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Charlie smacked the back of her hand on the book. “Mack wrote this!”

Every last one of Mack’s words escaped.Yeah, that’s meorSure did!seemed like odd responses. Her face flushed and she gulped lukewarm coffee.

Ben grabbed the book from Charlie’s hands and his eyes narrowed on the jacket cover. “Wait, is this the one you said I had to read this summer? The one about the small-time criminal who sells goods on the black market?”

“Yep!” Charlie bounced. “But she only does it because her sister was kidnapped. And there’s a robbery that goes wrong, someone gets killed, and even though she didn’t do it, they blame it on her, and she goes on the run. And that plot twist. Holy damn, I didnotsee that coming. Effing. Brilliant.”

Mack’s insides flamed from the praise.

Ben handed the book back to Charlie. “Charlie’s not just blowin’ smoke. She genuinely didn’t shut up about this book.”

“Well, thanks.” Mack reached under her shirt to fan it away from her body before it stuck. “It was fun to write.”

Charlie cradled the book against her beautifully ample chest. “Okay, I gotta know. Are you in Seattle writing a new novel?”

Trying, not writing,was the more accurate word. “Yeah.”

Charlie’s eyes grew wide. “Ooh… can you give any hints?”

Mack looked behind her shoulder at the empty café and curled her index finger in the “come here” motion. “You know that phrase ‘I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you’?”

Charlie nodded and gripped the book tighter.

“Well, that doesn’t work in this case because it’s publishing and no one’s gonna die.” Mack grinned and leaned back. “But I’d have a super pissed agent and probably be sued by my publisher if I said anything.”

“Dammit! I wasthis close.” Charlie shuffled her fingers in her pen holder container, the utensils clanging against one another until she snatched one and held it out. “Autograph?”

“Are you serious?” Mack thought her tone was joking, but Charlie’s smile vanished. “I mean, of course. Yeah. I just…”Always feel like an undeserving fraud. “I never have anything clever to say. Ironic, isn’t it? Words are my best friend and worst tormentor.”

Charlie’s smile returned. “I get it. Don’t stress over it. Just put down the first thing that pops into your head.”

Her head was currently a vacant black cosmos.The plastic pen clicked against Mack’s silver index ring as she rolled it between her hands. She hooked her finger in the neckline of her T-shirt to pull it away from her neck.

“How about something like this,” Charlie said. “‘Dear Charlie, even though we’ve only known each other a few days, you are by far the best barista I’ve ever met, you have fabulous hair, and it’s painfully obvious that you are smarter, funnier, and cuter than Ben.’”

“Rude,” Ben yelled from the storage room.

Mack opened the book. “I think I have all the inspiration I need.”

Charlie,

Thanks for the Seattle caffeinated dreams, evergreen smiles, and anti-patchouli oil bonding. It’s been a latte fun (see what I did there?) ;-)

Mack Ryder

She slid the book back across the counter.

Charlie bit her lip as she scanned the page. A blush swept across her cheeks, and she looked at Mack. “It’s perfect.” She returned the book to the shelf, and her finger lingered on the spine.

Mack swiveled in her chair to avoid staring and analyzed why she felt like she had intruded on a daydream. Shehadto concentrate. Sure, her creative energy spiked these last two days,thank God, but she cusped on disappointing every person she cared about and producing a heaping pile of garbage. The countdown clock’s pedal to the ominous deadline was accelerated to the max.

Her fingers tapped across the keyboard as she laser-focused to capture the flying brownie chunk story, hoping for a nugget she could pluck for her manuscript. Her mind got lost in the hallucinogenic writing world for the next half hour until the bell jingled, and a postal worker walked in.

“Eddie!” Ben yelled.

Charlie scurried from the back room right when Ben reached for the mail. She seized it from his hands with a possessive yank and tucked it tight under her arm. The kindness in her smile was a sharp juxtaposition to her flushed face and rigid backbone.

Hmmm.