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“Do you want me to hurt you?”
He smirked. He wouldn’t mind seeing her try. “It was just a question.”
“So was mine.”
His intention wasn’t to come here and piss her off first thing in the morning, so he made for the stairs.
“You done for the day?” she asked and he turned to her. “Or are you up for a run?”
Before Cami had shown up, he had been tired and exhausted, but now, he felt reinvigorated. “You think you can keep up?”
She barked out a laugh then took off, running at full speed.
It took him a moment to react. His brain and legs got on the same page, and he sprinted after her, laughing the entire way.
He caught up to her with a little more effort than he expected and fell into a comfortable stride. They jogged side by side in silence, but Enzo didn’t mind. If anything, it was the perfect start to his day.
Chapter 8
After another long day of work, Cami was grateful to step outside and inhale the salty air. The sun was still in the sky but was slowly making its descent into the horizon. In a couple more hours it would be gone until morning. She took a moment to close her eyes and look up, letting the rays beam down on her skin.
She missed lying on the beach in the middle of the day, taking a dip in the ocean when the heat got to be too much, and she missed that feeling at the end of the day when her body was thoroughly exhausted from doing nothing in the sun. Now her body was exhausted from being on her feet all day behind a register, espresso machines, and blenders.
She wouldn’t change it for the world, though. Her business was her pride and joy, and while she had to make some sacrifices, she was okay with that. The beach would always be there, but the opportunity to continue to provide a wonderful service to her customers was not. She needed to put the time and energy in now so one day, in the future, she’d be able to take a day off to sit on the beach and do nothing.
Right now, with the sun on her face, the scent of salt heavy in the air, she dreamed of that day. She opened her eyes and glanced down the boardwalk toward the ocean. It was tempting to take a stroll along its edge, but she had things to do.
With one last look of longing toward the beach, she headed in the opposite direction. She got to the parking lot and walked around to the passenger side where the donut stood in place of her tire. It looked pretty ridiculous, considering the size difference between the other tires. She made a mental note to get it taken care of. If anything else, it would get Enzo off her back.
He seriously needed a hobby. She didn’t have time to worry about her own problems, let alone someone else’s. She should’ve just kept walking that day and ignored his offer of help, though she knew Enzo too well. He never would have left her stranded on the side of the road. He would’ve picked her up and tossed her over his shoulders before he’d let that happen.
The thought gave an unexpected rush of warmth through her body. “No,” she said to herself and got into the car. Enzo Moretti was nice to look at, but he was rigid and not to mention her best friend’s brother. She needed to stop allowing thoughts of him to infiltrate her mind.
She didn’t have time to date. In the summer she usually gave herself time to have a summer fling with an out-of-towner. That way when the first sign of summer’s end appeared, she could go back to her life, free of a relationship and any ties that came with it. She was all about fun and letting herself have a good time, except this summer she never got around to meeting someone.
Maybe that’s why Enzo was looking extra good in his Vinny Lobster Shack t-shirts, and his eyes were extra blue when they stared at her. She was desperate for a little male companionship was all. But Enzo was the last person on earth she would want that from. He wasn’t her type. He was a man of tradition and high morals who wanted the white picket fence and cookie cutter family. Something she never imagined for herself.
Even if she did have a shot of hooking up with Enzo, she couldn’t give him what he truly wanted.
She would get the tire fixed, and Enzo would go back to only coming in for his occasional mid-morning coffee. Life would go on as it always did, so why did that make her sad?
She shook her head. She didn’t have time for this. She needed to think about her schedule for the rest of the week and how she was going to help Krissy box and ship her soaps, go with Ella to look at coffee tables, squeeze in a few workouts, get her stupid tire fixed, and try to get Paulie to loosen up a bit more since his coffee making skills were on point, but the boy needed serious help with his personality.
It wasn’t just the coffee, tea, and pastries Cami sold the customer, it was also the atmosphere of the store, which included the baristas and how they interact with the customer. She wanted her customer to have an overall great experience, and Paulie was a little too shy. She wasn’t sure she could teach him personality, but she was going to try.
She pulled up to her parents’ house and immediately addedhire a landscaperto her list. It’d been two weeks since her parents’ lawnmower broke and their lawn was looking like it was trying to reach the sky to hang out with the clouds. Her dad insisted the lawnmower wasn’t fixable, and he refused to pay for a new one when they’d all be going on sale in a few more weeks. It didn’t matter that it looked like a mini rainforest was growing in his front yard.
Grabbing her bag, she headed into the house. “Hello?” Cami called out as she stepped into her childhood home, a place she visited at least once a week. She immediately smelled the delicious scent of Pouding Chomeur, a favorite of hers that was a specialty among the woman of her family. The recipe had been passed down from one generation to the next, with no written instructions, just a few sessions in the kitchen to be taught. Cami knew how to make it but never took the time to do it outside her mother’s kitchen.
“In here,” Mom called from the kitchen. Cami followed the aroma, her mouth watering as she mentally added another twenty minutes to her workout tomorrow.
Mom bent over the opened stove door, an oven mitt on one hand. Her blonde hair was cut short and styled in an off-centered part. She wore a pair of khaki capris and a baby blue t-shirt that said Willow Cove on the back.
“That smells amazing,” Cami said. “What’s the occasion?”
Mom straightened and came over to her, kissing her left cheek then her right. “Clemmy got a job!”
“That’s great.” Cami’s cousin Clementine—or as they lovingly called her, Clemmy—had been trying and failing to find a job since she’d gotten laid off at the start of summer from a boutique that had shuttered its doors after two years.
