The Cafe at Beach End by RaeAnne Thayne

Author:RaeAnne Thayne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises ULC
Published: 2023-04-17T17:53:35+00:00

19

Meredith

She had actually carried on a cordial conversation with her cousin.

Meredith almost couldn’t believe it. She held her breath, not wanting anything to spoil the sheer wonder of the past half hour.

It hadn’t been perfect. Tori still seemed to look at her with thinly veiled suspicion, but their conversation about Frances and the summers spent together with her seemed to have at least helped them achieve some sort of cease-fire.

She didn’t want the moment to end. Too bad they were done priming for the night and had to let it dry before they could tackle the first coat of actual paint.

She wanted to hug Liam for nudging the conversation to the safer ground of their past, when the world had been right between them.

“Thank you both for helping tonight. Without you, I would have been here for hours,” she told Liam and Tori after they finished stowing the paint supplies in the storeroom off the kitchen.

“My pleasure,” Liam said.

Somehow she believed him.

“I can come back to help you paint in the morning,” Tori offered. “I can be here about eight, after I get Em off to school.”

“I’m free too. Just have to walk Jasper first.”

Their willingness to help touched her deeply. “That would be great. Thank you. If we do the first coat early enough, we should be able to let it dry for a few hours and finish the final coat in the afternoon. We can open all the windows and let it air out all evening before the café reopens on Tuesday.”

“Good plan,” Tori said. “I’ll see you in the morning, then.”

She headed for the door. Before she walked through, she paused briefly, then turned around wearing a guarded smile. “This was a good idea. Something I should have thought to do a long time ago.”

With that, she left, leaving Meredith almost breathless with joy.

One small act couldn’t atone for all the harm she had caused Tori but it was a start, wasn’t it?

“That went well, didn’t it?” Liam said after she left. “Nobody brandished any kitchen knives anyway.”

She had to laugh. “Not this time.”

The two of them were alone in the kitchen, the café quiet and still around them. She was suddenly intensely aware of him, this gorgeous guy who had been so kind to her.

She remembered the night they had scrubbed the walls, when she had thought he meant to kiss her. Her toes curled in her sneakers. If he tried to kiss her right now, she didn’t think she would be able to resist.

She wouldn’t want to resist.

“Thanks again for all your help.” She busied herself making sure all the lights were out and the doors and windows locked.

“It was really no problem. I enjoyed hearing you and your cousin reminisce. Sounds like you two were quite the pair.”

“I had forgotten some of those things. It’s funny but after I stopped spending much time here, the memories faded. Some of the details, anyway. It was good to recapture some of them.”

He took a step closer and her stomach jumped with nerves.

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