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Chapter 45

Janie

We wake up early the next day, and from the moment I open my eyes my mind and body are filled with the distinct sensation of being on vacation even though I know that it’s still a work day for me. But that time seems to be hours away and all I want right now is to be here, now — that’s what all the self-help gurus say, right?

Jake isn’t with me, but the smell of something cooking is. I sit up, and listen carefully — from down the stairs I can hear the sound of things sizzling. That is definitely bacon.

Wrapped in only the sheet because my clothes never made it upstairs with me, I pad down the stairs to find Jake naked except for an apron, his muscular, sculpted body bobbing and swaying as he hums to himself. I can wait to announce myself; this is worth watching.

After a minute or so, Jake turns with a pan in hand and freezes when he sees me leaning against the banister.

“Caught you,” I say, smiling compulsively.

Jake snorts, and waves the pan in my direction. “That’s all the show you get. You want more, I better see some dollar bills.”

“But can he actually cook, is the question,” I mutter as I approach the bar.

Jake is smug as he delivers not just pancakes, but credible crepes to a plate. He makes a show of scattering berries, cream cheese, and some dark blackberry-based drizzle in overly intricate swirls before rolling it all up and adding bacon to each plate. “My mom used to love making crepes,” he tells me. “I learned from her. I’m confident in my crepes, but that’s about all I got.”

“Just the one trick?” I sigh, feigning disappointment. “Taking you back to the shelter.”

Jake barks a laugh, and comes around the bar to kiss me, his warm hands gripping my hips. “I think I have more than one trick,” he mutters against my lips.

“Fair enough.” I’m hot for him again, and the fact that he doesn’t seem to mind what I look like in the morning makes it somehow even more acute. Not that I’ve passed a mirror on the way down, but I’m well aware of how I present in the early hours.

“Come on,” he says, tugging me off of the stool. He takes both plates and leads me out the sliding door facing the beach and then, bold as you please, walks off the back porch and down a little path to the sand wearing nothing but that apron. His ass is high, round. I want to grab it.

My lip between my teeth, I giggle as I clutch the sheet to me and follow him down. It’s a private beach here, probably one of his father’s properties if I had to guess, and no one can see us easily without scaling the cliffs. That doesn’t seem likely. It’s nerve-racking at first, but gets easier once we’re seated under a canopy on the sand.

He’s not wrong about the crepes — they’re good. If I was inclined to run a breakfast service in addition to dinner, these could easily be on the menu. The bacon is cooked just right, and I don’t feel remotely guilty for devouring two thick-cut pieces in just a few bites.

Jake has zero compunctions about being hungry either, and barely talks while he eats breakfast. When we’re both done, he sets the plates aside and pulls me to him, so that I’m between his legs, leaning back against his body while we watch the morning sun climb over the great blue. In the daylight, the water here is sapphire blue, and still enough that I can see fish and crabs darting around beneath the surface.

“That’s the first you’ve said about your mom,” I tell him. “Earlier, that she taught you how to make crepes. Are you two close?”

“We used to be,” Jake says, a ghost of old sadness in his voice. “She left a while back. Didn’t fight to take me with her — she never would have won. My father doesn’t like losing, you know? She didn’t get a dime. She’s on the other coast now. I think she remarried a few years ago. We… don’t really talk much.”

“What does she do?”

“She’s ah… probably a housewife again,” he says. “She didn’t really have any skills when she married Reginald, so…”

“That’s sad,” I say. “I mean… if it works for her it works, you know? But there’s nothing quite as freeing as being self-made. I think I only really started to live when I opened up Red Hall.”

“It would be nice,” he sighs. “Not to be so tied to Reginald. He’s threatened to disinherit me if I open a gym.”

“So?” I ask. “Don’t get me wrong, a billion dollars is probably good to have in your pocket but… it’s not your dream to just be rich forever, right? In the end, money’s only worth money. Dreams are worth the time and life it takes to make them come true.”

“You make it sound easy,” Jake laughs.

“It’s not,” I tell him. “It’s the hardest thing in the world. You have to keep innovating, keep coming up with the next thing. But it’s unbelievably satisfying in a way you just have to experience for yourself. Lately we’re planning this…” Maybe it’s not a good idea to go talking about the hot sauce line. But, maybe if he’s inspired, he might actually do something on his own. Why do I care about that?

“Lately…?” he wonders.

“Ah… well, I worked with my chef, Lacey Ming, to develop this hot sauce line. Six different sauces that we’re going to roll out over the next few weeks into the fall. I’m thinking we’ll develop a different line each year, and then maybe do some seasonal stuff. I’ve been wanting to do something that’ll really make us stand out, you know?” I squirm against him a little bit, and then move so that I can face him. “It’s a good feeling. Knowing that you’re taking risks, making choices… building something.”

He meets my eyes, smiling at me but… something is different. Guarded. Did I make a mistake? And if I did, which one was it?

I try to err on the side of optimism — maybe it’s just hard for Jake to really open up. With a father like his, it wouldn’t surprise me. We’re at the beach just a little longer before finally we return to the house.