Chapter 17

The next day she had to drag herself out of bed. She hadn’t slept terribly well between the push and pull and Naerin’s words that still stuck in her head. But she wasn’t going to let that keep her down, wasn’t about to let some weird man hold her back. Whatever his problem was didn’t have anything to do with her and had everything to do with the fact that the man shouldn’t drink. She’d just stay away from him as best she could, not engage and let him deal with his own shit.

So she headed over to the cafe and was surprised to see Jake already waiting for her. “Good morning,” she unlocked the front door and gestured the large man through. “What can I do for you? I’m making double chocolate muffins today.”

“That sounds great, but I need to ask you a favor.” He was shifting from foot to foot like he was nervous about something. “I’ve got a family dinner coming up and I was responsible for dessert. I can’t cook at all, and there’s family coming in from all over the country.”