James: You don’t have to leave, baby, just come back and we can talk about it.
James: Why won’t you answer your phone?
James: You can’t just leave like this! How long are you gonna be gone? What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?
“Okay, that’s it!”
And then, just like that, my phone vanished from my hands.
“Hey!” I snapped, turning to my left, glaring at Mike, who had been nothing short of amazing all morning. He’d fed me pancakes with that smug grin of his, listened patiently while I rambled nonstop about the café—how I wanted to rearrange the layout, what new pastries I might add, even my half-baked plan for a second espresso machine. I had talked about anything and everything except James. That was the one subject that had hung like smoke between us—unspoken, but heavy.
“You’v
