She steeled herself and walked into the same indie café from before, studying the patrons in a quick sweep. Except for a few well-dressed businessmen who had come here to work, the café was mostly empty. The only guy who didn’t quite fit the demo was a younger man, and he was sitting by the door with his face turned away. Her eyes lingered on him for a beat before she headed up to the register. All that mattered was, none of the clientele today were Tweed Creep.
“Oh hey,” the barista said. “You were the sprinkle chick, weren’t you? How was it?”
“Oh! Yes, I was but it wasn’t for me. It was for, a, uh, friend. He really liked it.”Liked it so much he thanked you for it on his knees when you got home and called you a dirty little tease.Jay swallowed hard, eyes skittering over the menu. “I’ll just have an oat milk latte today. For Jay.”
In her periphery, she saw the young guy shift in his seat. Jay turned her back on him, arms folded as she waited for her coffee. She was so on edge that she didn’t even notice the vibration of her phone, and when she saw it was her mother, she groaned and swiped “decline.”
Jay didn’t want to hear her mother’s self-serving apologies. They always turned into recriminations, anyway. God, if she had tried to bargain withNick, he was going to kill her.
She could still remember the anger on his face when he’d come to her apartment.
That was not the face of a man who wanted to bargain.
“Oat milk latte for Jay!”
“Thanks.” She took the coffee cup and turned to the door, only to find that the youngish guy was now getting to his feet.
“Justine?”
She stiffened, looking at him cautiously. He was less young than she thought; the gelled hair made him look younger in profile but he was actually closer to Nicholas’s age, though not nearly so well-preserved. She stared at him longer than was probably polite, trying to understand why the pinched planes of his face looked so familiar.
And then it hit her. “. . . Jake?”
“You remember me.” He sounded so pleased that she immediately wished that she hadn’t. Nicholas’s weaselly little friend, the one who had squatted at their house all the time and stared at her whenever she was in the room. He’d been the first one to throw the rock at the cat that day, too. Probably, she thought uncharitably, because he had thought it would impress Nick.
Jake’s smarmy smile faded when she didn’t smile back, and a darker, almost defiant expression gleamed in his eyes when her gaze dipped to her throat.
“So the rumors are true. You really did come back.”
“Yes,” she said stiffly. “I got a new job.”
“Well, luckyyou, having a swank family home to return to. Not to mention a booming family business.” He paused to scratch his nose. “I suppose that means Nick’s forgiven you.”
He must have seen the newspaper, too.“It’s been nine years.”
“So? Nobody can hold a grudge like Nick. Hell, he’ll fuck with you for fun, just to show you he can. Just like his dad used to do with his investors. He learned that from his old man.”
This was a little too close to the truth and it made Jay’s jaw clench. “He’s different now.”
“Not that different. You ruined his father’s name, turned it into dirt. He should hate you.”Like I dohovered unspoken in the air, and Jay realized with a chill that of course, Jake would hate her if he thought she was the reason that he’d lost his ‘in’ with Nick. “Instead, he’s opening his house to you and inviting you out to fucking black-tie parties? What the fuck?”
Jay drew herself up taller, and noticed that Jake was actually an inch or two shorter than she was. She saw the exact moment when he noticed this, too. “Did you ever think that maybe Nick didn’t approve of the scandal? He testified against his father. Providedevidence.”
And he hadn’t even told her about the rest—that he’d defended her name, her reputation. Quentin had been the one to bring that up, and Nicholas was not the sort of person to suffer a good deed in silence, but he had never tried to leverage any of that with her.
Never, she realized. Even when it could have helped him.
“Oh, that’s right, I remember. They made out like he was some kind of saint for doing the bare minimum. That he wassobrave.” Jake’s lip curled. “But you and I both know that he never really gave a shit about anyone. Except for you.”
Scalding pain burst like hot fireworks on the backs of her knuckles. She’d squeezed her cup so hard that the coffee had spurted out of the lid, burning her hands. “Shit,” she hissed.
Jake watched her shrug out of her sweater, watched her set her cup down on the counter and grope for napkins. He made no move to help as she got to her knees to mop up the floor, and when she looked up, she didn’t like the look on his face when she realized he was staring at her back.
“I guess it does make sense, in a way. You two were always close.”
An ominous sense of dread dripped down her spine.
“Anyway, it was good seeing you. I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lotmoreof you soon now that you’re back in town.”Fat chance of that, creep.“Tell Nick I said hello.”
