“Fair enough,” Jon said, sure she’d love anything he showed her. “I’m sure you’ll like what you see.”
Her eyes drifted down to his feet and back again, and Jon felt like she already liked what she saw. He kept his expression impassive, though, and watched as her face colored and she nodded before turning back to the class. “All right, guys. When you’re finished, come on back to your stations.”
Jon had never had any problems getting a date—until Marcy Winston, of course. And that had driven him to a near obsession with the woman. But as he listened to Cassandra talk about holding a knife and using a rocking motion to slice, he couldn’t help thinking that Marcy had gotten things right—cooking definitely was sexy.
He shook his head to clear it. He didn’t want to lose a fingertip tonight, because he was already on shaky ground with Cassandra. He made it through the lesson and put together a pretty good salad if he did say so himself.
Of course he didn’t. He congratulated the man next to him on his knife cuts and gave Colton a high-five before they dug into their greens. Jon barely ate any of his, as he was more of a meat and potatoes kind of guy.
Cassandra stood at the door after the kitchen had been cleaned up, and she smiled and said good-bye to every person. She’d remembered all of their names after only one class period, and dang if that little detail didn’t make Jon’s internal temperature shoot toward the sky—which was a good thing, as it was chest-numbingly cold outside in Michigan in January.
“Good night, Jon,” she said curtly, the smile fading from that pretty face.
“Can I get your number?” he asked boldly, only feeling the slightest tremor behind his lungs. “Then I can text you some pictures of my handiwork.”
She blinked those long lashes at him, and he definitely saw something fearful in her eyes. “Give me yours, and I’ll text you.”
“What difference does it make?” he asked. “I’ll still have your number.”
“I—” She swallowed—definitely afraid of something—and a mask slid over her face, concealing her emotions from him. But Jon had three sisters, and he recognized female panic when he saw it.
“I’m a nice guy,” he said gently. Maybe his stature intimidated her. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so forward. “My family owns the Sunshine Shores Cherry Orchards and Resort on the east side of the lake. Maybe you’d like to come out there and I don’t know.” Why was Jon still talking? He drew in a deep breath, expanding his lungs to full capacity. “Get away for a night or two. The cabins don’t fill up in the winter.”
She softened a bit, and Jon wanted to smile encouragingly at her. He kept his mask in place too, though. “Thank you,” she said. “But I can’t. I work at the bakery in the morning, and I don’t need to get up any earlier than I have to.”
“Ah, got it.” It was a ten-minute drive out to the orchards. “All right, well, I’ll give you my number.”
“You can have mine.” She rattled it off before Jon could so much as swipe on his phone, so she had to repeat it once he got to his contacts.
He did smile at her then, and when her lips curved up too, the whole room got brighter. Or maybe that was Jon’s imagination. No matter what, he left campus that night thinking he could’ve just made the best decision of his life—or the worst.
* * *
“Phoenix?” he called as he opened the door to his brother’s remote cabin. The house wasn’t really that remote, but it was crowded by cherry trees and wild land the family hadn’t cultivated yet on the north, and the state forest on the south. From Jon’s house closer to the road and the rest of the family, it was a fifteen-minute walk. And in sub-zero temperatures?
Yeah, Jon had driven an ATV.
His younger brother turned from the stove, and with Phoenix wearing an apron over his lumberjack-type clothes, Jon would’ve never found him intimidating. “Hey,” he said. “I’m making Adam and Eve on a raft. You want one?”
Fried eggs and toast? “Yes, please,” Jon said, entering the cabin and closing the door behind him. Phoenix had a fire roaring in the pot-bellied stove, and that heated the small space just fine.
Jon held his hands over the black stove for a moment as he asked, “Am I intimidating?”
Phoenix cracked an egg into the pan, which sizzled upon contact. “Intimidating?”
“Yeah, this woman looked at me tonight, and I think she was scared.”
“Oh, boy.” Phoenix focused on his cooking. He wasn’t exactly a recluse. He came into the family lodge for parties and dinners and gatherings. But he definitely liked his privacy, and he was the only sibling that lived away from the family block of cabins in the southern end of the orchards.
“Oh boy what?” Jon asked.
“Another woman?” Phoenix gave him a look that said way more than those two words.
“I haven’t been out with anyone in months,” Jon said, a definite note of defense in his tone.
“That’s because Marcy won’t go out with you.”
“This isn’t Marcy.”
Phoenix flipped the piece of toast with an egg in the middle, and Jon’s mouth watered. “That makes it worse, bro, not better.”
“Why? You don’t date at all.”
Phoenix’s jaw tightened, and Jon regretted the words. He and Phoenix had been close since his brother’s dirt bike accident in their teen years, so though another brother sat between them, when Jon needed advice, he didn’t go to Liam. He always came out to this cabin and Phoenix.
“Who is it?” Phoenix asked.
“You don’t know her.” Phoenix never went to town. Well, almost never. He had his groceries delivered, and he didn’t own a car. No need to stop by the gas station or do any shopping. He claimed to have the Internet out here, and he could buy anything with that.
In fact, Jon remembered his mother had given him a couple of packages for Phoenix. “Mom gave me some stuff for you.” He backtracked toward the door.
“Don’t think you can just walk out on the conversation,” Phoenix said as Jon opened the door.
Jon looked over his shoulder. “She’s my culinary arts professor.”
“Oh, boy,” Phoenix said again, this time bright curiosity in his eyes as he looked at Jon from across the cabin. “I can’t wait to hear about that.”
Jon ducked outside to the ATV to grab the packages, wondering if he should just shut up and enjoy his eggs. But his mind kept going back to Cassandra over and over again. He hadn’t texted her yet, and he quickly pulled out his phone.
With numb fingers, he typed out Hey Cassandra. This is Jon from your class. Maybe we should meet so I can show you my work.
He grinned at the glowing cell phone screen. Oh, yeah, he definitely wanted to see her again before Thursday’s class. Wanted to see her every day. Find out what hid behind those beautiful eyes, and if she was scared of him or just anxious in general. Something male and overbearing roared within him, and he felt the need to protect her from whatever plagued her.
Even if it’s you? his mind whispered.
He ignored that thought, sent the text, and got the heck out of the cold before he froze to death thinking about the beautiful brunette who’d suddenly come into his life.
Chapter Three
Cassie stared at her phone, a little surprised Jon had texted already. She’d been expecting him to, sure. But not tonight. He’d worked so easily in the kitchen, she’d been able to tell he had great hands.
“Great hands,” she muttered to herself, wishing her mind didn’t take her down forbidden paths with the words.
Kyle sat on the other end of the couch, and he either didn’t hear her or didn’t care that she was talking to herself again. Lars had put a science fiction movie on the TV, and he lounged in the bean bag in front of them.
Maybe we should meet.
Cassie stared at those words, seemingly unable to look anywhere else. She felt warm and woozy, but that had to be from the all-meat pizza Lars had made. Didn’t it?
She h
ad to respond to Jon. Tell him absolutely that she couldn’t meet him. That he couldn’t even stay in the class. Dr. Langstrom had been clear. The special needs class was only for those with special needs.
And whatever Jon’s was wouldn’t qualify, Cassie knew that.
She had seen him help Colton a couple of times tonight, and an idea cracked through her like lightning.
Jon could be her assistant.
Then he wouldn’t be a student.
But dating co-workers had also become frowned upon recently, what with the scandal that had just been settled at Northwestern Michigan College. No matter which way Cassie turned, starting a relationship with Jon couldn’t happen.
Cassie, she typed out and sent. She didn’t need him calling her by her full name. That was okay, wasn’t it? She’d told her other culinary classes to call her Cassie. She’d been so flustered by Jon’s sudden appearance in the wrong class, that she hadn’t told them.
Her phone lit up with several texts, and she read Jon’s first. Okay, Cassie. Maybe we should meet so I can show you my stuff. I have some great photos printed.
She’d also gotten one from Theresa Kim, her next-door neighbor who helped with the twins sometimes when Cassie’s jobs kept her from getting home on time.
Your garage is still open. Just thought you’d want to know.
Cassie did want to know. A flicker of fear traveled through her, and she got up to go close the garage. She was always so careful to keep everything locked. Everything out of sight.
Thanks, she tapped out as she bumped the button to close the garage. A glance out into the night amped up her panic, and she worked to stamp it back down. Larry wasn’t here. He hadn’t seen her car in the garage. Everything was fine.
She checked the front door to make sure it was locked, and she scooped her tiny yorkie into her arms, hoping to steal some comfort from him. “Hey, Button,” she whispered to the dog. “We’re okay, right?”
The little dog yapped and yapped whenever anyone came near the house, and he hadn’t made a peep that night. So they really were fine.
Her blood chilled when she saw the last text was from her friend in Chicago. Willie had texted just three words: He got out.
Cassie took a breath, trying to convince herself not to pack everything they could and get out of the house that night.
Larry Glassman doesn’t know where you are, she told herself. In fact, he wouldn’t even know his sons had left the city until he met with his parole officer. Her mother’s dying request had fallen on sympathetic ears, and the judge had deemed the custody and guardianship hearings and results sealed until Larry was released on parole.
And it had been fifteen months. Their trail was completely cold in Chicago, Cassie had made sure of that. The boys had gotten new phones so they couldn’t text old friends, new haircuts so they wouldn’t be recognized, new lives here in Forbidden Lake. They even went by her last name now and attended a charter school that kept all the doors locked while classes were in session.
Larry would not get to them.
She turned back to the living room, where Kyle and Lars still watched TV. She had to tell them about their dad, and her heart pounded at the thought. She’d have to be the strong one. The one to reassure them they’d get to stay with her. That Larry would never track them down.
Kyle would handle it better than Lars, and Cassie said, “Hey, guys, we need to talk for a minute. Can we pause the movie?”
Lars picked up the remote and stilled the frame, leaving Cassie no choice but to plow forward. She sat back in her spot, perched on the edge of the couch now, and handed Button to Lars. “Your dad was up for parole today.”
Lars sucked in a breath and looked at Kyle. The pair of them were something to behold, identical right down to the worry in their dark eyes and the splash of freckles across their cheeks. Kyle wore his pitch-black hair a little longer, and he brushed nervously at the ends of it now.
Lars looked back at her. “He got out, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” she said. “He got out on parole. But it’s okay.” She tried a smile, but it was shaky and all wrong. “He can’t leave the city for six months, I know that. Mom requested that he be required to stay there for six months after he got parole.”
Lars got out of the bean bag, adjusting the little dog in his arms. “So we’ll go somewhere else once school ends.” He looked like he’d go pack right now.
Surprise tugged through Cassie. “You want to move?”
“You don’t?” Lars exchanged a glance with Kyle.
“He has no idea where we are,” Cassie said.
“And six months to question everyone in Chicago,” Kyle said, his voice much quieter and less panicked than his twin’s.
Cassie’s nerves rioted. She’d been building a life for them here in Forbidden Lake. Gotten them into a good school. Had a good thing going at the university—which she hadn’t told them about. “I’m up for a full-time professorship at the university,” she said. “This would be huge for us. More money. I could quit at the bakery so I wouldn’t have to be gone in the mornings.”
There was so much she hadn’t told them. “I don’t think he’ll find us. I left a few breadcrumbs that will take him thousands of miles away.”
Kyle narrowed his eyes at her. “Like what?”
Her phone chimed again, and Willie had said, Let me know if you need anything else. Erasing everything now.
Thank you, Cassie typed out quickly. I’m erasing too. She looked up at her brothers. “Like, I put an announcement out that I’d gotten married. New last name. New adventure in Europe. Neither of you were mentioned. Mom asked a friend to put your names in the foster care system. Split you up.” Cassie exhaled heavily, wondering if they’d feel betrayed that she hadn’t told them about these safety measures before.
“So I don’t think he’ll find us. Ever. We’ll be okay.” And while she had urges to leave Forbidden Lake too, she also wanted to stay.
Jon’s face flashed through her mind, but she pushed it away. She wasn’t staying for him. She barely knew him. Just because he was the first man to accelerate her pulse in years didn’t mean she’d risk her safety and the safety of her brothers to be with him.
Her phone chimed again, another text from Jon. Sorry if this is too bold, he’d said. Nothing else. She frowned, wondering what was too bold. Asking her to meet him? Then another message came in.
I just felt something between us, and I’d love to go out with you.
Her heart full-on stopped then, and she lost all track of her thoughts. She wasn’t even aware Kyle had leaned over and was reading her texts until he said, “Who’s asking you out?”
She flipped her phone over and kept it face-down on her lap, her heart beat racing as quickly as her mind.
“No one.” She looked at the twins. “Let’s think about what we really want, okay? We can have a family council in the morning when I get home from the bakery.” She stood up and collected Button from Lars. “Pros, cons, worries, fears, all of it.”
Her blasted phone chimed again and then again, and she knew they’d both be from Jon. Instead of looking at the messages, she shoved her phone in her back pocket and said, “I’m headed to bed. Two-thirty is only a few hours away.” She pressed a kiss to Kyle’s forehead and then Lars’s.
“I love you guys,” she said. “Nothing bad is going to happen to us, okay?”
Kyle nodded, but Lars looked like he’d just found out he’d swallowed poison. “Can I sleep in your room?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said. “Grab the bean bag and bring it in.”
“Me too?” Kyle asked, and Cassie wondered what she’d done to make these two teenagers think she and a tiny yorkie could protect them. Somehow, somewhere along the way, she had given them that message. And she wouldn’t fail them.
So she said, “Of course. You have the futon under your bed, right?”
The next several minutes were filled with activity as they all got ready for bed. She let
Button out and made sure all the doors and windows were locked before closing them all in the bedroom and locking that door too.
Kyle lay on the futon, and Lars seemed comfy curled up in the bean bag. She gave Button to him, and the little dog circled on his chest before lying down.
“Night, guys,” she said, her brain full and exhaustion almost overpowering her. She got in bed too and turned her back away from the twins so she could finally check Jon’s messages. Even as she told herself that she couldn’t afford any distractions right now, her chest warmed at the sight of his texts.
Do you work at Donut Delight or Winners Eat Breakfast?
The fact that there were only two choices reminded Cassie of how small Forbidden Lake was.
I’m really feeling famished for doughnuts and coffee, Jon’s last text read. Maybe I’ll see you in the morning.
Cassie smiled despite the unrest building in her stomach. She typed out one word before silencing her phone and placing it face-down on her nightstand.
Maybe.
Chapter Four
Jon tried to make it look like he was just walking down the street in front of the Donut Delight, but it was freaking cold and no human should be out at this ungodly hour. And yet he was.
Which showed everyone awake to see him that he was completely whipped by the culinary arts professor—including said professor standing behind the pastry counter in the cheerily lit bakery.
He saw her through the window, his thoughts switching from Why do I live here? It’s too dang cold to Wow, she’s gorgeous.
A smile graced her face as the bell rang and he entered the shop. Cassie leaned her hip into the counter, exchanged a glance with a blonde woman, who promptly went through the door into the back of the bakery.
“You made it,” Cassie said, placing a to-go cup of coffee on the counter as if she’d had it ready for hours. Maybe she had. He’d gone to Winners Eat Breakfast first, and she hadn’t been there.
Flirting With Danger (Rebels 0f Forbidden Lake Book 1) Page 2
