Page 25 of A Taste of Trouble

Jake squared his shoulders and took in the state of the shelves. Food, dust, and black…stuff…stared back at him. Liv kicked over a brush then placed a bucket of water and cleaner near his feet.

He pushed up his sleeves. “All right, then. Let's clean.”

Jake picked up the cleaner and doused the top shelf. Was he doing this right? The black gunk was coming off. Should he maybe wet the brush in the bucket?

They cleaned in silence. He tried to steal a few glances, maybe a look of reassurance over his cleaning skills, but it was no use. Liv was bent over in the opposite direction, barely paying him any attention.

Staying silent isn't going to get this woman to the book launch any faster, Miller.

After another minute of brushing, he finally asked, “Are you going to tell me about that phone call?”

Liv stopped her scrubbing. Her answer was soft. “I was rejected for a bank loan.” She resumed her cleaning.

“Did you need the loan?” Of course she needed the loan. Running your own business took a lot of capital, and a safety net was always a good idea.

r /> “I'll be fine without it, but I wanted it just in case.” Her long exhale gave away her discomfort. “I crossed all my T's, dotted all my I's. But every day I'm finding out I don't know as much as I thought I did.”

“What do you mean?” Jake kept up his part of the job and moved to the next shelf. He placed the bucket on the shelf below for better access.

“I have a list the length of this block of things to fix in order to pass health inspection.” She sat back on her legs then slumped onto her bottom, throwing down her brush.

Jake turned and she met his stare, a half smile curving at the side of her lip.

He stopped scrubbing and joined her on the floor of the fridge. He eased into his seat, the floor cold against his ass.

“It'll be fine. I'll just try a new bank. I have a good support system.”

Jake knew those words weren't for his benefit.

Looking at her like this made him ache. And not in a good way.

He leaned forward and cupped her cheek, his thumb caressing her skin. She leaned into his touch, settling in, taking comfort in his gesture.

Jake knew all about wanting something. He wanted it enough to lie to this compelling woman. But his nagging conscience shouldn't be his first priority. She needed reassurance.

“You know, when I first started working at Weston as an intern, I royally screwed up.”

She curled up beside him. “Go on.”

“I'm not talking forgot to order extra shrimp for a party. I'm talking a colossal, almost-lost-a-million-dollar account screwed up.”

She lifted her head and stared back at him with wide eyes.

He nodded. “My boss, he pulled me into his office. I thought for sure I was fired.” Shitting his pants was more like it. “But instead of firing me, he said once I was done with my college program, I had a permanent job in his firm waiting for me if I wanted it.”

“What?” Liv blurted. “That can't be possible.”

“He told me everyone fucks up royally once in their career. And that I was lucky to get it over with so early.” Jake laughed. There was a weird logic to that statement. “He was impressed with everything I had done up to that point, and he knew that I'd never make another mistake.” And until he agreed to pursue Liv and lie right to her face, he hadn't.

“You were lucky,” she whispered.

“It's not about luck.” He slipped his finger under her chin and tipped her head up. “The moral of that story is that it'll all work out. In my experience, if you want something bad enough, the universe has a way of handing it to you.”

There were very few people left at his firm that knew about his screw-up. It wasn't something he liked to tell people, but for Liv, he was willing to humiliate himself to make her believe she was going to make it.

She sighed. “In my experience, strangers don't usually help others clean out dirty fridges.”

“Strangers?” Jake clasped his chest. “I thought we were so much more than that.”

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