Читать книгу Her Seven-Day Fiancé - Brenda Harlen, Brenda Harlen - Страница 13

Chapter Five

Jay heard voices in the hall and glanced up when Carter, Nat and Kevin came into the office together the next morning. They had a tray of coffee and box of pastries from The Daily Grind, and he held out his hand for his usual—large, black—desperate for the hit of caffeine to revive his sluggish brain. He peeled back the lid and lifted the cup to his mouth.

“Thanks,” he said. “I really needed that this morning—I don’t think I managed even four hours of sleep last night.”

Carter opened the box of pastries and Jay’s gaze zeroed in on the bear claw—at the same moment Kevin snatched it out of the box and bit into it.

“I thought the bear claw was mine.”

“Did you?” his friend asked around a mouthful of sweet, fried dough. “It really sucks when someone else moves in and takes something you’ve had your eye on, doesn’t it?”

Jay looked questioningly at his other friends. “Why do I get the impression this isn’t about the bear claw?”

“Because it’s about Alyssa,” Nat said.

“What about Alyssa?” he asked cautiously.

Kevin’s only response was to take another big bite of the pastry.

“When we were at The Daily Grind, we heard Megan Carmichael telling Kenzie Atkins that you were locking lips with the new bartender at Diggers’ last night,” Nat explained.

Jay shouldn’t have been surprised. The Daily Grind wasn’t just Haven’s café and bakery, it was where the latest rumors were always as hot as the coffee.

“It’s not what you think,” he said.

“You mean you weren’t kissing Alyssa?” Kevin challenged.

“I mean that’s only part of the story.”

“I don’t care about the story,” his friend said. “It’s Lacey Bolton all over again.”

“Seriously, Kev? That was twelve years ago,” Jay said. “Can you forget about Lacey Bolton already?”

“Can you not see that this isn’t about Lacey Bolton but the guy who screwed over a friend for the sake of a pretty girl?”

“The situation is completely different.”

“Not from my perspective,” Kevin argued. “You put the moves on a girl you knew I’ve had my eye on for weeks.”

“First, I didn’t put any moves on her—she kissed me,” Jay pointed out in his defense. “Second, how is it my fault that you don’t have the guts to make a move on a girl you’ve supposedly had your eye on for weeks?”

“I was waiting for the right moment,” Kevin said.

“How long were you going to wait?” Jay wondered.

“Until last night,” his friend said. “If you remember, it was my idea to go to Diggers’ last night because I knew Alyssa would be working.”

“And if you remember, you left the bar without making any kind of move.”

“She was busy,” Kevin said in his defense.

“That didn’t stop Carter from flirting with her.”

Kevin glared at their other friend.

“But all I did was flirt—Jay’s the one who kissed her,” Carter said, eager to throw Jay under the bus.

He could argue again that she’d kissed him, but he couldn’t deny that there had been kissing. Instead, he said, “Do you want me to apologize?”

“Are you sorry?” Kevin asked.

He thought about the very public and very brief kiss he’d shared with Alyssa and felt desire stir low in his belly. He could tell Kevin that it wasn’t quite as steamy as people were saying, but the memory of that innocent kiss had kept him awake half the night. He could lie, but they’d been friends for too long for that option to sit comfortably with him. “No,” he admitted.

Kevin shook his head. “You haven’t changed at all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s always been about the score with you. Jay always has to be with the hottest girls, the most girls—even the unavailable girls.”

“I was a dick in high school,” he acknowledged. “But we’re not in high school anymore.”

“You don’t think kissing Alyssa was a dick move?”

Of course it was, if he’d done it for the purpose of getting between his friend and the girl he liked. But he hadn’t. Nor could he deny that his friend’s secret crush on the bartender had been the furthest thing from his mind when Alyssa’s mouth touched his.

“Okay, it was,” he agreed. “But when you were talking about the new bartender at Diggers’, I had no idea it was Alyssa. If I’d known, I would have told you—weeks ago—that I knew her.”

“I don’t care that you knew her first—you shouldn’t have kissed her.”

“I get that this is a guy thing,” Nat interjected. “You want to beat your chests to figure out who gets the hot girl, but you’re overlooking two key pieces of the puzzle.”

“What pieces?” Carter asked.

“First, dibs and friendships aside, it’s not up to you to decide who gets Alyssa—it’s up to her. And truthfully, I don’t know why she’d waste her time with either one of you.”

“Thanks,” Jay said. “That’s very helpful.”

“Second,” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken, “and this point is really for Kevin...I know you think Jay only kissed Alyssa because he knew you had a crush on her, but that’s not true.”

“How do you know it’s not true?” Kevin demanded.

“Because Jay isn’t a big fan of early mornings, but he’s been the first one here almost every day for the past several weeks.”

“He owns seventy percent of the business—he should be the first one here every day,” Kevin pointed out.

“I didn’t know there was a gold star for being an early riser,” Jay said, giving Nat a subtle shake of his head.