Chapter 3
Ace
The shop door closed behind me with a soft click.
I stood there on the sidewalk for a second, grinning like an idiot.
Because Tessa Bloom might keep saying no—
but she was starting to look at me differently.
And that was dangerous for both of us.
The mountain air carried the scent of pine and rain as I headed back toward The Last Stand Tavern. Trucks lined Main Street. Somebody farther down was unloading produce outside the grocery store while old man Jenkins argued with his wife over a parking spot loud enough for half the town to hear.
Normal morning in Eagle River.
I stepped onto the tavern porch just as Wolf shoved open the front door.
His eyes narrowed immediately. “Why do you look happy?”
“I always look happy.”
“You look suspiciously happy.”
I smirked and brushed past him into the tavern.
The familiar scent of coffee, wood smoke, and bacon hit me instantly. Trigger sat at one of the tables cleaning a rifle while Havoc flipped through paperwork at the bar.
Both of them looked up the second I walked in.
“Oh no,” Trigger muttered. “That’s the face.”
Havoc snorted. “Flower girl again?”
“She has a name.”
That earned me three identical looks.
I grabbed the coffee pot off the counter and poured myself a cup. “What?”
“You’re smiling at your coffee,” Wolf pointed out.
I glanced down.
Hell.
I was.
I wiped the expression off my face immediately. “Mind your business.”
Trigger leaned back in his chair, grinning now. “Ace has it bad.”
“I don’t have anything.”
“You stood outside her shop for forty-five minutes yesterday,” Havoc said.
“That was surveillance.”
Wolf barked out a laugh.
I pointed at him with my coffee mug. “You of all people should understand this.”
“Yeah,” he said easily. “And I also recognize the exact moment a man becomes hopeless.”
The tavern erupted with laughter.
I flipped them all off and took another drink of coffee.
But the truth settled low in my chest anyway.
Because every one of them was right.
Tessa Bloom had somehow slipped under my skin before I even realized it was happening.
And judging by the way she looked at me this morning—
I was getting dangerously close to slipping under hers too.