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?”