Lila watched the usual throwdown unfolding.
“You’re in my seat,” Danielle snapped at the man sitting in her booth.
The man … Half Moon Key’s new Sheriff … didn’t even look up from his paper. He just grabbed his coffee cup and slurped it loudly, something he did to annoy Danielle. He had admitted as much to Lila.
“Cohen,” Danielle said through gritted teeth, “you know this is my spot. Why do we have to do this every morning?”
“There are a bunch of other tables open. Go sit there.”
“No.” Danielle slid into the booth and sat in front of Cohen.
“I was here first.”
Danielle clicked her tongue. “Very mature answer, Sheriff. Is that what you tell the criminals you arrest?”
For the life of her, Lila couldn’t understand what was so damn special about that one specific table. It wasn’t the best seat in the cafe, but those two fought over it like cats and dogs.
Lila thought there had to be something more to it, but whenever she asked Danielle about it, her friend dismissed the idea like it was the worst possible thing in the world.
“Morning,” Lila sang, chipper as a songbird at sunrise. She poured fresh coffee into the Sheriff’s cup and filled Danielle’s first cup of the day. Maybe her friend would cool down after some java.
“Good morning,” Danielle responded. “I’ll have my usual, please, Lila.”
“You got it. Can I get you anything else, Sheriff?”
Cohen took a deep breath and finally looked up from his paper to glare at Danielle. “You can ask this interloper to get her own seat.”
“Oh, no,” Lila snorted. “I am not getting in the middle of whatever this is. If you do need help, I can get one of the grade school teachers to mediate a truce from all this pigtail pulling you two seem to adore.”
Danielle coughed, choking on her coffee. “Lila,” she gasped. “What are you implying?”
“I think she was trying to say that there is tension between us.” Cohen was amused.
Danielle narrowed her eyes at him. “Thereistension.”
“Of the sexual nature.” Cohen’s whisper was rough.
Danielle’s entire face went red, and Lila quickly retreated to one of the other tables. Those two needed to either leave each other alone or have some intense sex. It would benefit everyone in town if their little feud was put to rest.
Like the efficient … though exhausted … waitress she was, Lila tended to all her patrons. The little bell over the door rang out, and as she always did, Lila turned toward it to greet whoever was coming into Moony’s.
She stopped short, nearly dropping the carafe. There stood the stranger that plagued her dreams. Lila blinked her eyes quickly, trying to compose herself. The man walked right up to her as if he knew he was having a serious impact on her air supply.
“It’s you,” Mason said. His handsome face was bright with a smile.
Lila didn’t want to look at him for too long. It was like staring at the sun. He was just too good-looking to make any sort of sense in Half Moon Key. Maybe it was because she lived in the small village, which had always kept the dating pool seriously small.
There. That was the reason why Mason’s big hazel eyes, his thick head of brown hair, and his short-cropped beard made her belly flutter with excitement.
It wasn’t the man. It was her serious lack of dating experience and dating prospects.
If that were true, you would have flirted with Sheriff Cohen Pierce as soon as he arrived in town.
Lila brushed that thought aside because it was hardly helpful. She hadn’t flirted with Cohen because he wasn’t her typeandbecause he was the Sheriff. Lila didn’t exactly do well with authority figures. She preferred to be in charge. Besides, she had a feeling that Danielle would have something to say to her if she started flirting with Cohen.
“Grab any table,” Lila said to Mason. “I’ll be over in a second to take your order.”
Cohen jumped out of his seat in surprise. “Mason?” the Sheriff asked, taking long strides toward Mason.