From Ashes (From Ashes 1)

“She’s mine. She’ll always be mine. You weren’t there for everything in her life. You didn’t take care of her . . . keep her alive. I did!” He hissed, “I’m what’s best for her. I’m what’s safe and familiar and comfortable to her. Cassi will always come back to me. I look forward to the day she runs from you to me. And trust me, that day will come. When it does, I’m not letting her go again.” Before I could speak, he continued. “So enjoy her while you have her, because in the end, it’s me and her.”

Screw being in public. My hands curled into fists and I took a step toward him but Ethan stepped up and pushed me back, saying, “Let it go, Gage. Just let it go.”

“It’ll always be me and Cassidy. You’ve got a temper; you think with her life she’s going to want to be with a hothead just waiting to explode? Or that I would let her go into a life where she would get the same treatment she had for twelve years?”

“I would never touch her that way and you know that!” I shrugged Ethan off and stepped back up to my cousin, grabbing the collar of his shirt in my fists.

He glanced down to my shaking hands and scoffed. “Actually, I don’t, and she has no idea what she’s getting into with you. The minute she catches a glimpse of your anger—because we both know she didn’t see anything that morning at your place—she’ll be gone and I’ll be there to hold her and take her away from it, like I always have.”

“And let me guess, you’re gonna try to make that happen again, am I right?”

He tapped my clenched fist and Ethan put his hand on my shoulder to pull me back again. “Like I said . . . temper.” With a twisted smirk, Tyler pulled my hands off, turned, and headed back the way he’d come.

“Seriously, Gage, no hard feelings or anything, but your cousin is a dick,” Ethan said as he slapped me on the back. “C’mon, we gotta get to class.”

I watched as Tyler rounded the corner, then checked my watch. “Nah, I’m gonna skip today.”

“Need to go unwind? We can grab a beer.”

“I’m gonna get Cass. Catch you later, yeah?”

Ethan smirked. “Yeah, I bet Cassi is much better at helping you calm down than a beer.”

“Smartass.”

“Have fun unwinding, Gage.” He winked as he started backward, then suddenly stopped. “On second thought, Jackie’s already home waiting for me . . . unwinding sounds like a damn good idea right about now.” He grinned wickedly and grabbed his keys out of his pocket, heading toward his car down the street.

I checked my watch again and took off for my truck, hoping I made it to Starbucks before Cassidy started walking home.

CASSIDY

“LORI, YOU OKAY?” How could she walk out of the bathroom smiling? She’d just puked.

“I’m great! Sorry I had to run out in the middle of taking the order though.”

“No worries, do you want to go home now, and I’ll work your last two hours?” I really was exhausted; Gage and I had hardly slept that week—not that I was complaining—and I was looking forward to getting a nap in before he got home in a few hours.

“No way! You didn’t even take your lunch, and don’t think I didn’t realize you clocked out for it and continued to work. Seriously, Cassi, I’m fine. Go home! I’ll see you next week.” She popped a piece of gum in her mouth and started rocking out to the song playing throughout the café as she went about washing her hands before fixing the pastry case.

Pregnant women. I swear, they’re crazy.

I glanced over at one of our newer guys and grimaced. He made perfect drinks, but I made a mental note to never put him on bar again during a Friday morning since he tended to take his time on each one. This was only my second time working with him, but one of the other shift leaders said he’d done bar really well a few times during the afternoon, then again last weekend; however, I’d had to take over for him four different times when we got slammed.

“Hey, Jesse, want me to get you caught up before I go?”

His almost-black eyes widened slightly with relief, but he kept his face composed. “You can say it, Cassi, I suck at this.”

“You don’t.” I laughed and moved in front of the bar where the two espresso machines sat side by side, steaming milk on each machine and getting espresso shots ready as well. “You’ve only been on bar a few times and it’s been during dead hours. First few Monday and Friday mornings will be a little overwhelming, but you’ll get it.”

Jesse blew out a deep breath and grabbed two of the cups to make tea. “And there you go putting me to shame in no time at all.”

“Jesse,” I said softly, and caught his eye before turning to grab the shots and dump them into cups and start new ones, “if I’ve been embarrassing you because of this, let me know. I really was just trying to help; I know how stressful it can be.”

A deep laugh rumbled out of his chest and he smiled crookedly at me. “You’re not embarrassing me. I feel like I’m just makin’ an ass outta myself in front of you.”

“Uh, you’re not. You’re learning, like we all had to.” I called out three drinks for the café and gave two to the girl at the drive-thru register as Jesse handed her the two teas. His arm brushed mine so I took an unnecessary step away to grab the three milk pitchers and clean them out.

Jesse began making the last two drinks sitting on the bar and I purposefully took my time cleaning and restocking the area so I could watch to see if there was anything I could pick out that he could change to help on his times. Unfortunately, there wasn’t. He just needed to speed up, and now that he had all the drinks down, I had no doubt he would. He called out the two drinks, cleaned up, and for the third time since he’d started making those last two drinks his right hand went down to his leg and touched it quickly before he sighed heavily and kept wiping down the bar.

“Your phone vibrating?”

He glanced over his shoulder with that crooked smile that was really too adorable for his own good. “That obvious, huh?”

I shrugged. “Maybe I’m just observant.”

“Maybe . . . or maybe you’re just checking me out.”

My eyes widened and my stupid cheeks instantly filled with heat. “Uh, no. Definitely not.”

“Not like I haven’t been doing the same to you.”

“Jesse . . .” I began to tell him about Gage but his grin and laughing eyes fell as his hand went back to his leg. “You know I don’t mind if you check your phone as long as it doesn’t interfere with taking or filling orders. If you want to run to the back and take a ten-minute break, I’ll cover.”

He glanced down to his thick-banded watch. “Cassi, you were supposed to be off five minutes ago.”

“Well, whoever it is obviously needs to talk to you if they’ve called you four times in a row. I’m fine, go take a break.”

Jesse shook his head and tried to force a smile but didn’t succeed. “I’m sorry, but I know who it is and it’s most likely an emergency. I won’t take my full break, I’ll be right back, I swear.”

I finished stocking the bar, checked the whipped creams and syrups to make sure they weren’t going to be running out any time soon, and stocked the cups just as Jenn came back in.

“So sorry! There was a line at the bank that took forever. I’m here now, go home. And Lori told me about your lunch, Cassi.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “You should actually be taking your lunch, not just saying you are.”

“They were slammed all morning, it wouldn’t have been right to leave.” I punched in my numbers to clock out and leaned over to her. “Hey, I sent Jesse on a ten; his phone kept going off in his pocket and he looked nervous about it. I mean, it was on vibrate and all, but every time it went off, his face just dropped and got really pale. Whoever it was called four times in a row that I noticed. They could have been calling for longer. He said he knew who was calling and it was probably an emergency. He’s in the back right now and I’ll see if he’s good before I head out, but I just wanted to warn you. I don’t know what the emergency is or if it’s something that’ll make him have to leave; in case it is I didn’t want you to be blindsided.”

“Oh, that sucks.” She chewed on her bottom lip as she looked over the schedule to see who was coming in next. “Hmm, well if he has to, at least we have two more people coming in within the hour.” Jenn looked quickly to the door that led to the back, then leaned closer. “He’s seriously hot though, right?”

I untied my apron and moved it over my head. “Jesse? Yeah, I guess.” No I guess about that guy; he was some serious eye candy. But when compared to Gage? There really was no competition. Jesse was probably a little shorter than Ty and had naturally olive-tan skin with eyes so dark they were almost black, matching his short hair. Like Ty, though, he looked like he’d spent a lot of time at the gym. And while it looked good on him, especially in the white button-down shirt he was wearing with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, I preferred Gage’s longer muscles from working on the ranch all his life rather than the compacted ones the guys got from bulking up in a gym.

“You guess? Oh, Cassi, I know you’re taken, but, girl, I know you’re not blind. Now go see if he’s coming back, then get your ass home.”

“Yeah, yeah . . . I’m leaving.” I walked to the back and tried not to make it obvious I was walking silently so I could hear Jesse’s conversation.

“Do you need me to come home? . . . You sure? . . . Yeah, okay . . . Don’t worry about it, I’ll get another job . . . No, I don’t want you to worry, I’m serious, I’m gonna take care of you, all right? . . . All right, love you too, see you when I get home.” As I silently rounded the corner, Jesse dropped to the chair at the desk and let his head fall into his hands. “Son of a bitch.”