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“Mine too,” Hannah says, with another enigmatic sip of her milkshake and slip of her glasses.
She snatches her glasses off her face and tucks them into the front of her cute knit dress.
Riley smiles before flouncing off to grab another customer’s order.
I’m desperate to change the subject. It’s been a month of Jesse. A month of us together at night, of his hands on my body, of screaming his name, and things are starting to get too real.
“How are you doing, Han?” I ask.
“I’m fine. I blocked his number, so that’s good. Besides, I’m so done worrying about men. I have bigger plans.”
“Such as?”
“I want to redo one side of the library,” she says. “Like renovate, but I have to get the funding for it, so I want to throw a fundraiser sometime soon.” Hannah taps her chin with a burgundy fingernail. “And then there’s the ‘too cool for school’ initiative to think of as well.”
“What’s that?”
I pour Todd a refill on his coffee.
Hannah swivels her stool sideways as I round the counter to join her.
“So, it’s basically an initiative I came up with that will hopefully encourage more kids in Heatstroke High to get into reading books. There’s so much great young adult literature available, and I feel like most of their time is spent lusting after classmates or?—”
The bell tinkles over the diner door, and Hannah stiffens, her blue eyes widening.
Carter Savage stands just inside the diner, remarkably out of place. He’s larger than life with gray hairs in his beard, tattoos on his neck, and dark eyes that give nothing away. The man is built like a tank, and while I don’t personally find him attractive, I’d be a dumbass not to notice how appealing he is. His t-shirt clings to his body, the logo for his self-defense course “Savage Self-Defense” stretched across defined pecs.
Hannah gulps.
“Han?” I prompt. “I think you were saying something about high schoolers being too lust-filled?”
“Huh?”
Her cheeks go red.
“Morning, Savage,” I call out.
He gives me a dip of his head and a brief glimpse of a smile. Savage keeps to himself, but he’s not a grumpy asshole. I’ve always seen him as the damaged, secretive type. He comes over, and Hannah blinks up at him, slack-jawed, before shaking her head. The rings on her fingers click against the ceramic as she wraps her palm around her mug and peers into its contents.
“What can I get for you?” I ask.
“Two coffees to go.”
“Sure thing.” My regulars seldom have to give me detailed orders. Savage likes his coffee black and strong. “Both the same?”
“Yeah.”
I head over to the coffee machine, amused at the awkward silence I leave behind.
“Who’s the coffee for?” I ask, as I whip out two paper cups. “You got a hot date?”
Han’s fixated on her mug, the tips of her ears pink.
“At this time of the morning?” Savage asks.
“Stranger things have happened,” I say.
“Nah. I had a long night. Got to set up a training course for the self-defense camp I’m running in a couple of weeks,” he says. “Going to be burning the midnight oil tonight too.”
