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Jake’s reaction was priceless. He froze halfway onto the seat, opened his mouth and closed it again, then wiped his hands down his pants. It was a move Cassie hadn’t seen him do for years. Not since he’d escaped from his father’s clutches. She loved the man he’d turned into—each small success built him up, giving him some much-needed self-assuredness. His confidence grew, and he worked hard to prove to himself that he could handle things. Jake still left all the big business decisions to Cassie, but she knew it was more out of respect for her than any lack of ability on his part.
She cracked a smile and bit down on her lip to stifle her laugh, but Phoenix’s raised eyebrow set her off, giggles peeling out of her as Jake looked like a deer in headlights at the man, and Phoenix asked, “Same as last night?”
Jake shook his head, his face flaming red, and squeaked, “No.” He cleared his throat, squared his shoulders, and added, “I’m driving tonight. Just a Pepsi, thanks.”
Phoenix smirked, winked at Jake, and turned to her. “Cassidy?”
“It’s Cassie now, and yeah, I’ll have the same. A gin and soda with lime.” She smiled, and he nodded, collecting two glasses.
“The card you gave me last night has both your names on it,” he prompted, filling the glass with the on-tap Pepsi and looking up at her from under thick lashes for a moment. She could fall into those hazel eyes, getting lost in them like she did with Jake’s azure ones.
“We own Phillips Real Estate,” Jake explained, then paused when Phoenix flicked his gaze to Jake and opened his mouth as if to ask a question. He lifted the glass to the bar top and passed it to Jake.
Phoenix bruised some lime in the bottom of a glass, reached for the bottle of Hendricks, and measured out a shot before asking, “When did you get married?” He kept his gaze on what he was doing—filling the glass almost to the rim with soda.
“We’re not married,” Cassie explained. “Not for lack of asking, though.” Phoenix furrowed his brow, and his eyes widened as he handed over the glass. Cassie laughed. “I proposed, but he said no.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head, motioning with her thumb over her shoulder to Jake. She didn’t miss Jake’s smirk, the familiar tease one she liked to remind him of.
“What?” Phoenix asked, his gaze bouncing between the two of them and settling on Jake. “Are you nuts?”
Jake shook his head and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling Cassie in for a kiss to her temple. She loved being there in his arms and looked up at her boyfriend with what she knew was love in her eyes. “I said no because marriage would have meant it was just the two of us. That didn’t suit Cassie—she’s always wanted a committed relationship with more than one person. Over the years, I’ve realized that it didn’t fit me either.”
“I…” Phoenix shook his head in disbelief. “You’re still nuts, man.”
“I suggested an alternative, which I think fits us better.” Jake smiled down at her, and she nodded. It absolutely did fit them better in every way. Their commitment was personal to them. It didn’t need to be made legal for it to count.
“What’s that?”
“You saw it on our card.”
Phoenix held up his finger, asking us to wait a minute while he served another customer.
“He’s interested in finding out more about us. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?” Jake asked quietly.
Cassie nodded and looked toward the man they were hoping would choose them. Phoenix’s eyes flicked toward them, and his lip turned up in a half smile before shifting back to his customer. “I think so.” She closed her lips around the straw and sucked, the drink refreshing on her tongue. She hummed, and Phoenix paused in the middle of making a drink, his reflected gaze locked on hers in the mirror. She bit down on her lip, feeling like the cat that got the cream as Phoenix moved to serve another customer, all the while looking at them.
When he finally came back to them twenty minutes later, he refilled Jake’s glass and made up another drink for Cassie, moving slower than he had with the other customers. He was lingering there, wanting to spend time with them. “If you aren’t married, why do you have the same name?” Phoenix asked, obviously understanding the reference when Jake had mentioned their business card.
“I changed my name to Phillips,” Jake answered before looking at her. The love in his gaze, the absolute adoration, took her breath away, even after the years they’d been together. “We promised we’d always love and respect each other and do our best to make each other happy.” Their vows were uttered on a picnic blanket down by the beach on a night where the full moon shone silvery in the sky. There hadn’t been another person in sight for miles. The ocean and the stars their only witnesses. The physical evidence of their commitment was in their home and business—both were a labour of love they’d nurtured together every step of the way. But their love was in the everyday things too. The way that Jake never complained about picking up her wet towel off the floor. It was in the way Cassie worked her hardest to make their home warm and welcoming, a far cry from the sterile environment he’d grown up in.
Phoenix nodded, seemingly contemplating his answer. “Can I ask why?”
“My family name was a reminder of a person I’d come to despise. I wanted to leave him behind.” On the face of it, Phoenix would probably think Jake was referring to his father. And he wasn’t wrong. But Jake’s sense of self-worth had been so beaten down, was so incredibly low, that he’d hated himself too. Severing ties with his father was the first step. Moving away was the second. Disowning his father’s name gave him the push to also leave behind the lifetime of verbal abuse. It helped him break free. The combination was like winning the trifecta for Jake. It was the final hurdle for him to look at himself in the mirror and know he truly was a different person. Jake liked the person he saw now. Cassie could see it in the way his smile reached his eyes and the way he held his head high. “I wanted to become part of something that had love at its centre, and for me, that was Cassie and her family. I asked her parents for permission, and then we filled out the paperwork.”
Phoenix smiled, but it was sad. Was it because he pitied him, or because he wanted to be a part of something like that himself? Cassie could only guess, but he was called away again, leaving them alone once more.
“I haven’t seen you around here before,” a man said from behind them. He was standing with a woman who rested her hand on Cassie’s stool and leaned in.
“And we’d remember you both,” she mock whispered in Cassie’s ear, flashing her ample cleavage at Jake.
“They’re not interested,” a harsh voice announced, and Cassie turned to look at Phoenix. He was breathing hard, his gaze as sharp as a dagger as he leaned over the bar. The woman stepped back immediately, but the man wasn’t so deterred.
“What makes you think that? We’ve only just joined them.”
“Because they’re mine.” He narrowed his eyes at the man, his nostrils flaring like a bull getting ready to charge. “And I don’t share.”
The man’s lip turned up in a sneer, spoiling for a fight, but the woman wrapped her arm around his and smiled apologetically at them. “Sorry, we didn’t know. Come on, Shane, let’s go.”
“You need to go out back and cool down. Ten-minute break.” The same man that had been there the night before sidled up to Phoenix and leaned against the bar. “And I don’t care how well they suck your dick, pull that shit with my customers again and you’re out.”
