02

My stomach churned as I recalled the variety of expressions on his face that day he stood witness to mine and Brandon’s confession.

He was one of the first people to look at me and decide I was worthy. How do I face him after proving to him how wrong he was ?

I debated for another moment while the phone continued to ring in my hand.

I’m unworthy of his trust but he’s worthy of mine. Trust that he’s the good man you know him to be.

“Hello ?”

“Charlotte ! Thank God you answered,” he said in a rush. I couldn’t detect a hint of anger or contempt in his tone. “I need your help. Tessa keeps evading me and I’m hanging on to my sanity by a thread. Today, I learned she’s gone out on a couple of dates with this guy from her Socio class. How can she go out with someone when everything between us is still unresolved ?”

It was terrible to smile in context of Jake’s dilemma but I was so vastly relieved that he was talking to me like nothing awful had happened—you know, him finding out that my marriage to his best friend started out as a million-dollar sham and all that.

I opened my mouth to speak but he kept going. “Are you busy ? Please tell me you’re not busy. I need some good advice—hell, any advice would be better than the one I’m giving myself right now, which is to hunt down this guy and toss him out of town on his ass. Anyway, can you meet me for coffee ? If you’re home, I can pick you up in ten minutes.”

I was so startled and stunned with relief that all I managed was, “Um, sure.”

I shrugged on a black leather biker jacket and slung a small, cranberry-red leather bag over my shoulder before heading out.

I paused about the dress, thinking I was supposed to wear it to dinner later but I didn’t really have time to change, now or later. It was pretty late for an afternoon coffee but Brandon could just pick me up at wherever Jake and I ended up at.

Jake was leaning against his car as he waited by the front steps of the building.

Dressed down in jeans and a light green sweater, he looked every bit as dashing as I remembered. The fact that he had a big, warm smile on his face, his eyes lighting up as he looked up and saw me, tugged at my heart.

“Hello, sunshine,” he greeted gently as he wrapped me up in a bear hug. “It’s been ages since I last saw you.”

“I know,” I said on a slight choke of tears as we pulled away. I implored at him with a look. “The last time you saw me, I was… I…”

The right words were evading me so I took a deep breath and pulled myself together. “I lied, Jake. I lied to you and everyone else from the very beginning. I expected you to hate me.”

Jake’s brows scrunched up together. “Hate you ? Why would I be so silly to do something like that ?”

“Because it was all an act !” I sputtered. “You talked about those women who see Brandon as a walking dollar sign. I was one of those women !”

Jake eyed me thoughtfully.

For all my blustering, he seemed surprisingly calm and even mildly amused. “I’ve gotten to know you well over the past few months, Charlotte. Even if you slap me on the head with a contract, I know that no amount of money could’ve ever motivated you to give as convincing a performance as you did in being in love with my best friend. While I think that Martin is a sly, old man, you and Brandon owe him a favor. I owe him a favor.”

My brows went up. “You do ?”

“Yeah,” Jake said with a lazy grin and a shrug. “Because he threw you and Brandon together, I met you. You’re one of the best people I know, Char. Whatever the circumstances were that brought you to us is not important. Brandon didn’t pay you to be there for a lot of us—to put yourself at risk for the sake of the others, to cheer us up when we’re feeling like crap, to kick our ass when we’re not being the better person we could be. You did all of that on your own.”

I didn’t realize I was crying until Jake held out a folded handkerchief and pressed it on my damp cheeks.

“That was one of the kindest things anyone has ever said to me,” I said with a half-smile, half-sob as I took the handkerchief and dabbed my face dry. “I was afraid that I’d lost all of you when I made that confession. I would’ve understood but it would’ve sucked so bad.”

Jake laughed and pressed a kiss on the crown of my head. “Sorry, Char. There’s no way you can be rid of us now.”

I giggled even as I blinked back the rest of my tears, the heavy weight that had been residing in my heart for a while now loosening up and slowly lifting away. “Now, I don’t know whether I should be worried or relieved.”

Jake straightened away from his car and held the passenger door open for me. “You can decide on that after you spend a couple of hours with my sorry company. I did tell you I need some advice, didn’t I ?”

I rolled my eyes. “For a ladies’ man, you surely need a lot of help winning one girl’s heart.”

“That’s because I’m trying to be just one lady’s man now and I’m not very experienced at it,” he said indignantly. “Now, get inside before you change your mind about keeping me company.”

I couldn’t stop grinning.

It was nice to banter with Jake again, to have a chance to be there for him like he’d let me before my big bad secret came out.

“Where are we going anyway ?” I asked him as he slid behind the wheel. “You’re the one with the problematic heart. You get to choose.”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “You know, just because you’re still feeling guilty about your whole marriage secret with Brandon, doesn’t mean you have to indulge my every whim. I’ll still let you kick my ass if I’m being an idiot about something. Don’t hold back on my account.”

I laughed even though my cheeks burned slightly at the truth of his words. “I’m not so sure that was a good idea on your part to give me carte blanche. But don’t worry, when you’ve done something that deserves some ass-kicking, you’ll know it.”

Jake just laughed as he pulled out into traffic. “Since you were feeling kind of sentimental earlier, how about we go somewhere that will help me get to know the old Charlotte a little bit better before she got swept away into the glitzy, if not sometimes overrated world of the Maxfields ?”

I smiled. “What do you have in mind ?”

“I know you used to work at Marlow’s,” he said with a little more seriousness. “Brandon and I never really went there but I know that’s where you met his old man. Is their food good ?”

“If you like a little bit of grease on everything,” I said with a laugh, inwardly pleased that Jake would ever suggest Marlow’s. It wasn’t his cup of tea but it was something that would always be a part of me. The gesture felt like a symbol of his acceptance. “But the coffee is pretty decent.”

“Sold ! Marlow’s it is.”

It took no time to get there.

I haven’t been to Marlow’s in a while and the fact that I was a little over-dressed only added to my nervousness. It was ridiculous for me to be nervous, of course, but since that big confession I’d made in front of the Maxfield family and their circle of friends, I’d been feeling a bit vulnerable.

I didn’t really know how much damage the truth had done.

At Jake’s reassuring smile, I forced myself to buck up and be a big girl.

He was the first of them to have reached out to me after my disgrace and I couldn’t, wouldn’t, blow the second chance he’d given me.

Marlow’s first opened over thirty years ago and while its repair and maintenance were well looked after, not much of the interior decor had changed.