Espresso Your Love (The Coffee Loft Series: Fall Collection)

6. Ryan

6

Ryan

If I thought small town life would be boring, boy, was I wrong. It’s my third day of being in Meadowbrook and it feels like I’ve been here for weeks with everything that has happened. Meeting Cassie has been exciting and has me looking forward to the future here. Even if she doesn’t feel anything for me—she’s brought something out of me. Ever since the incident in Birmingham, I’ve been drained. Just going through the motions every day. But then Cassie…she brings life into me.

And it looks like I’ll be seeing a whole lot more of the drop-dead gorgeous, coffee-loving, make-my-stomach-do-flips, event planner.

Today, I’m out patrolling with Mitchell. He took me and Max through his normal route. We walk around the town square, where the Autumn Festival will be, talking through the best way to handle security.

“Hey, before we head back to the station, can we grab a quick coffee break?”

“You read my mind.”

I’m still nervous about my capabilities. If I let Birmingham happen, then anything can happen at this festival. Mitchell seems to be impressed by the ideas I shared with Cassie, which helps, but I’ll be going over the schematics a few more times.

We start walking through the town square toward Coffee Loft with Max trailing at my side. The aroma of coffee hits me before we reach the entrance. As we start to walk into Coffee Loft, Mitchell darts to the side of the building.

I stop abruptly. “You okay, man?”

“Uh…yeah. I’ll meet you in there.” His voice is shaky, and he keeps straightening his hat.

“Um, okay, I’ll grab us a table.”

I start to turn when he blurts, “It’s her. She’s in there.”

I look through the window. “Who is?”

“The barista.”

My eyes land on her; it’s the same barista as yesterday. “Ahh, the brunette. You like her?” I try to conceal my amusement with his sudden nervousness. He’s confident and outgoing. He doesn’t seem like he would have a problem with women.

“Ashley makes me nervous.” He takes off his hat and wipes his brow.

“They tend to do that to ya.” Max gives a whine. “See, even he agrees.”

“You get nervous too? You seem so…relaxed with Cassie.”

“Cassie?” My eyes go wide.

“Give me a break, man. She’s just as smitten with you as you are with her.”

She is?

“Nah, she’s just being polite to the new guy in town.” I wave my hand in the air.

“You’re lying to yourself, Hayes. I’ve known Cassie all my life, and I’ve never seen her this way.”

“Okay, come on. We’ll go in together—I’ll be your wingman.”

We stand in line waiting to order. Mitchell is practically sweating through his uniform. When we’re next, Ashley steps into the back room and someone else takes our order instead. Mitchell sighs, a mixture of relief and some disappointment I’m sure, then places his order.

I can’t help but glance up at the loft to see if I can spot Cassie. There she is. Sitting in the same spot I met her in, her fingers flying across the keyboard. She’s focused…and absolutely beautiful.

After I place my order, I stand off to the side waiting. If I could find a reason to go up there, I would. We just discussed the details yesterday so nothing new to report there. It’s not like she’s close by and I can just say hi real quick. She’s all the way up on the loft. I could—my radio blares.

“Unit 3, we’ve got a report of a loose chicken causing a disturbance at Sweet Sisters Bakery. The owner says it's attacking customers. Can you respond?”

The brunette barista, whom I now know as Ashley, calls our name at the same time. I nod my head to Mitchell to grab them. He shakes his head, and I nod more aggressively with wide eyes for him to go. He finally does. I watch him nervously walk to the counter.

“Dispatch, copy that. En route to…uh…the chicken situation,” I respond.

Is there a code for chicken disturbance? If there is, I’ve definitely never used that one before.

Ashley smiles at him as he grabs the cups and says something, but I can’t hear. Mitchell walks back to me and hands me my coffee, donut, and pup cup for Max.

“That wasn’t so bad, huh?” I gently nudge his arm as we start walking out the door.

“It was bad.”

“What happened?” I ask as we turn the corner back to town square.

“She said, ‘Nice weather outside, huh?’”

“Okay…I don’t see the problem.”

“My response was ‘I like coffee.’ Then I held up my cup and walked away.”

I spit out a little bit of my coffee as I try to hide my chuckle. Unsuccessfully, I might add. I wipe my hand over my mouth. “Mitchell, you’ve just got to relax and be yourself.”

“Easy for you to say.”

I bend down to let Max eat his pup cup. It’s just a cup of whipped cream as a little treat for him. “I get nervous with Cassie too.”

“Ha! I knew you liked her. Step one is admittance.”

“This isn’t a program.” I chuckle.

“It’s part of the love program.”

I shake my head. “Okay, what’s Step 2?”

“Step one: Admittance. Step two: Action.”

“Like asking her out on a date?”

Max finishes his treat, and we start walking again toward the bakery.

He nods. “Step three is accepting the inevitable heartbreak when she rejects me.”

“Mitchell, you gotta give yourself more credit. You face danger every day. A beautiful woman shouldn’t scare you.”

“I’ve known Ashley most of my life. I was friends with Cassie’s older brother so I was over at their house, and since Ashley and Cassie are best friends, I would see Ashley quite a bit too.”

My head snaps to him. “Best friends?”

“Yeah, since birth.”

Hm. I didn’t know. There’s still so much I don’t know about her. I’m moving too quickly and need to slow down my thoughts here. I just met her! Forget what I said; I need to be sane.

He continues, “It wasn’t until recently that I started having feelings for Ashley. She was just Ashley, my friend’s little sister’s best friend. Best friend-in-law if you will.”

We arrive at our cruiser to set our coffee inside while we deal with the chicken.

He continues, “And it seems dumb. I mean—I’m a decade, plus change, older than her so it probably won't turn into anything.”

“Give yourself the benefit of the doubt, Mitchell. You’re a good guy and some ladies like the gray. You’re a silver fox.” I close the driver’s side door.

“Silver what?” He looks at me like I have three heads.

“Silver Fox. It’s an older attractive guy with gray hair. You’re not quite gray yet, but you never know, she might like it.”

Mitchell stares at me.

“I have a younger sister who likes romance novels.”

“Nice cover up.”

“I’m serious.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Let’s just deal with the chicken.”

We walk to the bakery, and there’s a crowd huddled outside.

“Hey, Charity. This is Officer Ryan Hayes,” Mitchell says.

Ah, Charity. One half to the Sweet Sisters Bakery.

I stick my hand out to her. “I’ve had your donuts at Coffee Loft. They are amazing.”

“Nice to meet you, Ryan. I’m glad you enjoy them.”

“So what happened?” I ask.

“We had our front door propped open so he must have walked right in. He was terrorizing everyone so we all left and kept him contained in there,” she explains.

“Thanks, Charity, we’ll take it from here,” Mitchell says.

I peek through the bakery window to see the chicken strutting through the lobby. It’s weaving in and out of the tables and chairs.

I suppress my laughter at this absurd situation. “So arresting chicken…is that an everyday occurrence?”

“I mean, we attempt negotiation, but if that doesn’t work…”

A burst of laughter escapes me.

“I’d love to see that,” I tell Mitchell.

“Today’s your lucky day then. Just watch and learn, newbie.” Mitchell pretends to crack his knuckles.

We open the door as the chicken lets out a loud squawk and flaps itself onto a table. I instruct Max to sit and stay while Mitchell works his magic.

Mitchell moves toward the chicken slowly. “Easy now, fella,” he says softly.

When Mitchell is close enough to grab him, the chicken flutters its wings as it hops onto the counter. It scutters across in a flurry, sending a tray of cupcakes flying in the air.

“Want some help there, Mitchell? Before we risk more cupcake losses.”

Mitchell sighs. “Let’s tag team.”

I command Max to one side of the counter. I walk to the opposite side while Mitchell stands guard on the front.

“Slowly move in. We’ll corner it.”

The chicken hops off the counter. We make slow movements as we move towards it to trap it. The bell jingles on the door as a man walks in with a small crate.

“I heard Pippi snuck out again,” the man says.

“That’s alright, Earl,” Mitchell says, keeping his eyes on Pippi. “We got her cornered. Want to bring that crate over here?”

Earl brings the crate, scoops up Pippi, and closes the gate.

“Sorry, fellas. She’s an ornery one and likes to go on adventures, a mischievous one she is. Guess I should be more careful when naming my animals. This one took her name too literally.”

“No problem, Earl.” Mitchell slaps him on the shoulder. “Glad you showed up when you did.”

Earl looks around to see the frosting covering the counters, cabinets, and floors.

“Oh, sweet heavens. I’ve got to clean up that mess.”

“We’ll take care of it. Just get Pippi home.”

“Thanks, fellas.” Earl leaves with the crate in his hand and waves apologetically to Charity.

“Ready for the part of being an officer in Meadowbrook you probably also didn’t expect?” Mitchell asks.

“Icing duty?”

“Let’s help Charity by cleaning this up.”

After Mitchell and I clean up most of the mess, Charity comes in to finish up. She insists that we’ve done enough and sends us on our way with an apple turnover.

As we get to the cruiser, Mitchell answers his phone. I open the trunk and get some water for Max.

“Great, I’ll let him know,” Mitchell says, then hangs up the phone.

“Was that the chief?”

“It was someone I called about a place for you to stay. I knew they were going to have something soon but didn’t know when. The house is available now if you still need a place.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“It’s in great condition. A lot is still original, but they remodeled the kitchen and bathrooms recently. They were going to sell it but decided to rent it out instead. It includes a good size backyard for Max to run around in.”

“Sounds fantastic,” I reply with a smile. “I’m in.”

“I’ll let them know. I think it’ll be a good house for you, Hayes.”

“Awesome, thanks for looking out.”

Perfect. While the Cozy Nook Inn is nice and well, cozy, I'm looking forward to having more privacy. As for Aunt Clara, who now has insisted I call her that, I’m also ready for her to not question everything and bring up Cassie every time I get back in.