Morning After (A Reynolds Security Novel) Read Free Page A

bad he couldn’t be as confident about her. 
     
    Ethan was surprised to see that Erica was no longer blond when he stepped into the shop at his usual time. He was so surprised that he just stood there and stared for a minute. Her hair was a warm honey brown now. He had never thought the platinum blond was natural but he hadn’t thought about what she might look like with a different color. She was beautiful. She was always beautiful but now there was something more approachable about her. Of course that didn’t help him. He still felt as if his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth when he looked at her. She smiled at him and called out ‘Boring Joe’, he knew it was his order but he still hated it. He knew it was his moniker now. He didn’t want her to see him as boring. No one who knew him would ever describe him that way.
    He sat in his usual spot and looked up in time to see Jace come in the door. He groaned inwardly, the man was like a dog with a bone.
    “Following me now?”
    “I prefer the term surveillance.”
    “I think surveillance 101 says that I am not supposed to know you’re watching.”
    “Sometimes you have to break cover for the cause. So what’s up? What is special about this place?”
    “Just having a cup of coffee.”
    “Really? Something wrong with the fancy shit in your office?” Before Ethan could answer Erica approached and placed a tall white cup on the table.”
    “I love the new color.” Ethan said, his tongue still feeling thick.
    “Thanks.” Erica smiled and swapped the five on the table with his change. Ethan could see that Jace’s eyes were wide as saucers but he ignored him. Jace caught her before she left,
    “’ Scuse me Sugar, can I have one of those?”
    “I am Honey,” Erica said tightly, “She is Sugar, and orders are placed at the counter.” Jace, not being as ignorant as he sometimes appeared, lifted his six foot frame out of the chair with feline grace and put his hand over his heart in a show of sincerity.
    “I apologize. I am from the South, we call everyone Sugar.” He smiled pouring on the charm and Ethan was ready to spar again, with more enthusiasm this time. He watched Jace follow Erica to the counter where the other woman took his order. He flirted with her as well. Ethan glared, for the first time ever he hated that easy going charming personality.
    “It’s the brunette isn’t it?” Jace grinned when he sat back down. Ethan continued to glare not confirming or denying. “Damn, this is good.” Jace nearly squirmed with delight at his friend’s unease.
    “You’re such an ass. I changed my mind, you are fired.” Ethan grumbled.  Jace laughed but before he could reply his cell phone rang.
    “Carpenter.” He answered, Ethan listened to one side of the conversation. “Yeah… It’s early isn’t it? No problem, we’ll take care of it, congratulations.” He slipped the phone back in his pocket and leveled his gaze on Ethan. “Darren’s wife is in labor.”
    “It’s early isn’t it?”
    “He says only a couple of weeks, no big deal.”
    “Who do we have on deck?”
    “No one qualified.”
    “Damn.” Ethan felt his eyes drawn back to Erica. She was restocking straws and napkins. He wasn’t making any progress anyway. “I’ll do it.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah, no biggie.”
     
    Erica was only slightly relieved when her Boring Joe came back the day after he threatened to find a new coffee shop so she was surprised by how much it bothered her when he didn’t show up the next day, or the day after that. Friday started out bad so it seemed fitting that he wasn’t there. She had no idea when he had become a significant part of her day but she didn’t like it.  Friday on the whole was horrendous. Zoe had gotten a call that her dad was in the hospital so she had gone out of town. Erica had called in someone from the weekend shift but it wasn’t the same as working with Zoe. It was so busy she couldn’t get out at lunch to