Page 78 of The Other Half

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Jake

My muscles ached from the fight that salmon put up during my evening charter tonight. I’d welcomed the battle to help unleash all the anger Cassie’s return yesterday had built within me. Just when I’d thought I could start healing and move on, she’d marched back into my life. Like a wrecking ball, she’d blown everything to pieces.

With the call of whiskey pulling me in, I stumbled up the steps to the Ox. Being a Saturday night in July, the bar was packed, and I felt bad that Jo would be alone. This would have been a shift Cassie was on if she still worked here. But there was no way I could sit here with Cassie behind the bar again, so even though it sucked for Jo and meant slow service for the night, I looked forward to a Cassie-free night at the Ox to unwind and help forget her.

“Hey, Jake!” Jo said while I slid into my stool. “You missed happy hour. You’re in late tonight.”

“Yeah. Evening charter ran late. I’ll take a –”

“Really? You still think you need to order a drink? I’m pretty sure you’ve been drinking whiskey and cokes since we had our first one sophomore year at that field party out on Logerquist Road.”

“You’re probably right.”

“I think I still have prickles embedded in my skin from when the cops raided, and we tore through those juniper bushes.”

If I’d been in a better mood, I would have laughed. Matt, Jo, and I had run for an hour when cops busted in on our underage party. It was the first time any of us had gotten drunk. But remembering my friendship with Matt only pushed the knife deeper in my back. It seemed everyone wanted a turn twisting the blade these days. At least Jo was still a loyal friend.

“So, there’s something I need to tell you,” she said as she dropped the drink in front of me.

When I looked up, her eyes shifted, and the brazen confidence Jo wore like a cape flitted away. Biting her lip, she glanced toward the door to the kitchen. It opened. The second I saw the blonde hair I started off of my stool.

So much for Jo being a loyal friend. She hired her back?

“Jake. Just wait.” She grabbed my arm and pulled it down to the bar with strength surprising for someone her size.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I growled. “She’s back?”

“Jake. You really should listen to her story.”

“I did listen to her story. That sucks about what happened, but the bottom line is she lied to me. I’ve been lied to by women enough!”

“Come on, Jake. Life isn’t so black and white. That girls been through some shit. I think she means it when she says she wants to make a life here. And if I can find it in my hardened heart to forgive her, maybe you should at least consider it.”

I shook my head hard. “No. I can’t.”

Cassie stepped behind the bar and our eyes connected. How she could still send my stomach tumbling into the abyss after everything she did shocked me more than the sight of her still working at the Ox.

“Jake. Just hear her out.”

“I don’t need to hear her out again. You’re short of help. You hired her back. I get it. But that doesn’t mean I need to sit here and get tortured by her. I’m out of here.”

“Jake!” Jo pleaded while I ripped my arm away.

“I can’t, Jo.” Hanging my head, I pushed through the crowd out onto the front porch. Even my sanctuary was ruined now. The Blue Ox had been my bar. Matt got the Cornerstone. I got the Ox. Now Cassie had it and I felt one more thing being taken from me. The door creaked when it opened behind me.

“Jake.”

Cassie. Of course, it was. I groaned and stared out at the street. “Don’t Cassie. It’s fine. I’ll go.”

“I don’t want you to go, Jake. I want you to forgive me.”

“I can’t.” I couldn’t look at her. One look into her teary eyes last night shattered my resolve. One taste of those lips and I almost couldn’t stop. I didn’t dare look into her eyes now. One look and I knew she could strip away the last of my defenses and send me hurtling off the cliff again. Not this time. I couldn’t take another crash to the ground.

“Jake.” She brushed her fingers against my arm. “If you won’t forgive me, I’ll quit. I’m not going to ruin your life any more than I already have. But I wish you could find a way to forgive me. If I’d have known I would fall for you, I never would have lied the first day we met. I swear.”

Fall for me? Oh, God. I wanted to turn around. I wanted to look into her eyes and see if they were filled with more lies or maybe, just maybe, this time the truth.