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I’d do anything to hear that laugh again.

Most of all, I want to figure out why it is that I’m feeling this way. This isn’t me. I can’t remember the last time I even approached a woman and not because I lack the confidence to do so but mostly just because I couldn’t ever be bothered.

But her?

I’m fucking bothered.

And I don’t know what the fuck to do about it.

Lennon sighs again, drawing me out of my head and back to her gorgeous face as she sets her coffee down on the table. She looks down at the untouched Danish in front of her before shaking her head slightly and standing. I drop my gaze slightly, trying to look interested in the newspaper in my hand but the whole time I can’t take my eyes off her. Her movements are slow, exhaustion clear in everything she does as she collects her things and starts heading back towards the counter. I want to keep watching her but if I turn around completely to do so, it will be incredibly obvious. My mind races, thinking of an excuse, of some reason that will make me turn around so I can keep my Sunshine in my sight.

“Hey, D,” Mila calls.

God bless that woman.

I whip my head towards her just as Lennon slips behind the display case, heading towards the stairs. She glances in my direction for just a second and I swear she looks right at me but her steps don’t falter or slow at all. It’s over before it ever had a chance to begin and disappointment that makes no goddamn sense settles in my chest.

“Your order is ready,” Mila says, dragging my attention over to her as she holds up a large box of donuts with a smile. I nod, glancing back to where Lennon was just a second ago but she’s gone. I can hear her footsteps on the stairs to the second floor and I barely resist the urge to hiss several words that people in here would probably find offensive.

“Thanks, Mila,” I say as I approach the counter with my cup of coffee in my hand and she nods, a knowing grin on her face.

“She usually opens.”

My brows furrow. “Huh?”

“Lennon,” she says, tilting her head towards the stairs. “She usually opens the bakery so she’s here early. You know… just in case you were curious.”

I grin, shaking my head as I take the box of donuts from her. “Subtle, Mila.”

“Right,” she shoots back with a snort. “Because you’ve been the king of subtlety this morning.”

“Don’t know what you mean,” I answer, turning away before she can catch the smirk on my face.

She’s right.

I’ve been about as subtle as a fucking freight train all morning. But I couldn’t find a single shit to give. As I duck out of the back door and walk over to my bike, I make myself one promise.

I’ll be back.

Chapter Six

Lennon

My phone rings just as I drag my tired, aching body through the apartment door. With a sigh, I stop and pull it out of my pocket. One glance down at the screen has a groan slipping past my lips and echoing through the hallway.

It’s Owen.

Again.

It was after midnight when I met Calvin here at the apartment last night and Owen has been calling me non-stop. Ever since the moment he lost sight of me, driving away from the apartment we used to share, he’s been blowing up my phone.

I honestly have no idea how many times his name has popped up on my screen in the last nine hours. When Calvin was showing me around the apartment and filling me in on little things I needed to know, I felt the phone buzzing in my pocket incessantly but I used every ounce of strength I had to ignore it.

As soon as Calvin was gone, I put that shit on silent.

Not that it helped me sleep all that much. The exhaustion weighed heavily on me but my mind was so damn loud.

All I could do, as I stared up at the ceiling above my new bed, was replay the whole night.