When Two Hearts Collide (Game of Hearts Novels Book 3)

by Sonya Loveday

  Cherry grabbed her by the shoulders with a high-pitched squeak of excitement. “The shop is going to be in one of the upcoming gazettes. You know, the one where the guy goes around checking out local businesses, and events—reports what he finds, but never lets on who he is or why he’s there?” Cherry was pretty much babbling.

  Charlotte gasped. “No!”

  “Yes! He was just here. Seems Charlie hooked him up and he couldn’t be more impressed with the service, or the coffee.”

  Charlotte spun on me, eyes gleaming with excitement. “What did you serve him?”

  “He wanted a Plain Jane,” I said, hesitating at telling the truth.

  “But… we don’t have a ‘Plain Jane’ on the menu,” she replied, brows pulling together.

  Time to be honest. “I know, but he seemed really out of sorts with all the flavors and such.”

  “So you served him regular coffee? But we don’t have regular coffee.” Charlotte looked puzzled.

  I bristled. Did she really think I didn’t put my all in making a cup of coffee she’d be proud of? “Luv, there was nothing regular about it. I used the Kona. Added in some of the raw sugar and steamed the milk. Smelled pretty damn good too.”

  “You should probably add that one to the board,” Cherry said, nodding to her own suggestion.

  “He liked it? Like, really liked it?” Charlotte asked, as if she couldn’t wrap her head around the idea.

  “He made a point to tell me he did after he explained what he came in for,” I answered with a bit of pride.

  “Did we have it? What he came in for, I mean,” she asked, chewing on her thumbnail.

  Cherry made a weird face. “No, but it’s something we wouldn’t really carry.”

  “Well, what was it? I should probably put in on my list of things to order.” Charlotte huffed with something like aggravation, or maybe self-annoyance.

  It was then I realized she was picking apart every fine detail of what transpired the way women always did, needing to know everything that happened so they felt like they were there.

  “Lord, Jesus, woman. Char, it was a shirt for Florida… the one about winter not coming?” Cherry smirked. “Calm your tits, will ya?”

  The wind went out of Charlotte’s sails as a true smile broke across her lips. “Oh. Well, in that case, never mind,” she said with a small wave of her hand. She stopped, eyebrows cutely creasing together again, and then added, “But what I don’t understand is how he was impressed with us after not having what he was looking for, and for not serving his type of coffee.”

  Cherry jerked her thumb in my direction. “The reporter was impressed with him. He must have told me three times how lucky we are to have him here. How it was nice of Charlie to not only find what he was looking for, but also to help him make the purchase online. Seemed he really did want that shirt for his daughter. You’re lucky it was Charlie who helped him. I would have just written the website down and wished him good luck.”

  The praise made me a tad uncomfortable. I didn’t do anything remotely what you’d call above and beyond. I merely helped a customer who’d looked like he was at his wit’s end.

  “Thank you, Charlie,” Charlotte said. Her smile was contagious. I found my lips curling up in response.

  “May I make a suggestion?” I asked, wondering if she’d think I was overstepping my bounds.

  “I think you’re entitled after all your help today,” she answered, eyes twinkling.

  I turned my back to her, spread my arms wide, and said, “Ye have a lot of really neat stuff here. It’s just… there’s not a lot here for blokes. Ye could put a section, just that side of the brick wall, for Star Wars stuff. Maybe a life-sized Chewbacca that tourists would come and take a picture with. Might help bring in a few more sales. And regular coffee. Some people are flavored challenged.”

  There was silence when I finished. I hesitated for a moment to school my features before I turned around. They were looking at one another in what appeared to be some sort of silent conversation.

  They turned to me after first one shrugged, and then the other.

  “I couldn’t do it all at once, but some of it might be possible. And an excellent idea too,” Charlotte said, sounding like her brain was already spinning with ideas.

  Cherry looked past us to the counter. “Got a customer. Good thinking, Charlie. I’ve been saying this place needed a little testosterone,” she said, rushing off.

  We watched her go, neither moving away. Neither making a real attempt to look at one another. I couldn’t let it go on though. The last thing I wanted was for Charlotte to be uncomfortable around me. I still had a better part of two weeks to be under her feet.

  “I’d like to apologize to ye, luv,” I said.

  At the same time, she said, “I’m sorry, Charlie.”

  We grinned at each other.

  “No, really. I shouldn’t have reacted how I did. I’m glad you’re here, and not just because of your help with the reporter,” she said, her tone genuine.

  “Anything to help a fellow bar owner out… even if it is a coffee bar.”

  She smiled the kind of smile that could light up an arena, and it was one I wanted to memorize. A smile that filled every dark, hollow spot inside me. I realized as much as I loved seeing her smile, I loved making her smile even more. An odd feeling for me, that.

  “Excuse me, but if you’re not busy, I could use some help,” a woman said, appearing beside Charlotte.

  “Oh, yes, how can I help you?” Charlotte asked, giving her full attention to the customer.

  I left them as the customer went into a full-blown story about her granddaughter’s upcoming birthday and what sorts of things the shop had to suit said granddaughter’s age.

  Coffee was safer. Coffee didn’t ask questions.

  Throughout the rest of the day, I kept to myself, minding the coffee station and watching Cherry and Charlotte interact with customers.

  But mostly, watching Charlotte.

  She was a force of nature, yet pure. Innocent. She made people smile. Made people laugh. Her inner light was contagious, and she somehow knew just what to say or what to offer them that made their faces light up with giddiness. It was almost as if she was a people whisperer, and that was a side I would have never seen if it had been just the two of us.

  Every so often, she’d look over at me, almost as if checking to see if I was still there, and the smile she wore would waver slightly. A look I couldn’t quite put my finger on… sadness maybe… would fill her eyes, and I realized, at that moment, I made her nervous. Uncomfortable even, because we both knew there was something between us, and all I had to do was put a little more charm on her, and she’d cave.

  I felt like a complete ass.

  She was a comet, brightly lit, that would streak across my life’s sky only a handful of times. I wasn’t meant to hold a comet. I was only meant to admire her. To watch her longingly from a distance and dream about the next time I’d be gobsmacked.

  Because that was what comets did. They wowed you. Dazzled you. Left you.

  I didn’t get left. I left. It was easier that way. Less sloppy. No feelings involved. It was simple pleasure and nothing more.

  Nothing would be simple with Charlotte. Nothing.

  I needed to keep reminding myself of that before I went and broke all of my own rules.

  “SO WHAT ARE YOU GUYS up to tonight?” Cherry asked after locking the front door to the shop.

  I looked up from the register in somewhat of a daze. The orange-tinged lights from the street lamps cut through the shop windows like beacons. Somewhere past the orange glow, stars were beginning to pull the covers back from sleep, yawning to wake up and put on their best sparkle. I wonder what kind of coffee a star would drink? If it could drink, I thought, giving myself a mental shake to clear out my over-active imagination.

  “I don’t have any plans,” Charlie said, looking to Cherry and then me.

  They were both staring at me, w
aiting. Cherry had that look in her eyes. That Puss in Boots, glassy-eyed stare that always did me in.

  Damn her.

  Even her lip did that little quiver thing when she really wanted something.

  I closed the register and took my apron off. “I was going to ask Charlie what he wanted to do, since he’s the guest and I owe him one,” I said, feeling a hurricane of nerves building in my stomach when I looked over at him. An electric feeling that just wouldn’t go away.

  Cherry’s smile settled into a wide grin. “That works out perfectly then,” she said as she approached Charlie. “How’s the tailbone?”

  His forehead creased a little. “Sore. Why?”

  Cherry gathered her hands behind her back and toed the floor in a small circle as she said in an innocent tone, “Well… there’s this little party being thrown at a friend’s house—”

  A valley took up residence between my eyebrows. “What friend?” I cut in. “The only parties you go to are the ones we plan together. No one else trusts you enough with their property.”

  She spun around, giving me the ‘give her a second to explain’ eyes. “Which is what I was getting at,” she said as she turned back to Charlie. “So anyway… this party is like the bomb dot com. All the drinks you could want. Laughter. Good music.” She stopped and tilted her head to the side. “Wait… have you ever been to a house party?”

  “I don’t think I have,” Charlie said, scratching at his head.

  She did a small, excited dance. “Good. See! This is working out perfectly. You don’t go on vacation to do the same things you’ve done back home. And what better way to hang out with Charlotte and her best gal pal then to come to one of our famous house parties?”

  “Our?” I recited, already realizing where this was going. As fast an oven can go from cold to hot, consider me on broil. “Cherry…” I said through my teeth, knowing my eyes had to be popping out from my skull.

  She turned, already pulling from her arsenal of excuses and well-practiced pleading. “Char, you don’t have to worry about a thing. I already made a few calls earlier and took care of everything. Everyone will be there and they’ve been told it’s BYOB, so I don’t have to make any pit stops. And you just have to show up. That’s all. And then ‘ole Charlie boy can see your beautiful home and kick back. Besides, you said you owed him one.”

  I could hurl something at her. Him, too, because he didn’t seem to mind either with his glowing smile and chipper posture. And maybe at myself, because I wasn’t sure why I was so upset about it. Cherry did this all the time, and it never bothered me. So why now?

  Charlie looked over at me, and I could see in his gaze he was up for it. “Are you okay with it?” I asked him anyway, feeling a little weird about taking him to my house. I never had issues with bringing a guy over before. Never really put much thought into it past having a good time. But he was going to meet the crowd I hung around. The people I could really let loose with.

  And what if he thought I was completely bat-shit crazy?

  “Sounds brilliant,” he said with an easy shrug.

  I relented. “Well, I guess I could use a drink.”

  Cherry clapped her hands together as she said, “Yes! Great! I knew you’d come through. So, I’ll see you there?” She looked between Charlie and me.

  “Yeah,” I said, and then headed to my office to grab the rest of my things.

  Ten minutes or so later, after locking up and getting in my car, Charlie turned to me and said, “If ye don’t want to, we don’t have to. Ye can just take me home.”

  “I do, if you want to,” I said, trying not to ruin the night for him. I felt like I was caught between a rock and a hard place.

  “I do. Might do me some good to feel young again.”

  “You can’t be that old,” I said with a small laugh as I pulled onto the highway, music softly floating through the speakers.

  “Try me.”

  “Twenty-five?”

  He shook his head.

  “Twenty-six?”

  He stared at me.

  “Really? What? Twenty-eight?”

  “Bingo,” he said, finger in the air. “Not too far from thirty.”

  “That’s not that old,” I answered.

  “Says the…” He turned and looked me up and down. “What are ye? Twenty-three?”

  A lopsided grin took over my mouth. “Yeah. You’re a good guesser,” I said, counting the age gap between us before wondering why it even mattered.

  “It comes with age,” he joked, shifting slightly in his seat.

  I laughed, feeling a momentarily odd sensation wash over me. Like the world was settling into place around us. Like walking into a nice cold room after being left out in the sun all day. “Well, old man, I guess a little party to help you feel young would do you some good then.”

  “I know of a few things I could do to knock a few years off the way I feel.” His night-dark tone lit me like a match held to the hissing vapor of an unlit pilot light.

  I kept my eyes forward, wishing I didn’t know he was looking in my direction, as I tried to tame the unattractive blend of nervous laughter and rosy cheeks I had switched into. My mind instantly teleported back to the night I’d all but lost myself in his arms. The way his lips had moved over my skin with expert precision. How his hands knew just where to touch.

  And just when to pull away… forever.

  “Do you need anything before we head to my place?” I asked, coughing to cover the slight squeak to my voice.

  “No.”

  “Okay,” I said, turning up the radio to try to quiet the voices rioting in my mind.

  He leaned forward and turned the volume back down. I bumped the AC dial up, wondering why it was so hot all of a sudden. I had to glue my hands to the steering wheel to keep from going one step further and pulling at the collar of my shirt for some relief.

  “So, do ye like to throw a lot of parties?” he asked, turning a little in his seat to face me. Rain started pelting against the roof like tiny bombs of warning for the storm to come.

  “We like to celebrate after our bouts. It just sort of became a thing from there. Party at Charlotte’s,” I said with a small, nervous laugh. I risked a glance in his direction and instantly regretted it. He was doing that thing again. Staring at me as if I were the most interesting person in the world. Making me feel like I was back in high school again. All nerves and doubt when it came to the opposite sex. “What about you?” I asked, just to get him to quit looking at me like that.

  “Me?”

  “Yeah. Do you ever throw parties?

  “Luv, I work at a bar. Every day is practically a party.”

  I could palm my forehead. “Stupid question,” I said under my breath, thinking this is going to be a perfect story in my diary to look back on one day.

  Girl meets boy. Girl likes boy. Girl thinks boy likes her, but then thinks he doesn’t. Then thinks he does when he shows up again. Then she ruins it with her awkwardness and self-doubt.

  Typical.

  It was like a standard or something for every girl to go through at least once in her life. Like some sort of test or something, and I always hated tests.

  “Are ye always like this when yer nervous?”

  My mouth dropped open a little. I know my heart skittered to a stop. “Who said I was nervous?” I asked, slightly defensively.

  “Yer body language, luv. If the wheel were alive, it’d surely be dead with that grip of yers. And yer lip’s gonna bleed any second if ye don’t quit biting at it like that,” he said, pointing at my mouth.

  These two weeks… they were going to be the death of me. I hardly ever got flustered. Rarely ever felt like an over-filled pot of water left on the stove unattended. But between him and Cherry poking and prodding, things were about to reach the boiling point.

  The rain grew louder. It beat harder against the roof until I almost couldn’t hear myself think. My words were like bumper cars banging against the inside of my mouth
, trying to be the first one out. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing, but I also didn’t want to say the right thing… the truth.

  “Charlotte?” he asked, the worry in his voice breaking me in half. I couldn’t avoid it anymore. Couldn’t pretend like it had never happened.

  Like he hadn’t hurt me.

  “We can’t all be cool, calm, and collected like you, Charlie. It must be nice for things to never bother you. To meet women, pick them apart, and then decide, like you’re some kind of god or something, whether or not they’re worth your time.”

  “Never been called a god before.” He chuckled, wrenching my nerves a little tighter.

  When he reached out and put his hand on my arm, I jumped as if a live wire touched my skin.

  “Yer a bit jumpy, luv. I was just going to tell ye, I think you have it wrong. I’m no god. More like the devil most days.” He gave my arm a gentle squeeze before letting go.

  “Sorry, sitting next to you unwinds me a little.” I paused for a breath, chest heaving up and down. “Okay, maybe a lot. But what am I supposed to think?” I asked, looking over at him as I rolled to a stop at the light.

  The light filled the car, washing over our skin and turning it an angry shade of red.

  “I remember, you know. You pushed me away, Charlie. I mean, I know we had only just met, and I knew you were a playboy. I guess I read into things a little more than I should have.” I dropped my chin to my chest. “It wasn’t the fact you rejected me shortly after we got undressed. I can handle that. It was that you said you’d call, and you didn’t.” I looked over at him. “Even as a friend… something I thought we were at least.”

  He didn’t say anything right away, and really, I didn’t expect him to. I expected him to want to go home. To want to change his flight to tomorrow and get as far away from me as possible, because no one ever liked to hear how they’d let someone else down.

  “Is that what ye think of me, luv?” he asked, his eyes not hiding the hurt.

  I glanced down at my hands, the rain reflecting off my red skin, making them look almost as if they were on fire. “Yes,” I admitted, feeling like a weight had been lifted off my chest. It was out in the open. Done. No more hiding. No more elephant in the room.