by Dylann Crush
Finally, my body clenched, pausing at the climax. Robbie’s gaze met mine. He smiled, that smug grin I’d fallen in love with all those years ago. A warm tidal wave of emotion washed over me as I collapsed onto his chest. This…this connection…this acknowledgement of everything that had been building between us…this was what I’d been desperate for.
Satisfied I’d reached my release, he let himself go, whispering my name and clutching me tight against him.
“Oh, Cass.” Feathery kisses brushed my temple, my cheeks, my nose. His hands raced up and down my sides. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay now.”
In that moment, caught up in the safe cocoon we’d created, sheltered from the world outside the door of that bedroom, I desperately wanted to believe him.
17
Robbie
I opened my eyes. Cassie’s head rested on the pillow next to mine. Her hair fanned out over an otherwise naked shoulder. The edges of her eyes crinkled as she smiled at me.
“Good morning.”
“Morning. How long have you been up?” I stretched my arm out, sliding it under her head to pull her closer.
“Not long. I wanted to watch you sleep.” She nestled her head against my chest. I ran my hand through her hair, needing proof that she was really here in the bed next to me. I’d dreamed of this moment for so long, I had a hard time believing she was real.
“Was it good?”
She lifted her head. “What, last night? It was amazing.”
I chuckled. “No, watching me sleep.”
Her cheeks pinked as she let her head drop to my chest. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Well you sure have.” I traced a finger down her shoulder to circle her breast. “You’re all grown up, Cass.”
“We both are. Which means we need to be grown-ups about this.” She caught my hand in hers. “I can’t let you break my heart again.”
“Again?” My chest squeezed together, constricting, making it hard to breathe. “Cass, I never meant to hurt you. What are you talking about?”
She pulled back, studying me. “That letter you sent me spring of our freshman year of college.”
I shook my head. The only letter between us was the one she’d left for me. “What letter? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t mess with me. You’re telling me you don’t remember sending me that letter? The one that said something like Dear Cassie, met someone so don’t bother coming back for the summer. I don’t want to see you anymore. That doesn’t ring a bell?”
“No, baby. I never sent you a letter like that.” I propped myself up on an elbow, trying to get a better look at her. She had to be joking, but it was going too far. “Why would I have done that? I never wanted things to end between us.” My voice had risen a few notches, along with a blaze of heat that traveled from my gut into my chest.
“Everything okay in there?” The door to the pass-through bathroom opened. Caroline stood framed in the doorway wearing nothing but a towel. She took in the sight of Cassie and me lying naked in bed together and her eyes narrowed into slits.
I sat up, tossing my legs over the opposite side of the bed with my back to the girls. Shit.
“Robbie?” Caroline shrieked.
I turned my head toward her voice.
A tight-lipped smile stretched across her lips. “What’s going on?”
Cassie pulled a sheet around herself and moved across the room. “Nothing’s going on. Absolutely nothing.”
“I sure wish I believed you. Do you mind giving my boyfriend and me some space?” Steam practically bellowed from her ears.
Ex-boyfriend, I wanted to say. But I figured now was not the time to correct her.
Cassie grabbed a handful of clothes from the top of her bag. “Take all the time you need.” She yanked open the door and stepped out into the hall. The door slammed behind her, causing the wall to shake.
“I need to know exactly what’s going on here, Rob. I will NOT let you make a fool out of me.”
I got to my feet. “I’m not trying to make a fool out of you. But I told you, this isn’t going anywhere. We’re through.”
Caroline hobbled toward me. “I don’t know what you mean. When I left in June I thought we had an understanding. And now you go and jump into bed with…with…with her?”
I turned on Caroline. “Whatever was going on between you and me has been dead for a long time.”
“It’s Cassie, isn’t it? It’s always been her.” She raised a hand like she wanted to slap me.
“Stop.” I caught her hands up in one of mine. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
Hate seeped across her face before she composed herself. “You’ll regret this. You’re wasting your time on her, Rob.”
“I’ll send Becca in to help you in the shower.” I moved past her and through the door into the bedroom as her voice followed me.
“My dad will make sure you never get another construction job within a hundred miles.” Her sharp laughter taunted me. “And that field he said you could use for that ridiculous baseball project you wanted to do… forget about it.” Not wanting to hear any more, I pulled the door closed behind me, shutting Caroline out of my life for good.
Hell, Caroline wasn’t part of my future. Not even if her dad had promised to run my business into the ground. Not even if it meant starting over on my goal to honor my brother. It was time to talk to Cassie. Time to get things out in the open and face the past. Time to clear the air and figure out what kind of a future, if any, we might be able to build together.
Cassie
“So what happened?” Misty filled an oversized mug of coffee and passed it to me across the kitchen island.
“I don’t want to talk about it. Part of me wishes I’d never come back.” I stirred some vanilla-flavored creamer into my coffee and watched as it blended in, the dark coffee and light creamer swirling together until I couldn’t tell one from the other. That’s kind of how I felt right now. Like everything I ever thought I wanted was being mixed up so I didn’t even recognize myself. Maybe it was time to start drinking my coffee black.
She leaned on the counter across from me. “And the other part?”
I fiddled with the handle of the mug and took in a giant breath. “I don’t know. I didn’t expect to be spending so much time around him when I came back. I figured I’d run into him once or twice, but working together on the house…” My voice trailed off and I raised my head to meet Misty’s probing gaze.
“You still like him.” Her lips formed a cross between a smile and a smirk.
“She likes who?” Jake strode into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Misty, pulling her back against his chest and nuzzling her neck with his lips.
“Cassie’s finally admitting she still has feelings for Robbie.” Misty clapped her hands together and wiggled her eyebrows at me.
I groaned. “That’s not what I said.”
“It’s what you didn’t say.” Misty reached for the coffee pot and poured a steaming mug for Jake. “Here you go, baby.”
“Mmm.” He brushed her hair back from her neck before planting a soft kiss behind her ear. “Thanks.”
I felt like an outsider, watching the intimate moment between husband and wife. Would Robbie and I act like that in the mornings if we’d stayed together? As I shook my head to clear the thoughts of what never would be out of my brain, I caught a glimpse of him stomping up the stairs.
“Everything okay down there?” Misty asked.
Robbie didn’t respond, just made a beeline to where I sat on a stool at the kitchen island. He hadn’t put a shirt on yet and my gaze traveled from the determined set of his jaw down past the stubble covering his chin to his broad shoulders and massive chest. He scooped me off the stool and into his arms, cradling me against him.
“Hey, wait. What do you think you’re doing?” I kicked my legs and pushed against him with my palms.
He didn’t break stride, just gra
bbed his keys off the counter as he passed by. “We’ll be back. Cassie and I are going out for a drive.”
“A drive? You’re crazy. Put me down.”
“Let me get the door for you.” Jake raced ahead and opened the front door.
Robbie turned sideways to pass through.
Jake lifted his hand in a slight wave. “Have fun, y’all.”
Robbie’s bare feet slapped against the rock steps as he shifted me in his arms. “Fifteen minutes, Cass. That’s all I’m asking for.” He wrenched open the door of his truck and dumped me on the seat.
By the time I’d managed to untangle my limbs and crawl across the bucket seats to escape, he’d already turned the key in the ignition and pulled away from the curb.
“Buckle up.” With one hand on the wheel, he reached across and pulled at my seatbelt.
I slapped his hand away. “Just watch the road. I don’t need your help.” The seatbelt clicked into place, and I crossed my arms over my chest and slunk down in the seat. “What the hell is this all about?”
Robbie took in a deep breath and glanced over at me. “It’s over between me and Caroline. Been over for a while now.”
I rolled my eyes and let out a huge sigh. “Is that all? I don’t care about you and Caroline.”
He didn’t say anything for a few long moments, just navigated the truck down a shady tree-lined road. “I can’t…it’s like…” The truck veered off the road where the tree line broke and came to an abrupt stop in a grassy parking lot at a small park. He stared straight ahead, over the hood and his hands slammed against the steering wheel. “Fuck it, Cass. I think I still…maybe…goddammit, I might still love you.”
Crushing silence filled the cramped cab of the truck. A cold, tight band wrapped around my heart and squeezed.
He whispered, “Say something.”
I turned my body toward him. “You want me to say something?”
His gaze met mine. God, he looked like hell. Red streaks shot through the whites of his eyes and the early morning sun reflected off his unshaven cheeks, highlighting shades of red, blonde, brown and even a stray white whisker or two. He shrugged his shoulders, an almost imperceptible movement.
“You think you might still love me? That has to be the lamest, most sorry ass declaration of possible unrequited love I’ve ever heard. What are you trying to do to me, Robbie?” I unbuckled and pushed out the passenger door, my bare feet crushing grass and sweet clover as I barreled toward the sliver of lake peeking through the trees.
His door slammed and the next moment he was beside me, trying to catch my hand up in his. He took single, giant strides to every two of mine and cut me off. His hands grasped my arms, forcing me to stop. I stared at the center of his smooth and entirely touchable chest. I wanted to wrap my arms around his waist and cling to him like a life raft in a typhoon. But I also wanted to land an upper cut to his scruffy jaw and knock him flat on his gorgeous ass.
“Cassie, I’m sorry. I know this isn’t good timing. But I’ve gotta tell you how I feel. Will you look at me?” He put a finger under my chin, tipping my face up toward his.
I closed my eyes.
“I know we probably don’t stand a chance. But being around you this summer…it’s like old times, Cassafrass. I miss that. I miss you. I miss…us.”
My eyelids cracked open a tiny bit, and I studied him through the filter of my lashes. The sun reflected off the lake behind him, casting him in gold like some divine, muscled, coulda-been-Calvin-Klein-underwear-model angel. His hair curled around his ears; he always seemed to need a haircut. I used to trim it for him in the summers. Run my fingers through those wavy locks while he nestled his head against my chest. My heart skipped a beat while a flush crept up from my collarbone, past my neck and onto my cheeks.
“Why now, Robbie? After all these years? I’ve got a good life now. Parker and I, we’re… we’re building a business together. He’s my future. You’re, well, you’re just my past.”
His hand went around to the back of my neck and cradled my head. “What if I don’t want to stay in the past, Cass? What if I want a chance at the future with you?”
A wave of tingles rolled through my body from my toes to the tip of my head and back again. Words stuck in my throat and I forced them through gritted teeth.
“A future? You expect me to give up my career just as things are starting to take off for me and move back to Swallow Springs?” My hands pulled at his fingers tangled in my hair. “There’s nothing here for me, Rob. I’m finally putting down some roots. I’ve got a chance to own my own place. I’m not going to give that up just because you’re feeling a little nostalgic.”
A breeze blew across the lake and right through the tank top and short knit shorts I’d thrown on after leaving him with Caroline, setting off a chain reaction of goosebumps on my arms and legs. I took a step back, wrapped my arms around my torso and shook my head.
Robbie’s rough, callused hands rubbed up and down my arms in an effort to chase away the chill. “Then let me come with you to Dallas. I can move my business there.”
“And leave your dad?” Twisting my body away from him, I wrenched out of his grasp. “This is ridiculous. We had a chance and it didn’t work out. I’m not interested in giving things another shot. Just let it go.”
“That would be a mistake. I know you. You still have feelings for me, Cassafrass.”
“You don’t get to say things like that. You think you know me? I haven’t seen or heard from you in nine years.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I could take it back. Do things different. I know that now. What we had was special. I didn’t try hard enough.”
His words cut through me like a dull blade. “Robbie, you didn’t try at all.”
He moved toward me. I’d almost reached the truck and he herded me up against the door. The sun had baked the metal and it toasted my backside as Robbie pressed in on me.
“I did try, Cass. I came to visit you in Austin.”
His shoulders blocked out the sun and I shrank against the side of the truck. “What? When?”
He put a hand on either side of me, trapping me in place. “Spring of freshman year. Borrowed a car from my roommate and drove down. I couldn’t stay away from you.”
I could barely hear his words through the sound of my own heartbeat pounding in my ears. “I didn’t see you.”
“No, but I saw you.” He cupped his hand and brushed the hair back from my face then trailed a finger down my cheek, letting it rest on my lip. “I thought you saw me, too. Had a big smile on your face. Then some guy came from behind me and gave you a big hug. You looked so happy to see him. At that point I knew we were done.”
My mind raced. I hadn’t been seeing anyone my freshman year. Robbie had ruined me and no one else could compare. “But…I wasn’t seeing anyone then. I was waiting for you. But then you sent me that letter.”
Robbie’s finger pressed against my lip. “Shh. I didn’t send you any letter, but I have a pretty good idea of who did.”
Tears flooded my eyes. “You didn’t?”
“Oh, baby.” He shook his head. “I never would have let you go.”
He tilted his head and lowered his lips toward mine. I pressed back against the truck, trapped in place. As his mouth touched mine, a torrent of excruciatingly exquisite pleasure coursed through me. The tiny ember of desire I thought I’d extinguished by giving in last night burst into flame, and it took every bit of willpower and resistance I could muster not to throw my arms around his neck and rock into him.
“It’s still there, Cass.” He touched his forehead to mine. “Whatever started between us all those years ago, I still feel it.”
My snappy comeback died on my tongue. That kiss. The look on his face said it all. Confidence mingled with barely veiled desire. He’d made his point. My body always had responded to his. I fisted my hands and dug them into my gut, trying to break up the horde of butterflies that had taken up residence in my stomach the moment Robbie
touched his lips to mine last night.
“Don’t say no yet. Let’s take the summer. See how things go. We’ve missed out on so much. Don’t you think we owe it to ourselves to give us another shot?” He leaned into me. How could I think about denying him when he’d always been the one thing I’d ever wanted?
“Just the summer. I have to go back to Texas once the house is done.” I’d worked too hard to give up on my dream now.
Robbie nodded. “I’ll take whatever time I can get with you.” Then he pressed his lips to mine, making me all too aware of how little time we’d have until summer came to an end.
18
Robbie
By the time we got back to the house it looked like everyone was up. I padded into the kitchen while Cassie headed straight down the stairs.
A plate of muffins and scones she’d baked the day before sat in the middle of the table. Heather snuggled on Ryan’s lap, feeding him small pieces of muffin with her fingers. Jake’s arm curled around Misty, matching coffee mugs with pictures of their boys on them rested in their hands.
Suddenly, the certainty settled on me. This was what I wanted. This was what Cassie and I could have. She might not realize it yet, but there wasn’t room for even a smidgen of doubt in my mind that we had a future together. I just needed to figure out how to convince her.
Jake looked up at me. “How’d the talk go?”
I reached out and grabbed a blueberry muffin from the platter. “Let’s just say it’s a work in progress.”
Misty laughed and peeled herself away from her husband’s side. “That’s the perfect way to describe a relationship. That might just be the wisest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Rob.” She set her mug on the counter and filled it full of coffee. “Did you want any of this? I can make more.”
