Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,12
She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. “Tired. Morning. Jet lag. I’m . . . umm, well, coffee. I haven’t had any yet. Do you have any?”
Jake grinned. “Yeah, Cass, I have coffee.”
Damn, if his voice wasn’t still rough with sleep. “Good. Okay. Well, when I’ve showered, I’ll make some.”
Jake placed his hands on her shoulders and steered her until they had switched places. Now she stood in the damp heat of the bathroom, and he stood in the hallway. “I got it. I’m going to make some eggs too. Want some? I know it’s early, but I have to go into the distillery.”
Cassie looked down at the carpet and then over his shoulder at his bedroom door. When she realized she could see his mattress with its messy sheets and pillows, she thought of how he must have slept in there, naked. What the heck was wrong with her this morning?
“Eggs would be great. I’ll be there in fifteen.”
Jake no longer smiled at her like a long-lost friend. He smiled like a guy might in a club when he caught her eye across the bar. The kind of smile that said, I see you and I think you see me.
Cassie closed the door, then leaned back against it, holding her toiletry bag to her chest.
Just breathe.
It was stress. Lack of sleep, for sure. A momentary lapse of concentration. Like, who wouldn’t be a little taken aback to find the scrawny teenager who she’d gone swimming with in the creek had filled out into a fine-looking man?
And the ink. That’s what had caused her mouth to dry up a little. Because nicely shaped biceps with super-interesting tattoos were . . .
Urgh.
Surprise. That’s what it was. Shock. He’d caught her off guard. But now that she knew what he looked like beneath those black T-shirts he always wore, she wouldn’t need to wonder and could move on with her life.
Which was in New York . . . working on The Grosvenor. It was her tiny Brooklyn apartment, the one she’d moved into by herself seven months before with help from Orla, which might not seem like such a big deal, but she’d wanted to celebrate turning thirty-one in an apartment of her own.
That was the pep talk she needed to get on with her shower. And fifteen minutes later, when she entered the kitchen to the smell of fresh coffee and toast, she was back in control. Jake’s back was to her as he stirred the eggs in the skillet.
“You’ve done a really great job of fixing this place up.” She took a seat on one of the three stools tucked beneath the counter.
“Thanks. It’s been a labor of love.”
“I can’t believe I haven’t been here since you started. Wait, no, I think I did. You’d finished your kitchen before you held Liv’s birthday party here.”
“That was nearly two and a half years ago. You’ve been elusive.” Jake placed two slices of toast on a plate and dished some eggs on the side before handing it to her.
She had; she knew it. “As much as I love Dad, it’s a pretty shitty feeling to know you aren’t welcome in the home you grew up in anymore.”
Jake poured a generous amount of coffee in a ceramic mug and passed it to her. “Yeah. It must be rough. But you know you’re always welcome here. I know how hard it was for your dad when you didn’t come home for Christmas. You could have come home to us.”
Cassie shrugged. Christmas had been pretty miserable. Orla had invited her to Delaware to spend it with her folks, but she’d settled for staying home, a decision she’d regretted when she’d woken up alone on Christmas morning. “You know how it is. Work. Only getting two weeks’ vacation a year. It didn’t line up and was going to be more effort than it was worth to get home. Plus, you guys had enough to deal with. It was the first Christmas without your dad.”
Jake served up his own plate and stepped around the counter to sit on the stool next to her. “Even then, you wouldn’t have been intruding. We had dinner at Connor’s. Em cooked. His dad was there, along with his mom and stepdad. The more the merrier. But I’m not trying to make you feel like shit for not coming back. I guess I’m just doing a fucking terrible job of saying we missed you.”