And the Greatest of These Is Love: A Contemporary Christian Romance Novel (40 page)

Hoping for some earth-shattering new information that would instantly launch his career into the stratosphere, he read three posts, focusing and concentrating to decipher them properly. Even so, none grabbed his attention enough to read any further. Conflict. It seemed so easy to manufacture in his mind, right up to the point that he had to execute it on the page. Reaching up, he scratched his eyebrow. How could one person be so blocked? This part at least used to be easy. When he’d first started writing, the stories poured out of him— garbled to be sure, but at least he got them down. Now, even getting the words out was like extracting teeth from a giraffe— difficult and ultimately probably pointless.

Looking at his watch, Jake clicked back to his manuscript. He really needed to get something written; he’d already wasted over two hours. With a small pull forward, he took a sip of the now cold coffee, set the cup down, and pursed his lips, trying to find a good place to attack the story. His gaze slid across the words that swam before him. Five a.m. was starting to overtake him. But he still had an hour to get something written, and he really needed to get something down. Something so he wouldn’t feel like a complete failure… again.

“Okay. Jasmine, we’ve got to get you to your next big life scare. How do we do that?”

The after-the-movie crowd began trickling in sometime after nine-thirty. Thankfully, Liz had gotten most of her Literature 3402 assignment for the next morning read. That was a feat not even dared hope for.

“Two please,” the lady said, and Liz smiled as she grabbed up the little menus and headed for the chairs.

“Right this way.”

Other people were starting to show up. That meant it was about time for him to leave. Jake looked at his watch, surprised that so much time could have evaporated with so little to show for it. “One hundred more words, McCoy. What real writer can’t crank out 100 more words in half an hour?”

He didn’t want to admit where that question led, so he didn’t. He wasn’t a real writer yet, but he would be.

Liz grabbed the coffee pot up, knowing in less than ten minutes she wouldn’t get another chance to visit his table. Mia gave her a look as she crossed past the counter and headed for the little, dark corner, but Liz chose to ignore it. This was her job after all, and she needed that two dollar tip. “Getting a lot done?”

His light gray-blue eyes jerked up to her, and she had the distinct impression that she had just scared him to death.

“Sorry.” She smiled and lifted the little glass pot in her hand. “Refill?”

He looked completely flustered as his gaze dropped from her to his cup. “Oh. I don’t… Um. I’m probably good for tonight. But thank you though.”

Her smile turned from real to deliberate. “Just thought I’d check.”

The floor seemed to hold her there. She should leave. She knew she should. Why wasn’t she leaving?

When Jake’s radar said that she hadn’t moved, he gathered his scattering courage and glanced up at her again. “Is it closing time? Do I need to leave?”

“What? Oh. No. No, not at all. Sorry.” She reached up and brushed a dark highlight from her eyes as she set the coffee pot on his table. “Stay as long as you like.”

Questions went through him as he looked at her, some had to do with the hour, some had nothing at all to do with that. She was even more stunning close up. He wished that wasn’t quite so noticeable.

“We’re open until eleven. You’re welcome to stay to then.”

What was she doing? She sounded like an absolute idiot. It had something to do with those ice-blue eyes that had locked on her and stopped her breath cold. Her neck felt like the air temperature had been set on scalding, and her heart was hammering a rap beat she’d never heard before. “I’ll just…” With a shake of her head to break the trance, she jerked her thumb back over her shoulder and then scratched her fingernail into her head. “…let you get back to your work.”

He nodded as an amused question slid over his face. “My work.” The laugh was soft and hollow. “That’d be good.”

“Yeah.” It took another nod and a push for Liz to get her feet to turn. She stumbled back to the counter, knowing he was still watching her, feeling it. She fought not to smooth everything about herself, but it was difficult. Everything felt hopelessly exposed and judged.

“Girl?” Mia asked when she made it all the way across the room, still in the trance his eyes had captured her in. “You all right?”

“Wh…? Y-yeah.” With a wave of her hand, Liz finally managed to snap out of it. “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Mia looked less than convinced. “Because you left the coffee pot on his table?”

“I…”  Liz looked down at her empty hands, and horror coursed through her. She slammed her eyes closed, mortified at her stupidity. When she opened them, Mia’s expression was somewhere between incredulous and about to burst out laughing. Liz scrunched her teeth together. “I have to go get it, don’t I?”

“Uh, yeah. Kinda so.”

“Great.” It took a hard sigh for her to gather her shredded dignity and turn back for his table, forcing nonchalance over everything else. Sure enough he was still looking at her, but this time the amusement in his eyes was much closer to the surface. A slow step at a time she made her way through the other tables back over to his.

“Looks like you forgot something.”

“Yeah.” She breathed the word. “Sorry about that.”

“Not a problem.”

Her hand slipped onto the small plastic handle. “Wouldn’t be much of a coffee shop without the coffee.”

“No. Probably not.” He was about to laugh at her, she could tell.

How could she have been so utterly stupid? She wanted to disappear into the floor.

“You know, since you’re here and everything.” His fingers played with the cup and then turned it and pushed it over to her. “I guess I could use a little more.”

“Really?” Relief poured through her. Somehow it felt like he was swinging in to rescue her, saving her from her own stupidity at the last possible second. Just why she couldn’t say because it really wasn’t so much to be excited about. He just wanted more coffee. “Okay.” She smiled at him in thanks for his chivalry as she poured. When the cup was full, she searched frantically for more words. “Are you sure you don’t want something to eat? I mean, you must be starving by now. Man can’t exist on coffee alone, you know.”

The amused smile made it all the way from his eyes to his lips this time. They were nice lips, framed just so by a line of dark whiskers. “Hey, that’s a good line. Mind if I use that sometime?”

Surprise overtook her, and she tilted her head. “No. Not at all. I’ll give you that one for free, but the next one you have to pay for.”

“Free, huh?” He nodded as if considering the offer as he took a small sip of his refill. “Free is good.”

Then she thought he might have gotten the wrong idea. “Um, but you still have to pay for the coffee.”

His laugh caught her completely off-guard. “Rats. And here I was hoping you were giving that away for free too.”

Unbelievably, she was starting to relax. “Nope, no such luck. I’d probably get fired if I did that.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?” He pulled his arm down and surveyed his watch. It was nothing special, heavy, black. Very manly, but not very stylish.

She yanked her gaze from it when he looked back up at her.

“I’d really better be getting.” He took one more long drink and stood from the little chair. “I’ve got a five o’clock appointment with life in the morning.” With a snap, he had his laptop up under his arm.

Incredulousness hit her. “Five in the morning? And you’re drinking coffee at ten? What are you, a raccoon?”

He tossed money onto the table. “It was worth it for the company.” The smile danced around the corners of his eyes. “Besides, I got a great line for free, remember?”

“Oh, y-yeah.” Why did she suddenly feel like she was two? He seemed so together, so handsome standing there. She’d never really noticed that before. How could she have missed it? “Well, use it wisely.”

One more smile that made her crazy all the way to her toes, and he nodded. “I’ll try. See ya down the road.”

“Yeah.” She hardly got the word out, and then she was watching him walk out, waving only once to Mia as he went past the counter. In the next second he was gone, and Liz was left with only the memory.

It took three more breaths to snap back to reality. Trying to act like it was no big deal that he had just shattered her belief that all guys were scum, she turned and gathered the money and his cup. She needed to get this table cleaned as more people were starting to come in. The late movie must be over.

“Girl,” Mia said, dragging the single syllable out to six when Liz came back to the counter.

“Don’t start.” Liz pointed a hard finger at her friend. “He’s not my type. He’s weird, and he sits in dark corners and tries to blend in with the shadows.”

“My, my, if I didn’t know better, I would think the lady doth protesteth too much.”

“Protesteth? Seriously?”

“Hey, I’m not the Shakespeare queen. You are.” Mia leaned into her. “But I do know a fine specimen of man when I see one.”

Liz grabbed up menus as a small group came in. She rolled her eyes at her friend. “Spare me the dramatics, okay? We’ve got coffee to serve.”

Picking her hands up to indicate she wanted no fight, Mia backed down. That wasn’t like Mia, and Liz wondered about that. However, she had other more pressing matters like customers and homework and sleep that were much more important that fighting about some guy that was only a passing shadow and no more. It wasn’t even that hard to convince herself she had already forgotten all about him.

Fall in love with Liz and Jake.

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The Courage Series

 
To Protect & Serve
{
Kindle}
{
Audiobook
}  She’s a control freak. He’s a firefighter with a death wish. Watch the sparks fly when these two get together. 

White Knight
 
{
Kindle
} {
Audiobook
}
The one he couldn’t save was the love of her life. How can he ever make that terrible failure right again?

For Real
{
Kindle
} {
Audiobook
}
She’s got issues. He’s got secrets. Can they ever learn to be “for real”?

The Friendship Series

Eternity
Aaron never noticed Harmony until now. Now, it might be too late.

The Easy Way Out
Drew thought he knew what love was, maybe he was wrong.

The Harmony Series

Cowboy
One night Ashton Raines walked away from everything.

Lucky
One man. One woman. One night that changes everything.

The Faith Series

A Work In Progress
Rebecca hated “the beautiful people” until she fell for one. Now what?

A Little Piece of Heaven
Emily loves God. Jeremy doesn’t believe in Him. How will this ever work?

A Light in the Darkness
One night, he becomes her angel in the darkness.

The Dreams Series

Dreams by Starlight
Sometimes where you are is not where you are meant to be.

Reunion
10 years later. Everything has changed. Or has it?

Single Titles

Deep in the Heart
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Kindle
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Audiobook
}
He’s worth billions. She’s penniless. What do they have in common? Everything.
More Than This
He was only looking for a cup of coffee and a quiet place to write. She helped him find himself.