Page 31 of Starcrossed Colorado

She just stared another moment before going to the espresso machine. “Wow. How gentlemanly. I’ve known the guy most of my life, and he’s never givenmeany of his clothing to wear. He must really like you.”

I barked a laugh. It was loud enough that a few heads turned. “He’s barely starting to tolerate me.”

“Still. For Ashford, that’s quick progress.”

Piper passed my latte over, and I stepped aside while she helped another customer. Taking a sip, I glanced at a display, which held an assortment of gifts for book lovers. There were bookmarks, mugs, stickers. But the notebooks with beautiful covers caught my eye. Made me miss my journal. Maybe I’d have time to run back home and get it before babysitting.

Then I saw a notebook with iridescent unicorns all over the cover, and that gave me an idea.

When the register was free, I grabbed the unicorn notebook and set it on the counter. “I’ll take one of these, too.”

“Excellent choice.” Piper rang me up. “I have a break in a bit. Want a sandwich? I make amazing paninis, and they’re huge. I’ll share one with you. On the house.”

“You have a bad habit of giving free food to paying customers.”

“What can I say? Food is my love language.”

I weighed my options. I’d meant to run by my apartment. But sharing a sandwich with my friend sounded so inviting. “I’d love that.” I already knew she’d refuse any more money from me,so I added several bills to the tip jar. “I just have to be back at Ashford’s in an hour. I’m babysitting Maisie.”

“Hold on, Ashford is trusting you to babysit Maisie?”

“Ouch. And I thought you liked me.”

She shook her head. “It’s not you. You’re totally trustworthy. Ashford’s the problem. If he accepts you, you’rein. But he does everything he can to keep peopleout. He usually needs to know someone for, like, a year before he’ll leave his daughter with them.”

I shrugged. “He seemed pretty desperate.”

Piper hummed thoughtfully.

Fifteen minutes later, we were tucked into a corner table with gooey cheese oozing onto our fingers. “You’re a wizard with a sandwich,” I said with my mouth full. “If I dated women, I’d be asking you to marry me right now.”

“Sadly, even if I dated women, I would say no. Because I willneverget married again. But since you brought up the topic of dating…”

“Uh oh.”

“Can we talk about Ashford again for a sec?”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t seem to realize how remarkable it is that he gave you his own clothing to keep you warm.Andhe’s letting you take care of his little girl.”

“He also made me a cup of tea. It doesn’t mean anything.”

She set her sandwich down on the butcher paper it had been wrapped in. “Acup of tea?”

“Don’t make it something it’s not. You were there at the brewery last week. You know I’m not his favorite person.”

“Mmhmm. But things change fast, it seems.” Piper took another dainty bite of her sandwich. “If he were interested, would you?”

“Would I what?”

“You know.” She pumped her eyebrows. “Take a ride on that stallion.”

I coughed as a glob of cheese nearly went down the wrong way.

“I would be tempted,” I said once I could finally speak again. “He’s a good-looking guy. Don’t get me wrong. But the last time I fell into bed with an older man, it didn’t end well.”

“The ex you mentioned before?”

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