Page 9

Joss pours his Scotch, and I clear my throat, feeling like there’s something stuck in it.

A low voice comes from my left. “You’re the owner of Sugar & Coal, right?”

My shoulders stiffen. I stare at Ivy.

She kicks me and I swivel on my barstool, trying to smile as naturally as I can.

“Y-yes,” I stutter. “That’s me.”

His voice, a low baritone, feels like honey sliding over my skin.

“What brings you to a place like this?”

“What brings you to a place like this?” I shoot back.

It’s out before I can stop it, and he chuckles low in his chest.

My stomach tightens.

“Was in the neighborhood.”

That’s a vague answer, but I don’t push. It’s none of my business, after all.

“Sure,” I mutter, turning back to my drink.

But Cole doesn’t stop talking.

“I keep meaning to go in there. To Sugar & Coal, I mean. Try the cran-apple muffins everyone in Garland Falls is raving about.”

“They’re a hit every fall.”

He smiles, and it makes him look ten years younger, almost boyish.

My cheeks heat up.

Don’t blush. Don’t blush. Don’t blush.

“I’ll make it a date.”

My eyes snap to his.

“What?”

“Coming into Sugar & Coal,” he says easily, like he didn’t just make my heart skip about ten beats.

I swallow hard. “Yes. Of course.”

Cole raises his glass to me and I raise my almost-empty one back.

“Could buy you another,” he murmurs, leaning in, and I nearly drop my purse from my lap scrambling to stand up.

“No, no, I can’t have another,” I explain. He looks at me coolly, a smile still playing on the corner of his lips. “Not tonight.”

“Work to do?” he asks, straightening up.

“Always.”

It’s true enough. But something about Cole Hayes is making me flustered, and I don’t like it one bit. I’m not normally quiet like Ivy or wild like Del. I’m somewhere in between, but right now, I feel like a wallflower.