a fight with a group of high school girls, but I guess I’d read the situation wrong because that look fell from her face, and she lit into them. All I caught when I got close was ‘mine’; then she did one of those things my sisters-in-law are fond of doing when they're in one of their moods.
It’s a simple toss of the hair over the shoulder thing while their eyes smoldered at whoever was in their crosshairs, and she did it splendidly. I was so damn proud of her; I almost cried like a simp. But instead, I met her halfway and laid one on her in front of her friends and whoever else was there. I forgot how assholish high-school kids could be until they started the hooting and clapping as we walked away.
Cassie’s face was red with embarrassment, and I could barely get her to look at me once I got her back to the car. “Don’t think about them babe, how was your day?”
“It was fine. I could hardly concentrate, though; I wanted to be home with you and the others.” I took her hand in mine as I pulled off and raised it to my lips.
“We have the whole weekend ahead of us, and it’s your birthday. You’re going to have plenty of time to see your girls. By the way, we need to go somewhere before I take you home.” I didn’t know we were going to the island, so I hadn’t planned ahead for that. Thankfully, my mom, of all people, had made some calls and set up an appointment with a boutique owner so I could take her shopping, and Jace’s mom had her stylist coming in a few hours.
We were playing it a bit close, but it wasn’t so bad with such short notice. I have a sneaky suspicion that Jace’s mom had been talking to mine because she’s acting kind of motherly and sweet, something I don’t recall her doing or being since I was about five or six. I’m not knocking it though, as long as it benefits my girl, I’m in. I don’t really need her at this point in my life; I already have a family, the one I’d made with my brothers and their women and now mine. But if she wanted in, I won’t stop her.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see when we get there.” We spent the rest of the drive in relative silence until I pulled to a stop in front of one of the most renowned high-fashion boutiques on The Drive. “What’re we doing here? I thought this place was closed.” I stopped her from letting herself out of the car and walked around to help her out.
“It’s a surprise.” I hadn’t told her about the island yet, choosing to leave that for last. I know how much she loves that place and what it means to her. It’s where we declared our love for each other, and as sappy as it may sound, I want our first time to be there as much as she does.
Inside, the owner was waiting for us with an assistant, and I have to admit to feeling for the first time like this shit was real, like I was genuinely embarking on a lifetime with this girl. Shopping for her was one thing, but being here with her like this, helping her choose shit to wear for what was essentially going to be her deflowering, brought everything into perspective.
Jace was always big on the way you were supposed to treat your one and only, even before he met Sian before the others had teamed up with their wives. He’d wired it into our heads that playing the field was one thing, but you never treated anyone but ‘the one’ like this. I knew my place here, what was commanded of me.
So for the next two hours, I paid attention and gave my opinion even though I wanted to shoot myself in the neck by the first half an hour. She was happy, ecstatic in fact, and in the end, that’s all that really mattered to me. She was beaming from ear to ear by the time we headed back to the car.
I checked the time, and we only had about an hour and a half before her hair appointment at Jace’s family estate, which would give her less than half an hour with her family before she had to leave again. Something I wasn’t too torn up