Jamie Pope - Love And A Latte

It was a beautiful day in Seattle. The air was full of spring and for the first time he would rather blow off work and stay outside with this pretty girl than go to his office and bury his head in the books.

She was just so different from him. So much more interesting than the women he had dated recently. He barely knew her. He barely paid attention to the front-of-house employees, but he just wanted to talk to her some more. He wanted to know more about her.

“Are numbers your passion, Chase Drayson?”

“No,” he said honestly, looking into her big brown eyes. He liked numbers. He liked working and investing, but they weren’t his passion. He needed something he could be passionate about. “Maybe I’ll let you know what it is one day.”

He opened the door to let her in first. The bakery was busy. Not as busy at Sweetness had been, but they were doing pretty well so far and were on track to have a profitable first year, which was rare for new small businesses. Most of the time they only broke even if they made it to a year. He could see Mariah behind the counter, rearranging the stock. Jackson was there, too, chatting up some female customers, which was customary for him. But all of that kind of floated in the back of his mind because Amber was still in the front of it.

“One day? I’m not sure I can stand the suspense,” she said with a smile that made him feel like smiling, too.

“I’m sure you can.” He lifted her hand. She still wore the wire name bracelet, but she wore another one with it. It was also gold wire, but this one had three braided strands with white opals woven among them. “Did you make this, too?” He stroked his thumb over her pulse as he studied her creation. “It’s so well done.”

She nodded. “It’s my birthstone.”

“Do you think you could make me one?”

“I know you have a keen fashion sense, but I didn’t think you wore beaded bracelets.”

“I would like to send one to Lillian. Can you do this with pearls?”

“I can.” She seemed surprised by his request. She shouldn’t be. Chase knew good quality when he saw it.

“And one for Mariah, too. Her birthday is in—”

“I know when your sister’s birthday is. I can make her one, too.”

“Is five hundred enough to cover both the bracelets?”

“Five hundred dollars! That’s way too much. I can’t take that kind of money from you.”

“Why not? That’s what I’m willing to pay. Your work is good, Amber, and your time is worth something. Don’t ever forget that.”

“Mariah is my friend and I work for your family. It just doesn’t feel right to take that kind of money from you. I can do it for the cost of the materials.”

“Plus a hundred dollars. Think of me as an early investor. Roll your profit back into your business.”

“Okay, Chase.” They looked at each other for a long moment. He realized he still held on to her hand, but for the life of him, he couldn’t force himself to let it go.

“I have to clock in.”

“You do.” He let her go. “Have a good shift.”

“Thank you. I will. I’ll see you later.” She walked away from him and he watched her go. Hips swaying all the way.

“Hey.” His baby sister came over to him with a curious expression on her face.

“Hey.”

“You walked in with Amber?”

“Yes, I met her on the street on my way back from an errand.”

“Oh? That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

“Really? You were holding her wrist.”

Chase suppressed an eye roll. His sister had grown up into a beautiful, intelligent woman, but she was still his baby sister and sometimes she annoyed him the way she did when they were kids. “I was looking at her bracelet. I didn’t know she was a jewelry designer.”

“You were looking at her, too, Chase,” she said in a lowered voice. “You were looking at her the way a man looks at a woman he’s interested in, and you were touching her.”

“I ran into her on the street. I walked in with her. I looked at her bracelet. None of those things are a crime, and I’m pretty sure that none of them were your concern last time I checked.”

“What’s going on?” Jackson strolled over. “Why does Chase look annoyed?”

“He walked in with Amber. I just wondered how that came to be,” she said lightly.

“Amber, the cute little funky chick with the wild hair who makes coffee for us?”

“My friend Amber,” Mariah corrected. “The hardworking grad student and jewelry designer who works here and is doing her best to succeed.”

“Is there something you wanted to say to me, Mariah?” Chase felt more than annoyed at his sister at that moment. He was getting the strong feeling that she did not want him anywhere near her friend.

“No. It’s just that Amber is not your type.”

“And you have become an expert on what my type is?”

“Everyone knows your type, Chase,” Jackson said. “The type of women who speak three foreign languages and have hefty investment portfolios. Beautiful, dull, boring-as-hell women.”

“That is not true.”

Jackson yawned widely to make his point and Chase wanted to knock him on his ass then.

“She’s my friend, Chase. My first real friend since I moved back to Seattle, and I saw how you looked at her. I just wanted to know if there was something going on between you.”

“Because I walked in with her and looked at her bracelet? Well, you should congratulate me, because after one chance meeting on the street, we’ve decided to get married and move to Bora Bora. Amber tells me the snorkeling there is the best in the world. Neither one of us has ever tried it, but hey. You only live once.”

Mariah blinked at him. “Shut up, Chase.”

“Nothing is going on, Mariah.”

“I think you should go for it, Chase,” Jackson said. “She’s cute. She’s the opposite of you. You’ll have some fun with her. I’m in full support of you expanding your horizons and having a little fling.”

Mariah let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a growl. “Sometimes I wish I had sisters.”

“No, you don’t.” Jackson set a loud smacking kiss on Mariah’s cheek. “We’re more fun.”

“You’re as fun as a hive of angry bees.”

She left them then, leaving Chase with something to think about. Staying away from Amber might be a good idea. She did work for them and she was his sister’s friend. And she had the potential to be distracting. With this business just starting, he needed to focus on growing it.

Something made him look over to the coffee café where Amber was already hard at work. She looked up at him and smiled, and Chase knew then that ignoring her was going to be a losing battle.

It was a battle he would be okay with losing.

* * *

“I’m going to head out for the night,” Nita, another barista, said to Amber as she slung her bag over her shoulder. “Are you going to be okay with closing up alone?”

“Get home to that cute boyfriend of yours. I know he has been working nights lately.”

“Thanks.” Her eyes traveled over to the corner table in the café section. “Chase Drayson is here. If you hear something move, it’s him. I was here a couple of nights ago and nearly jumped out of my skin. I thought the world’s largest rat had broken in but thankfully it was just him.”

Amber laughed. “Thanks for the warning. I won’t make that mistake.”

“I’m surprised he took the leave of absence from his job to work here. Salary-wise, I’m sure he made in one day there what he makes in two weeks here.”

She hadn’t thought much about it, but all the Draysons had taken a risk to work here. Jackson was somewhat of an entrepreneur and was used to taking risks like these. Mariah worked here because she wanted to escape the difficult past she had with her former husband. But Chase... She wasn’t sure why he had taken this risk, yet she knew he loved his younger siblings. She could see it in the way they interacted. “Maybe blood is thicker than money, so to speak.”