Finding myself in dangerous territory, I deflected his observation with sarcasm. “I was never open to people, but I live in a small town and was given little choice in the matter.”
Jake ignored the sarcasm. “Come grab a coffee with me.”
I felt an uncomfortable flip in my chest. “Now?”
“Yeah. There’s a café across the main forum of the library. It’s two seconds away. We’re here. It’s there. We could be drinking coffee or juice or soda, milk even, or tea, or you know they have food there too …”
“Jake Caplin, are you rambling?”
He nodded, his warm eyes alight with humor. “I’m rambling. I’m a rambler now.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I tilted my head with an arrogant smile. “Are you nervous around me?”
His mouth curled up at the corner and he gave me a little nod. “I’m nervous you’ll say no. Our last coffee didn’t go so well.”
I hadn’t thought it had gone poorly. I made a face. “Didn’t it?”
“You walked out after taking three sips.”
“I was making a statement.”
Jake shrugged, all humor suddenly gone from his expression. “Well, I didn’t like it. I don’t want you to repeat that statement.”
I knew by the rapid fluttering in my chest that agreeing to have coffee with Jake was a bad idea. Andie would also think it was a bad idea. However, the whoosh in my belly—a consequence of Jake’s intense focus on me and worry that I’d reject his friendship—was something I hadn’t felt since we’d been together. It was a sudden reminder how addictive the belly whoosh I got from Jake’s attention was.
And I found myself giving in to temptation. “I could do coffee.”
His slow smile caused another big whoosh and I told my belly to get a grip as I walked out. I followed Jake across the crowded main entrance of the library, a forum that students had turned into a hangout, and we let ourselves into the perplex security gates to the library café. The place was packed, so I found us a spot to sit near brightly colored bean cushions while he got us coffee.
Five minutes later I looked up and watched him coming toward me with the tray in his hands. The belly whoosh went to war with the ache of the loss of him in my chest. I forgot how much I loved the way his tall body moved. The pleasure of watching him was so familiar.
It amazed me that the residual feelings from our eight months together felt like an album of memories compiled over years.
Taking a seat across from me, Jake smiled. “So, it looks like we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other over the next few months. I think we should try to get past the weirdness.”
What a conversation opener. “Straight to the point.”
“The Charley I knew was a straight-talker. Has that changed too?”
I blew over my hot coffee and replied before taking a sip, “What do you think?”
Jake snorted. “I’m thinking that hasn’t changed.”
We drank from our mugs, silence falling between us. I knew Jake was waiting for me to lead the way, telling me that the ball was in my court and he was happy to go along with whatever I wanted. In the interest of keeping our new group sweet, I put my mug down and relaxed back into my chair. “How are your mom and dad?”
Relief visibly traveled through Jake’s body and he too relaxed. “They’re good. We moved back to Chicago and Dad got his old job back. Mom was happy to be back with all her old friends. They’re doing a lot better. What about your family?”
“They’re okay. Dad’s busier than ever at work but Mom’s store hit troubles. The basement has some really dangerous mold growing in there, so she’s had to close down while they deal with that. It’s expensive in a lot of ways but you know Mom, you can’t keep her down. She’s working from the house. It’s driving Dad nuts.”
Jacob’s eyes brightened and he nodded. “I’ll bet. What about Andie?”
I smiled now as I thought of Rick. I was so happy my sister had found the right guy. “She’s great. Living in Chicago. Postgrad psych, doing her internship, and she’s engaged to a rugged police detective.”
“Who you’ve bribed into being your mentor,” Jake guessed drolly.
I felt another pang in my chest at the reminder of how well he knew me. I shrugged it off as if it wasn’t a big deal he knew all the simple stuff about me that made me me. “I tried. He’s too concerned with impressing Mom and Dad to commit, but I’ll wear him down.”
Jake gave a huff a laughter. “I have no doubt.”
Brushing off the moment, I asked about his brother Lukas.
Jake instantly grinned. “Oh, he says hi.”
“Tell him I say hi back.” It occurred to me Jake must’ve mentioned he’d run into me, and I wondered if his whole family knew. I also wondered how they felt about that.
“He said to say that he saw the picture of you and Lowe on Facebook and you’re looking, and I quote, ‘hotter than ever.’”
Remembering Lukas’s crush on me, I laughed. “He hasn’t changed. He was worse than you. I imagine he’s breaking hearts all over a college campus as we speak.”
“Well, yeah, but he tells me he’s met ‘the one.’ He slept with her first week in and she’s an even bigger player than he is and doesn’t feel like settling down with the first freshman she banged. So Lukas’s game plan is to outplay her in some weird, modern mating ritual.”
Laughter bubbled between my lips as I attempted to ignore the fact that I had a new ache from missing Lukas too. In my intense pain over losing Jake, I’d almost forgotten how much I cared about his little brother.
We yammered on for a while about family and then somehow, the conversation got turned around to my dating life.
“Am I in a relationship?” I repeated Jake’s quiet question and then slowly shook my head. “No. I was back in freshman year. Since then, though, I’ve not really been looking for anything serious. I’m just focused on college and my friends.”
Jake nodded thoughtfully and then asked, “What happened to the guy from freshman year? Were you together long?”
“About ten months.”
This appeared to surprise Jake, and not in a good way. I still knew him well enough to know that the flicker of hardness in his dark eyes meant he didn’t like something. I pushed it aside. “That’s a while,” he finally responded, taking a long sip of his cooling coffee.