The Cafe by the Bridge by Lily Malone

Author:Lily Malone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mira

CHAPTER

19

They ate dinner early at Abe’s favourite restaurant in Albany, both on a natural high after seeing the whales, and it was great, really great, until suddenly it wasn’t great anymore.

It hit Abe fast.

One moment Taylor asked him if she could try some of his citrus tart and her fork snaked towards his dessert plate. She sliced off a spoonful and started chewing.

‘Um, yeah. Help yourself,’ he said because hell, she already was.

His eyes got stuck on her mouth, that sexy bottom lip that felt so good when he sucked it, nibbled it—

‘What do you think of the tart?’ he asked her, to stop himself thinking about her mouth.

‘Oh, you know, it’s round,’ and she rolled her eyes.

It cracked them both up. Had her holding her stomach and him thinking about how much he’d miss her when she went back to Perth and, whump, he was flat as a lid on a tin can.

He was quiet on the drive home. Quiet when Taylor pulled her car into Ella’s place.

He played with Bruno for a while in the cold air, throwing a stick—the wind had died away to nothing—and rubbing the dog’s ruff.

‘Can I get you anything?’ Taylor asked when he came inside.

‘No, thanks. I’m good.’

She’d taken off her boots, and she looked so small behind Ella’s galley bench. Small and a bit lost. Like he felt.

‘So—’ he started.

‘Thanks—’ she said at the same time.

Both of them stopped, and she waved her hand. ‘You first.’

‘So … I guess I was wondering what we do now?’

She didn’t make him spell it out, which was something he liked about her. She didn’t pretend he was talking about anything other than what the two of them would do with this—this interesting fluttering thing—growing between them.

‘I don’t want to go back to Perth tomorrow,’ she said, ‘but I have to. Ella’s coming home and anyway, I’ve got work.’

‘You’ve got a life in the city,’ he supplied.

‘I do.’ She sighed. ‘It’s not going to be easy, Abe.’

He’d felt that at the restaurant. He’d felt that in the car driving home. He felt it now. ‘Nothing good ever is.’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t believe that. Relationships—when they’re the right ones—they should be easy. They won’t always be smooth.’

‘You feel easy to me, Doc.’

The briefest smile. ‘That’s good. I’m glad. I’ll miss you.’

Then he didn’t know where to go. What were they signing up for here? She lived three hours away. She wasn’t losing her shit when morbid songs played on the radio, even if he was all de-sensitised now.

He was a screw-up who knew more about the odds on picking the trifecta at the Melbourne Cup than he should; and she was special. Too special for a loser like him.

‘You could visit, Abe. Come stay with me. Next weekend if you’d like. No pressure.’

‘Weekends are tricky. Café’s open Tuesday to Sunday.’

‘Come Sunday after closing time. I can take Mondays off if I juggle my schedule. How does that sound?’ She cocked her hand on her hip. ‘And if you say “it sounds round” I’m wrestling you.

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