Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
His grin caused her heart to skip a beat.
Abby gave herself a mental shake. She wasn’t falling for Brad. Not a chance. She blamed her reaction on his dimples. She’d always had a thing for dimples.
Still, she couldn’t let him get to her for a multitude of reasons. She got out of the car, hoping the crisp winter air would help clear her mind.
Brad joined her on the sidewalk. She waited for him to pepper her with more questions about what they were doing at the now-closed coffeeshop, but he remained quiet as she unlocked the door.
Once inside, she flipped on one strip of pendant lights over the counter. She slipped off her coat and tossed it aside.
He stepped up beside her. “Are you going to tell me what we’re doing here, or are you just going to keep me guessing?”
She sighed. “If you must know, the espresso machine stopped working.”
“And you’re going to fix it?” There was a hint of disbelief in his voice.
She turned to him and planted her hands on her hips. “Why? Don’t you think I can do it?”
He froze as though he were weighing his options before responding. Then he held up his hands. “I just meant it’s getting late. I wouldn’t think you’d want to start a project like that at this hour.”
She wasn’t sure she believed him, but she decided to let it go.
She didn’t have time to set him straight and tell him that when things broke at the coffeeshop, she was the one to fix it because her budget was tight.
And now that her lease had gone up, she had to watch where every dollar went.
These days it felt like every time she turned around, prices were going up.
And she hated raising the prices on her customers because she knew they were feeling the pinch just as much as she was.
So, she was eating the losses and holding out as long as she could before inching her prices upward
Abby pressed the Power button on the espresso machine. The lights flickered on. But when she went to put the machine through its paces, there were no sounds—no signs of life.
She turned off the machine. She unplugged it and then plugged it back in, hoping it would reset something. She really couldn’t afford to replace the machine, even if it was well past its prime. She’d just finished putting in a new water heater.
“Do you have a toolbox?” Brad stepped up next to her.
“A toolbox?” She turned to him. “You know how to fix it?”
“No. But I have some experience working on appliances.”
Her brows drew together as she stared at him. “I thought you worked on computer programs. When did you get experience fixing machines?”
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “When I was a teenager and started to get in trouble with my mother, she got me a job at the corner store. The old man there took me under his wing. He showed me how to fix the equipment when it broke down.”
“You had a corner store in Chicago?”
He shook his head as he lowered his gaze. “No. I grew up in a small town south of Chicago.”
Her eyes widened. All this time she’d thought he was born and bred in the city. He certainly acted that way.
He frowned at her. “Don’t look at me like I just told you I came from Mars.”
“But you let me think you were from Chicago—from the big city.”
“I never said I was born or raised there.”
“But any time we talked about Bayberry and it being a small town, you made it seem like you weren’t familiar with a small town way of life.”
“I’m sorry if it seemed that way to you. I was just curious about life here in Bayberry.” He held out his hand. “The toolbox, please.”
She hesitated for a moment, still trying to figure him out. It wasn’t like anything she was doing was making any sort of difference. Her heart sank at the thought of facing the morning rush with no espresso machine.
She looked at Brad while he was busy checking something on his phone. Was it Linda again? She might not be his girlfriend, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to be. Maybe she was pleading with him to rush back to Chicago.
As soon as Abby realized the direction of her errant thoughts, she gave herself a mental shake. Why in the world should she care if there was someone waiting for him?
He was nothing to her. In fact, he was more of an annoyance than anything else. It would be a good thing when he left Bayberry.
As though he could read her thoughts he glanced up and looked at her with a what-are-you-still-doing-here kind of look. It appeared he wasn’t going to leave until she found him some tools. And so, she walked away.
She entered the kitchen area and kept going until she reached the little office in the back.
It was in there she had a small toolbox with limited tools.
She kept those things on hand to tighten a screw here or unjam a clogged line there.
There certainly weren’t any specialty tools to fix something like the espresso machine.
But still, it was nothing more than an oversized paper weight at the moment. And there was absolutely no way to get a new one before her morning customers arrived for their fix of caffeine—that all presumed she had the money for a new machine. She didn’t.
She returned with the toolbox and handed it over. “That’s everything I have.”
When Brad went to take it from her, their hands brushed. The brief touch sparked a shiver in her that raced up her arm and set her heart racing. She yanked her hand away. Luckily, he had a firm grip on the toolbox.
His gaze searched hers, as though inquiring as to whether she was okay or not. She wasn’t sure about the answer, so she turned away. She busied herself by checking to see if the closing procedure had gone smoothly in her absence.
Brad didn’t say anything as he got to work.
She wanted to turn around and watch him, but she wouldn’t allow herself that pleasure.
After determining that Mia had done a fine job closing up, Abby busied herself by restocking under the counter.
She started with the mini-marshmallows. It was quite unbelievable how many of those they went through at this time of the year.
And this year, she’d ordered marshmallow snowmen.
After all, the snow folk weren’t just for Christmas.
This year, she was doing an experiment. She was carrying some of her holiday specials over into the winter months such as peppermint bark tea and the gingerbread latte.
So far, her experiment was going well. Seemed her customers liked having something special to drink on a cold snowy morning. She’d keep that in mind for next year.
“Can you give me a hand?”
Brad’s voice made her jump. For a moment there, she’d been all wrapped up in her thoughts and forgot that he was still there. She wouldn’t have thought that was possible.
She walked to the other end of the counter where he was working. It looked like he’d made progress as he had the back panel on the counter along with a little pile of screws. And there were some other parts lying there that she couldn’t name.
As she came to a stop next to him, she said, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
He was still leaning over the machine. “Even if I didn’t, do you think anything you could do would make this machine work?”
He did have a good point. “How do you know what you’re doing?”
“I looked up this machine on my phone. Do you know how old this thing is?”
“Considering I got it used when I opened the Steaming Brew, I’d say it is upwards of seven years old.”
“Try twelve years old. And with you using it every day, I’m shocked it lasted that long.”
So was she. “But the question is, can it work until I can get a new one?”
“I don’t know. When will the new one be delivered?”
“Next year.”
He let out a laugh. “Sorry. But there’s no chance it’s going to last that long.” After he put it back together except for the back panel, he plugged it in. “Let’s find out if anything I did helped.”
Behind her back, she crossed her fingers. She didn’t want him to see how desperate she was for the machine to work.
He turned to her. “Go ahead and turn it on.”
As he stood next to her, she pressed the button. The little red light came on that indicated it had power. She placed a cup beneath the dispenser and then pressed a button. Her breath hitched in the back of her throat as she waited for something—anything—to happen.
There was the briefest whirling sound before it changed to a grinding sound. It sure didn’t sound good. It certainly wasn’t the way the machine normally sounded.
“Turn it off and unplug it again.” He moved so he could see the back of the machine.
She sighed and went back to making sure everything was restocked for the next day. Because she wasn’t good at just standing around when she was worried. That usually ended up in her chattering about nonsense, and that was the last thing she wanted to do with Brad.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when Brad said, “I think I know what happened. Let’s try it again.”
She was certain he was wasting his time. Her luck had run out.
When she looked at him to tell him not to worry about it, he had an expectant look on his face. So, she plugged in the machine once more and went through the same process as before. This time the whirling sound was followed by a hum. It still wasn’t the right sound.
She turned off the machine before turning to him. “Thank you for trying. I appreciate it.” The weight of disappointment settled over her. “But the machine has brewed its last espresso.”
He had his head lowered as he stared at his phone. She wasn’t even sure he’d heard her.
Then he lifted his head. “Unplug it again.”
She shook her head. Enough was enough. “It’s getting late. I appreciate you trying to fix it, but it’s time to give up.”
“Just unplug it.” When she didn’t move, he said, “Come on, Abby. Just give me one more try.”
With a resigned sigh, she did as he asked.
When whatever he tried failed just like the other attempts, she was putting her foot down.
Tomorrow was a big day between their fake relationship, running the coffeeshop, and making sure the surprise engagement party went off without a hitch.
She needed all the sleep she could get that night.
While Brad was fiddling around with the back of the machine, her phone chimed. She pulled it from her pocket to find it was a message from Sadie.
Sadie: Thank you for tonight. I don’t think Reed suspects anything about the party.
Abby: You’re welcome. But you owe me.
Sadie: Is pretending to be Brad’s girlfriend such a hardship?
Abby: Yes!
Sadie: Then why are you still with him?
Abby: What? How do you know?
Sadie: *laughing emoji* Because we drove past the coffeeshop a little while ago. I think you like him more than you’ll admit.
Was Sadie right? Nope. Not at all.
“Abby, let’s try again.” Brad’s voice drew her from her thoughts.
Abby: You’re wrong! Gotta go.
Slipping the phone into her back pocket, she walked over to the counter. Just then Brad moved, and they bumped into each other.
She lost her balance, and he reached out to her. He drew her to him with more force than she was expecting. They ended up chest to chest. She craned her neck to look into his eyes. But she wasn’t expecting him to look at her like she was a sugary-sweet marshmallow that he couldn’t wait to savor.
His gaze dipped to her lips. He was going to kiss her. She should do something—should move out of his embrace—but her legs and feet were unwilling to cooperate.
And then, as if it were happening in slow motion, his head lowered toward her. His eyes closed. Her heart stuttered to a stop as it launched itself into her throat, cutting off her breath.
This was really going to happen. Oh my!
She couldn’t think clearly. Every cell in her body anticipated his touch. And then his lips touched hers. His kiss was tentative, as though he was unsure if she would be receptive.
Her heart resumed beating. In fact, it pounded against her ribs. The sound echoed in her ears. Perhaps that was what caused common sense to flee her.
Needing to show him that she very much wanted his kiss, her arms slid up over his shoulders. Her hands wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer—
Knock-knock-knock.
They sprang apart like leftover New Year’s fireworks had gone off between them. She drew in a much-needed breath as she pressed a hand to her pounding chest. Thankfully they were standing out of sight of the door.
As the knocking sounded again, she ran her fingers over her tingling lips, as though to assure herself that no one would know she had just been kissing Brad. She didn’t want to imagine the gossip it would stir up.
She walked over and could see through the glass that it was Mia. Abby unlocked the door and pushed it open. “What are you doing back here?”
“I was driving by on my way home and saw the lights on. I got worried that something was wrong.”
Abby shook her head. “We were just trying to get the espresso machine to work.”
“We?” Mia moved past her and gazed at Brad. She sent Abby a knowing smile. “Oh. I see.”
Abby inwardly groaned at her choice of wording. “Uh… Yes, Brad is having a look at it.”
“Abby,” Brad’s voice called out. “Come see this.”
Both Abby and Mia followed his voice over to the espresso machine. While Brad smiled proudly, they watched it produce a steaming hot cup of espresso.
“You did it.” Abby couldn’t help but grin. He had no idea what a relief this was for her. “Thank you.”
“This is great,” Mia said. Then she turned to Brad. “Any chance you need a job? We have plenty around here that you could work on.” Then realizing what she’d said, Mia got a sheepish look on her face. She looked at Abby. “Sorry.”
Abby wanted to be insulted by Mia’s words, but she couldn’t be. It was the truth. She’d gotten all of her equipment second-hand, and it was past time to replace most of it.
“By the way, I’m Mia.” She stuck her hand out to Brad.
When he introduced himself, Abby realized she should have made the introductions, but that kiss—oh my! That kiss had steamed up her thoughts and then scattered them. How did she let things go that far?
“I should be going,” Mia said. She sent Brad a warm smile. “It was nice to meet you.”
“It was nice to meet you too.”
On her way to the door, Mia paused to lean over and whisper, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Before Abby could formulate an appropriate response, Mia was out the door. And now it was time for her and Brad to follow suit. Because she wasn’t going to give Brad a second chance to kiss her. Once was…not enough. But she wasn’t going there again.