Chapter 5
Five
CAITLIN
The moment Caitlin looked up from wiping down the counter, her stomach lurched.
A bug.
A bug .
Right there, in the cheese .
Her breath caught as she watched in stunned horror, her mind struggling to catch up with what she was seeing. The teenage girl at the prep station, barely old enough to drive, had just plucked something dark and wriggling from the shredded cheese she had already dumped onto the pizza. And if that weren’t bad enough—if Caitlin hadn’t already felt the deep, nauseating dread curling in her gut—she realized the girl was about to slide the contaminated pizza into the oven as if nothing had happened.
A strangled noise rose in Caitlin’s throat. She opened her mouth to scream, to protest, to fire someone on the spot , but at that exact moment, the bell above the front door jingled, signaling a customer.
She had two choices: remain professional and pretend like the absolute apocalypse of food safety violations hadn’t just happened—or explode in a fiery blaze of wrath.
"Pizza! Pizza! What can I cheese ya! Cheese ya!" she shouted, her voice just a little too high, a little too strained as she forced a customer-service smile. "I’ll be right there!"
Then she bolted toward the back like a woman possessed.
Her heart pounded as she yanked the pizza out of Becky’s hands, holding it away from herself like it was toxic waste.
"What. Are. You. Doing ?" Caitlin hissed, eyes blazing as she fought the urge to gag. “No. No. No.” She shook her head, as if she could shake away the sheer wrongness of what was happening. “You make another pizza, and you dump the cheese if it’s contaminated. We do not, under any circumstances, bake something like that .”
Becky blinked, chewing her gum with all the carelessness of a kid who didn’t understand that Caitlin was two seconds from losing her mind.
“Henry said?—”
"I don’t care what Henry said!" Caitlin snapped, her patience dangling by a thread so thin it was practically nonexistent. “There is never an acceptable amount of mold or bugs in food."
Becky hesitated. "But..."
"No," Caitlin cut her off, jabbing a finger at the pizza as if it had personally betrayed her. "No bugs. No mold. End of story.”
Becky made a face, clearly unimpressed. “But there’s bugs in everything…”
Caitlin’s entire soul recoiled.
“La! La! La!” she sang, clamping her hands over her ears like a child refusing to hear the worst news of her life. “No, there isn’t…”
Becky, unfazed by Caitlin’s escalating meltdown, only shrugged. “Yes, there is. In fact, in coffee beans, it’s a shockingly high amount of?—”
"LA! LA! LA!" Caitlin shrieked, genuinely shrieked , her voice bouncing off the tiled walls as she squeezed her eyes shut. She refused to hear this. She had spent her entire life blissfully ignorant of whatever horrifying truths Becky was about to unleash, and she intended to stay that way.
“Do not ruin coffee for me,” she warned, cracking one eye open, her voice trembling with desperation. “I need it to exist. The three C’s, Becky. We’ve talked about it. Coffee is the purest thing in the universe, straight from God. No bugs. No chemicals. No nitrates. And did I mention NOOOOO BUGS?!”
Becky just smirked, all too pleased with herself. “I mean, technically?—”
"MAKE. ANOTHER. PIZZA. BECKY. PERIOD." Caitlin bellowed, her sanity hanging by a thread. Becky sighed dramatically, popping her gum before finally, finally, turning back toward the prep station.
And then—laughter. A deep, rich chuckle carried through the air, rolling over her like the warm scent of freshly baked dough and melted cheese.
Her stomach twisted.
A customer.
Someone had overheard.
Caitlin stood there, breathing hard, trying to scrub the memory from her brain. Right. Focus on what you’re doing, Caitlin, she thought in disbelief.
Work.
Normalcy.
Sanity .
With an exhausted groan, she pushed both hands through her hair, muttering under her breath as she forced herself back toward the register.
She needed a coffee—a clean one.
“Whatever…” Becky muttered behind her.
And possibly a priest.
Caitlin exhaled sharply, pressing her lips together as she turned away to keep from reaching for the smart-mouthed twerp. Her fingers trembled—just slightly—as she forced herself to focus, to breathe, to not let the weight of that last conversation crush her like an avalanche of disgust. She had barely dodged a bullet and barely managed to keep herself from unraveling right there in the middle of her shift.
Caitlin braced herself, straightened her uniform, and stepped around the corner, steeling her spine against whatever embarrassment or pity she might find waiting for her. But when her gaze landed on the man standing there, her entire world stuttered.
Jason.
She did a double take, pulse slamming against her ribs.
So did he.
For a breathless moment, time seemed to stretch between them, silent and charged. Then Jason’s lips quirked, slow and easy, curving into a smile that was so unexpected, so breathtaking, that it sent a bolt of warmth straight through her chest.
Oh, no.
This wasn’t just a smile. This was the smile. The kind that made your soul glow and that sent fairy lights dancing around your head and big, puffy hearts floating past as if the universe itself had conspired to make this moment magical. It was the kind of smile that could make angels sing in hushed, reverent harmony.
And she hated it.
I’m a weak woman…
Caitlin felt her heart lurch, a battle waging between logic and something far more dangerous—hope. She knew better. She knew better. Men like Jason didn’t just waltz in with grins that could light up the entire town without leaving something smoldering in their wake.
So, she did what she did best.
She frowned.
“Hey…” Jason spoke first, his voice warm, familiar, threaded with something she couldn’t quite place.
Keep him at bay, Caitlin thought. You do not need to end up hurt by some man flip-floppin’ like a fish on the banks of Ember Creek, girly.
“Pizza! Pizza! What can I cheese ya for?”
“Do you really have to say that?” Jason teased, his smile widening.
And just like that, her already fragile defenses wobbled. Because—oh, heavens—that smile . It wasn’t just a smirk or some half-hearted grin. It was full, unguarded, genuine. It was the kind of smile that could make a girl melt - and she was lava .
It was dangerous .
“Every time,” Caitlin answered evasively, gripping the counter like it might anchor her to solid ground.
Jason tilted his head, studying her, and for a split second, she thought—no, felt —that maybe he saw through the walls she was so desperately trying to keep in place.
“I didn’t know you worked here.”
“A girl’s gotta eat…” she replied, forcing a casual shrug, praying he didn’t notice the way her fingers curled into her apron like she was holding on for dear life.
“And drink coffee,” he added lightly, his voice slipping into something teasing, something familiar, something appealing .
Then, just to twist the knife, he winked.
Her stomach dropped.
No. Nope. Absolutely not.
She couldn’t let this happen. Not again. Not him .
Caitlin swallowed hard, forcing herself to breathe past the sudden, suffocating heat in her chest. Jason was just a guy. Just another customer. Just?—
Well, he was trouble.
A tiger didn’t change their stripes. Jason Baird, heartthrob extraordinaire, did not like her. He was simply trying to dip his toes into the ‘People-Pool’ by talking to others and coming out of the farm into society.
He wasn’t flirting.
He wasn’t serious.
He was just… him .
“Eh?” she hesitated, jerking her head back and looking at him.
“It’s just a question.”
“I like coffee -coffee. There is no other coffee in the world.”
“Apparently, there is ground-bug…”
“NUH-UH!” she yelped, leaping forward and putting her hand over Jason’s mouth as she shut her eyes in horror. “Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. In fact, sing it with me… ‘ Coffee is the blessed bean – and comes into my cup completely clean.’ ”
She should’ve been annoyed. Maybe she was. But there was something about the way his lips quirked at the corners, the way his eyes danced with mischief, that made it hard to hold onto frustration – and pulled her hand away.
“It’s not funny,” she said, her voice firm, but her heart betraying her with a little skip at his attention. “Us caffeine addicts understand how serious coffee is. It’s part of the Three C’s Rule.”
Jason arched an eyebrow, curiosity flickering in his gaze. “What’s that?”
She lifted her chin, adopting the solemnity of a preacher delivering a sermon. “There are three things you cannot modify, alter, desecrate, or destroy in this world: C offee, C arbs, C hocolate . It’s against the natural order of things, against the universe’s law.”
A slow smirk played across his lips. “No, it’s not.”
“Oh, I promise you— you will meet God if you ruin one of the three for me,” she said staunchly, nodding as if she were sealing some divine decree.
Jason didn’t hold back this time. A wild, unrestrained laugh burst from him, filling the space between them like a summer storm rolling through. It was the kind of laugh that made his shoulders shake, that lit up his entire face, and for a brief moment, Caitlin found herself captivated. She wanted to freeze time and just watch him—watch the way his eyes crinkled at the edges, the way his head tilted back, the way his joy seemed so effortless.
“Yes. Yes. Har-de-har-har and all that jazz,” she grumbled, shaking herself from the trance of his laughter. “Are you ordering a pizza or not?”
Jason cocked his head, lips still twitching with amusement. “Should I?”
His fingers trailed across the counter, slow and deliberate, mimicking the creeping path of the bug from earlier. Caitlin felt a shiver roll up her spine, not from fear but from something else—something unexpected. Her pulse quickened, and her breath hitched. He was teasing her, pushing her buttons like he always did, but there was something else lurking beneath it. A challenge. A test.
She exhaled sharply and met his gaze, her voice a whisper. “Run.”
His smile faded instantly, humor draining from his face like the sun slipping behind storm clouds. His body tensed, muscles coiling as he searched her expression, reading something in her eyes that made his throat work in a hard swallow.
“Seriously?” he whispered, disbelief lacing his words.
She held a single finger to her lips in silent command and then lifted her hand in a small, casual wave of farewell. Go.
Jason didn’t hesitate. His nod was almost imperceptible, but there was a weight to it—a silent thank you, an unspoken understanding. He turned, moving toward the door, his footsteps measured but quick.
Caitlin felt something tighten in her chest as she watched him, an invisible thread pulling at her. She shouldn’t care. She shouldn’t let this moment stretch beyond what it was. But when he reached the door, something made him pause.
He glanced back at her, lingering in the doorway, his expression unreadable.
“Do you want to try one of the three C’s sometime, Caitlin?”
Caitlin blinked, caught off guard. Her mind scrambled for footing, for a way to keep this moment from unraveling into something deeper. She forced a shrug, her voice too light, too indifferent. “It’s a daily thing for me.”
She watched as his shoulders sagged ever so slightly, the fight draining from his posture, as if she’d just knocked the wind out of him. And then, without another word, he turned and walked out.
The door clicked shut.
Wait a second...
Caitlin sucked in a sharp breath, her pulse hammering against her ribs. Her stomach twisted as the realization settled over her like a weighted blanket. Was Jason asking her to have coffee with him? Could he actually mean it? Maybe this wasn’t some prank or a joke?
Her gaze drifted to the empty space where he had stood just moments ago, her heart whispering a truth her mind wasn’t ready to accept.
Jason Barnes had asked her out.
And she might’ve just pushed him away… when he was serious.
Oh my gosh.
She grabbed her phone in a panic and texted Matthew.
Mayday! Mayday!
I need a wingman…
I got you, boo… Whatcha need?
Unless it’s sex – and then no. Remember that kiss? Gag – you are practically FAMILIAL and that’s the one thing I draw the line at.
Everything else, meh, it’s on the table. What can I say? I’m adventurous.
You’re a bro-hoe… and that is not why I’m texting you. Why does everything have to be sex? People think with their heads, not their weenies, ya’ big Weenie.
It’s a good thing we’re friends.
Truth!
Now, Whatcha need?
I think I messed up – badly – and I don’t know.
Then you probably didn’t.
Jason asked me out.
Hold up…
MY JASON?
MY brOTHER JASON?
Yes.
Hello?
Hello?
Are you sure? Maybe he has a twin.
Six foot two, dark hair, incredible eyes, the stuff dreams are made of?
That’s me – not my brother, dork.
JASON BAIRD ASKED ME OUT- FOR ONE OF THE ‘Cs.’
You’re serious.
I don’t joke about Jason, and you know that
Yeah, you’ve been crushing hard on him for years. Maybe you are de-lu-lu?
Huh?
Delusional.
Hang on… I’m at work.
“Pizza Palace,” Caitlin began. “What can I get started for you this evening?”
“Why is my brother texting me?”
She nearly dropped the phone as she heard Jason’s question with not so much as a ‘hello’ or anything - and shoved it under her chin between her shoulder and neck as she typed frantically into her cell phone.
NO YOU DID NOT DO WHAT I THINK YOU DID – I WILL MAIM YOU AND YOUR NEXT *THREE* GENERATIONS, MATTHEW BAIRD.
LOL… relax.
“I’m not sure,” Caitlin hedged, keeping her tone as neutral as possible. A slight pause stretched between them, thick with unspoken words. “I guess because he’s your brother?”
Jason’s voice was smooth, a hint of amusement threading through it. “Did you tell him I asked you out?”
You did… didn’t you?
Her pulse gave an erratic kick. Why was he doing this? He never asked her things like this, never played this game of back-and-forth. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, even though he wasn’t here to see it.
“You know these calls are recorded,” she deflected, lifting her chin slightly as if that could bolster her resolve.
“Then maybe you should give me your cell number.”
The sheer audacity of him. Caitlin let out a slow breath, forcing herself not to react too quickly, not to let him see just how much he was getting to her. “Ask Matthew,” she said instead, keeping her voice even.
“I’d rather have our relationship be between us.”
Her fingers clenched around the phone. Her relationship ? Was he serious? Was this just Jason being Jason, throwing words around to mess with her, or was there something more lurking beneath the teasing?
“We don’t have a relationship,” she reminded him, a sharp edge creeping into her tone.
A beat of silence. Then, smoothly, effortlessly, he countered, “Maybe we should start one.”
Her breath caught, her heart slamming against her ribs. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she demanded, voice rawer than she intended. “You have barely tolerated me for years…”
“These calls are recorded,” he chuckled, the low sound sending an unexpected shiver down her spine. He was enjoying this, playing with her reactions like a cat with a cornered mouse. “Maybe we should talk sometime over coffee or dinner—but not pizza.”
“Oh, very funny,” she bit out, rolling her eyes even though he couldn’t see her.
“I can be just as funny as Matthew – if you give me a chance.”
She doubted that. Matthew was effortless in his humor, lighthearted, and easygoing. Jason was sharper, more calculated, like he picked his moments carefully.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” he asked, the casualness of his tone making her pulse jump again.
“I’ll be busy.”
A slow inhale on the other end of the line. “Doing what?”
“Breathing.”
He laughed, a deep, rich sound that made her stomach tighten. “Are you playing hard to get?”
“Who’s playing?” she shot back, her voice smoother now, more confident. If he was going to throw out challenges, she wasn’t going to back down.
“I like it,” Jason murmured, his voice dropping just enough to make her skin prickle. “And I’ll get your number from Matthew.”
And then—just like that—he hung up.
Caitlin stared at the phone, her heartbeat a frantic staccato against her ribs. Did that just happen? Jason —aloof, impossible, maddening, grumpy, snippy Jason—had just flirted with her.
And he was going to get her number.
Her fingers tightened around the receiver as realization crashed over her. She wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore.
Jason wasn’t just noticing her.
He was pursuing her.