But even now, when he’d come back to deal with selling his family’s properties, she’d been first in line to welcome him back, even if it had been unintentional.
By default, he owned the building her business was in, and the place she lived. Going over his dad’s paperwork he could see that before Cassie the building had been out of use for years, and bringing no income in. And while Cassie was getting a better deal than was reasonable, her being in the place was preferable to it sitting there bringing in no revenue at all.
Yeah, Cassie was definitely not the kind of woman for him to go messing around with. Probably he was looking at celibacy for the duration of his sentence in Copper Ridge. He had a history with too many of the women here. Either they’d already been with him in high school, or they hadn’t wanted to be for very specific reasons.
Plus, a one night stand would be almost impossible here. The odds of you running into each other the next day on the street were way too high. Just another reason Seattle suited him a whole lot better than this place.
A little anonymity was much better for a guy like him.
And possibly right now a cold shower would be the thing for a guy like him. Dammit. How long had it been since he’d gotten hard over brushing fingers with a woman? Answer: fifteen years.
He thought again of his last night in Copper Ridge. Sitting in an empty library with Cassie, all of his focus zeroing in on her lips. He’d been saying something about his family and she’d reached out and put her hand over his.
A caring gesture. One that had sent a rush of heat straight through his body and he’d wanted...he’d wanted to close the distance between them then. To kiss her. Deep and hard. To make that connection he felt with her real, physical.
He shook his head. What was it about her? What was it about here?
He grabbed the bottle opener off of the fridge and popped the top on his beer. Taking a sip, he turned to look out the window. His view was of Old Town’s main street. Painted clapboard buildings, with red brick interspersed. An American flag rising up above City Hall. And beyond that was the ocean. Without seeing it he could still picture the coastline. Evergreen trees, yellow bursts of Scotch Broom, and weedy blades of grass with edges sharp enough to cut into your skin.
Across the street, behind the apartment building he was currently residing in, was a long stretch of winding highway, forest, and ranches. Yeah, he knew all of that, could picture it all without having to look.
Copper Ridge hadn’t changed, but he had. He wasn’t the same Jake Caldwell he’d been.
He wasn’t a juvenile delinquent who couldn’t do a damn thing right to save his life. Hell no. He managed a successful business in a very competitive environment. His boss trusted him, and he had done everything he could to earn that trust.
Unlike his old man, his boss actually believed he could do things right.
Which made him wonder yet again why he was here and not back in Seattle in the mechanic shop.
He sighed heavily. That was all because of John too. The older man, who was, unquestionably, a mentor to Jake, had told him he had to come back and handle his family affairs himself. He’d said that was what a man did.
So he was here, handling his family affairs like a man.
And there would be no handling of pretty female tenants while he was at it. So his body was just gonna have to calm down.
He had a feeling this was going to be a long couple of months.
WHEN CASSIE FINALLY made her way back up to her apartment she was exhausted. She also had no fewer than three missed calls from her mother. She kept her phone on vibrate during the workday, which probably gave her mom fits. But then, her mom was the main reason she kept it on vibrate.
Work hours seemed to mean nothing to the woman.
Cassie was about to call her mother back when the phone started to shiver in her hand, the screen lighting up and her mother’s picture appearing on it.
Cassie groaned and hit “accept.”
“Hello?”
“Cassie, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all day.”
“Yeah, Mom, I’ve been working all day.”
“Did you just get home?” The note of worry in her mother’s voice did not inspire any warm fuzzy feelings in Cassie. Not at this point. Not considering Cassie lived directly above her workplace. Her commute was a staircase. “It’s late, Cassie.”
“I know, Mom. But such is the hazard of running your own business. Anyway, I walked back up to the apartment using the interior stairs. Nothing is going to happen to me between work and home.”
“But you work too much. How in the world are you supposed to meet anyone when you’re working all the time?”
Ahhh, and here we came to the bottom of mama Ventimiglia’s worry. Not so much for Cassie’s safety, but for her singledom.
The guilts would come next. They were her mother’s specialty. A single mom, she’d always been hyper invested in keeping her daughter from making the same mistakes she had.
The biggest mistake being getting pregnant without securing a man. Cassie was always thrilled to be numbered as one of her mother’s mistakes, even if the other woman didn’t really mean it that way.
“You know, Mom, I serve people coffee all day. I talk to people all day. I meet new people every day.”
“But I bet you’re going to tell me you can’t date a customer.”
Cassie sighed heavily. “You never know. Never say never. Never assume windows are locked when doors are closed, or something like that.” What she really wanted to say was absolutely no, never, no. But she knew that would only keep her mother on the phone longer. And it wasn’t like she didn’t enjoy talking to her, sometimes. Her mom was nothing if not well-meaning, but when it came to the topic of Cassie’s love life, or lack thereof, Cassie would rather she left well enough alone.
“I worry about you. I don’t want you to end up like I did.”
Alone. With nothing but a daughter and no man. “I know. But I’m fine. I really am. I’m happy.”
“I don’t see how you can be happy, losing Allen like you did.”
Cassie fought the urge to scream and hurl the phone across the room. “I don’t feel like I lost much of anything divorcing him. He was a dud. Better to have no potato chips than broken potato chips, or something.”
“It’s still a potato chip, Cassie.”
Cassie sighed. Hoisted by her own bad analogy. “Right. Well, I’m on a diet.”
“Do you still have the meals I sent for you in the freezer?”
“Yes, I do. I’ll have one of those,
