Chapter 2 – The Regular at Six A.M.

Nathan Kane arrived at the Blue Plate every morning at exactly six, ordered the same black coffee and two eggs over easy, and read the local paper cover to cover before heading two doors down to open his shop for the day — a routine so steady that Charlotte found herself, within a few weeks, looking forward to it more than she probably should have.

“New in town,” he asked her once, during her second week, not with the intrusive curiosity of someone fishing for gossip, but with the genuine, easy warmth of a man simply making conversation with someone new.

“Something like that,” Charlotte said, settling into the small, comfortable deception more easily than she’d expected. “Needed a change of scenery, I suppose.”

“Millbrook’s a good place for that,” Nathan said. “Quiet. Doesn’t ask too many questions, mostly. Though I imagine you’ll get a few, working the floor here. Small towns.”

Charlotte laughed, genuinely, for the first time in longer than she could easily remember, the easy rhythm of diner conversation feeling considerably lighter than the boardroom negotiations that usually filled her actual days.

Over the following weeks, their morning exchanges grew steadily warmer, Nathan’s unhurried kindness offering Charlotte something she hadn’t realized, until she found it, how badly she’d been missing — a connection built entirely on who she actually was in the moment, rather than what her name or net worth might mean to the person across the table.