Jake woke much earlierthan he needed, which was useful, as he hadn’t set an alarm. Today he had one of his managers overseeing the morning routine, but he did need to make a start on sorting better stables and houses for the animals. Lainey was still sleeping, and as much as he wanted to wake her up and sink back inside her again, he did have to get on with what he hadn’t done the day before.
“Laine.” He pressed a kiss on her shoulder. “Lainey.”
“Hmmmm.” She curled into him.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
“I need to get up. I’ll see you later.”
Her eyes fluttered open. “Hens.”
“I have no idea what you mean, but I’ll cook breakfast about eight if you want to come round. With the hens’ eggs.” He kissed her again.
“Eggs.”
“I’ll text it you. To remind you.” On his phone that he’d left at home. With the door unlocked. Because that was what you did in Severton.
“’Kay.” She snuggled closer to him, clearly halfway back to sleep.
He reluctantly untangled himself, then covered her back up, finding his clothes on the floor and pulling them on as he went downstairs.
Dylan Granger was outside already, unloading tools from his van that he’d driven close up to the house. As much of a dick he could be, Jake couldn’t fault the bloke’s work ethic. He hadn’t stopped grafting on Lainey’s cottage renovation, making sure the rest of the team were on it too.
“Morning, Jake.”
Jake nodded, not entirely sure if he needed to explain why he was leaving Lainey’s half naked and without shoes.
“Morning.” He decided saying nothing about it was best. And Dylan was likely to forget about it until he next saw Jake when he was drunk.
Back in his kitchen, he located his phone next to the coffee machine, which was convenient, and saw a message from Scott.
He checked it straight away. Scott was shit at texting, still living in the last century and preferring to speak in person, so a text meant something had happened.
It had.
Abby had been followed home from the bar the night before, and things looked at bit strange. Scott told him to make sure his – and Lainey’s – doors were locked.
Feeling slightly at odds, Jake stopped the coffee machine, went upstairs to pull on running shorts and a T-shirt, locked up and headed off to Alex’s.
He foundhis cousin looking dishevelled and carrying something in his sweats that Jake would rather have not noticed. Alex was the quietest out of the five Maynard cousins, far more watchful than any of them, which was why he’d ended up being a cop.
Within five minutes, he’d found out that Abby, Scott’s bartender-in-chief and Sorrell’s part-time manager had stayed with him, which explained the issue in his sweats and the look of frustration etched across Alex’s face. Jake had no idea of the last time Alex had gotten lucky, but he didn’t think it was last night.
He checked himself, not wanting to look like a man who had gotten lucky last night. Lainey didn’t want to be part of the town gossip – not that she need worry about that right now. Once the Coven found out Abby had stayed at Alex’s, the headlines for the next month would be written.
Jake took another look at his cousin’s face and saw far too much tension there.
This he didn’t like.
Alex was sometimes far too insular, too removed from the rest of them, and while Jake knew a small town could be claustrophobic – that was why he lived on the outskirts – sometimes you needed that scaffolding to help you hold up. Hell, his sister needed a fucking crane half the time.
He thought on his feet. “I’m having a family barbecue tomorrow. Bring Abby. And beer.”
“Abby’s working.”
“No, she isn’t.” Jake had spent too much time with Gran at the moment, so he knew exactly who was working what and where. “Scott’s giving her some time off. A week, or at least a week where she isn’t working the evening shift. And she’s owed holidays from the hotel. Apparently, she hasn’t taken any in eighteen months.” Jake felt victorious, for a moment anyway.
“That’s good. At least, if she sees it that way.”
