The pizza I was currently chewing became tough and hard to swallow. I felt cold all of a sudden, and a familiar tremble started in my hands. I was never very good at fielding personal questions. I wasn’t exactly what you’d call an open book. Taking my time, keeping my expression neutral, I finally managed to swallow my food. I hid my hands under the table so she couldn’t see them tremble. “I don’t have any family left. Not blood, anyway. My best friend, Matthew, is my family. He lives in Iowa, where we grew up.”

Bailey’s eyes were bright with sympathy. “I’m sorry, Jess. You don’t have to talk about them.”

“Thanks. It was hard losing them, but Matthew has always been there for me and because of him I have Perry, my goddaughter, and she’s just an adorable devilish angel.”

She grinned at my description. “Do you get to see her a lot?”

“Not as much as I’d like.” Partly my fault because of my work schedule and also because I didn’t like going back to Iowa. “But we FaceTime a lot.”

“And what about back in Wilmington? What about this guy?”

As we moved onto this safer topic, I felt the cold begin to leave me and my trembling eased. “Andrew. He’s a cardiothoracic surgeon. We met at the hospital while I was a resident. The hours were so insane—even worse than my hours now—it was impossible to have any kind of relationship with someone who wasn’t a doctor. And honestly I didn’t want a relationship. I still don’t. I like my autonomy and Andrew gets that. He gets all of it. We’re friends with benefits.” I thought about that term and snorted. “Except we’re not really friends, either.”

Bailey surveyed me. “And how long have you two been benefiting each other?”

I chuckled at the way she phrased the question. “We started a few years back and then he met someone so we stopped for the length of their relationship. That was about a year. He decided he didn’t want a serious relationship after all and so we started up our thing again.”

“And close friends in Wilmington?”

Until I arrived in Hartwell I hadn’t realized how much I lacked a social life back in Wilmington. I had no time for the realization to dawn on me. “You know, it occurs to me that I don’t have a whole lot going on in my social calendar. I have colleagues that I like, but we don’t go out or spend our free time together. I work long hours.”

This garnered me a worried look.

“It’s fine,” I said, but her expression didn’t change. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m just glad you came here.”

“Why?”

She shrugged and gave me this secretive, mischievous smile. “I just am.”

NINE

Cooper

It was a fact that the coffee at Emery’s was better than the coffee Cooper had at the bar. On days he wanted that coffee bad enough he would hit Emery’s place first, before work, and he did this knowing he’d have to endure the painful shyness of the owner.

That day was no different from any other. As soon as he stepped into the bookstore-coffeehouse, Emery blushed from the base of her neck to her hairline at the sight of him and lowered her eyes.

It would have been cute if her discomfort didn’t make him so uncomfortable.

“Morning, Emery,” he said, approaching the counter. “I’ll have the usual.”

She nodded, her gaze aimed somewhere over his shoulder. In the entire time he’d known Emery Saunders he thought maybe she’d made eye contact with him once. Cooper would never understand it. She was a few years younger than him, probably about thirty or so, beautiful, and she’d managed to open her own business at a really young age. All of that should have given her plenty of confidence, maybe even a hint of arrogance, but as far as Cooper could see, Emery had none of that.

The first time he came into her coffeehouse, years back, he thought maybe she was attracted to him because of the way she blushed when he talked to her, but over time he came to realize she was shy with most folks, especially men. She blushed that pretty color of pink when Jack spoke to her, too.

He frowned. No need to think of that son of a bitch. But it was a hard habit to break, considering the man had been his best friend for the bigger part of his life.

“Anything else?” Emery said quietly, still not meeting his eyes.

“No, angel, that’s it.” He paid up, getting out of her place fast like always. It might make him a dick, but that woman was hard to be at ease around. He felt like his presence tortured her, considering the way she whispered or stammered around him. He felt he was being nicer getting the hell out of her way as quickly as possible so she could go back to breathing normally.

Cooper stepped outside her store and sipped at his coffee.

Pure heaven in a cup.

Made the awkwardness from the owner worth it.

Coffee in hand, he started walking toward his bar. His footsteps almost faltered, however, when he recognized the figure waiting under the bar awning.

Think of the devil and he shall appear.

Fucking Jack.

He felt a familiar cold hardness settle inside him and coil around his muscles, like it always did these days whenever he encountered his ex-friend around town.

“Here on business.” Jack held up his hands defensively.

Cooper’s anger toward Jack was so controlled he managed to keep his face blank. He stopped mere inches from him, sending a message by getting in his personal space. That message was, You don’t bother me, asshole; you’re not even on my radar. He sipped casually at his coffee as Jack stared back at him just as impassively. Ignoring the ugly regret in his gut, Cooper finally said, “And Ian thought it was a good idea to send you?”