Page 3 of Wanna Bet?

Kaylee and Myah chorused, “Yes, Mom.”

Maggie rolled her baby blue eyes in exasperation but was smiling as she stepped away, the bell on the side door jingling softly behind her.

Maggie had hired Myah right out of high school. While Myah was ornery, short tempered and lacked far too many people skills, Maggie still hired her and she had stayed ever since. There was loyalty there. It’d been six years at the stand, and these girls were practically Myah’s family now.

The stand felt different the second Maggie was gone. Not quieter. The traffic still hummed and espresso machines still hissed, but the atmosphere was, looser. Like the rules had stretched just a little. Like the air itself had gone permissive. Which meant that Myah had more time to think. To breathe.

She glanced down at her phone and busied herself with her routine. Her dad had cancelled several dinners growing up, so really she shouldn't be surprised he had done it again…maybe just disappointed?

Hours passed by fast in the stand because of its chaotic nature. She usually liked it. She liked the familiarity of making the same things over and over. She liked her regulars. Some of them, she liked maybe too much.

Myah leaned against the counter, watching dust mites spin in a shaft of late-morning light, and told herself she was not watching him leave. That she didnt notice as Jace stepped back from the counter, hands curling around his paper cup like it might drift away if he loosened his grip. As he nodded his soft, almost apologetic goodbye. Or as he turned and walked toward the sidewalk instead of a car, like every sign posted within a ten-foot radius instructed customers to do.

Not watching, she thought firmly.

She absolutely watched him leave.

She watched the way he hesitated at the edge of the curb, like he wasn’t sure whether he was allowed to exist there without permission. The way he adjusted the strap of his messenger bag even though it sat perfectly fine on his broad shoulder. The way he glanced back once toward the stand, like he might have forgotten something important. Like maybe he’d forgotten her.

Myah leaned an elbow against the counter and pretended to wipe down a surface that was already spotless. She tracked him with her peripheral vision until he disappeared past the corner of the building, swallowed up by brick and ivy and the low hum of late-morning traffic.

Only then did she exhale.

“Wow.”

Myah didn’t jump. She never jumped. Jumping was for people who were surprised by the predictable consequences of staring after a cute regular like they’d just watched the final scene of a tragic romance.

She did, however, roll her eyes slowly and with purpose. “Don’t start,” she said.

Kaylee grinned from the espresso machine, all teeth and mischief and the unmistakable glow of someone who had just witnessed something deeply entertaining. She leaned her hip against the counter, arms crossed, ponytail swinging like it was in on the joke.

“Oh, I’m starting,” Kaylee said. “I’ve already started. I started the second Walk-Up Guy smiled at you like you’d personally invented coffee.”

Myah snorted. “That is not what that was.”

“Uh-huh.” Kaylee raised an eyebrow. “You watched him walk away like he was the last helicopter out of a disaster zone.”

Myah grabbed a stack of cups and shoved them into their holder with more force than strictly necessary. “You are SO dramatic. A helicopter? Kaylee, I was making sure he didn’t trip.”

Kaylee gasped. “You’re right. Thank God you joined our safety committee. Maggie would be so proud. You are doing a great job of keeping Walk-Up guy safe, even though he’s the one breaking the rules by not being in a car like a normal person.”

Myah shot her a look. “He’s not–” She stopped herself, frowned. “He’s not Walk-Up Guy.”

“Oh?” Kaylee perked up. “You named him?”

“No,” Myah said quickly. “I mean. Not like that. I just know his name.”

Kaylee’s grin widened into something dangerous. “You know his name.”

Myah pointed a finger at her. “We know a lot of people’s names. That doesn’t mean anything.”

Kaylee hummed. “Does it mean something that you remembered it after one conversation?”

Myah opened her mouth, closed it, then pivoted strategies. “He comes here every day.”

“And?”

“And I literally have his order memorized. That’s a customer service skill. I am a great barista.”