Cooper to come back to town? It must have been, yet he had done it for Melody and her boys.
As she watched him interact with his firefighters, warmth washed through her, sweet and healing.
It would be so easy to fall in love with him.
Olivia caught the direction of her thoughts and quickly pushed them away. She wasn’t going to think about that right now. She had a job to do and wasn’t here to gawk at the city’s sexy fire chief. She picked up her camera and started snapping pictures of the fire department setting up for the breakfast, of the big sign overhead that read WE LOVE YOU, GALLEGOS FAMILY, of the bags full of pancake mix, the bottles of syrup, the stacks and stacks of paper products.
While she was photographing the scene for social media, Rosemary Duncan spotted her and hurried over. “Isn’t this wonderful?” the mayor gushed. “I hope we knock it out of the park with the crowd.”
“I’m sure you will. It’s the perfect day for a pancake breakfast.”
After a week of steady rain following the night she and Cooper had taken the boys for pizza at the park, the sun had finally come out. The day promised to be bright and beautiful. At least the morning, anyway. The forecast called for more storms, but she had to hope they would hold off until later.
On a nice day like this, the garden center would be hopping with customers, but she knew the other employees could handle things in her absence.
Rosemary looked around. “I just have to tell you what an amazing job you’ve done helping us spread the word. I have been astonished over the past week how our traffic has increased across the board.”
“It helps that we have a good cause, one people want to get behind.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself. You seem to know exactly what to post and when. I’ve been so impressed. In fact, I’ve spoken with the city council about seeing if we can contract with you even after you return to Seattle.”
“I’m glad you’re happy. That’s what we like to hear at Harper Media.”
“Of course, I would be even happier if you decided to stick around. It has been wonderful having you back. I’m sure Juliet agrees.”
She wasn’t sure of anything in regard to Juliet right now.
“Is your mother coming?” Rosemary asked.
“She’ll be here later. A friend is bringing her. I had to come early so I can post a few more times, just to remind people. We might be able to bring in a few people from out of town, too, since it’s for a good cause.”
“That’s terrific. You’ve thought of everything.” Rosemary beamed. “I don’t know what we would have done without you.”
Olivia smiled back, but was relieved when someone else came over to the mayor, needing her attention.
As the mayor left with an apologetic backward glance, Olivia’s gaze unerringly seemed to find Cooper. He was looking at her, she realized. Their gazes met, and for an instant, she was back in his arms that night outside Sea Glass Cottage.
He smiled and gave a small wave, then turned his attention back to someone who was talking to him.
Oh, she had it bad. The man only had to look at her and she forgot everything she was doing. With great effort, she drew herself back to the task, and for the next hour as people started to show up and the tables began to fill, she wandered around the fire station, snapping pictures here and there and interviewing people in short snippets of video she posted on social media.
She was so busy, she forgot to be nervous about the crowd filling up the fire station until a door suddenly slammed shut somewhere in the building. She froze for just an instant, panic spurting through her, then took a deep breath, shoved it back down and returned to her interview with a couple of schoolchildren, who were talking about how the pancakes might be the best they’d ever had.
After she was done talking to them and the kids returned for another helping of pancakes, Olivia took a moment to reflect. Was it possible she was getting over her anxiety about crowds? It had been at least two weeks since her last panic attack. She wanted to think so but was afraid to hope.
Finally, as she worked her way through the crowd, she knew she couldn’t avoid the cook stations, where crews were flipping pancakes, stirring hash browns, turning bacon.