“I didn’t buy it so you’d just smell it,” he said, smirking.
I took a bite, letting the softness melt against my tongue. I tasted the butter and sugar and chocolate, but there was something else blended into it, too. After a couple more bites, I still couldn’t place it. “They added something to this,” I said. “It’s not just chocolate.”
North lifted an eyebrow. He pinched off a piece and stuck it in his mouth. His eyes drifted back and forth as he was thinking. “Coffee, maybe.” A waitress started to pass by our table with a tray full of dirty dishes. North waved his hand to get her attention. “Excuse me,” he said. “What’s in this?”
The waitress glanced at the half eaten muffin. “It’s cappuccino chocolate chip,” she said.
“Ah,” North said. “Thank you.”
The waitress nodded, smiling and went on.
I took up the muffin again, taking another bite, and letting the flavors mix together. “I think this might be my new favorite. Can we come back?”
“Baby, we own a diner. If you want a muffin, we can make it at home.”
My heart warmed and tripped over itself when he said we as if to say the diner was partially mine, too. I knew that wasn’t true, but the way he’d said it made me feel good. “If we can copy the recipe.”
North reached for another pinch, but my reaction was to pull the muffin back out of his reach. I wanted to be selfish and keep it for myself.
North smirked at me. “Not going to let me have a bite?”
“I don’t know. If we don’t come back, I may not get another one.”
“Damn it, Sang Baby.” He grumbled. He stood up, tugging his wallet out of his pocket. I watched as he stood by the counter at the line. When it was his turn, he pointed at the basket and said something to the cashier. The lady looked confused and then shook her head. North said something else, and dropped a wad of cash on the counter. The woman took the money, and found a paper bag just inside the doorway to the kitchen. She started loading muffins into the bag. North had bought the entire basket.
My cheeks were radiating. I pressed my hands to them to hide them from him. He returned, dropping the bag on top of the counter.
“She won’t tell me the recipe,” he said. “We’ll give one to Uncle, and he’ll be able to figure out what’s in it.”
“What are the others for?”
“Those are for you until he can figure it out.”
I broke out into a laugh, leaning back with a hand on my stomach. It got the attention of a couple of other patrons and I blushed, sitting forward again and covering my face with my hands again. I really, really liked Academy boys.
North made a face at me, snatched up the last of my muffin and ate the rest.
I was still giggling when a shadow in the window caught my eye. At first I didn’t understand why I was doing a double take, but when my giggling subsided, I realized I was staring at a familiar face. I caught his profile as he was talking to the woman with the dog. At first, maybe because seeing him here was so out of context, I didn’t realize who I was looking at.
But there was no way I could ever forget that bristled mustache and those watery eyes.
Mr. McCoy.
He stood outside the restaurant, as real as life. He wore a blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and his casual slacks had me second-guessing, but it was him.
The blood drained from my face. I sunk down and to the side to keep myself out of sight just in case he looked in.
“Sang?” North zeroed in on my face, looking confused for a moment. “What?”
“He’s here,” I said in a whisper, not wanting to believe my own eyes.
North glanced over his shoulder, but he was looking at the other patrons. “Who?” He turned back to me. “Who’s here?”
I leaned over again, looking out the window.
But Mr. McCoy was gone. The woman with the dog was folding up her magazine and untying the lead to the dog, getting ready to walk away.
I shook my head, brushing my fingertips against one of the bite marks on my neck. “I think I just saw McCoy.”
???
North went outside to check, having told me to stay inside the cafe. I was cowering in my seat the entire time. Wasn’t Mr. McCoy supposed to be with the Academy? The boys said not to worry about him. I trusted them. What was happening?
North returned to me after what felt like eons. “I didn’t see him,” he said. “He’s not here.”
“I saw him,” I said, my voice small. I had the bag of muffins, clutching the paper in my hands. “It was him.”
North held his hands out. “All right, Baby. I believe you. But I don’t see him now.”
My hand fluttered up until my finger touched my lower lip. “What do we do?”
North frowned. He captured my hand, tugging to get me to stand up out of the booth. “We’re going home.”
“But,” I said, wondering if we shouldn’t drive around the island. We had to find him. I had to find him. I had to know where he was. We had to wire him. We had to know where he was all the time.
North snatched up the bag of muffins, leading the way out. “We’re leaving now.”
North dropped the bag of muffins into the saddlebag when we got back. He had me put on the helmet and his jacket. It was a little warmer with the sun out, but North said I needed to protect my skin. He started the bike and we headed back to Summerville.
North stopped off at a drug store on the way. He asked the counter lady for some help, pointing to my neck. The woman gave us both suggestive smiles, but she helped me pick out a concealer in a color that matched my skin.
“We need help with him, too,” I said, pointing to North.
“No,” North said, waving his hand in the air to dismiss my idea. “I’m not wearing makeup.”
“If the others see your neck, they’ll ask. Who are you going to say bit you?”
North frowned, grumbled. In the end, the woman matched his skin shade and he bought the makeup. We spent another twenty minutes in the parking lot applying concealer and rubbing it in until it hid all the
marks. North didn’t bother covering the one on his chest.
“You might forget,” I said. “They’ll see it.
“Leave it,” he said.
After that, we were on the bike and heading back to Sunnyvale Court. When we arrived, it was about ten in the morning. The cars were gone. Some indentions left by the tire marks in the yards were the only clues that something had happened the night before. Relief swept over me.
North pulled into my driveway. Nathan was on the lawn mower, cutting the grass. He waved to us as we approached and jumped down. The mower shut off the moment he stepped away. He crossed the lawn to greet us.
“Hey, Peanut,” Nathan said with a smirk. “Where’ve you been?”
“Well we were going to Europe, but there was this big ocean in the way and North didn’t want to get the bike wet, so we had to come back.”
Nathan laughed. North smirked, rolled his eyes and turned away. I pulled the helmet off and gave it back to him.
“Oy, Trouble!” Gabriel came out from the side of the garage toward us. His blond locks were combed back and mixing into the russet brown hair. His blue tank shirt and the Calvin Klein jeans were splotched with white paint. He stopped short, his mouth gaping. “Oh my fucking god, your hair is shit.”
“Hi, Meanie,” I said.
“Shut up and give me a hug,” he said. He wrapped his arms around me. He smelled like paint. He talked to North over my shoulder. “You couldn’t have taken the truck? Or the Jeep?”
“Nope,” North said.
Gabriel squeezed me around the waist until he lifted me, my toes barely grazing the ground. He turned toward the house, stumbling toward it as he carried me. “No more bikes for you.”
“Hang on,” I said, patting at Gabriel’s sides. “Let me give the jacket back.”
Gabriel released me. North pulled the package of muffins from the saddlebag. He took out two, and handed off the bag to Nathan. I gave North back the jacket.
“Are you coming in?” I asked him.
“I’ve got to go do some shit before I have to go to the diner.” He dropped the jacket and the two muffins into the saddlebag and snapped it shut before turning back to me. He opened his arms up. “Sang Baby,” he said.