I looked back at the boat log.
“People leave.”
“Tourists have plane tickets.”
“Annie has options.”
“You know that?”
“No.”
“Then she probably has a plane ticket.”
“Hank.”
He poured coffee into a chipped mug that saidWORLD’S OKAYEST CAPTAIN.
“I like her.”
“You spoke seven words to her.”
“Enough.”
Captain Pancake shifted his weight and crushed my left foot completely.
I nudged him.
He sighed as if I had interrupted an important meeting.
Hank leaned against the counter.
“You going to see her today?”
“She booked another lesson.”
“Convenient.”
“It was booked before the kiss.”
“More convenient.”
I looked at him.
He looked at his coffee.
Nobody in the room respected me.
The bell above the front door rang at exactly eight.
My entire body reacted before I could tell it to behave normally.
Annie stepped inside wearing denim shorts, a loose white shirt tied at the waist, and sunglasses slightly less aggressive than the ones she had worn at the café. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she carried two coffees.
She saw me and smiled.
Not the cautious smile she offered strangers.
The other one.
