Chapter Five
Kat sighed as she leaned against the counter at the phone store. After the call from Jerry, she hadn’t been able to hear her phone without another rush of panic.
No matter how hard she’d tried not to think about it, about Jerry’s confident tone, she couldn’t get it out of her head, either.
Her only option was to change her number and her phone. Until she did that, it felt as if Jerry had a straight line to her, and she struggled to even look at it without a sickness in her stomach.
The salesman worked on setting it up, leaving Kat to stand there awkwardly and wait without even a phone to doom scroll through.
“Well, well.” The male voice made Kat tense, her body always on high alert anymore.
Plus, the man who owned this voice made her nervous.
“Olin,” Kat responded, turning as she gave him a forced smile.
His smile in return showed tension at the edges, proof that he saw through her façade. Still, he didn’t call her on it. “I was going into the coffee shop next door and noticed you.”
The way he offered up the information made Kat suspect he wanted to make sure she knew he hadn’t been following her.
The truth was that the town wasn’t all that large. There were a lot of people who came and went, tourists who stayed in short-term rentals to see the local national park, but when it came to residents, there just weren’t all that many. Running into someone wasn’t all that uncommon.
“New phone?” Olin asked as he peered around the shop.
“Yeah. Figured it was time for an upgrade.”
He frowned. “It’s not because you’re having problems with anyone, right?”
Kat forced herself to stay calm at the right guess. “Nothing like that.”
He paused, then asked even more quietly, “And it’s not because I’ve called you?”
That broke the grip fear had on her. The question was sweet, honest, and Kat couldn’t let Olin worry that she was changing it because of him.
“No.” She went for the closest to the truth as she wanted to risk. “I changed apartments, but I kept feeling likehemight have my number. I couldn’t shake the worry, so I figured I’d sleep better if I changed that, too.” Guilt pricked at her for the lie. “Fresh start and all that.”
Olin nodded, his expression making him appear tired. “Well, I’m going to get a coffee. You want one?”
She opened her mouth to tell him no—the idea of spending time with anyone felt like more effort than she had in her to give—but something stopped her. Maybe it was the way he’d asked if it were him, or the discomfort she still carried from the night before with Bradley.
The idea of sitting down with Olin wasn’t as objectionable as she thought it would be.
“Okay,” she answered, her voice shaky. “Yeah. It’s going to take them a while longer here.”
Olin’s eyes widened, a sign he’d expected her to reject the offer. Still, the way his lips curled into a real smile afterward warmed her.
Kat ordered a double latte, wanting the warmth and the caffeine and sugar to sooth her. Something about a hot drink could turn around any day.
Olin ordered a cappuccino, the drink coming in a small cup with fluffy white foam on top. The scent was heavenly, but Kat knew it wasn’t for her. In fact, it impressed her to see Olin drinking something so strong.
“You look like you could really use the coffee,” Kat said.
Olin chuckled. “Insulting me already, huh?”
Discomfort washed through Kat, like a scream in her head to be cautious, to remember that Doms weren’t as safe as she’d always felt before. Being a brat carried a risk that Jerry had taught her.
No. You can’t put that on everyone else.
Even as she scolded herself over the thought, she tried to play it off, to hide it all from Olin. “Dark circles happen when you don’t get your beauty sleep. So, what’s keeping you up?”