Page 11 of Finding Alfred
I opened the car door and stood there.
“Come in. Please.” He beckoned again. Obviously, Eddy was not here. “I have coffee.”
Well, those were the magic words I needed, but I still huffed as I shut the car door and headed over to the porch.
As I entered the dark house, Jackie put an arm over my shoulder. “Sorry for the ruse, but, uh, Brock and Eddy aren’t coming. It was the only way to get you over here. Oh, and he said to take the day off to make up for it.”
“Whatever. I can’t. Too much going on and this is wasting time, Jackie.”
“Just wait. I have something to show you, come on.” He walked me around to the kitchen and dining room area, where, in the corner, he had set up a café-style table. The walls around it had been painted with chalkboard paint, and he’d written on the wall.
And
He escorted me to the round table, decorated with a vase of wildflowers, a linen napkin, and a porcelain cup and saucer. Admitting it was cute was going to be hard for me, but it was and very. “What’s all this?”
“I went to Seattle and checked out the scene. I wanted to try and recreate it here, you know, so you wouldn’t want to leave. So anytime you want some good Seattle brew…” He waved at the cute corner. Light streamed in through the bottom of the window as the sun rose higher.
“Cute.” Look at me being nice. “But.”
“Yeah?”
“You said coffee, and this looks like a café, so…” I rolled my hand for him to get on with it.
Jackie smiled and bowed, then went into the kitchen that he had curtained off with a blue and white checkered material. In a minute, he returned with a fancy coffee pot and poured for me. “Oh. Cream and sugar. Hold on.” He ducked back into the kitchen and returned carrying the most beautiful cream and sugar set, blue with swirls that reminded me of a day at the beach. “These are actually yours. A gift from Seattle.”
“What?”
“Thought you might like to try them out here first, but yeah.”
He’d bought me something I actually loved. I fingered the sugar bowl before using the tiny spoon to dump some into mycoffee. I added cream, then set it back on the matching tray. “This is nice, Jackie. I love it. Uh…thank you.”
“You are more than welcome. You deserve it.”
Oh, damn, my heart. I hadn’t been fair to Jackie at all, but how did I explain it when I didn’t understand it myself? He was probably the first person in my life who thought I was actually worth something. Worth the effort. I sipped the coffee, and it was definitely not from Seattle. It was Brock’s. “This is…” I held the cup up.
“It’s Brock’s blend. But it’s so much better than anything I drank there. However, I have crumpets ordered, and you’ll have to come share them when they get here.”
“Crumpets?”
“Yeah. They’re good.”
I sighed. He’d really gone out of his way to impress me. “Jackie. Sit down, please.” When he pulled up the chair next to me, I reached for his hand and squeezed his fingers. “First. I’m sorry. I’ve been pretty cold—”
He started to deny it and shook his head, but I squeezed his fingers again. “Okay,” he said softly.
“I’ve been dealing with a lot of changes lately. You know?”
“The moving?”
“Yes. It’s been an upheaval in my life. Finding a new place to live, a new office, a new town. And I don’t do well with change.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been taking it out on you. It’s all been crazy, and I don’t know. I guess I’m still dealing with it all. I mean, hell, my new place doesn’t even have a pool, but here I am.”
“You had a pool before?”
“Yeah. I love swimming. It’s my thing. My go-to exercise but here.” I shook my head. “I guess if I stay, I can add one, but rightnow, it’s not the same. Everything is different, and I’m totally a mess.”
