Page 39 of Chocolate Cherry Cabin

Louis?

With a bounce in her step she called out a cheery hello to inflatable Frosty the Snowman as she passed, heading directly to the front door to pull down the note.

I should get your phone number. The Chinese food I ordered is getting cold. If you’re hungry you know where to find me.

Hannah tried to fight her grin and lost.

Oh, she was hungry all right. Not just for the meal, but for the companionship and having a man look at her like she might be something he’d want to consume.

Her head popped up. Whoa. Where hadthatthought come from?

With burning cheeks, she reread the note. Louis still had that same scratchy, barely readable handwriting he’d had in high school. She’d been certain their group labs done in chemistry would fail because of his illegible scrawl and had insisted she write out every report herself.

For a moment she stood on her steps, undecided. She was playing with fire. People didn’t change, and he’d been the thorn in her side all through school, a man who wanted and valued different things. If she went over to his place—like she wanted to—would she be getting into something she had no intention of pursuing?

But if she didn’t go over...

Empty house. Soup for supper. Painting a room blue. Alone.

Ugh.

She wanted to spend time with Louis. To poke at him and be poked back. To laugh and kiss and carry on like she hadn’t with a man in a very long time—since high school chemistry class, minus the kissing, in fact.

Plus she had to admit she was really curious about where this new friendship between them might go.

Unlocking the door, Hannah unleashed Obi and set him free inside, fighting the doubts racing through her mind. Before she followed him in, a familiar voice called from next door, “Your furry Jedi master is welcome if he wants to come, too.”

Hannah leaned over the porch railing to get a better look at Louis’s house. He had opened his screenless kitchen window and was hanging out to chat. It was so old-school she had to laugh.

She really needed to give that man her phone number.

“Okay,” she hollered. “Can I bring anything?”

“Do you have any more cookies?”

She shook her head.

Mrs. Fisher, the waitress from the Longhorn Diner, was out walking her dog and she paused, her gaze moving from Hannah to Louis and back again. “Has Calvin gone to France?”

“He’ll be back on Tuesday.”

Mrs. Fisher knew that. She knew everything that went on in Sweetheart Creek. She was fishing for gossip.

“Do you have the night off?” Hannah checked her watch. Dinner rush. She should be at the diner.

“I do.”

“Not even any gingerbread men?” Louis called.

“Actually, I might have some muffins in the freezer. I can…donate some—for you to take to the concert,” She added the last part quickly, hoping Mrs. Fisher wouldn’t get the wrong idea about her and Louis. All that was happening here was friendship. With the odd kiss thrown in.

“I didn’t realize you were dating again,” Mrs. Fisher said with a sly smile.

“I’mnotdating.” Hannah could hear the indignation in her voice, and then Louis’s window slammed shut.

The woman nodded, her expression utterly unconvinced as she continued on with her dog.

Hannah glanced at Louis’s closed, vacant window. She told herself it was just an old window that needed a lot of force to be opened and closed, and that the slam wasn’t indicative of how she’d inadvertently offended him. Because he wasn’t dumb. He should understand that whatever it was that they were playing at, it was never going to be real.

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