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“It’s perfect, thank you.”
“I hope she likes it.”
“She will, I’m sure.” I swiped my credit card. “Question. Out of curiosity, how long has the coffee shop across the street been there?”
She made a face, thinking. “Couple weeks, maybe? There honestly haven’t been many people until the last couple days. I’ve tried it since it’s a lot closer than Deja Brew. Coffee’s good. Cookies could use some work.”
I chuckled and kept the knowledge these flowers were for the owner of Deja Brew to myself. At least this was proof Lena’s worst fears hadn’t come true. Her disaster hadn’t spread to everyone in town. If the florist had known about it, I was sure she would have made a comment. “Thank you.”
“No problem!”
I jogged across the street to the small store. The green awning was cheery in the cold weather, and the little chalkboard sign told me this was “Mountain Jewels Coffee.”
Not a bad name for a place like Garnet Bend.
There were several people in line, but I stepped inside anyway. That alone felt like a betrayal, but I needed to know. The scent inside was good. Coffee, with an undercurrent of sweetness, but it wasn’t the same as when you walked into Deja Brew, where the smell had been seeping into every corner of the shop for years.
“Hey, Jude.” I focused on the man in front of me, who’d turned around in line. Ben, the mechanic. I hadn’t recognized him from behind.
“Oh hey, Ben.” I extended the hand that wasn’t holding flowers. “Good to see you.” The garage was on this side of town, so it made sense he could walk over here.
He nodded to the flowers and grinned. “Those for Lena?” I stared at him for a second before I remembered he’d heard my whole outburst with Daniel while dropping off Bessie.
“Yeah. Finally got my head out of my ass.”
Ben stuck his hands in his pockets with a chuckle. “A bit ago, I saw you kiss her outside the Deja early in the morning, so I figured something had changed.”
I nodded. “By the way, who do you trust to look at a ventilation system?” Lena hadn’t decided yet who she was going to call.
“Why?” He frowned.
“We want to just make sure everything’s on the up-and-up at the bakery,” I said easily. If he didn’t know about what happened either, I wasn’t going to volunteer it.
He stepped forward as the line moved. “I could come over and take a look if you want. I’m a car guy now and they’re definitely more fun, but I came up on HVAC.”
“If you’re willing, that would be great. I’ll have Lena talk to you and set up a time in the next couple of days.”
“Sounds good.” It was his turn. He smiled and nodded before turning away and starting his order.
A blond woman was behind the counter. Bubbly and smiling, waiting on people as quickly as she could. It didn’t seem like she had a lot of experience dealing with a rush. But slowly, the line moved forward until I was at the counter.
She looked at me and then behind me. “Oh, thank goodness, you’re the last one. I can take a breath.”
“I didn’t realize there was another coffee shop in town.”
“Ah.” She winced and covered with a smile. “I’ve been getting that a lot.”
“How long have you been open? And I’ll take a coffee to go.”
She poured my coffee. “Two weeks tomorrow. I’m Allison, by the way, but everyone calls me Alli.”
“Nice to meet you.” I wasn’t sure it was the truth, but I didn’t need to be rude. Yet. Something about this place had my instincts tingling—and not in a good way.
Alli placed the coffee on the counter while I handed her the couple of bills I owed. “Have a nice day,” she said. “And whoever’s getting those is a lucky girl.”
She was, but I didn’t know if she was going to feel lucky once she found out about this place. “Have a nice day.” I shot her a wave and left, taking a sip of the coffee. It wasn’t bad at all, but I’d had better at Deja Brew. In this area, I was completely biased and didn’t care that I was.
I looked at the storefront from down the block as I got back into my truck. It was strange we hadn’t heard about this shop opening in the last two weeks. The timeline placed the opening before the first incident with the nursing home and Lena’s cookies.
