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recently.”
    “Yes.” Linda pursed her lips and shook her head. She looked around as if someone might overhear them. Then she whispered, “What a nasty situation. Jacob was quite the womanizer.”
    David shook his head. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    “Ellie was devastated even though we all know it was for the best,” Linda said. “He had a drinking problem too.”
    David wanted to know more, but felt like he was invading Ellie’s privacy by learning about her past through secondhand channels. And the more he learned about Ellie’s past, the more protective he felt, which felt so strange but at the same time so right.
    He glanced at his watch. “Oh, Linda, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go,” he said. “But look, here’s the lake path.” He was glad he didn’t have to think up an excuse to pull himself away.
    Luckily Linda didn’t seem to mind his abruptness. “Of course, dear, thank you for humoring me,” she said as she waved a hand at him. “I’ll see you later.”
    David waved and started a quick walk toward home.
    He didn’t see Linda turn and watch him thoughtfully with a wicked grin on her face.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Ellie was dressed and ready in record time, hardly dragging her feet at all. It felt almost pleasant to be heading into work for once. As she smoothed her hair in the mirror and put a light lip gloss on she thought about seeing David again. Her stomach did a flip-flop in response. Her eyes widened in the mirror. She was thirty-three years old. She was too old for a crush, wasn’t she?
    Shaking the thought from her mind, she gathered the rest of her things. She gave Skipper a hug and a kiss on the nose, and headed out the door.
    Ellie had opened her coffee shop in Uptown three years ago. She loved that it was just a few blocks from her apartment so she could walk to work if she wanted to, no matter what weather Minnesota threw at her.
    Although it was just a few minutes from downtown, Uptown had a completely different vibe than downtown. Here there was an eclectic mix of up-and-coming professionals, hippies, art culture types, and others that made the area pulse with creative energy. The neighborhood appreciated small business owners, and cultivated long-term relationships between businesses and the community. She hadn’t cared that her commute was thirty miles at the time she opened it; this was where she belonged.
    Over the past few years, her success had been even better than she expected. It was another one of the few blessings that she counted. If she hadn’t had the shop to keep her distracted when things with Jake got bad, she might have gone mad. Of course, she thought it was probably because of her shop that Jake had his relapse in the first place. She had put every ounce of energy into getting the store up and running.
    When she walked in the back door, Kevin was in the back room prepping for the morning rush. His aura was a tranquil teal blue. Kevin was happy and calm this morning.
    “How’s it going, Ellie? You are here early,” he said. Then he started whistling and shaking his hips to whatever soundtrack was spinning in his head.
    Kevin was always cheerful it seemed. Perhaps it was because he and his boyfriend always had sex, she thought and then immediately felt guilty for being so catty. Kevin had never been anything but a good friend to her.
    He was twenty-five, and always looked like he was ready for a night on the town even when wearing just blue jeans and a polo shirt. His dark black hair was always perfectly in place, and Ellie felt sloppy next to him no matter what she was wearing. She had no idea how they had become best friends.
    “I’m fine,” she huffed, slipping off her coat and hanging it on the back wall. “We all set for this morning?”
    “Of course,” he replied, still sashaying in place. He didn’t even turn at her curt tone.
    She knew that Kevin was immune to her moods, which sometimes made her want to try to get his attention even more. But