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I eye the packed café. Almost all of the tables are full, and I didn’t realize that this was such a popular morning spot.
It’s coffee, dumbass. You should have expected the crowd.
“Maisie. Over here.” I hear my name from the left, slightly behind me.
Giselle and Andy are sitting at a table and Andy has her arm slightly raised to get my attention. I start toward them.
“Here.” They both shift their stuff out of the way. “You can sit with us.”
I settle into the seat and prop Audra on my lap. “Thank you. This is Audra, my daughter. It’s crazy in here,” I say, eyeing the early morning crowd.
“Eh. This is about normal. This is the only place in town to get coffee, the closest shop is one of the chain ones at the resort, so it’s almost always popping in here first thing in the morning. She’s a cutie,” Andy says, her hands curled around a ceramic mug in a kaleidoscope of colors as she smiles at my daughter.
“Aren’t you going to order something?” Giselle asks me, sipping from her own mug.
I shake my head. “No, not a fan of coffee or tea.”
They both peer at me over the rims of their mugs. “You came into Jem’s café at nearly seven in the morning, but aren’t here to order anything?” Andy asks.
I shrug, not sure what to say to the two women I barely know.
“First off, how do you function this early without caffeine? Secondly, I smell girl talk,” Giselle says with a Cheshire smile.
“I’m nursing, so I tend to avoid caffeine. It’s not easy,” I answer the first question.
“And the girl talk?” Andy cocks an eyebrow.
Heat warms my cheeks, and I wish I could stomp the stupid blush lighting my face up into submission.
“Ah ha!” Giselle points a finger at me. “Dish.”
“No. No. Let’s wait for Jem,” Andy says. “This way she only has to say it once.”
I swallow past the thickness in my throat. I was expecting to talk to Jem, not a committee of women.
Breathe. You can do this, Maisie. This is what normal women your age do. They girl talk.
Andy scoots a plate toward me, half of a chocolate chip muffin the size of a softball laying on the wrapping. “Here, you can finish that, because I sure can’t.”
My stomach clenches hard before letting out a rumble.
Fine, stomach. I’ll feed you.
I was in too much of a hurry to talk to Jem to worry about things as inconsequential as food, only stopping to feed Audra before I got us dressed and loaded up.
Harlan’s department SUV was gone when I left this morning, so he either got an even earlier start than I did, or he slept at the station, but I don’t know him or his routine well enough to guess.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
Andy nods. “I can never finish the muffins here — they’re too big.”
“That’s what she said,” Giselle quips, and they both share a chuckle.
I pull the plate forward and break off a small piece. Audra’s hands reach for the food in mine, and after breaking the piece a little smaller, I let her have a nibble. Her torso wiggles back and forth in my lap when she gums a piece of chocolate, and she lets out a cute coo at the flavor, making me smile.
Same girl. Same.
I pop a bite into my mouth, the crumbly texture of the bread is soft and then chocolate explodes across my taste buds.
