bar: Sweetwater Springs A-List. She’d told herself that she wasn’t going to stalk her reviews anymore. She could control her service, but not what a customer wrote online after they’d left her business. So why waste time and energy reading them?
The site loaded, and Emma took a breath. She reached for her cup of coffee and took a large sip as if that would give her liquid courage to continue looking. She then searched the site for the Sweetwater Café. It loaded quickly, and Emma stared wide-eyed at the screen. Her heart did a free fall into her stomach.
Another bad review. Or actually, this one was mediocre. She held her breath as she began to read.
The music coming through the sound system is too loud and who can sit and enjoy their coffee with that crap playing? I had to leave. The coffee was worth going back for though. Just make sure you get it to go.
Emma’s eyes stung. She’d never been one to let criticism roll off her shoulders easily. She was a people pleaser to her core, and she dwelled on things like this—which was why she was supposed to be avoiding the site altogether.
“What are you doing?” Nina asked, walking into the back.
Emma looked up. “Why? Is it busy again?”
Nina shook her head. “No. I can handle it. But you look miserable. What’s wrong?”
Emma sighed and turned her laptop around for Nina to see the screen. Nina took a moment to read the review and then started laughing. “For Pete’s sake. You can’t please everyone, Emma. You’re not actually upset about this, are you?”
Emma looked up at Nina. “Maybe we should change the music.”
“No, that’s not the answer.” Nina put her hands on her hips. “The only thing you need to change is your reaction to those bad reviews. It’s not like she was saying the coffee was bad. That would be real criticism. Stop reading those.”
Emma sipped from her coffee again. “You’re right. I have better things to do, like plan the 5K, assuming that Jack can get the Women’s Wellness Center to agree to combine events.”
“I’m so happy that you’re considering that suggestion. I don’t know why you didn’t jump at it in the first place.”
Emma looked up at her employee and friend. If she told Nina that she didn’t want to join with the WWC because she was suddenly scared of the clinic, so much so that she had canceled her annual checkup this year, she was pretty sure Nina would lecture her in the same way she just had about her response to the A-List review. Emma knew she was being silly, but that didn’t change the fact that she was terrified of going to a doctor’s appointment there and getting bad news. “I just needed some time to think it through, I guess.”
Nina peeked into the café to make sure all the customers were happy and then stood in the doorway and continued talking to Emma. “So how is your fake relationship with Jack going?” she whispered. “I saw you two at the park last night. If I hadn’t overheard about your arrangement, I would’ve been completely fooled. You two looked cozy on that blanket.”
Emma felt her cheeks flush. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and nibbled softly, trying to figure out how much she was going to divulge to Nina.
“Whoa. It is still fake, isn’t it?” Nina asked. “Because the look on your face right now is telling a totally different story.”
“Of course it’s fake.”
“Well, if you’re just pretending for the sake of Jack’s sister, who isn’t even in town, why are you two having dates?”
“As you know, Sam is in town,” Emma said. “And he needs to report back to his mother that everything is great here and that Jack and I are a happy couple.”
The bell at the front of the store rang, and Emma got up from the table. She looked at Nina. “I’ll get this.”
“Thanks,” Nina said.
Emma was hyper-tuned to the music as she headed to the front counter. Even though Nina had protested, maybe Emma should consider changing the music to something softer in the café.
She smiled back at her customer, then suddenly realized who she was looking at. She was used to Ashley Rivers being dressed in a white doctor’s coat with her hair pulled back. It was Saturday, however, and this morning, Ashley was dressed in jeans and a soft cotton top with her red hair down on her shoulders. She smiled