Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
M ack held back a yawn the next afternoon as he wiped down the front counter of the coffee shop. The morning had been busy, and he’d kept at it all day, but thanks to the fact that he’d stayed in town until close to midnight so he could drive by Lorna’s house several times just in case her jerk of an ex-husband decided to make another appearance, and then gotten up extra early to get his chores done so he could be at the coffeeshop by seven, meant he hadn’t gotten much sleep.
It had been a fun day with Lorna though.
She’d gone through the basic menu with him when he arrived that morning and showed him how to run the register and mark the hot or cold cups with the customers’ names and the codes for their orders. She’d even talked him into wearing one of the shop’s pink polo shirts that had the Mountain Brew logo across the breast pocket.
Although he had enjoyed teasing her by pulling his T-shirt off in front of her and offering her a couple of bicep flexes as he took his time donning the new shirt.
He loved the sneaky little grin that played at the corners of her lips as she’d feigned disinterest, but he still caught her looking.
Growing up, he’d been a skinny kid who’d probably bordered on malnourished, thanks to his mom’s frequent absences, an empty pantry, and a growth spurt in seventh grade, but he’d gotten his first job on a ranch when he was seventeen and the abundance of healthy meals and the tasks and responsibilities of a cowboy had filled his body out and created strong muscles that he’d earned with every toss of a hay bale or swing of a hammer.
He saw himself as kind of average looking, and he knew the strength of his body, which gave him the ability to help out on the ranch and with the chores, but he still liked that a cheap flex made Lorna smile and caused her to get a bit flustered. Like the way she dropped the measuring cup when she tried to show him how to use the bean grinder.
Most of the coffee drinks started with at least one shot of espresso, so after he’d changed, she taught him how to use the espresso machine and the differences between lattes, cappuccinos, and iced coffee drinks.
He had eventually worked up to frothing milk and plating croissants and baked goods, but he was also happy to bus and wipe tables and restock napkins and stir sticks. It didn’t matter what he was doing, it just made him happy to be helping her.
And it was fun watching her work.
Besides how cute she looked in her navy apron, pink shirt, white sneakers, and snug ankle length jeans that hugged her generous hips, she had a great rapport with customers. He couldn’t get enough of hearing her laugh, and there was a practiced flow to her movements as she mixed and poured and created frothy drinks that she presented with care and love.
She knew almost everyone who came in and was adept at remembering the way they liked their coffee and their names, as well as those of their family members. And he loved how she snuck dog biscuits from the glass jar under the counter to the four-legged friends who accompanied some of them.
The whole culture of a coffee shop had changed over the last decade, and it was now somewhere to be, to hang out, to meet friends, to hold meetings, to go on dates. It was more about community, and there was something unique and special about handing someone a drink specifically made for them.
“I have to admit, I haven’t spent a lot of time in a coffee shop before today,” he told Lorna during one of their breaks. “But I like your place. It has a good feel about it.”
She grinned over at him. “Thank you. I try really hard to create that neighborhood ‘coffee with a friend’ vibe. And it means a lot to have a non-coffee shop guy get that.”
“I do. You’ve created a space where people are comfortable working or just hanging out, and it’s been fun people-watching and eavesdropping on conversations all day. There was that one couple, with the girl in the green dress, who I couldn’t figure out if they were on a first date or a job interview.”
She laughed. “I was wondering about them, too.”
“It’s been fun working with you, as well.” Fun, and a little frustrating.
Working in such tight quarters and smelling her hair and her perfume as she rushed past him, had him constantly trying to find ways to be close to her. The space behind the counter wasn’t very wide, so it seemed like they were constantly bumping into each other or brushing against the other one.
It was amazing.
And maddening.
He nudged her with his hip. “You’re pretty impressive.”
“Thanks. So are you. I’m surprised at how quickly you picked things up today. You’ve been a huge help. Especially this morning when Max was still here. You’re really good with him. And it helped that I didn’t have to close the shop to run him the few blocks to school.”
“He’s a good kid. And funny. He makes me laugh. And finding odd little jobs for him to do was much easier than trying to stall that customer who came in while you were gone. Because I had zero idea of how to make the grande half-caf skim-milk five-tears-of-a-dragon drink he ordered.”
Lorna laughed. “Yeah, that five-tears-of-a-dragon latte is one of our more complicated ones.”
“I don’t know how you keep them all straight. Or how your employees do. Plus, all the other things you do here.”
“Mainly because I have an OCD rocket scientist for a sister who filled in here when I had Izzy, and she created plans and lists and a book of procedures for everything from opening to closing to recipes for all the drink options.” She pulled a laminated deck of colorful cards on a binder ring from under the counter. “I was going to wait to show you this until tomorrow, but these cards explain how to make all the drinks we offer, complete with illustrations and detailed instructions.”
“What?” He flipped through the cards. “These are amazing.”
“I know. Leni made them. They’ve helped my employees so much.”
“I kind of want to take these home and study them, so I’ll be a bigger help tomorrow.”
She took the cards from him and stuck them back under the counter. “No homework. You don’t have to learn everything all at once. And you’ve already helped so much.”
He pressed his lips together to keep from arguing and shoved his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t be tempted to pull the cards back out and study them. He had pitched in as a warm body today, but if he knew the recipes, then he could be an even bigger help the next day.
He liked helping people, especially gorgeous curvy single mom’s whose scent drove him to distraction.
But Mack had also found, in his life, that people seemed to like having him around more when he was helping them. No one wanted a stray kid around who just got in the way, but most everyone appreciated him if he was pitching in or making their life easier.
It was almost two, and Lorna had told him she liked to close then so she had time to clean up before getting Max from school at two-thirty.
Most of the customers had left for the day, and Mack was collecting trash and wiping down the tables in the lobby. One woman was reading a book as she finished a slice of coffee cake, and there was one guy who’d had his laptop open and his golden retriever sleeping on his feet under the table while he’d been working for the last three hours. He’d ordered food and two coffees though and must have been a regular the way he joked around with Lorna and ordered his ‘usual’.
The table in the corner held an older woman, who’d introduced herself to Mack earlier as Judy Fitzgerald, and her eight-year-old grandson, Dylan. They ordered hot chocolates with extra whipped cream and split a large slice of vanilla cake with white frosting and had been chatting and laughing while playing cards for the last hour.
Mack paused to check in on them as he passed their table. “You all doin’ okay? Can I get you anything else?”
“I think we’re good,” Judy told him. She looked to be in her mid-sixties, with a curly bob of blond and gray hair, but seemed young at heart in a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a pink sweatshirt that read ‘ In my Grandma Era ’ on the front. “Except I’ve just lost six straight games to this guy. It’s a good thing we’re only wagering gummy worms.”
The boy shrugged at Mack. He had a slight build, light blond hair, and wore small wire-rimmed glasses and a Spiderman T-shirt. “I can’t help it if I’m good at Blackjack.”
He laughed, assuming earlier that they’d been playing some kind of kid’s card game instead of the Las Vegas staple.
“I’m glad to have finally met you today,” Judy said. “I’ve known Duke for years, and he speaks highly of you. I know he’s excited you’ve moved out to the ranch with him.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I’m excited too. I really love it out there.”
Dylan was staring up at him. “Are you a real cowboy?”
“Yup. Got my own horse and everything.”
“I think I might want to be a cowboy when I grow up,” the boy told him. “Either that, or an astronaut.”
“Well, either one of those would be a fine profession. Although I believe one takes a considerable amount more training than the other and probably pays a lot more. But if you’re interested in rockets, you should talk to Lorna’s sister, Leni. She builds them for a living.”
“Rockets are cool,” Dylan agreed. “But so are horses.”
“Dylan’s been wanting to take horseback riding lessons,” Judy explained. “But we haven’t found a place yet that offers them.”
“If you want to ride a horse, you’re welcome to come out to the ranch anytime and ride one of ours,” Mack said. “We’ve got an older mare who’s a real sweet pony and would be perfect for a kid to learn on.”
Dylan’s eyes lit up. “Can we, Grandma?”
Judy frowned. “I’m not sure. How much would you charge for lessons?”
Mack waved away her comment. “I wouldn’t charge anything. Heck, I can remember being a kid and wanting to learn to ride a horse. It would be fun. Come out anytime.”
“Thank you,” Judy said. “That’s a kind offer.”
“I mean it.” He started to move to wipe down the next table, then turned back to them. “You know what? I hate those open-ended offers where the other person is never quite sure how to really take someone up on them. So, let’s just set a time now. How about some afternoon this week? The shop is closed on Wednesday, so I should be at the ranch most of the day.”
Dylan bounced up and down in his seat. “Can we? Please? Please?”
Judy frowned. “I work on Wednesday. I could try to take a long lunch hour, but you’ve got school.”
“It’s the second to last day, and we’ve got a sub this week,” Dylan said. “And she already said we’re going to be watching a movie every day after lunch, so I wouldn’t miss anything if you took me out early for just one afternoon.”
“We can do it sometime next week,” Mack offered. “I’ll be around.”
Judy studied her grandson then let out an exaggerated sigh. “Far be it from me, and a substitute teacher who thinks watching movies is teaching, to stand in the way of a dream to be a cowboy. I’ll take a late lunch and excuse you from school for the last hour and a half. Just this once.”
“Yay!” Dylan popped out of his seat to give his grandmother a hug. “Thank you, Grandma.”
She looked at Mack and shrugged. “I’m a sucker for a grandson hug. Around one-thirty then?” She pulled a business card from her purse and passed it to Mack. “My cell phone is on there. You can call or text me if it’s not going to work out.”
“That sounds great,” Mack told her. “I can’t imagine it wouldn’t, but I can give you my number as well.” He took the pen and notepad that she and Dylan had been keeping score on and jotted down his cell number. “See you Wednesday.”
“I caught the tail end of that conversation,” Lorna said when he walked back to the front counter where she was restocking cups. “That was a pretty nice thing you offered.”
He shrugged off her compliment, even though it secretly pleased him. “They seem nice. And I think it’s cool the kid spends time with his grandmother.”
Lorna lowered her voice to a whisper. “They spend all their time together. Dylan’s mom has a lot of problems, and Judy’s had custody of him since he was born.”
“That’s impressive.”
“She’s a neat lady. She’s been with the Clerk and Recorders office at the courthouse for close to thirty years, she volunteers at the library, and she’s coached Dylan’s soccer team for the last two seasons.”
“Wow. Now I’m even more impressed. I always wanted a grandma, but I missed out on ever knowing any of my grandparents. Until Duke.”
“I think he’s planning to make that up to you.”
The bell above the door jangled, and the smile fell from Lorna’s face as she looked toward the front of the store.
“Shit,” she whispered. “What is he doing here?”
Mack turned to see Lyle strolling toward them, a calculating grin on his face as he eyed the interior of the shop. “Damn. This is a pretty nice place you’ve got here, Lorna,” he said, slapping a hand on the counter.
Mack hated the way Lorna flinched at the sound of the slap, and he wondered if Lyle had used that same motion on her. The thought of him laying a hand on Lorna, or God forbid, Max, had the blood boiling under Mack’s skin.
He casually dropped his arm around Lorna’s shoulder, both to offer her support and to show Lyle his presence wasn’t affecting him. “Sorry, pal. We just cleaned the espresso machine, and we’re closing up for the day. But they serve coffee and pie at the diner down the street.”
“I’m not as interested in a cup of coffee as I am in this coffee shop . This building’s gotta be worth quite a chunk of change.” He narrowed his eyes at Lorna. “You win the lottery after you divorced me?” His eyes cut to Mack. “Or did you buy this place for her?”
“She did every bit of this on her own,” he said. “And this place belongs solely to her.”
“We’ll see about that,” Lyle said, and Mack wanted to smack the derisive smirk off his face. He turned away, but called over his shoulder, “We’re gonna have that talk soon, Lorna. Sometime when your boyfriend isn’t around.”
Like hell you are .