Gotta stay calm.
She holds my gaze without blinking, which is the most fucking annoying thing about her. That woman can silently dare you to a staring contest and then win it without getting the slightest twitch in her eyelids.
Is it because she drinks so much coffee?
Or does she have staring contests with herself in the mirror? Is that her third-favorite pastime after drinking coffee and using her toothbrush?
“I know I should regret what I did, but I—” she starts, only to be interrupted by the moderator calling time.
I look at the dude to my right, who seems to think he’s taking my seat. “This one’s mine. Go around.”
“Yeah, Sabrina,” the dude says. He holds out a hand for a fist bump. “We knew it wouldn’t end with a one-night stand.”
“Jesus effing Darwin on a honeycomb,” I mutter.
She stifles a giggle while she waves the fist bump away. “Oh my god, that was adorable. And quite the mental image.”
I suck in another deep breath and down the rest of my water.
She refills the glass before I can move.
Fuck.
I am not in control here.
“I didn’t call her to talk about you,” she says as everyone else settles around us. “I mean, yes, you came up. Possibly I should say I didn’t call her only to talk about you. You’re the reason I went down the rabbit hole in the first place, but ultimately, it had very little to do with you.”
“Very little to do with me.”
“Correct.”
“She said you told her I almost passed out in my entryway.” I’m keeping my voice as low as I can. I swear there’s not as much noise in here as there was five minutes ago.
Are they watching?
Are they listening?
“She asked how you were doing, I said you were doing great, she asked if you’d had any more of your dizzy spells, and since you’re the only person I tell lies to, I told her the truth.”
“That’s a lot of words for I called your grandmother to guilt you into not doing what you want to do here.”
She refills my water again.
Shit.
Didn’t even realize I’d drank it.
I lean even closer. God, she’s gorgeous. The green eyes. The cute nose. The slightest hint of freckles on her nose. The hair. That hair on her black sweater that I want to pick off and don’t dare in public.
Or private.
Or anywhere.
There are a lot of worst things about this situation.
At the moment, my worst thing is that I trust her with Mimi.
I clear my throat. “Mimi thinks I’m a fucking savior here because everyone in this damn town told her I saved the café and not a single one told her I’m planning to gut it from the inside out.”
“You still can be the savior here. There are other buildings that I could get put up for sale for you. Give Emma time to heal, and we can find something appropriate to make sure someone knows his time of playing the charming guy in public while being an asshole behind everyone’s back is over.”
“I’m no one’s savior.” But I fucking want to be.
“When you look at all the ways a person can let you down, the bar to be a savior is exceptionally low these days. I don’t think you’re a savior. I think you’re a complicated man who deserves some closure.”
“Time!” rings out again.
Sabrina rolls her eyes and waves the next guy past. “We both know how this would end, right, Jeremy?”
“I’m not opposed to another fun night,” he replies.
I look up.
The dude’s lanky. Wearing glasses. Big nose. One eyebrow hair is twisted up onto his forehead wrong.
“Appreciate the offer, but you’ll do better in about three tables,” Sabrina replies.
“Change your mind, you let me know.” He winks.
I almost come out of my chair to slug him.
“You slept with him?” I hiss at Sabrina while the guy heads to the next row.
“Small town. Slim pickings. I’ve slept with a lot of these guys.”
I remind myself she’s trying to get my blood pressure to do its thing and take another long drink of water.
She leans over to grab the water carafe from the table next to us, then gestures something to someone behind me.
“I called your grandmother because I found a picture of her with my grandpa in his college yearbook,” she says without ceremony.
My jaw comes unhinged. I snap it back shut.
“I can show you too, if you want. They looked friendly. And my grandpa’s been lonely since my grandma died, so since you were here, and everything I could find online suggested your grandmother was a widow, I called her to see if she remembered him and if she wanted to come see both of you.”