Evers & Afters (Dare With Me #2) - J.H. Croix Page 0,58

mean work and lots of it, but I could use the distraction.

After my shower, I made some coffee thinking that would help even more with my hangover, although first I made myself drink a full glass of water. Once I was dressed, I texted the lady at the bank and let her know we could close by this weekend if they wanted. That gave me three days. I could totally use being so busy I didn’t have time to think.

I raced into the coffee truck, planning to handle the morning rush and then head over to Misty Mountain Café for a quick planning session with the employees who were about to become my staff inside of three days.

“Morning,” Amy said when she banged open the door to the truck a few minutes after I’d arrived.

My head felt as if a hammer had struck it, but I took a breath and another swallow of coffee. My headache was gradually starting to fade.

“Morning,” I said in return. “Here’s your five dollars.” I turned back and handed over the change to the woman in line.

Amy had her apron on in no time and took over with customers while I made coffees. The less talking for me, the better.

During a very brief lull, Amy asked in a low voice, “Cammi, are you okay?”

I cast her a glare. “I don’t look that bad.”

She held both hands up in apology. “You don’t look that bad, but you look, I don’t know… Not good?”

I reached to the small cabinet above where we were working where I had a mini first aid kit. I fished out some more ibuprofen. “My head’s killing me, but it’s getting better.”

More customers arrived, and we carried on. I was beyond grateful Amy was such a good employee. She picked up my slack easily.

Then, the dreaded moment happened. “Hey, Cammi.”

Of course, Elias just had to come by this morning. This shouldn’t have surprised me, and it didn’t really. I supposed I’d kind of been hoping he wouldn’t stop by for coffee for once.

I tried something resembling a smile when I lifted my head and kept my eyes carefully level. “Hi,” I said, relieved I had coffees to make to keep my hands busy.

“Elias’s usual,” Amy said.

My heart twisted in my chest and emotion knotted in my throat. I suddenly hated that I knew exactly what Elias’s usual was. I knew how to make it so he loved it and came here every day. Even before we had crazy, hot sex.

I worked in silence, but his presence was nearly impossible to ignore. I felt like a tuning fork, tuned solely to the frequency of him. That subtle vibration and awareness hummed through my body.

When I had his coffee ready, I snapped the lid on and passed it over the counter, lifting my head just briefly to catch his gaze waiting. My heart twisted again, and I smiled even though my face felt like it might crack. “There you go.”

“Do you have a few minutes?” he asked.

“Not really.”

At least I wasn’t lying about that. Amy was already calling over the next order. Elias looked at me for a long moment. “Don’t worry about what happened last night. It was nothing that has anything to do with you. I promise.”

I did that weird smiling thing again, my face feeling stiff. “It’s okay. You don’t owe me any explanations. I really do need to keep working.”

He hesitated and then nodded. “I’ll be by later.”

I could tell Amy was wondering just what we were talking about, but we were blessedly very busy for the next hour. When there was finally a break, she said, “I hope you didn’t break up with Elias.”

I whipped my eyes toward her, relieved my headache appeared to be gone because moving that fast didn’t feel like another hammer striking my head. “We were never officially together, so I can’t break up with him. We just went on a date or two,” I muttered, not about to get into the details of the incredible sex we had with my employee. I did have some boundaries.

“He really likes you,” she said, resting her hand on her hip.

“Amy, not now, okay?”

The universe was on my side because another group of customers appeared. I skipped out a little while later, leaving Amy in charge of closing up while I headed over to Misty Mountain Café. I was still debating if I was going to keep the name. It didn’t sit right to call the café Red Truck