bag.” Maddy held up her canvas bag for Owen to see.
“You know you can get that stuff at the movies,” Owen said.
“We could, but it’s more fun to be sneaky. Right, kid?” Maddy winked at Avery, and he beamed in response.
Owen’s chest tightened, almost painfully, at his son’s excitement. Avery loved when his mom visited, but Owen knew the disappointment that would come when she left again at the end of the week. But there was nothing he could do but support them both, even if that meant managing bedtime tantrums in the aftermath of a visit or sending them to the movies hyped up on sugar.
“Fair enough. I’ll grab a few things. Including a salad. You two need a vegetable now and then,” Owen said with a pointed look at Maddy. She was an enabler of bad eating habits. She had that luxury as thefunparent.
“I’ll eat it if it has ranch dressing,” Avery said.
“Deal,” Owen agreed.
He backed away from the counter, his gaze shifting once more to Ava, who was taking her headphones off. Maddy, who missed nothing, caught him. She whipped her head over her shoulder and spotted Ava at her table. A wide smile split her face.
“You didn’t say Ava was here. I’m gonna say hi.”
“Me too,” Avery said, willing to follow his mom wherever she went.
Maddy made a beeline for the patio door and straight to Ava’s table, Avery hot on her heels, before Owen could stop them. What could he say, anyway? As far as Avery knew, Ava was his aunt’s friend. He had no reason to stop them, at least no reason Maddy wouldn’t call bullshit on.
The urge to expel his nervous energy by drumming his fingers on the countertop came back.
Ava’s eyes grew comically wide when Maddy and Avery walked up to her table unannounced. The definition of a deer caught in headlights. He’d laugh if he didn’t feel so anxious about the interaction. Ava closed her laptop and turned to give them her full attention, her surprise morphing into an indulgent smile as Avery spoke animatedly with his hands, and Maddy laughed.
Some of the tension in his shoulders loosened. He stopped staring and put together the promised contraband for Avery and Maddy. When they still hadn’t left Ava’s table by the time he finished, Owen intervened. He grabbed the bag and drink carrier and joined them on the patio.
“You guys are all set for the movies,” Owen interrupted.
“Thanks, Dad,” Avery said. Avery bounced on the balls of his feet and took the drink carrier out of his hand.
Maddy grabbed the paper bag and stuffed it into her canvas tote. “We’ll let you get back to work, Ava. Good luck with your project. We got a movie to catch.” Maddy waved at Ava and settled a hand on Avery’s shoulder to steer him away.
