Page 43 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe

‘Well, look who it is! Two meetings in a row!’

Annie came up behind him and planted a kiss on his cheek. Hazel followed her in and plopped down next to him. And, because apparently they were all friends now, and because the universe wanted to torture him, Jeanie hustled in after her.

‘Are we late?’ she whispered, sitting on his other side.

‘Doesn’t matter. Nothing’s started yet anyway,’ he said, avoiding her gaze. How on earth was he supposed to sit next to her like everything was normal, when all he wanted to do was kiss her again?

It was possible that a secret relationship was even more stressful than a public one.

‘What are you doing here anyway?’ Annie asked, unraveling her mile-long scarf. ‘Isn’t it Nana’s turn?’

‘She pulled a muscle.’

Annie frowned. ‘Is she okay?’

‘Fine. Just sore.’

‘So, we get the pleasure of your company again,’ she cooed, landing in the seat in front of him.

‘Apparently.’

‘Well, I’m glad you’re here,’ Jeanie said, and then Logan made a tactical error. He looked at her. He looked at her and she was smiling at him, and her eyes were bright chocolate-brown and a slow blush was creeping up her cheeks and he couldn’t look away.

He couldn’t look away until Annie snapped her fingers in front of his face, anyway.

‘You two alright?’ she asked, with a raised eyebrow.

‘We’re great,’ Jeanie said at the same time he bit out a terse, ‘Yep.’

‘Did Jeanie tell you about her break-in?’ Hazel asked.

‘Break-in?’

‘It wasn’t a break-in really. More like a break-and-run away,’ Jeanie said, attempting to reassure him with her smile, but all Logan heard was thatsomething badhappened to Jeanie and he simply could not allow that.

‘Well, what the hell happened?’ He sounded like he was mad at everyone in the room when really, he was just mad at himself for not being there.

‘Hey, hey. Calm down there, Hulk.’ Annie’s voice was teasing, but Logan wasn’t in the mood. Jeanie knew something wasn’t right last night and he blew her off. He’d tried to convince her it was a damn raccoon, while she had been in actual danger.

‘Someone broke a window in the middle of the night. It’s really not a big deal.’ Jeanie waved a hand like it was nothing and Logan hated it. Why wasn’t she going on about murder theories? Why no stakeout? Why no convoluted ideas about what happened?

Why the hell wasn’t she letting him fix it?

‘Why didn’t you call me?’ he ground out.

‘I ... well...’

‘Why would she call you?’ Hazel asked, eyes round and innocent behind her glasses, but her knowing smile gave her away. ‘She could have called me.’

Logan frowned. ‘And what would you have done?’

‘Same as you! Call the police.’

Right. Why hadn’t Jeanie called the police?

He didn’t have time to ask before Deputy Mayor Mindy’s sharp whistle tore through the din of the crowd. ‘Let’s get started,’ she said, her tone just as serious as it had been at school assemblies.

Logan squirmed in his seat. The quicker they started the sooner they would be done, but he had more questions for Jeanie.