Espresso (A Zion Sawyer Cozy Mystery Book 3) by M.L. Hamilton

Author:M.L. Hamilton [Hamilton, M.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-28T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

He made it back to Main before he was scheduled to open the hardware store. He detoured down the street and opened the door to the Caffeinator. The coffee shop’s morning rush had ended and Zion stood on a step ladder, stringing black tinsel around the bar door frame that led to the kitchen. Dottie gave him a smile as she pounded on dough.

“Hey, sugar, can I get you a mint mocha chip Frappuccino?”

“Can you make it hot rather than cold?” he asked, frowning as Zion teetered on the ladder. He hurried around the counter and steadied her. “You’re gonna break your neck.”

She finished affixing the last pin and hopped down, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. “Oooh, you’re cold.”

He felt Dottie’s smiling eyes on them as he encircled Zion’s waist and drew her closer, nuzzling her throat. “You could warm me up,” he whispered against her ear.

She shoved him back. “Not in front of the customers.”

When he looked at the customers, they were all smiling and didn’t seem to mind.

“Wait here,” she told him. She hurried through the bar doors and into the back.

Tate moved around the counter and leaned on it as Dottie finished his drink. She set it in front of him and he took out some money, but she waved it off. “Keep our girl off the ladder and I’ll buy.”

“That may be easier said than done,” he said, looking around at the decorations. Fake cobwebs draped off the glass counter top and a fuzzy black spider hung directly over the cash register. Decals of smiling black kittens sitting inside pumpkins were affixed to the windows and cutouts of puppies wrapped in mummy bandages were stuffed into the corners of the picture frames. Orange and black tablecloths covered the bistro tables and a small pumpkin candle sat in the middle of each one.

Zion appeared out of the back, carrying a bag overflowing with more Halloween decorations. “Take these down to your shop. When I get off, I’ll come down and help you decorate.”

He gave the bag a weary look, then took it. “No ladders,” he said.

“How are we going to hang the pumpkin lights then?” she said, placing her hands on her hips.

“Pumpkin lights?”

“Pumpkin lights.”

Dottie chuckled and went back to beating her dough.

“If I let you do this to my shop, I want something in return,” he said, giving her a stern look.

“What?” she replied, scandalized.

“I want you to go bowling with me at Spare Me the Lanes.”

“The bowling alley?” she asked in horror.

“That’s the one.”

“With rental shoes in two different tones?” She shuddered. “And chili cheese fries?”

Dottie and Tate both laughed. “I even have my own bowling glove,” he said. “And a custom made ball.”

She gave him a disgusted look. “If I’d have known that, I would have said no to our first date.”

He leaned on the counter, bringing himself close to her. “Pumpkin lights for bowling shoes, Zion,” he said in a growl. “You decide.”

She licked her bottom lip. “Fine,” she said a little breathlessly.

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