Karen whipped an overstuffed baggie from her purse. “You can help me with this.”

She dropped the baggie on the counter, and Jessica leaped back with a screech as its contents became clear. Two tiny dead eyes stared out through the plastic in a silent plea from what had once been a rat in life.

Alexis stepped closer and lifted the baggie by one corner. “I appreciate the gift, Karen, but I’m a vegetarian.”

“Everything is a joke to you, isn’t it?” Karen hoisted her purse higher on her shoulder. “That thing was left on the welcome mat outside my store this morning.”

Alexis dumped the baggie in the trash can beneath the counter. As soon as Karen left, she’d have to empty it and hose the counter down with bleach. “I’m not following,” she said. “Why is that rat my fault?”

“Because your cat left it there!” She said that part with a disdainful point and glare at Beefcake, the rescue Maine coon who was sound asleep on the cat tree by the window.

Alexis forced her lips into a smile. “Karen, there is no way Beefcake did this. He goes home with me every night, and he has been inside since we arrived this morning.”

Jessica began squirting the glass countertop with industrial cleaner. Karen took a massive step backward, her purse clutched tightly against her stomach. “You know, it was bad enough when we only had to put up with your weekly cat adoption events, but now we have to put up with this too?”

Karen waved her hand toward the dining area, gesturing at the tables full of women who were deep in conversation—some gleefully, others tearfully.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Alexis said. “You’re mad that I have a lot of customers?”

“These women aren’t just customers.”

“They all buy food. They look like customers to me.”

“You know what I mean. These women fill up the parking lot and never visit any of the other stores on the block. It’s not fair that you take up all the prime parking spots for your little crusade.”

Alexis crossed her arms. “By crusade, I assume you’re referring to my attempt to offer a supportive, judgment-free environment to women who are survivors of sexual assault and harassment?”

Karen rolled her eyes, which said more than words ever could. “Just because someone claims they were a victim doesn’t mean they were. For all we know, these women just want attention.”

“Yes, because nothing garners positive attention for a woman like reporting sexual harassment against an employer.”

Karen’s face turned a disturbing shade of red. “I will take this up with the city if I have to.”

The old Alexis might have been intimidated by the threat, but that version of herself had disappeared when she finally went public with what her old boss had done to her and a dozen other women. It took a lot more than Karen to scare her now. “Be sure to say hello to the council president for me. Let her know that I’ll be putting the pumpkin spice scones back on the menu soon.”

Karen turned on one high heel and stomped toward the door. It opened from the outside just in time, and Alexis laughed openly when she saw who was on the other side. Her best friend, Liv Papandreas, stood back to let Karen walk out, but then she made an obscene gesture behind the woman’s back.

Alexis gave her a scolding look but loved her for it. She wouldn’t have survived the past year and a half without the support of her friends.

“Do I need to throw hands?” Liv asked, coming to the counter. She carried a garment bag slung over her shoulder.

“I’m going to throw hands soon,” Alexis said, tugging the trash can from beneath the counter.

“Now that I would like to see. It’s about time you fought back against that woman.”

“I don’t think my therapist would call it a healthy coping skill, and it wouldn’t make a difference, anyway.” She looked over her shoulder and nodded toward the back for Liv to follow her. “Whatcha got there?”

Liv nearly skipped. “I have a present for you two,” she said in a singsongy voice. She paused behind the counter to fist-bump Jessica. The three of them were bonded for life after working together to expose Royce.

“Bridesmaids dresses?” Jessica asked, grinning.

“Yep. They finally came in.”

Liv followed Alexis through the swinging door that separated the dining area from the kitchen and Alexis’s small office. As Alexis emptied the offending trash can into the dumpster by the back door, Liv hooked the garment bag over the top of her office door. She unzipped it just as Alexis returned. Liv pushed open the sides to reveal two floor-length strapless gowns made of ruby silk.

“Wow,” Alexis said. “They’re even prettier than I remember. Mack did a good job picking these out.”

The fact that Liv had turned all wedding planning over to Mack was all anyone needed to know about their relationship. He was the romantic one. Liv was the Let’s elope to Vegas one. And Alexis loved them both.

Liv stood back with a cheeky smile. “I can’t wait to see Noah’s reaction when he sees you in this.”

Alexis’s cheeks warmed. Her friendship with Noah Logan was a constant source of speculation and teasing among their group of friends.

“Look at you,” Liv laughed. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you and Noah are just friends.”

But it was true. They’d met during the crazy fallout of the Royce incident, and they just clicked. Next to Liv, he was her closest friend. He was funny, smart, kind, and, above all else, safe. With Noah, she felt like more than the two-dimensional caricature crafted by the media of a woman scorned. There might have been a time when she’d longed for more with him, but he’d never let on that he felt the same. And Alexis was still too skittish about men in general to risk ruining the healthiest relationship she’d ever had with a man by pushing for something more now.

The kitchen door swung open suddenly. Liv laughed again. “Speak of the devil.”

CHAPTER THREE

It didn’t take a genius to know when you were being talked about. And even though Noah was, in fact, a genius by IQ standards, he could tell strictly by the pink on Alexis’s cheeks and Liv’s grin that he had just walked in on a conversation about himself.

He strode through the kitchen door and held out the white paper bag that was his reason for stopping by the café. “Am I the devil?” he asked.

Alexis’s eyes went wide. “Not if that bag contains what I think it contains.”

“It does,” he said, moving forward. Alexis made a sound of pure lust and lunged for the bag. He laughed as she tore it open and pulled out a foil-wrapped vegetarian taco from the Mexican food truck near his office building.

Alexis scarfed down half a taco and then set it down on the counter next to Liv. “Don’t touch that,” she warned Liv.

“Where are you going?” Noah asked as she disappeared into her tiny office.

She emerged with a wrapped box and handed it to him. “Happy birthday.”

He accepted the gift with a half smile. “I thought we weren’t celebrating until tomorrow night.”

“I know, but I couldn’t wait to give this to you. It arrived this morning.”

She clapped as he tore off the paper. His eyes bulged out of his head. “Holy shit. Are you serious?”

Alexis squealed. “I know! Can you believe I found one?”

In his hands was an impossible-to-get, limited-edition Doctor Who Lego set. “Where the hell did you find it?”

“I’ve been battling some dude on eBay for a week for this thing.”

Noah turned the box over in his hands. “It’s still in the original box?”

“Yes!”

“I don’t even want to know how much this cost,” he said, looking up.

She waved her hand. “Doesn’t matter. The only question is, are we going to leave it in the box or build it?”

“Build it,” he said, nodding reverently. “And we can watch that documentary on how purple dye was discovered.”

Liv snorted and slid from the stool where she’d been sitting. “Okay, this is the nerdiest shit I’ve ever seen.”

Noah made a psh noise. “This isn’t even in the top ten of nerdy shit we do.”

Alexis nodded as she took a massive bite of her food. After chewing fast, she said, “Last weekend, we attended a lecture by a Vanderbilt professor on the history of female Viking warriors.”

Liv mouthed the word wow and then leaned in to give Alexis a quick hug. “I gotta run. More dresses to deliver.” As she walked past Noah, she grinned. “Did you survive today?”

Noah groaned and put the LEGO set on the counter. “Your fiancé is out of control.”

“Go easy on him,” Liv said. “He’s been planning his dream wedding since he was a little boy.”

Liv rose on tiptoe to peck his cheek before sailing from the kitchen. Noah watched her go before turning back to Alexis, who greeted his glance with a teasing smile. “What crazy idea does Mack have now?”

“We have to learn a dance routine.”

Alexis tipped her head back and let out a laugh that made everything worth it. He’d endure any humiliation known to man to make her laugh, because he remembered far too clearly when laughter was a hard-fought victory. She was literally crying when he first met her. It was just hours after they’d exposed Royce Preston for the predator he was. They were at Mack’s house, celebrating, when she suddenly slipped out the back door.

“Alexis.”

At the sound of his voice, Alexis jumped and turned, wiping madly at her face.

He held up his hands in apology. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I saw you run out here and wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Alexis wiped her cheeks and shrugged. “No, it’s fine. I—I was just . . .” She waggled her fingers in front of her puffy eyes. “Letting out some tension.”