The pumpkin spice cafe

Chapter Twenty

Jeanie was sitting on his bed. And it was scrambling whatever brain cells he had into a very ineffectual brain cell soup.

Seeing her on his front steps had nearly had the same effect. The way the late-day sun cut across her face, casting her in a golden glow. But it was her expression that had stopped him in his tracks, the wide smile, the spark in her eyes. She’d looked absurd, with his chickens using her as a perch, but she’d laughed through the whole thing, murmuring silly words to them, taking it all in stride.

And now here she was in his room, on his bed, smelling like sunshine and dark roast, and he didn’t want to talk. He wanted to step into the cage of her legs and press her into his mattress. He wanted her breathy sighs against his neck. He wanted her moaning his name.

‘Logan?’

Shit.

‘Uh ... yeah. Sorry. What was that last part?’

Her cheeks were flushed, her lips a delicious apple-red. She looked like she knew exactly what he had been thinking about and like she was thinking about it, too.

She shook her head. Wisps of hair trailed down from her bun. ‘I think the calls are coming from inside the house.’

Logan blinked. ‘What are you talking about, Jeanie?’

‘It’s a horror-movie reference. Never mind.’ She had slipped off her shoes and tucked her legs under her like she sat on his bed every day. Like this was how they always talked after a long day.

‘I think whoever is trying to get rid of me actually works at the café.’

‘Wait, really?’

She nodded, gearing up to explain her theory to him and Logan had to bite down on a smile. He was taking this seriously, but she was so damn cute when she got excited about something. Which was often. He loved that about her.

He liked that about her.

LIKED.

‘So, there’s been more strange stuff happening. The refrigerator was unplugged the other day. We almost lost all the milk! And then there was a whole morning when the cappuccino machine kept breaking, like over and over again even after we fixed it.’

‘Okay. Definitely strange.’

Jeanie nodded, picking up steam. ‘I know, right?! I even thought someone had stolen some of the artwork from the walls, until I found it stashed in a supply closet. It’s so strange. Who could have done it but someone who has access to the café during off hours?’

A prickle of unease settled in Logan’s gut. Even if Jeanie wasn’t in real danger, the fact that someone was screwing with her was unacceptable.

‘So, who do you think it is?’ he asked.

Jeanie gave him a small smile, a reward for taking her seriously.

‘Well, there’s only three people that have a key besides me: Norman, Crystal, and Joe.’

‘Three suspects.’

Jeanie smiled bigger. ‘Yes, exactly. So, Norman.’

Norman. Logan thought about the older man. He’d worked at the café for years alongside Dot. ‘Why would Norman want to mess with the café? He loves that place.’

‘That was my thought,’ Jeanie said. ‘He ran it with Dot forever. Why would he want to ruin what they’d built, right?’

Logan nodded.

‘Okay, so Crystal.’ Jeanie shifted, tucking a wisp of hair behind her ear. ‘I think she has a crush on you.’

Logan choked on his water. ‘What? She doesn’t.’

‘She practically gets hearts in her eyes when you come in!’

‘Absolutely not.’

There was no way Crystal had a thing for him. Crystal who was the prom queen of their high school, and a low-key local celebrity for her stint in a series of mattress commercials. No way. Last he heard Crystal was dating a semi-professional football player, although she refused to say which one. She definitely wasn’t interested. ‘Why would that matter, anyway?’ he asked.

‘Maybe she knows about us and she’s mad and now she’s out for revenge.’ Jeanie’s words ran together like she was almost too embarrassed to say them but needed to get them out.

‘No one knows about us.’ Even as he said it, he was thinking about the two of them the other night in his truck on the damn road. Anyone could have walked by and seen them. Yep. It was possible someone knew, but he still didn’t think Crystal would care. ‘I don’t think that’s it. What about Joe?’

Joe was young, barely nineteen with a lip ring and several neck tattoos. In a line-up, Joe looked like the criminal. But Logan knew Joe. Knew that he drove his own grandmother to aerobics class and had even given Nana a lift several times. It was hard to accuse a kid who took good care of the elderly.

Jeanie shrugged but she looked relieved to move on from her Crystal theory. ‘Joe’s a sweet kid. I don’t know why he would do any of this. Plus, he really needs the job. It doesn’t make sense.’

Logan blew out a breath, happy that Jeanie saw Joe the way he did.

‘What do you think?’ she asked, a furrow of worry between her brows.

‘It is strange, but maybe this stuff happened by accident? Did someone kick the cord out of the refrigerator walking by? Maybe the cappuccino machine really is that temperamental?’

Jeanie twisted her lips to the side. ‘Yeah ... maybe. It just feels off.’ She shrugged.

The last time he’d brushed off Jeanie’s concerns, she’d gotten her window broken in the middle of the night. He couldn’t do that again.

‘Maybe it’s time for another stake-out.’

He caught the glimmer of excitement in Jeanie’s eyes. ‘You think?’

‘Anytime you want me there, okay?’

‘Thanks.’ She stood up and his brain worked frantically to come up with a reason for her to stay. Stay today, stay forever.

The apartment was small. It took him three strides to be in front of her without a plan except to grab her by the hips and tug her toward him.

‘If someone is screwing with you, we’ll figure it out. Okay?’

She tipped her face up to his. ‘Okay.’

He wanted to say more, wanted to ask her if she was happy here, if she liked ru

She bit down on her bottom lip and held his gaze with her deep brown eyes.

Who the hell was he kidding? He’d fallen for her the first time he’d spotted those hedgehog pajamas.

And she was here now. He’d be a fool to waste it.

Logan’s fingers dug into Jeanie’s hips, a delicious pressure. Her hands rested on his chest, and she ran them over his shoulders and back again, just savoring the breadth of him, the solidness.

She realized this was why she’d come.

Not just to feel him up, although that was definitely part of it.

No, it was because in the short time she’d been here, Logan had become a grounding presence for her. Even when things felt like a mess at the café, or she wasn’t sure she belonged here, or she wasn’t sure how to be the Jeanie she was aiming for, being around Logan just made her feel ... right. Like she could figure all the rest out, but she wanted him around to talk to at the end of the day. To bounce ideas off. To tell her it was going to be okay.

He was comforting; safe.

But also sexy as hell. He reminded her by pulling her closer and dropping his mouth to the soft skin behind her ear. His lips trailed kisses along her jawline until he found her mouth.

‘This mouth.’ His voice was a low rumble. His hands skated up her sides, brushing over the curve of her hips, the dip of her waist, the side of her breasts. ‘This body,’ he groaned.