“Ow!” She straightened and pressed a hand to her forehead, her eyes open to see the rest of the ordeal pass in slow motion.
Gil caught the bagel—success!—but the coffee hit the pavement and exploded like a water balloon, dousing both of their shoes.
Not my new Converse sneakers! Coffee stains will be the death of them.
Gil straightened, holding the bagel with one hand and his forehead with the other, his gaze trained on her. “At least your breakfast was salvaged.”
Moira hesitated before taking it, feeling awkward. She’d always felt this way with Gil, knowing he had a crush on her that she didn’t reciprocate. “I wouldn’t have dropped any of my breakfast in the first place if you hadn’t startled me,” she snapped. The awkwardness frequently made her come off as defensive and maybe a little cold. She knew this about herself. “Of course I’m in a hurry. That’s why I was walking so fast. Reason would tell you not to call out to a person who looks like they’re on a mission, unless you have something important to tell them.”
It was like she couldn’t control her mouth when Gil was around.
“I’m sorry. Why don’t you let me buy you another coffee?”
Gil was pretty much a saint. Everyone thought so. She’d never known him to do anything wrong, unless he could be found guilty by association with his former roommate, whom Moira wished she’d never met. A person couldn’t rewind time though. If they could, she’d dodge the handsome town mayor and have her coffee back this morning.
“I have to get home for work at nine. In fact, thanks to you, I’m running late.” She turned and started walking toward her car without a proper goodbye, which made her feel like a jerk. She immediately regretted the whole interaction with Gil, but if she turned around now, she’d be late to dispatch. So she kept walking.
* * *
Gil stepped inside Sweetie’s Bakeshop and headed toward Darla behind the counter.
“Hey, Mayor Gil,” she said with a broad smile. Unlike her daughter, Darla was always happy to see him.
“Morning, Darla. Can I get a hot coffee with a squirt of chocolate syrup?” he asked.
“Only you.” She laughed, reaching for an empty cup off to her side. Then she prepared his drink as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket. “I had a little run-in with Moira before walking in.”
Darla glanced over her shoulder as she poured from the pot on the back counter. “Oh? She was just in here.”
“Yeah. We bumped into each other. I kind of spilled her coffee. Or she spilled it, but she firmly blamed me.”
Darla chuckled. “Well, you know Moira,” she said, as if that explained her daughter’s attitude.
He did know Moira. She was as nice as her mother, to everyone except him. Somehow he’d found himself on her bad side, and that’s where he stayed no matter how hard he tried to win her over. And he did try.
Gil was a people pleaser, and he knew it. It bothered him when a person didn’t like him, especially someone whom he’d grown up with. And admittedly he’d had a crush on Moira Green since kindergarten when she’d sported long, black pigtail braids with green ribbons tied at the bottoms. While the other girls declared pink as their favorite color, Moira had always chosen green. While those pink girls had played hopscotch and dolls, Moira had dominated the swings and monkey bars.
Moira didn’t do what was expected, especially back when she and Gil were growing up. She was an outlier, which some might call a negative. Not him though. Moira had caught his eye when they were only kids. “You know what, Darla?”
Darla slid his coffee across the counter toward him and raised a questioning brow. “What’s that, Mayor?”
“Can you make me whatever kind of coffee Moira had this morning? She didn’t have time to come back in and get another. It’d be a shame for her to work her shift without caffeine.”
Darla’s green eyes narrowed. “You’re going to drop it off at her house?”
Gil nodded, warming up to the idea. Maybe he’d finally win Moira over this morning. She didn’t have to reciprocate his attraction, but getting off her bad side would be nice. And he kind of was to blame for causing her to dump her coffee. He’d called out to her, seeing that she was obviously in a hurry. What was he thinking?
“I don’t know, Mayor Gil. My daughter doesn’t like unannounced visitors.”
He could guess as much. Moira wasn’t an introvert, but she was a private person. “I won’t stay. I won’t even go inside. I know she’s working. I just want to bring her a replacement coffee. She can’t fault me for that, can she?”
Darla looked skeptical. After a long pause, she grabbed a cup and set about making another coffee for Moira. A minute later, she slid it toward him. “That’ll be four dollars and seventy-six cents.”
Gil zipped his card through the reader, tapped in his PIN, and collected the two coffees. “Wish me luck.”
Darla shook her head on a soft chuckle. “Good luck, Mayor Gil. I think you’re going to need it.”
Chapter Two
Gil was uncharacteristically nervous as he stood in front of Moira’s front door. He was typically a laid-back kind of guy, which was good given his profession. Being the mayor wasn’t easy. Yeah, Somerset Lake was a small town, and the folks here were agreeable for the most part. But one truth he’d discovered in life was that you couldn’t make everyone happy all the time, and that fact kept Gil up more nights than not.
Gil shifted Moira’s coffee to his left hand and rang the doorbell. Then, seeing the little note that read Doorbell Broken, he finally knocked. From inside Moira’s home, he heard movement. She lived in a tiny one-story house in Wimberly Cove, a small neighborhood featuring one- and two-bedroom homes that catered to singles.
The door opened, and Moira crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you doing here?” she asked by way of greeting. She had on a headset, reminding Gil that she was on shift right now.
“Uh, hi.” Gil held out Moira’s drink, hoping she wouldn’t knock it straight from his hand. “I know you’re working dispatch. I just thought you could use that coffee I made you drop earlier. As the mayor, I want to make sure the ones keeping us safe are wide awake.”
She looked at the cup, not budging to take it. “That’s for me?”
“It is. Your mom made it just the way you ordered yours this morning. I may have driven a little bit over the speed limit to make sure I got it to you while it was still hot.” He offered a smile, hoping he didn’t look as nervous as he felt as he continued to extend the coffee to her. “Please, take it. I can’t stand to waste anything. If you refuse this coffee, I’ll be forced to drink it along with the one I have waiting for me in my truck. That’ll leave me tightly wound for the day. I might have to call nine-one-one on myself.”
Moira finally relaxed her guarded stance, extending a hand to take the coffee. Her gaze hesitantly met his. “Thank you. That was nice of you.”
“You’re welcome.” He stood there a moment, finding it difficult to actually leave. They used to be friends—the kind that could laugh at everything and nothing at all. Then things changed between them. Gil never should have introduced Moira to his college roommate. He shouldn’t have brought Felix Wilkes to Somerset Lake at all. Hindsight was twenty-twenty though. Foresight was twenty-seventy on a good day.