Liz Savoy has no plans to date anyone—least of all the dark handsome mystery man who sometimes inhabits the corner table at the coffee shop where she’s working to get through school. But plans change, sometimes in ways no one expected.
Jake McCoy is the next mega-millionaire author, or at least he would be if he could get the stories in his head down on the ether. With no good place to write, he resorts to dark corners in Wi-Fi hotspots, knowing no one in the world cares about him or his comings and goings one way or the other. However, there is one waitress at The Grind coffee shop with a cute smile and kind eyes who doesn’t seem to think he is as invisible as he likes to think he is. Can reality with her ever hope to match the fantasy world where his imagination has him living?
Excerpt:
“What did you do?” Liz whispered to Mia, wanting to glance back at him but not being able to for fear he was laughing at her.
Mia shrugged. “The man needed more
coffee. What did you want me to do? Waste a good tip? I’ve got babies to
feed, you know.” At that moment her gaze snapped up behind Liz, and Liz
froze.
Was he moving? Was he coming this way? She wanted to ask, but she didn’t dare.
“Hey, stranger.” His throaty voice sent her heart spiraling into her boots.
It took a breath to get herself
turned, and she noticed Mia conveniently disappear around the counter to
check on the customers as she did. “Oh. Hi.” One look at him, and she
knew she was in serious trouble. Still she plastered
a smile on her face. “You getting any shape-shifting done?”
Was that right? Did it sound casual and surprised and witty? She couldn’t tell.
His gaze went down to the laptop
under his arm as if he hadn’t realized it was there. “Oh. Yeah.” He laid
his other hand on it. “You know. I guess so.”
Liz nodded, having no clue where to go from there. “Um, yeah, I was…”
“Did I…?”
She joined his laugh as they both realized the other was speaking at the same moment. “I’m sorry. What were you going to say?”
“Hm.” He cleared his throat in the
way that told her he was far more nervous than he looked. It made her
relax one small iota, and even that much was a blessing. “Um, I was just
thinking a movie sounds really good tonight,
but I hate going alone. You interested?”
“In a movie?” Good grief! What did
that even mean? He’d said a movie. How unambiguous was that? “Um,
y-yeah. Sure. If you’re sure you don’t mind.”
He smiled and seemed to relax a
little also. “I haven’t seen a really good movie in a long time. I think
it would make—” Once again, he put his hand on his laptop. “—work a
lot easier.”
Liz didn’t really understand that,
but she wasn’t about to question it. “Great. Cool. Awesome. Then let’s
go see what they’re showing.”
Strange,
Jake thought, she was going to a movie, but she didn’t know what was
even playing? But he pushed that thought underneath the completely
bizarre understanding
that somehow he had just scored a date through no real effort of his
own.
“Mia, we’re going to take off,” Liz said to her friend who turned and smiled.
“You take care of yourself,” Mia said, and then she pointed at him, “and you, take care of her.”
“Will do.” He waved once and waited for Liz to step away from him. Still grasping to Mia’s gaze, he mouthed, “Thank you.”
This time her smile slid into happy
knowing, and she nodded. Then without so much as a word, she warned him
that he’d better be good to her friend or he would be found in
teeny-tiny, unrecognizable pieces the next morning.
He nodded back, understanding and having no intentions of crossing any
line that would chase her away. Mia definitely didn’t have to worry on
that count.
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