Alexis Porter pushed open the door to Alana’s Coffee & Sweets and hoped to hell Alana still had some of her cherry turnovers left. Alexis’s clients had been very specific. She was to cook everything for their breakfast in the morning except the turnovers Alana Warren’s café was known for. Those they wanted imported from Bryson City.
There was no one behind the counter, but a quick look around and Alana was standing at a booth in the corner, arms locked against the bright lime green table. She was talking low to a redheaded man who was staring out the big front window with his hands linked behind his head. Freckles covered his face, and his eyes were a strange color she couldn’t identify from here. Looking pissed, he shook his head at something Alana said.
She shouldn’t be staring, so Alexis forced her gaze away from him and made her way to the counter.
“I’m serious, Ryder,” Alana said, as the sound of her shoes thudded across the wood floors. “Don’t let her do it.”
Alana was shaking her head as she ducked behind the counter, her chestnut curls twitching with the gesture. She looked up with a smile, but her soft brown eyes were troubled. “Hey, Lexi. What can I do for you?”
“Uuuh, please tell me you have cherry turnovers left. I know I’m late in the day, but my clients won’t be moved on these.”
Alana put up a finger and ducked into the kitchen, then back. “Do you have ten minutes to wait? They’ll be fresh out of the oven.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re a life saver.”
Alana giggled and said, “You might as well add them to your menu. What is that, three requests in two weeks?”
“Yeah, you’re killin’ me. Thirty minutes each way every time a client does this.”
“Dayum,” she said through a grin. “I still can’t believe my café has taken off like this since the remodel. It gave me a platform to advertise my pastries.” Alana leaned onto the counter and lowered her voice. “I think by the end of this month, I might actually be able to pay my bills and pay the deposits for the wedding.”
Her dark skin practically glowed in the afternoon sunlight that streamed through the front window. That glow had shown up after she’d met her fiancé, Aaron, a few months back. It was good to see love do that to someone Alexis had known for so long. But the second Alana’s eyes flickered to the table in the corner, her smile disappeared.
Alexis followed her worried gaze. “What’s wrong?”
Alana heaved a sigh, blowing one of her curls out of her face. “That one over there doesn’t know when to let go. If you’re gonna sit down while you wait, I would suggest anywhere but by him. He’s an emotional monster on Tuesday afternoons.”
“Okay,” Alexis murmured.
Alana bustled off into the kitchen. Alexis looked around at the full tables and the only two open were a booth next to the redheaded muscle man or a table in front of his. Great. She debated just standing here like a dope for the next ten minutes, but customers were filing in the door, and she was in the way.
Slowly, quietly, she padded to the booth and sat down. When the man looked up at her for an instant, she was stunned by his eye color. Gold irises, red hair, all those muscles stretching his thin T-shirt and, holy sheeyit, they didn’t make ’em like this around here. He must’ve been an import to Bryson City. She would’ve remembered him.
The man cracked his knuckles and glared down at his closed laptop sitting on the table in front of him. He checked his watch, stared at it for ten seconds, blew out three quick breaths, and opened the computer.
His sensual lips thinned into a plastered smile as he leaned back on the bench seat and sat still as a robot. “Come on, come on, come on,” he murmured through his teeth. His brightly colored eyes narrowed to slits as time went on, and he muttered, “Come on you jerky-shirted sucker-puppy—heeeey.” The forced smile was back. “There you are. You actually answered this time. Hey Serena, you look great.” He looked like he was about to barf on those words.
If Alexis strained, she could just hear the voice on the other end of the video chat he was on. “Can’t say the same for you, Ryder. You look like shit without me.”
Alexis gasped as her cheeks heated to fire. What a little she-demon. Embarrassed to be eavesdropping, Alexis looked anywhere but at the man. She couldn’t leave now, though, or it would be awkward. Shoot. Come on turnovers. Cook faster!
Ryder cleared his throat and leaned forward, lowered his voice. “Can I talk to her?”
“She doesn’t want to talk to you because you left her. You left her, you left me, and we’re both pretty fed up with how you ended everything.”
Whoa, he left his kid behind?
“First off,” he growled out, “I left you, not her, and if we’re being technical about it, you really bowed out when I caught you sucking on Stewart’s micro-penis in our bedroom. And furthermore, I still can’t believe you fucking left me for someone named Stewart.”
“He’s an accountant with a steady income. What do you do, Ryder? Nothing. You sit around and get drunk with your friends and talk about all these babies you want but can’t provide for.”
Ryder waved his fists around in a furious little tantrum. “Just let me see her! You don’t have to strip me down, Serena. I just want to see her. Just…let me see my baby.”
“I’m breeding her soon.”
Breeding her? What the fuck?