Chapter Five
Jay heard voices in the hall and glanced up when Carter, Nat and Kevin came into the office together the next morning. They had a tray of coffee and box of pastries from The Daily Grind, and he held out his hand for his usual—large, black—desperate for the hit of caffeine to revive his sluggish brain. He peeled back the lid and lifted the cup to his mouth.
“Thanks,” he said. “I really needed that this morning—I don’t think I managed even four hours of sleep last night.”
Carter opened the box of pastries and Jay’s gaze zeroed in on the bear claw—at the same moment Kevin snatched it out of the box and bit into it.
“I thought the bear claw was mine.”
“Did you?” his friend asked around a mouthful of sweet, fried dough. “It really sucks when someone else moves in and takes something you’ve had your eye on, doesn’t it?”
Jay looked questioningly at his other friends. “Why do I get the impression this isn’t about the bear claw?”
“Because it’s about Alyssa,” Nat said.
“What about Alyssa?” he asked cautiously.
Kevin’s only response was to take another big bite of the pastry.
“When we were at The Daily Grind, we heard Megan Carmichael telling Kenzie Atkins that you were locking lips with the new bartender at Diggers’ last night,” Nat explained.
Jay shouldn’t have been surprised. The Daily Grind wasn’t just Haven’s café and bakery, it was where the latest rumors were always as hot as the coffee.
“It’s not what you think,” he said.
“You mean you weren’t kissing Alyssa?” Kevin challenged.
“I mean that’s only part of the story.”
“I don’t care about the story,” his friend said. “It’s Lacey Bolton all over again.”
“Seriously, Kev? That was twelve years ago,” Jay said. “Can you forget about Lacey Bolton already?”
“Can you not see that this isn’t about Lacey Bolton but the guy who screwed over a friend for the sake of a pretty girl?”
“The situation is completely different.”
“Not from my perspective,” Kevin argued. “You put the moves on a girl you knew I’ve had my eye on for weeks.”
“First, I didn’t put any moves on her—she kissed me,” Jay pointed out in his defense. “Second, how is it my fault that you don’t have the guts to make a move on a girl you’ve supposedly had your eye on for weeks?”
“I was waiting for the right moment,” Kevin said.
“How long were you going to wait?” Jay wondered.
“Until last night,” his friend said. “If you remember, it was my idea to go to Diggers’ last night because I knew Alyssa would be working.”
“And if you remember, you left the bar without making any kind of move.”
“She was busy,” Kevin said in his defense.
“That didn’t stop Carter from flirting with her.”
Kevin glared at their other friend.
“But all I did was flirt—Jay’s the one who kissed her,” Carter said, eager to throw Jay under the bus.
He could argue again that she’d kissed him, but he couldn’t deny that there had been kissing. Instead, he said, “Do you want me to apologize?”
“Are you sorry?” Kevin asked.
He thought about the very public and very brief kiss he’d shared with Alyssa and felt desire stir low in his belly. He could tell Kevin that it wasn’t quite as steamy as people were saying, but the memory of that innocent kiss had kept him awake half the night. He could lie, but they’d been friends for too long for that option to sit comfortably with him. “No,” he admitted.
Kevin shook his head. “You haven’t changed at all.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s always been about the score with you. Jay always has to be with the hottest girls, the most girls—even the unavailable girls.”
“I was a dick in high school,” he acknowledged. “But we’re not in high school anymore.”
“You don’t think kissing Alyssa was a dick move?”
Of course it was, if he’d done it for the purpose of getting between his friend and the girl he liked. But he hadn’t. Nor could he deny that his friend’s secret crush on the bartender had been the furthest thing from his mind when Alyssa’s mouth touched his.
“Okay, it was,” he agreed. “But when you were talking about the new bartender at Diggers’, I had no idea it was Alyssa. If I’d known, I would have told you—weeks ago—that I knew her.”
“I don’t care that you knew her first—you shouldn’t have kissed her.”
“I get that this is a guy thing,” Nat interjected. “You want to beat your chests to figure out who gets the hot girl, but you’re overlooking two key pieces of the puzzle.”
“What pieces?” Carter asked.
“First, dibs and friendships aside, it’s not up to you to decide who gets Alyssa—it’s up to her. And truthfully, I don’t know why she’d waste her time with either one of you.”
“Thanks,” Jay said. “That’s very helpful.”
“Second,” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken, “and this point is really for Kevin...I know you think Jay only kissed Alyssa because he knew you had a crush on her, but that’s not true.”
“How do you know it’s not true?” Kevin demanded.
“Because Jay isn’t a big fan of early mornings, but he’s been the first one here almost every day for the past several weeks.”
“He owns seventy percent of the business—he should be the first one here every day,” Kevin pointed out.
“I didn’t know there was a gold star for being an early riser,” Jay said, giving Nat a subtle shake of his head.
Which she, of course, ignored. “You don’t get out of bed early for a gold star—you get out of bed early to go running with Alyssa every morning.”
“Is that true?” Kevin asked.
“Every morning, Monday through Friday, since early March,” Nat informed them.
And Jay silently cursed himself for ever confiding in her about his new routine with his neighbor.
“That’s almost two months,” Carter said, obviously surprised by this revelation. “And probably the longest relationship you’ve had with a woman in years.”
“So why haven’t you asked her out?” Kevin wondered. “Or did you ask and she shot you down?”
“I didn’t ask,” Jay said. “Because getting involved with Alyssa would violate the proximity rule.”
“Getting involved with anyone in this town would violate the proximity rule,” Nat remarked.
“You won’t ask her out, but you kissed her last night?”
Jay gave up trying to explain. “It didn’t mean anything to either of us.”
“Or did it?” Nat conjectured.
“You can butt out anytime now,” Jay told her.
“Actually, I want to know what Nat’s thinking,” Kevin said.
“Tread carefully—a woman’s mind can be a complicated and dangerous thing,” Carter warned.
Nat glanced at him over her shoulder. “You can butt out.”
Carter mimed zipping his lips.
“Maybe the kiss didn’t mean anything to Jay,” Nat allowed. “In which case you’re completely justified in being pissed at him. But I think you should give him the benefit of the doubt—and the chance to prove that he didn’t kiss her to undermine you, but because he really likes this girl.”
“How’s he going to prove that?” Kevin challenged.
She considered for a minute. “Jay does seem to have a short attention span when it comes to the women he dates, and the two-month mark is usually when he starts to feel suffocated and look for an escape hatch.”
“That’s not true,” Jay denied.
“Name the last girl you were with for more than two months,” she suggested.
He couldn’t do it—not without admitting that it had been back when he was in college, and then opening himself up to further analysis of his dating patterns and commitment issues. Maybe being cruelly jilted by his high school girlfriend at a vulnerable time had done a number on him, but he hadn’t completely closed off his heart—he just hadn’t met a woman whom he wanted to let in.
And while Nat clearly wanted to believe that Alyssa Cabrera might be that woman, Jay remained skeptical.
She turned her attention back to Kevin. “So if Jay invites Alyssa to be his date for Matt’s wedding—”
“That’s not going to happen,” he interjected.
“—then he’d have to be with her for another two months, which might make him crazy—and provide some satisfaction for you.”
“What if it doesn’t make him crazy?” Kevin challenged.
“Then it would mean he really does have feelings for her,” Nat reasoned. “And you wouldn’t want to stand in the way of that, would you?”
“I don’t know—I’ll have to think on that,” Kevin told her.
“All of this speculation is moot,” Jay said. “Because I’m not asking Alyssa to be my date for Matt’s wedding.”
“Then I guess our friendship means even less to you than the kiss you shared with her last night.”
“Come on, Kev. You know that’s not true.”
“I’ll know it when you invite Alyssa to the wedding.”
“Seriously? If I invite Alyssa to the wedding, you’ll forgive me for kissing her?”
“She has to accept the invitation,” Nat said. “And you can’t date any other women between now and then.”
Kevin nodded his agreement of the terms.
Jay shook his head, even as he recognized that he’d been neatly backed into a corner. “Okay. I’ll do it,” he finally relented. Because he and Kevin had been friends for a long time, and because he didn’t think dancing with Alyssa at Matt’s wedding would be much of a hardship. “Now if we can focus on the business of business, there’s a group of fifteen coming in at ten for paintball who will need protective gear, weapons and ammunition.”
Carter took the hint—and another doughnut from the box—and headed down to the pro shop.
“Hayley’s going to be here around lunchtime to supervise the party room today, but we’ve got balloons and a cake coming before then,” Jay said to Kevin. “Can you keep an eye out for that while you’re covering mini putt and the arcade?”
The other man nodded and headed out, leaving Jay and Nat alone—a situation from which she seemed eager to escape.
“I should check the—”
“What the hell?” he said, cutting her off.
She folded her arms across her chest. “Actually, I think the words you’re looking for are thank and you.”
“You expect me to be grateful?”
“Yes, because I gave you the excuse you needed to break your ridiculous proximity rule and go out with the girl who’s piqued your interest more than anyone has done in a long time.”
“I don’t need an excuse—if I wanted to break the rule, I would. The fact that I haven’t should tell you that I’m—”
“Afraid?” she suggested.
He frowned. “What am I supposedly afraid of?”
“Having a real adult relationship with someone you might be capable of genuinely caring about.”
“You don’t even know Alyssa,” he pointed out.
“True,” she acknowledged. “But I know you.”
“I’m not going to thank you for this.”
“Yes, you will,” she said and walked out the door.
* * *
Alyssa awakened the next day feeling out of sorts—and grateful that Jason went into work early on Saturdays, so she didn’t have to face him this morning. She didn’t even want to get dressed and head out for her run, but she knew she’d feel better once she was moving and her adrenaline was pumping. She tried to clear her mind as her feet pounded the pavement, but she couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened the night before—but mostly about the kiss she’d shared with Jason.
She’d kissed Liam, too. Well, technically, he’d kissed her. But in each case, her lips had made contact with those of a handsome Haven bachelor. But while kissing Liam had felt as dispassionate as kissing a male relative, kissing Jason had been a very different experience.
The minute their mouths had brushed, she’d felt nothing but heat. It was as if she was dry kindling and his lips were a match, the strike of which started a slow burn deep in her belly that quickly spread through her veins, singeing her nerve endings and melting her bones.
Of course, after Diego left, Jason had acted as if it had never happened. He’d certainly given no indication that the moment they’d shared had made any kind of impression on him.
If only she could say the same. The truth was, she hadn’t stopped thinking about the kiss. One kiss that couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds. Half a minute at most. And yet, nearly twelve hours later, her lips still tingled.
She was supposed to be an independent woman happily living her own life. But in that brief moment when she’d been kissing Jason, she hadn’t wanted to be on her own.
She’d wanted to kiss him again.
She’d wanted to do more than kiss him.
How much more she hadn’t realized until she fell asleep and dreamed about him. Incredibly vivid and erotic dreams.
Desperately, she tried to shove the memories of those dreams aside. Because her mind was so unfocused, she forced herself to alter her route, pushing herself to go a little farther and a little faster. But she couldn’t outrun her memories of the seductive feel of his lips moving over hers.
After she’d showered and had breakfast, she sat down to mark lab reports. As usual, there were some kids who understood the purpose of the assignment, carefully followed the requisite steps and meticulously recorded their findings, and others whose reports looked as if they had put words and numbers into a blender and randomly scattered them on the page. Those took a lot more focus—and patience—as she attempted to decipher where she could give marks.
After breaking for lunch, she finished up the lab reports and then had absolutely no idea what to do with the rest of her day.
The knock at the door came when she was cleaning out her cupboards. She wasn’t expecting any visitors, but Helen Powell sometimes stopped by just to check in with her, and Alyssa always enjoyed those spontaneous drop-ins.
She opened the door expecting to see her elderly across-the-hall neighbor—and found herself looking at her sexy upstairs neighbor instead. Her heart kicked hard against her ribs.
“Hi, honey bear—I’m home.”
Then his gaze skimmed over her, from the messy ponytail on top of her head to the old T-shirt and leggings and rubber gloves on her hands, and his smile faded. “You’re not ready.”
She brushed an errant strand of hair out of her eyes with the back of her arm, embarrassed to have been caught looking so unkempt by a man who always looked so good. “Ready for what?”
“Our date.”
She eyed him warily. “Have you been drinking?”
He shook his head slowly, clearly communicating disappointment. “I can’t believe you forgot about our plans.”
“We didn’t have plans.”
“For our three-month anniversary,” he prompted.
“Our what?” Then she remembered the excuse he’d made to Diego the night before, to explain why she wasn’t free to have dinner with the other man. “Well, considering that our romantic relationship is entirely fictitious, I trust you can forgive me for not remembering plans we never actually made.”
He glanced at his watch. “I can forgive you—if you can be ready in twenty minutes.”
“You’re serious,” she realized.
“I am,” he confirmed.
She narrowed her gaze. “Last night you accused me of making a move on you—”
“I was wrong,” he acknowledged.
“—and now you’re at my door,” she noted. “Why?”
“Because you are, by your own admission, a terrible liar, and I don’t want you to have to lie to your mother when she asks what we did to celebrate the occasion.”
“She won’t ask,” Alyssa told him.
“Is that a risk you’re willing to take rather than put down your bucket and cloth and come with me?”
“Come with you where?” she asked warily.
He responded with the same words she’d spoken to him the night before: “Just go with it.”