Chapter 15
Rhys snoozed his alarm twice the next morning, something he never did. When the alarm rang, he got up. That was how his day started. Always. But not today, not after he’d kissed Caleb like he was attacking him, and then Caleb had driven him home, being so sweet and careful with him.
Caleb was right. It wouldn’t have been a good idea for him to walk home alone, not because there was any danger in Frostwick Harbor, but because his head had been swimming, and he could barely catch his breath.
What had made him jump Caleb like that? He’d clearly been out of his mind, and he couldn’t let it happen again, no matter how much he wanted to.
He pushed his covers off and sat up. He needed to focus on his routine. He always got out of bed, went to the bathroom, took care of things there, and then started his first cup of coffee. After that, he did a workout, then got ready to go to Frost + Foam.
But that day, he didn’t get up immediately. He reached for his phone. He wasn’t going to be able to do anything until he made it clear that last night was an aberration. He was not going to kiss Caleb again.
He texted Caleb. Tonight needs to be all business. No more kissing.
Caleb sent a frowny face emoji.
I’m serious.
Okay. No kissing.
Or anything else.
Anything?
Caleb stop.
All business tonight.
Yes and we should eat dinner on our own before we meet.
All right. If that’s what you want.
It might not be what he wanted, but it was how it had to be. He could not let himself get any more obsessed with Caleb. He was already in too deep.
See you at 6:30.
See you then.
Tessa stopped by for her usual morning coffee, but she was in a hurry, so Rhys managed to avoid any talk about the festival or Caleb or anything else awkward. What there was of a morning rush with Cloud Nine open slowed, and Rhys looked up to see Jonah at the counter. “Oh. Hi.”
“Hi. How are things going today?”
“All right. Steady, at least.”
Jonah smiled. “Frost + Foam is going to be fine. Cloud Nine isn’t going to mess up what you’ve built here.”
“I don’t want to talk about Caleb.”
Jonah raised his brows. “Wow. Did something happen?”
“No. I’m just… Everyone is talking about him. I’ve heard enough.” And felt enough and tasted enough. Ugh. That was such a fucking lie.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. Just busy.”
“I thought… never mind.”
“Do you want your usual?” Rhys hated how sharp his tone was. He didn’t need to be rude to one of his best friends, but he couldn’t stop thinking about kissing Caleb, and it was killing him.
“Yes. If that’s not too much trouble.”
Rhys shook his head. “It’s not. I’m sorry. I’ve got a headache.”
That wasn’t a lie. Ever since he’d texted Caleb, knowing he was saying all the wrong things, his head had been pounding. He made Jonah’s drink and handed it to him.
Jonah took a sip and smiled. “Delicious as always. If you want to talk, stop by the shop later.”
“I don’t… I mean, I don’t need to talk. I just need to get through the day, then go lay down.”
“Okay. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“I will. Thanks.”
Jonah raised his cup in acknowledgment as he walked out the door.
Rhys served a few more customers, then worked on restocking, but before he got far, Tessa came in.
“How are you?” she asked.
He really didn’t need everyone checking on him. “Did Jonah send you?”
“Jonah? No. Why would he?”
“No reason.”
She raised her brows.
“So why are you here?”
“To get coffee.”
“You already got your morning coffee.”
“True, but I want more.”
“You never come back for more until maybe midafternoon.”
She blew out a breath. “Fine. I stopped by Cloud Nine to go over next week’s order, and Caleb was… I don’t know… evasive when I asked him about the festival. I was curious if you knew what was up with him. I’ve never seen him so serious.”
“Why would I know?”
Tessa shrugged. “I thought maybe you two had talked about working together again.”
He narrowed his eyes and studied her. “You thought I’d pissed him off.”
“No. Not really.”
“Well, I don’t know what’s up with him. I’m just trying to get my own work done and be left alone.”
“Ooh. So you’re in a pissy mood too. Are coffee patrons being difficult today?”
“Tessa, I’m really not in the mood for an interrogation.”
“All right. Would you make me an iced coffee?”
Rhys sighed. “Yes.” It had taken him a while to accept the trend of iced coffee, but he’d finally been convinced he had to get behind it, and he loved how Tessa raved about how his iced coffee was the best she’d ever had.
When she left and headed out the door, he noticed she didn’t turn left to head to the bakery. She walked toward Cloud Nine. Was she going back there? He groaned when he saw her step into the Reading Room. She and Jonah were going to compare notes. Great.
Was Caleb really in a bad mood too? Was it because Rhys said they had to keep their relationship professional?
Did Caleb want him as badly as Rhys wanted Caleb?
That didn’t seem possible. Rhys felt like one kiss had addicted him to Caleb’s lips.
He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Normally, when he was making coffee, he was one hundred percent focused, but even while creating the perfect pour-over, his mind kept throwing up memories of Caleb’s arms around him, his lips, his tongue.
How long was it going to take him to get over this? Could he get over it while he was working with Caleb? He had to, or he was going to lose his mind.
Maybe Caleb just didn’t sleep well, or something had happened that morning. No way was he in a bad mood because of Rhys ending things before they really started. Caleb probably didn’t want the town gossiping about them any more than Rhys did.
Rhys was too nervous about seeing Caleb to have anything other than one of his comfort meals, so he made himself scrambled eggs and toast. At 6:30, he reluctantly knocked on the back door of Cloud Nine, hoping no one had seen him park in the small lot behind the store.
Caleb opened the door a moment later. He had on a striped apron over a T-shirt with a hole in the sleeve.
The apron had a big coffee stain across the Cloud Nine logo.
Caleb’s hair was a mess, and he looked like he needed sleep, but none of that took away from how hot he was. The man would look good in anything.
Rhys’s gaze dropped to his lips, and his pulse sped up.
“Are you going to come in?” Caleb asked.
“Oh. Right. Yes.”
Caleb moved back as Rhys entered, and Rhys was absolutely not sad that Caleb hadn’t grabbed him and kissed him as hard as he had last night. That was the opposite of what Rhys had asked for, even if it was what he wanted.
“I guess we should get to work,” he said, trying not to look at Caleb. He couldn’t meet Caleb’s gaze, and he definitely didn’t need to be looking at Caleb’s body.
“All right, I’ve got the cinnamon-infused maple syrup heated up so we can work on our maple drink tonight.” They’d decided to work on three different drinks, then perfect the one they thought had the most potential.
“I think it will pair best with almond milk,” Rhys said. “But we will want to have an oat milk version in case of allergies. Maybe we should make a version with all our milk choices and see what we like best.”
Caleb frowned. “Eventually, but we’ve got to pick a starting point.”
He knew that was true. Obviously, they had to make something first, but Rhys liked to see the path laid out in front of him before he got started. “We need to test the apple drink with more milks too.”
“We’ll get there, but first, we should try the pumpkin one tomorrow.”
“If you’re sure it’s not too cliché, because—”
“I know everyone does pumpkin stuff in the fall, but also, that means it’s expected, so if we could make just the right twist on it, we might have the perfect entry. That’s why I think pumpkin and chocolate. Everybody loves it in a muffin, but you don’t usually get it in a drink.”
Rhys sighed. He really didn’t want to go with pumpkin, but he supposed apple was also a cliché fall flavor, and maple was too.
They weren’t going to break serious new ground here, and if they did, they’d almost be guaranteed not to win.
Their entry needed to be familiar but different enough to be special.
He’d brought a few espresso blends from Frost + Foam, so without saying anything else, he moved behind the counter and got to work, but things didn’t go well.
He could tell from the smell that his first pull wasn’t right.
He leaned over to dump it down the sink, but he managed to knock over the milk-steaming pitcher.
The loud clatter of the two metal containers in the sink seemed to echo through the whole shop. Rhys felt like they were rattling against each other right inside his head. He gripped the counter and closed his eyes, trying to take a few steadying breaths.
“Are you all right?” Caleb asked.
“I’m just nervous about getting this right. I don’t want to make a fool of myself at the festival.”
Caleb’s smile told Rhys he wasn’t buying that answer, but he didn’t argue with Rhys. Instead, he said, “Take some time if you need to. We don’t have to rush. We still have weeks before the festival.”
“It’s not enough time.”
“Would it ever be enough time, or would you keep perfecting our entry until the deadline, even if it was months away?”
He sighed. “I probably wouldn’t stop.”
“All you have to do right now is make some espresso. There’s no pressure.”
“I’m not going to make a bad pull and have us test the drink with it. There would be no point in—”
Caleb held up a hand. “Don’t use one you’re not happy with, but it’s okay if you need to try several times. I’ll just keep working on the sauce.”
“All right.” Maybe he could do this. The next pull was good, but when Rhys finished frothing the almond milk, he bumped his hand against the steam wand. “Oh shit!” He jumped back, somehow managing not to drop the milk.
“What happened?” Caleb ran out from the back.
“I burnt my hand, but it’s okay. It’s not bad.”
Caleb turned on the sink, grabbed Rhys’s arm, and tugged until Rhys put his hand under the flow of water.
“Keep it there.”
Rhys glared at him. “I know how to take care of a burn.”
“I’m not sure you’re thinking clearly tonight.”
Rhys wasn’t sure he’d been thinking clearly since Caleb had moved to town. “Maybe not.”
After the water had run over the burn for what seemed like forever, Caleb turned it off and inspected Rhys’s hand. “It looks like it’ll be all right. How does it feel?”
“It hurts, but it’s not anything I can’t deal with.” He really didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.
Caleb narrowed his eyes. “I’m going to keep an eye on it.”
“I don’t need you taking care of me.”
“What if I want to take care of you?”
Rhys sighed. “Whatever. I need to get back to work. We’re never going to get even the first iteration done at this rate.”
“We’ll get there,” Caleb assured him.
It was a slow process, and even after several attempts, they couldn’t get the drink quite like they wanted it.
Rhys thought they might have to abandon this one, and he hated that.
Maple cinnamon was his favorite of the flavor combinations, and it had the least ridiculous additions. He wanted it to work.
“Let’s try one more time,” Caleb agreed, but like the first time, the espresso came out smelling burnt. “Maybe it’s this stupid machine. We should be doing this at Frost + Foam.”
Caleb laid a hand on his shoulder, and he jumped and whirled around, startled.
Caleb took a step back, but he was still so close, and Rhys wanted him so much. Rhys couldn’t slow his breaths, and it seemed harder and harder to pull in enough air. He couldn’t look away from Caleb; his gaze dropped to Caleb’s lips.
“Are you still sure you don’t want to kiss me again?” Caleb asked.
Rhys opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn’t make words come out. Finally, he shook his head.
“No, that’s not what you want now? Or no, you don’t want me to kiss you?”
“I don’t know.” Damn his need to answer honestly.
“I would absolutely love to kiss you, but I’m going to respect your boundaries.”
“I don’t think I want to respect my boundaries.”
Caleb smiled as he moved close once again. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”
Rhys frowned. “That’s not… I’m…”
“Gorgeous. That’s what you are.”
“You’re flirting with me.”
Caleb laughed. “Yes, I am.” Rhys started to take a step back, but Caleb laid a hand on his arm. This time, Rhys didn’t flinch or try to pull away. “I love how unaware you are of your hotness and how much I want you.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, you are aware of it?”
Rhys shook his head. “Yes. Kiss me.”
Caleb didn’t hesitate. He put one hand on Rhys’s waist as he slid the other hand into his hair, tilting his head to the right angle for the perfect kiss.
This time, Rhys relaxed into the kiss immediately. He needed this. He needed to feel Caleb against him. He needed to know that Caleb wanted him and that he felt just as out of control as Rhys did.
He pushed Caleb’s shirt up, sliding his hands up his firm back. Caleb gripped his ass and pulled the two of them together. With his other hand, he held the back of Rhys’s neck. Rhys groaned against his lips, needing more.
A loud noise outside startled them both. Rhys jumped away, frantically looking out the window while Caleb tugged his shirt down.
“It’s fine,” Caleb said. “Someone just dumped bottles in their recycling bin.”
Rhys hurried away from the window. “Oh my God. We were kissing right here. Right where anyone could have seen us.”
“I don’t think anyone’s paying attention.”
“What if someone was? What if they saw us?”
“What if they did?” Caleb asked.
“Then everyone would be talking about us. Everyone. Don’t you understand?”
“I do, but would it really be the worst thing in the world?”
Would it if he got to kiss Caleb every day? Maybe he wouldn’t care anymore. No. That wasn’t true. “We can’t do this. We shouldn’t.”
“We could, but you may be right on the shouldn’t part.”
“We have to keep it quiet.”
“I assume so, since we’re already keeping working together quiet. Do we have to keep that up?”
Rhys shook his head. “I can’t think about that right now.”
Caleb glanced down, looking pointedly at the bulge in Rhys’s pants. “I guess maybe you can’t. Do you want to come upstairs?”
“Upstairs? To your apartment?”
Caleb nodded.
“That’s a bad idea.”
“But do you want to?”
“Yes. I do.”
Caleb held out his hand, and Rhys took it. He chewed his lower lip as he followed Caleb up the stairs. “I don’t… I’m a little nervous.”
Caleb turned around and gave him the sunny smile that made Rhys feel warm all over. “I’ll go easy on you.”
“Jesus Christ.”
Caleb just laughed and walked faster.