“I still don’t understand what you saw in him.”
“I didn’t see anything in him. I didn’t even like him. We’ve been over this.”
Tessa crammed a bite into her mouth. “Sure,” she said around the mouthful of food. “But you gotta admit that it doesn’t make any sense when you say that. He lived with you for three years and you didn’t even like him. Show me the sense in that.”
Maybe it had been a bad idea to invite Tessa to help Ellie kill time. “There’s no sense to show you. Never has been. Never will be. I just got caught up trying to help him and couldn’t figure out how to get myself out. Now, shut the hell up about it because I’m tired of trying to explain it.”
“No need to get all defensive. You were just doing that thing where you put other people’s needs in front of your own. I get it. But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna tease you whenever I have the chance. Maybe make you think twice before you let someone take advantage of you again. You’re better than that.”
“I know. Believe me. Lesson learned. Hell, I’m still learning that lesson every month when I can’t figure which bills not to pay because I don’t have enough to cover everything.”
“Steve should be helping you with those.”
“Agreed, he should. You’re welcome to tell him that yourself. Maybe he’ll listen to you more than he listened to me.”
Ellie went in for another bite of muffin and Tessa slapped her hand away. “Get your own. I was lured here with the promise of good food and hot coffee and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you eat it all right off my plate.” Tessa sat up as Ellie reached into the display to grab something for herself. “How was your date the other night?”
Ellie puckered her face and shrugged. “Another no show.”
“That sucks.”
“I guess.” Ellie’s shoulders slumped as she studied the floor. “I think online dating is just a bust for me. This guy lived like forty-five minutes away. I wouldn’t want to drive that far to hook up with someone I met online. And I bet most guys are gonna feel the same way.”
“That’s not true, though!” Tessa hopped up on the counter. “Your guy is out there. I just know it.”
“Maybe. Or, maybe I just need to stop looking so hard and accept being alone for a while.” Ellie considered telling her friend what happened with James the other night. Tess knew how long she’d had the hots for the guy and would just about die to know that she’d made out with him in his bed. But, considering the circumstances that led to her being in his bed, she didn’t really feel right making light of it. Gossiping about poor James Moore, drinking away his broken heart…it just seemed wrong.
The front doors swung open and Tessa jumped off the counter. Ellie sighed in relief. Even if Tuesdays were typically slow, it made her all kinds of nervous when there wasn’t a single customer in the café. She could just hear dollar bills bleeding away with every tick of the clock.
Tessa spun around, eyes wide, face happy. “You’re never gonna believe who it is,” she whispered. “It’s fate, Ellie. Fate.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ellie asked.
Tessa just bit her lip and raised her eyebrows, excitement showing up in a cute shrug of her shoulders.
Confused, Ellie peeked around her friend to see who had come in and her heart did a funny little stutter step when she saw James taking off his sunglasses and hanging them from the collar of his T-shirt. He was clean-shaven, but that only made his dark eyes stand out all the more.
He lifted a hand. “Hey, Ellie.”
She tried to cover up her surprise with a joke. “Wow. It’s still not Sunday and you’re back again. You keep this up and I’m going to lose track of what day it actually is.”
“Who says a man can’t break old habits?”
Ellie thought of James throwing back shot after shot at Hurricane’s, staggering out of her car and curling up on the steps inside his filthy house. Clearly, he’d been breaking all kinds of old habits. And not for the better. “Next you’re gonna tell me you want tea instead of coffee.”
Tessa giggled and carried her plate to a table near the window while James held up his hands. “Now, you just hold on a minute,” he said, clearly appalled. “Let’s not take this too far.”
“Well, then, one large house blend coming right up.”
James sauntered up the counter and leaned forward, crossing his arms and revealing the sleeve of tattoos spiraling up from his forearms and disappearing under his T-shirt. They really were beautiful, patterns and colors tracing their way across his skin. “Actually…” He glanced back at Tess, then lowered his voice. “I hoped I could talk to you about something. I’m kind of glad that you’re not as busy as you usually are.”
That makes one of us, she thought as her belly twisted into knots over the money she wasn’t making that day.
Hiding her concern, she set his coffee in front of him and leaned against the counter. “What’s up?”
James smiled and part of Ellie melted.
Okay, all of Ellie melted.
Who could keep their cool in the presence of such a gorgeous man, aiming all his sex appeal directly at them?
“I have a proposition for you.”
“A proposition, huh?”
“Yep.” He took a deep breath and while he kept his smile plastered in place, the look in his eyes made Ellie think he was nervous. And seeing him nervous made her nervous. “I was wondering if we could make a deal. An arrangement, really. A…business arrangement.” James swallowed hard and Ellie braced herself. “See, my family is all twisted up with worry about me ever since Erin and I called it quits. They think I’m falling to pieces.”
“And you think you’re not falling to pieces? Because, from what I saw this weekend,
