A Café Au Lait Kind of Love (The Coffee Loft Series: Fall Collection), page 7
“I’ll make her as comfortable as possible and do a meet-and-greet with Ridley as soon as I’m up for it.” He found a leash inside the bag and handed it to Charleen who clipped it onto the dog’s collar while he held Peaches in his arms.
“Thanks so much,” Charleen said, backing down the steps. “Please call with a report tonight if you have time. Ginger, nice to meet you.”
He and Ginger watched Charleen’s little car wheel out of the driveway and disappear at the end of the block. Ginger, who’d grown quiet when Charleen mentioned Peaches and her cat siblings, cleared her throat.
“I wouldn’t know the first thing to do with a dog.”
“Food, water, exercise, companionship. That’s all they need.”
“Don’t forget vet appointments and grooming.” She looked down at the garbage bags stuffed to the brim. “And apparently enough toys to warrant adding another room onto your house.”
He stood, intending to carry Peaches into the house and get her used to the sights and smells of Chez Donner. Ridley, no doubt, would go bonkers. But when he stood, he wobbled on his feet and unintentionally landed back in his seat with a heavy thud.
“Cal! What’s wrong?”
Ginger rushed to him, almost tripping over Peaches’ cage. Instead, she caught her knee on the little side table.
“Oh!” She bent over double.
“Careful!” He extended his arm, but she was well past needing a steady hand. Clutching her knee, she cried out in pain…then landed in his lap.
OOOF!
Their eyes met briefly, then hers widened with horror. She popped up faster than a malware alert.
“I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?” Her complexion matched the fire engine squeaky toy peeking out the top of Peaches’ bag.
“I’m fine.” He laughed despite the drumbeat in his temples. She was as weightless as Peaches. Of course, she didn’t hurt him, but he wished he felt well enough to relish the moment.
“I should let you get back to doing what you were doing,” she said, rubbing her knee. She shook her head, still flustered. “I’m just in the way.”
On the contrary, he wished she were more in the way, his way.
“Thanks for the coffee. It’s good relief for the throat.”
That seemed to set her at ease. She took a big breath. “You’re welcome,” she said with a nod. “I also came by to let you know I submitted the application, too.”
“Great. When will you hear?”
“Two weeks.” She bounced on the balls of her feet.
“Have you thought about how you’ll use the money if you win.”
She chewed on her lip, thinking. “I’ve been mulling over the idea of a mobile truck for a while. I don’t want to necessarily commit to opening another brick and mortar location, so a truck feels right at this point.”
“There are plenty of coffee deserts around town.”
She nodded. “I’ve been doing my research.”
Of course, she had. He loved her get-up-and-go attitude.
Tugging on the leash, Peaches whined. She splayed her legs in front of her with her rump in the air.
He tipped his chin toward Peaches. “Look at that. She wants to play with you.”
“But…but I didn’t do anything.” Ginger looked skeptical. She even stepped toward the stairs.
“You must be a dog lover at heart. They can sense those things.”
“Maybe Peaches’ people-picker is off.” Ginger extended a hand toward the dog who promptly slathered it with kisses. “I’ve never had a dog, so that should be a warning to her.”
He struggled out of the chair. “I’d better get her inside.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? Can I pick up anything at the store?”
“I’ve got a whole medicine cabinet filled with stuff I never use. Best to just ride it out, whatever it is. But thank you.” Her concern and attentiveness touched him. Ginger’s forehead creased as Peaches wrapped the leash around his legs.
“Will Ridley mind her?” Ginger asked. She stared at Peaches, but he could tell her thoughts were far beyond the confines of his front porch.
“I have no idea.” He short-leashed the little dog until he could untangle himself. “Ridley tolerated Lola. Before her, Ridley hadn’t been vetted around other dogs. It’s always a gamble.”
“All relationships are, I suppose,” Ginger said under her breath, but loudly enough that he caught it. Still distracted, Ginger’s expression changed when Peaches approached again and sniffed her shoe. She bent down to ruffle the dog’s head. “Call if you need anything.”
“Thanks. I will.”
Cal scooped Peaches into his arms; he’d get the rest of her things later. He stood in the doorway, watching Ginger drive away.
She hadn’t only come to deliver a coffee. But with the chaos surrounding Peaches’ arrival and him not feeling well, he didn’t want to press her.
All relationships are a gamble, she’d said.
With the gala just a few weeks away, there wasn’t much time to see if their relationship would pay off.
12
“Our book group has been meeting at Coffee Loft for two years now. Ginger and crew keep our drink orders coming AND put up with our rowdiness. CL, we love you!” - the Madhatters
Ginger tapped a foot as she waited for the receptionist to call her and Daisy into one of the rooms the next day. With the application deadline and prepping Coffee Loft for the fall festival taking up most of her time this past week, she’d almost forgotten Daisy’s appointment for her annual shots that morning. Beside her on the floor in her carrier, Daisy mournfully peeked at her through the wire door.
“Daisy?”
A young vet assistant ushered her back into one of the rooms and weighed Daisy. While she prepped the vaccine on the other side of the room, Ginger held onto the squirming cat.
Doctor Robinson walked into the room a short time later. She’d come highly recommended when Ginger moved to Port Chance. They shared a birthday, she’d discovered, and a fondness for Maine Coon cats.
“Ginger, hello. How’s the coffee business?” Dr. Robinson draped a towel across the examination table. She signaled for Ginger to bring Daisy.
“Busy. I haven’t seen you in a while.” She soothed Daisy with scratches where it mattered most: between her ears. Daisy fought to keep her eyes open.
“My husband bought me one of those fancy espresso machines for my birthday, though I think it was just as much a gift for him as it was for me.”
“Nice.”
“I shouldn’t complain. It’s divine having a latte ready and waiting for me as soon as I step out of the shower every morning.” Dr. Robinson’s assistant held Daisy’s back end while the doctor administered the shot. They were finished in a blink without a hiss from Daisy this time.
“You should stop in to see the fall merchandise before I switch it out for the holidays. We have the cutest coffee bar accessories on display this season. Adorable wooden organizers, ceramic trivets.”
“I will. I’ve been craving a pumpkin chai for days now anyway.”
Dr. Robinson ran her hands along Daisy’s coat, lifting her chin, checking her ears and teeth. When she finished, Ginger lifted Daisy from the table and tucked her back into the carrier.
“I keep forgetting to tell you we have an acquaintance in common,” Dr. Robinson said. “Cal Donner?”
“Yes, I know Cal. He’s a long-time customer.” That buzzy sensation gripped her again like it did whenever Cal popped into her thoughts lately. Which was a lot.
“I know. I ran into him a few weeks ago as he was leaving your patio. What a great guy.”
“He is.” The grin she’d pasted on her face felt overdone, even a little manic.
“And he’s such a rockstar in the shelter world,” Dr. Robinson gushed.
“He’s definitely found his calling. Everyone gravitates toward him when he brings his dogs to the shop.”
“I’m sure. Do you follow him online?”
She let Merris handle social media for the shop since she was much more in tune to that sort of thing. Merris enjoyed it, so it was a win-win that Ginger didn’t have to bother.
“No, I don’t.”
Dr. Robinson put a hand against her chest. “Oh, my goodness. You have to see it. Here,” she said, fishing her phone from her back pocket.
When Cal’s profile appeared, she almost didn’t recognize him. The photos looked professional-grade, for one. They were colorful and alive, full of movement and joy.
Selfies with dogs of all sizes and colors she didn’t recognize.
Cal lying on a blanket outside with Ridley.
Cal and Lola.
Cal next to a mop bucket, posing like he was on the red carpet instead of in a kennel.
On Coffee Loft’s patio.
Next to the Hearts Fur Love sign.
Gobs of people surrounding him, like he was the sun to their solar system.
Hundreds of photos.
“He has forty-two thousand followers?” Her shop had a tiny fraction of that amount. She’d had a celebrity in her midst this whole time.
“Isn’t that incredible?” Dr. Robinson’s eyes popped. “The best part are the stories he tells. If you get a chance, take a look at some of his posts.”
“I had no idea.” Of course, she didn’t. She’d been too focused on pre-conceived opinions before she really got to know him.
Dr. Robinson slipped her phone back into her pocket. “He advocates so much for dogs and adopting. It’s hard not to love the guy.”
“I know.”
Who was she kidding? Exactly what did she know?
Apparently, nothing.
Before she interviewed him, she didn’t know one morsel of truth about Cal Donner, that’s what. Wait—let’s take that back. He liked café au laits, so she knew something. But even now, she’d discovered yet another facet—a huge one, at that—that had escaped her. Full of surprises, he was. And the more she learned about him, the more she couldn’t get him off her mind.
Merris stood behind the counter with the new hire, Alice, as Ginger walked into the shop after dropping Daisy off at home.
“How’s training going?” She set the tube holding the signs for the Fall Days Festival on the counter and greeted her two employees. “Are you ready to take over operations yet?” she asked Alice.
Alice laughed nervously. “Maybe by next week?”
“She’s almost memorized the entire drink menu,” Merris said. “It took me weeks.”
“I’ve been studying,” Alice said with a sheepish grin. Her tight braids accentuated her dark eyes and the upward slashes of her brows.
“So maybe you will be ready,” she assured her.
As a new college graduate, Alice hadn’t yet found a job related to her business degree, she’d told Ginger during her interview last week. She’d waitressed, worked at a home improvement store, and she was bored, frustrated, and going broke fast, she’d said.
Had Merris not recommended her, Ginger probably wouldn’t have hired Alice. She’d displayed a lack of confidence in herself during their conversations that seemed self-sabotaging. She’d also told Ginger that she dreamed of having her own coffee truck one day, hopping around the country to art fairs and farmer’s markets. Would she want to spend all this time training Alice only to lose her in a few months if another opportunity presented itself? Her employees were like family. She paid them very well and offered perks that other food establishments would find hard to top. She did this so she could retain the people she’d invested in. Turnover at Coffee Loft was next to nothing. Ginger liked to keep it that way. Initial reservations aside, she’d hired Alice the next day.
“I’ll need all the help I can get today and tomorrow with Fall Days Festival this weekend.” She popped the cap off the tube to pull out the posters that she’d picked up from the printer, unrolling one. She held it up. “What do you think?”
“Eye-catching!” Alice said.
Merris opened her mouth to say something, but snapped it shut. She peered closer at the poster. “Did you design it?”
“Not technically, but I offered my input when the Chamber people asked. Why?”
“Like, did you say, ‘Put a guy and a woman at a café table together who look like Cal Donner and me’?”
“What?!” Ginger turned the poster around to look, her heart pounding.
Yes, there was a couple on the poster, though their profiles were all wrong. She’d never wear heels to work. And purple earrings? Big nope. The man’s swooping coif stamped him as a Hollywood type despite her discovery that Cal didn’t have an ounce of pretentiousness in his body.
“They look nothing like me and Cal.”
Merris snickered. “Ginger has a secret admirer who visits the shop regularly.”
She sighed. “It’s not so secret since you harass me about him constantly.”
“Do not.”
She nodded slowly. “All. The. Time.”
Wisely, Alice stayed silent.
“Sometimes he leaves her notes on the patio table. It’s so cute.” Merris dug into her apron pocket. “I think I have one from the other day still in my pocket. Yep, here it is.”
Ginger snatched the note and buried it in her own pocket without reading it. “For all I know it’s you who’s been writing them.”
“Me?!” Merris feigned shock. “For one, that’s not my handwriting.”
She replaced the cap on the poster tube and handed it to Merris, hoping a task would shut her up.
“I need these taped onto the front door, the placard which is in the office, and the windows facing the patio, please.”
“You’ve got it, boss.” Merris’s cheeks plumped up with her barely contained smile.
She watched Merris cross the lobby to the front doors, with Alice following closely behind. Grinning, she shook her head. Brushing off Merris’s teasing had become so inconsequential that she paid it no mind. Merris and jokes were like bread and butter, so common that the day wouldn’t be the same with one and not the other.
But as a certain someone took up more and more of her head space lately, she felt herself growing self-conscious. A mere mention of Cal made her pulse buzz like a bee hive. And when she did see him, her body acted of its own accord, with all sorts of strange beats and twitches, contrary to her brain saying, stop!
Since he dropped off his testimonial the day before he got sick, she’d read it at least a dozen times so far. It was praise for Coffee Loft, but she couldn’t help wondering if he’d specifically thought of her as he wrote it. She could almost hear him speak as she read phrases like “it’s not just a destination, but an experience, thanks to Ginger Giatti’s vision” and “the personable owner and her gift for hospitality make Coffee Loft the best coffee spot in the county.” It infused her with a warmth that stayed with her throughout the day.
Now the question was this: what was she going to do about it?
She was unpacking that morning’s delivery of to-go containers and cups, mulling over her options, when Merris poked her head in the back room, wide-eyed.
“Ridley’s on the patio. Without Cal.”
13
So many accolades for Coffee Loft! Customer service is top notch, the drinks are amazing, and the atmosphere is what every coffee shop should strive for. ~ 123Gimme Coffee
Sure enough, Cal’s horse-dog had parked himself at their usual table, despite a couple sitting there who now found themselves with a furry audience while they sipped their cappuccinos.
Her heart hammered in her chest at the unexpected sight. What had happened to Cal that allowed Ridley to appear all by himself?
She hurried outside to find Ridley’s head in the man’s lap. By all outward appearances, it looked like the dog was doing a solid job as Coffee Loft’s canine ambassador, if there was such a thing. However, Ginger knew Ridley. You’re in my guy’s seat was more likely Ridley’s unspoken message.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as she ruffled Ridley’s back to coax him away.
To their credit, the man and woman took it in stride. “We’re dog lovers, so it’s no problem,” the man said.
When Ridley showed no signs of budging, she took off her belt, looped it inside Ridley’s collar, and fastened it for a makeshift leash. With Ridley in tow, she met Merris at the door.
“Can you get them a ten-dollar gift card? I’m going to run Ridley home.”
“I hope Cal’s okay,” said Merris.
“I’m sure Ridley just escaped.” She wished she was as confident of that as her words implied. "I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
It’d be faster to walk him home than maneuver the big oaf up her stairs and into her apartment so she could grab her car keys. As she started down the sidewalk toward Cal’s house, so many scenarios played havoc with her mind. Was he lying face down somewhere with Ridley’s leash in hand? Was he feeling worse, maybe on his deathbed, and forgot Ridley in the backyard, and somehow the dog escaped? Her imagination was on a roll.
When she arrived at Cal’s house, the drawn blinds and closed garage door didn’t hint at anything out of the ordinary. She knocked and listened for his footsteps.
Nothing.
She knocked again. At her side, Ridley whined and pawed at the door.
“It’s okay, buddy.” She pressed his immense head against her hip to reassure him like she’d seen Cal do on occasion, and knocked one more time. “I’m sure your dad is fine.”
At least I hope he is.
Ridley whined again when they heard the bark inside. He scratched again at the door, this time more frantically.
“Cal?” she called as she rattled the doorknob, expecting it to be locked.
But it swung inward.
Ridley tugged her inside. She lost her grip on the belt as he bolted down the hallway, running deeper into the house.
She called for Cal again as she eyed Peaches locked in her crate in the dining room, looking at her with wide moon eyes underneath her scruffy mop of hair.
