Callie stared blankly at Leah as if she couldn’t remember why she was there.
Leah’s smile faded a little bit and she reached over the counter to squeeze Callie’s hand. Then she quickly brought her a coffee and a box of doughnuts.
A box.
Tanner had to smile. Leah was good people. Really good.
Arms loaded, Callie turned to go but the guy reached out and stopped her with a hand on her arm.
Why didn’t the asshole back off? It was pretty obvious to Tanner that’s what Callie wanted, so why wasn’t he getting out of her face?
Instead, the guy said something to her, smiled, and then leaned in even closer, looking like he planned on kissing her cheek.
Callie instantly recoiled, her body language screaming “go away.” Jesus. How was the asshole missing the fact that she didn’t want him to touch her, much less kiss her?
Then it went fubar.
As Callie pulled back, she tripped over the blonde’s foot and stumbled. Her coffee went flying one way, her box of doughnuts the other way. Luckily neither hit anyone, just the floor, but the mess was pretty spectacular.
People scattered, including the ex and the blonde. They walked out together arm in arm, holding their coffees, not paying much attention to the carnage they’d left behind.
Shit. Tanner rose and moved toward Callie, who was now attempting to clean up.
“Don’t,” she said when he crouched at her side to help.
He took the box from her and scooped up the last of the mess.
“Tanner—”
“Shh,” he said. He took the entire mess to the trash. When he got back to Callie, she was standing right where he’d left her. She had crumbs down her front along with a few splatters of coffee.
“Did you burn yourself?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Sure?”
She stopped shaking her head to nod it.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll get you another breakfast.”
This seemed to snap her out of it. “No,” she said. “Thanks, though. I think I’m just going to go back to bed and start the day over another time. Like maybe next year.”
He smiled and ducked down a little to look into her pretty green eyes. “You’re not that person,” he said softly, taking her hand. “You don’t bury your head in the sand.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” she said with a humorless laugh. “I can bury my head with the best of them.” She pulled free, but she did it slowly, almost reluctantly, not jerking away as she had with that other guy. “And you do remember me from high school.” She said this in an accusatory voice that told him she’d been steaming about that since he’d last seen her.
“Of course,” he said.
“Of course.” She snorted.
“That’s funny?” he asked
“No one remembers me from high school. I was the nerd, the bookworm.”
“I remember you,” he said firmly.
“Yeah, probably because some of your fellow football players paid me to do their homework.”
“Yeah, they did,” he said. “Because you were cute.”
She blinked as if he’d stunned her speechless and he smiled. “But you were off limits to me.”
“Why?”
“For one thing, you were way too good for the likes of me,” he said, and had the pleasure of seeing her quick smile.
She had a really great smile when it included her eyes. “So who was he?” he heard himself ask.
“Who?”
He gave her a get-real look.
“Oh, you mean that guy who was just here?” she asked.
“No, I mean the Easter Bunny.”
She sighed. “My ex-almost-husband.”
He remembered what she’d said during their love-wasn’t-for-her talk. I got all the way to the altar before I got beat to shit. Hell. “That was the guy you were engaged to?” he asked.
“Right up until the day he got cold feet,” she said way too casually.
He craned his neck and eyed the door. He couldn’t have gotten far. “Want me to go beat the shit out of him?”
She laughed. “Yes, please.” Then she stared at him. “Wait. You’re kidding, right?”
Not in the slightest.
She took in his expression and laughed again, this one low and a little bit ragged. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s asked me in a while,” she said, but she shook her head. “And thanks but no. I’m good. I’m actually going to get going. See you.” Then she turned and ran right into two people coming in the door.
Tanner grimaced for her as she backed up, apologized profusely, and tried again.
To be safe, Tanner stepped forward with her, setting a hand on her back, guiding her out after opening the door for her.