“Okay, Cassie, talk to you later, see you soon, and again, so happy you found someone you like who likes you.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“’Bye, Cassidy.”
“’Bye.”
We hung up and when we did, I took my phone from my ear and stared at it. Then I set it aside, took in a deep breath, and walked out of the kitchen.
I didn’t go to my chair.
I went to Deacon’s.
His head tipped back when I did and he put his beer on the arm of the chair when I put a knee into the seat by his hip. I swung my other leg over and settled astride him.
He rested his hands on my ass, his eyes never leaving mine.
“She wants something,” he muttered like he was talking to himself.
“Just got off the phone with my mom,” I shared.
He made no response, not verbally, not physically, just continued to look at me, waiting for me to go on.
I took this as good. He could have shut down. He could have tensed. He could have given some indication that whatever it was I was going to share about my family that included me getting close was something he wasn’t ready to be a part of.
“They’re coming out in August. Everyone. Mom, Dad, my sister and her family, my brother and his wife. My aunts and uncle.”
“Right,” he prompted when I said no more.
I got closer, my heart squeezing as I gave it to him.
“I’d really like it if you worked it out with your jobs so you could be here when they are.”
“Then that’s where I’ll be.”
I sat motionless atop him, staring in his handsome face, shocked but filled with glee that that wasn’t only his answer, but it also came quickly.
“You’re not…” I shook my head. “That doesn’t freak you?”
“They come with you?” he asked.
“Absolutely.”
The skin around his eyes softened and his fingers dug in my ass.
“I think I’ve made it pretty clear I want you, woman. They come with you, I want that too.”
Oh God. I was so falling in love with this man.
“Dad’ll like you,” I whispered.
“Yeah. I had a daughter in the middle of nowhere, states away, and a guy worked on her roof in the heat so it wouldn’t eventually cave in, I’d like him too.”
I smiled, tamping down the idea of Deacon having a daughter.
And how he would get one.
“Though,” he kept going, “that would only be until I was reminded he was sleepin’ with her. Then I’d go back to wantin’ to shoot him.”