She Hid Them in Her Lighthouse Cove Cabin, They Asked Her to Stay novel · Chapter 3 of 40

Chapter 3: Burnt Butter

Mara bluffs the man in the grey parka at the cat café, then comes home to Hyunjin's burned hand and Chan packing to leave tonight.

By ten o'clock I had run out of excuses to stay home.

My fridge held one egg, half a lemon and a jar of pickled beets.

Two grown men were sitting in my kitchen, and neither of them looked like beets.

"I'm going to the Driftwood," I said. "For groceries."

"No," Chan said.

"It's a cat café with a bakery counter. It's where food lives."

"The man in the parka is in town."

"Which is exactly why I'm going. If the woman who lives alone on the bluff stops buying bread, he'll notice."

Chan opened his mouth to argue.

Hyunjin spoke first, from the loft ladder, with a bag of ice pressed to his forehead.

"She's right," he said. "It's what I would do, if I could."

Chan shut his mouth and looked at the floor for a while.

"Twenty minutes," he said.

"Forty. I have to pick the good tomatoes."

He almost smiled.

I drove down the hill with my hoodie zipped to the chin, past the red maples dripping onto the road.

The Driftwood Cat Café sits at the corner of Harbour Street, in an old net loft with a blue door.

Half of it is coffee and pastries, and the other half is used books stacked to the ceiling, and cats sleep on both halves.

The bell over the door rang.

A man was standing at the counter in a grey parka.

He was mild-faced and perhaps fifty, with a paper cup in his hand, and he was turning a photo over on the glass.

My stomach did one slow turn, and I walked up to the counter anyway.

"Morning, Odette," I said. "Do you have anything left from yesterday? I'm hungry enough to eat a cat."

"They'd object," Odette said.

She was behind the counter in her flour-streaked apron with her braid over one shoulder.

She didn't look at me half a second longer than usual.

I loved her for it.

"Excuse me," the man said. He had a soft, pleasant voice. "I'm told you're Mara. The lighthouse lady."

"Depends who's telling," I said.

"Your friend here. I'm trying to find two young men. They might have come through this week."

He slid the photo across the counter.

It was a concert still, two men on a stage in white jackets with a pink light behind them.

Hyunjin was in the center, with his hair longer than it was now.

Chan was half a step behind him with a hand out, already guarding him.

"They're not in trouble," the man said. "Their family is worried. There's a finder's fee."

"I saw the card," I said.

I picked up the photo and held it at arm's length, and then I held it up close.

"The tall one's a looker," I said. "I'd remember that. The short one looks like he'd steal my wallet."

Odette made a small noise into a napkin.

"They're brothers," the man said. "You've seen them?"

"I've seen forty tourists since August. They all wear hoods. I give a tour at two on Saturdays. Eight dollars, kids free."

I took one of my flyers from my pocket and put it on the counter on top of his photo.

"If they come to the tour, I'll call you. If you come to the tour, you'll hear the part about the shipwreck."

He looked at the flyer for a moment.

Then he laughed, which was worse than if he hadn't.

"I'll think about the shipwreck," he said.

He folded the photo into his coat, took his coffee, and went out under the bell.

I watched his grey back down the street all the way to a rental car with Ontario plates.

"Mara Larkin," Odette said.

"Don't."

"You lied to me last night. You have never lied to me. Not once, not even about your haircut."

"I know."

"Is it a man?"

I thought about the daybed and the ladder and the beam.

"Two," I said. "I'll tell you in a week."

Odette stared at me.

Then she reached under the counter and put a bag on top of it, a big one, heavy at the bottom.

"Bread, soup, the good butter and half a ham. Come Thursday and tell me nothing."

"Odette."

"I said nothing. Go home."

I drove home with the bag on the passenger seat and two cats' worth of white fur on my jeans.

The cabin smelled like butter when I came in, and also like something burning.

Hyunjin was standing at my stove with a cast-iron pan and a spatula, and his sleeve pushed up.

"Don't come in," he said. "It's not ready."

"It's on fire."

"It's not on fire. It's crispy."

Chan was at the table with a duffel bag open in front of him, rolling shirts.

I put down the groceries and crossed the kitchen.

"Hyunjin, put the pan down."

"I'm making you a proper breakfast, because I'm the one who ate your egg, and I want to."

He turned to show me, and the handle slipped, and the inside of his forearm met the rim of the pan.

He hissed through his teeth and dropped the spatula.

I had his wrist before I'd decided to take it.

The skin was already going red, a stripe as long as my finger.

"Sink," I said, and I towed him by the wrist.

I ran the cold tap and held his arm under it.

My thumb sat on the inside of his wrist, and I could feel his pulse going fast.

He stood very close to me, and I could smell butter and rain in his hair.

"It's fine," he said. "It really doesn't hurt."

"It hurts. You've gone white."

"I'm trying to look brave."

"You look like a man who is being bad at cooking."

He laughed, and the pulse in my thumb jumped.

Neither of us moved.

I counted ten slow seconds of cold water, and I did not look up.

"Mara."

That was Chan, behind us, with an even voice.

"The man has her photo," Chan said. "He talked to the café. He's going door to door."

"I know. I met him."

"He'll be at this road by tonight." He zipped the duffel closed. "We leave at dark."

I took my hand off Hyunjin's wrist and turned off the tap.

Water ran off Hyunjin's arm onto my floor.

"No," I said.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend