Page 42 of Common Grounds

My eyebrows pinch together a little. “How so?”

She looks at me as if I’m a complete idiot. “They’re here to see the hot coffee shop owner,” she explains. “They…” she trails off, shakes herself a little, then continues. “They saw your picture and wanted to check you out for themselves, I’m sure.”

I’m going to try very hard to ignore the fact that she just called me hot.

“And here I thought they came in for the excellent lattes,” I tease.

She takes another long sip of hers, her tongue darting out to touch the end of the straw before her lips close around it. Watching her drink her coffee is doing things to me I’m also trying to ignore.

Almost as if she knows it, she doesn’t break eye contact as she draws the straw further into her mouth and takes a long, slow sip. Some of the creamy coffee lands on her bottom lip as she removes the straw from her mouth. She smiles almost imperceptibly as she licks the drop and hums, satisfied.

This woman is burning me from the inside out. I force myself to look away just as she says something I don’t catch in my haze of desire.

I clear my throat before turning my attention back to her. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

She eyes me as if she knows exactly what she’s doing to me. To be fair, the entire world probably knows what she’s doing to me. “I said, did you see the comments section of the article yesterday?”

“No,” I respond. “I thought you were never supposed to read the comments.”

She chuckles. “That’s generally sound advice,” she concedes. “But I’m trying to go viral, so I’m…” she trails off again, then recovers. “I’m monitoring it.”

That seems reasonable. I nod as she continues. “Anyway, it blew up yesterday. Most of the commenters appeared to be women interested in meeting you.” Her eyes sparkle a little as she regards me. The women by the window switch to more hushed tones, but the difference in volume is actually more conspicuous than if they had kept talking loudly. Emery gives me a pointed look, and I shrug.

“It’s not like I’ve never had women check me out before.”

“Well, I’d say you should get ready for more.” She idly twirls her pen around on the table next to her laptop. “There were over four hundred comments the last time I looked.”

My eyes practically bulge out of my head. “Four hundred?”

Emery nods as she bites her lip. God, what I wouldn’t do to be that lip.

No, Trevor. Focus.

“So, what does that mean for clicks?” I ask, hoping that means she’s a lot closer to her goal.

A slow smile spreads across her face. It changes her whole appearance. If I thought she was gorgeous before, she’s absolutely stunning now, smiling at me, eyes twinkling with pride and mischief.

“Three hundred thousand,” she says.

Overjoyed for her, I jump out of my seat and let out a whoop. The other women laugh, then stand to throw their trash away as two more women, a little older than the other three, enter the shop.

I turn back around to catch Emery shooting daggers at the newcomers until she realizes I’m watching her. She schools her face into a neutral expression, but I saw it. I’m sure I did.

Is she… jealous? She sure looked jealous.

I temper my smile. “So,” I force myself to stay on-topic. “That brings you to, what? Three hundred and fifty thousand?”

“Yeah. Not as good as I’d hoped for at the halfway point, but not so far in the hole that I can’t dig us out.”

Us. Now that’s something. Today is full of wins.

I catch James starting to edge his way toward the office out of the corner of my eye. Emery dips her chin toward him. “I think you’re going to have to deal with this situation pretty soon,” she suggests.

I scrape a frustrated hand down my face as the new women move toward the counter. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Will you excuse me for a moment?”

Emery pops an earbud back in. “Take your time. I came in to work.” She waves at her screen. “I thought it might help me set the mood to write here.” She pauses with her second earbud halfway to her ear. “Is that okay?” she asks.

I grin at her. “That’s a great idea. Stay as long as you like.”

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