Getting Rough

by Parker, C. L.

  I laughed along with him. “Mia that for you?”

  Casey put both of his gloves in one hand then fisted it on his hip as he looked toward the house. I turned to see Mia walking in our direction with a definitive sway to her hips. Casey grinned like the cat that ate the canary. “Maybe…”

  “Well, all right then,” I said, finding I was sort of happy that he was okay, maybe even better off, with how things had turned out.

  Cassidy

  Stonington’s beach wasn’t anything like the beaches in San Diego. Firstly, because San Diego had too many to count, while Stonington had only the one. And whereas San Diego’s beaches were usually smooth and flat, Stonington’s was mostly giant boulders. The thing that made Stonington win out was the natural beauty, clean and without the thousands of visitors throughout the day, or their litter. Not today, though. Thanks to Ayla, there was debris everywhere. Still, sea moss and driftwood made for a much better view than just plain garbage.

  I found Da perched atop his favorite boulder looking out over the cove with surprisingly small waves lapping at the stone. I knew before I reached him that he’d have a handful of pebbles, their smooth edges a weird sort of contrast to his calluses. My father had been a hardworking man all his life, rough around the edges but smooth as a pebble on the inside, and he always took time out to appreciate nature’s marvels, big and small.

  I often wondered what must have been going through his mind as he sat there all alone, but it simply wasn’t my place to pry. The man was entitled to his personal musings, despite his wife’s contrary opinion.

  Without a word, I took a seat next to him on the rock, unwilling to disturb his peaceful tranquillity when the heart of where this man lived and breathed was in such upheaval. He didn’t turn to look at me, didn’t change the expression on his face. He just stretched out his cupped hand and offered me one of his stones, which I took without hesitation.

  I could remember being sent there many times as a child to fetch him for Ma, but I’d faked a lot of those times just so I could be with him. Da had always called me his little duckling and had even walked around in a zigzag to watch me follow his exact path, which I did without fail. I loved my mother, I really did, but I was daddy’s little girl. He and Ma would even have to pull fast ones on me so he could get out the door without having me in tow. I’d throw a fit when I finally got wise to it and go in search of him anyway. In fact, there were times when I’d sit on the dock for an entire day just waiting for him to return from his day of lobstering.

  My da had been the reason why my love of sports had begun in the first place. Sitting on his knee in his favorite recliner, he’d schooled me on football as if knowing everything about it would make the difference between life and death in a postapocalyptic world. And I even had my very own stool down at Maggie’s, Stonington’s one and only pub.

  The sun reflected off his beard, its direct attention bringing the golds and tangerines of his Irish genes to life.

  “Do you remember that time when you bet the boys down at the pub that I could recite the starting lineup for Dallas? It was 1993, I think,” I asked.

  “Yep. Offense, defense, and special teams,” he added with a proud smile. “Took three seasons of us doing that before those dimwits figured out you were a prodigy. We made a lot of money off that old trick. Even more when you could take any player they chose and go through their stats as well.” Da laughed and then patted my knee. “I knew then you were destined for greatness someday.” He nudged me lightly. “Thanks for never ratting me out to your ma.”

  “Thanks for giving me half the take,” I said with a nudging of my own, to which he laughed again, because you bet your sweet patootie I’d blackmailed him.

  My father wrapped his arm around me so I could lay my head on his shoulder, and it was as if time suddenly rewound and I was his little duckling again. Life was so much simpler when I could just follow his lead. Figuring out how to fool Ma and the boys down at Maggie’s was one thing, figuring out how to fool Shaw about my feelings for him would be something else entirely.

  “What’s on your mind, kiddo?”

  “Boys,” I answered truthfully with a pitiful sigh.

  “Ew!” Da said, shoving me away. “Boys are gross and they have cooties!”

  I laughed because I couldn’t help myself. “Da, stop.”

  “Why? That’s what you used to tell me when you were but a wee thing.” He skipped a pebble across the water. “I was sure glad of it then.”

  “And you’re not now?”

  He shrugged. “Your mother wants grandchildren. I suppose that might not be such a bad idea.”

  “Oh, God. She’s rubbing off on you,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “So tell me about this boy problem,” he said, skipping another stone. “Did you and Casey get things worked out?”

  I threw my rock as well, but it hit the water with a kerplunk instead of skipping. I was so out of practice. “We broke up.”

  “I didn’t realize you’d gotten back together.”

  “We hadn’t. It’s just… it’s complicated.” I took another go at the rock skipping and the second attempt was worse than the first.

  “Matters of the heart usually are, pumpkin.” He looked off into the distance, watching the ripples on top of the water from what was likely a turtle being a busybody beneath the surface. I wondered whom the turtle would be reporting back to on this latest gossip. “You two were brought up together, so people made a lot of assumptions about what that meant for your future. The problem is, just because he was all you’d known, it didn’t mean he was all you’d ever know.”

  Da handed me another stone, nodding for me to try again, which I did. And failed.

  “You throw like a girl,” he said and laughed. “It’s all in the wrist. Like this.” He threw his stone and it made five skips before sinking.

  “Show-off.”

  Da laughed again and then sobered. “I don’t know if you’ll remember it or not, but when you were seven, I brought you down to this exact spot to teach you how to do this.” He leaned in – because that was just the sort of thing smart-asses did – and whispered, “You were much better then.”

  “Whatever,” I said, shouldering him.

  “Anyway, you looked up at me, completely out of the blue, and told me they have buildings in the cities made out of this rock” – he patted the chunk of granite that had become our favorite spot – “and that you’d like to see them. Threw me off because I couldn’t figure out how in the hell you knew what those buildings were made out of, but then again, you were always smart.”

  I laughed. “I do remember that. Though I don’t remember how I learned that, either.”

  He looked at me then, a story untold lurking behind his eyes. “Do you remember that I asked you if there was anywhere in the world you could go, where would it be?”

  I shook my head.

  “I do. Never forgot it. Never will. You said anywhere but here.” Da got quiet, contemplative. “That was when I knew I’d lost you. That was when I knew I had to make sure you got off this rock.”

  A prickling of emotion tingled on the tip of my nose. It was always the first indicator that tears would soon follow, no matter how hard I tried to hold them back. “You didn’t lose me, Da.”

  “I know I didn’t. You were never mine. I was yours, baby girl.”

  A rebel tear slid down my cheek. My da was never a sentimental man. He was either all business or full of laughs and chuckles. This was a side of him I’d never seen before. Not when I’d left Stonington for college, and not even when I left college for San Diego.

  He smiled, throwing his arm around me once again to give my shoulders a comforting squeeze. “I know I’ve been a stubborn old man, too afraid to let his baby girl go. And for that, I’m sorry. It’s okay to make a home somewhere other than Stonington, Cass. Just like it’s okay to love someone other than Casey. If you want to sail off into the sunset with Shaw, do it. Just don’t forget your
anchor.”

  And just like that, the tether that had bound me to this place snapped. My father had set me free. Though I didn’t feel I could soar just yet.

  “I love him, Da. I love Shaw,” I confessed. Hearing the words said aloud wasn’t such a bad thing. The sky did not darken, the water before us did not turn to blood, demons did not escape from the Gates of Hell, and the end of the world did not happen. And what do you know… my lips did not fall off. So why was I still so terrified?

  “I know that. But does he?”

  Sometimes my father was wiser than I gave him credit for. His question was the answer to mine. Shaw didn’t know how I felt about him and I was terrified to clue him in. Rejection sucked. Plain and simple. I wasn’t sure I could put myself out there like that only to have Shaw look at me like I was some pitiful little schoolgirl with a crush on a boy band’s lead singer.

  “I can’t tell him.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because I don’t want him to think I’m stupid.” I sounded really pouty. I knew I did. But a woman in the company of her father, no matter how grown she might think herself to be, no matter where she’d been or what she’d done, always had the right to revert back to the girl who’d cried on his shoulder as a child. Dads just made it all better somehow. Maybe because he was the one man whose love for her would always be unconditional.

  “Ah, darlin’… The last thing anyone would ever accuse you of being is stupid. You’re not. And neither is he. In fact, you might be surprised by what he says back.”

  I fiddled with the thread that was unraveling on his sleeve. “He’ll probably tell me I’m fired. He is my boss now, after all.”

  “Is that right?” Da’s voice registered his shock at the news. “When did that happen?”

  “When I lost the Denver Rockford contract to him. He made partner, so he’s my boss, technically.”

  “You lost it? Or gave it up?”

  I drew my head back to look at him. “You knew? But how?”

  Da chuckled. “Cassidy Rose, you’re the most competitive person I know. There’s no way someone is going to beat you in something you want, no matter how slick they might be. You gave up that partnership because your ma needed you here. Didn’t you?”

  “You can’t tell her,” I said, wagging a finger at him.

  “Don’t you worry about that. It’ll be our little secret,” he assured me. “Just like my using our only daughter to win some bets in a pub that daughter had no business being in in the first place.”

  “Good. We should both get back to the house before dinner gets cold and she sends a search-and-rescue posse out to drag us both back.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said with a groan as he hopped down from the rock.

  I was about to follow, but Da put his big, meaty paws on my waist to help me down. Just like he did when I was a child. And even though I knew it was likely killing his back to do so, I rested my hands on his shoulders and let him. He was my da; my unconditional love, my partner in crime, and the only man I’d ever have wrapped around my little pinky.

  All that was left for me to do was to just pull up my big-girl panties and face Shaw as the woman my father had raised me to be today.

  CHAPTER 19

  Shaw

  Anna Whalen could cook her ass off, too. I was going to be so fat when I left Stonington, but fuck it. I’d have Ben schedule some one-on-one sessions with one of the trainers at my gym when I got back, and that would fix the issue. Until then, I was going to enjoy the hell out of the home cooking for as long as I could.

  Chicken pie, baked apples, and fried green tomatoes were on the menu, complemented by Abby’s sweet iced tea. I was in heaven and would probably need a very long shower and an early bedtime as soon as dinner was over. But the early bedtime would not happen because there was still so much work to be done outside.

  Casey and I had been working together well all day without an ounce of animosity. And after our talk? All the tension between us seemed to just melt away. Oh, there’d always be the underlying alpha competition going on, but I respected the man and his rightful placement in Cassidy’s life. I got it. They were best friends; always had been, always would be. Not only that, but they were basically family. I didn’t want to come between that.

  Casey and I had an understanding now. Cassidy didn’t know it, and maybe I wouldn’t ever tell her, but he’d played the protective role earlier, letting me know in his own words that I’d better treat her right. Or else. I couldn’t get upset about the veiled threat because I saw it for what it was, and I was glad she had someone who cared enough to be protective of her in the first place.

  He seemed different, and I knew I was different. Partly because of my near-death experience the day before, partly because of my unofficial adoption by Casey’s own mother – which he seemed to be just fine with – but mostly because I’d suddenly gotten in touch with my feelings for Cassidy and recognized them for what they were. Fucking love, man. It changed people. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. I was pretty sure the man I was before was the worse part, so it could only get better for me now.

  If she didn’t crush me once she found out.

  This love thing was sort of emasculating now that I thought about it. Maybe I should just keep those feelings to myself.

  “Well, it’s about time you two decided to join us. Where have you been?” Anna sounded none too pleased with whoever had dared arrive late. As if I didn’t already know who was missing at my side.

  I looked up to see Cassidy being escorted into the room on Duff’s arm like he was walking her down the aisle on her wedding day, a thought I quickly pushed from my mind because no way was marriage ever going to be in her future. At least not if that future included me. Not only wasn’t I baby-daddy material, but thanks to the sham of a union between the man and the woman who’d spawned me, I didn’t believe in the institution of marriage. Regardless, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest at the sight of her. I knew then that it would be impossible to keep my newfound feelings to myself, because all this mushy stuff inside of me was going to fight its way to the surface in due time anyway. That’s how potent it was.

  Cassidy’s hair was falling loose from its ponytail; she was sweaty and dirty, and absolutely sexy as hell. Damn.

  “Ma, don’t fuss. We were on our way back, but then Da spotted Jax stuck in a tree, so he insisted we stop to get him down.”

  “Who’s Jax?” Mia asked.

  “Mrs. Jones’s cat,” Casey told her.

  “You should’ve seen him, Ma. Da was quite the hero. You would be proud.” Cassidy kissed her father on the cheek after he’d taken his seat.

  “I’m always proud of him,” Anna said, satisfied by their excuse and going about her task of making her husband a plate. How she managed to get around so well to make dinner from that wheelchair, I’d never know.

  Cassidy gave her father a conspiratorial wink when her mother wasn’t looking and then she took a seat. Right next to me. But she was lying through her teeth, the fibber. I nearly choked on the laughter I tried to hide with a cough, which Abby noticed but didn’t give away. And then what do ya know? Cassidy’s hand went right to my thigh, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for her to do.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled when I stared at her hand. She made to move it, but I covered it with mine to keep it in place.

  The heat from her palm penetrated through the thick denim of my jeans and gave me the warm and fuzzies all over. Which, of course, made all that mushy stuff on the inside go berserk. There was nothing sexual about it. Her hand was just there under mine. Where it really fucking belonged.

  A ringing came from the foyer – somewhere in the vicinity of the check-in desk, I assumed – and everyone stopped what they were doing to look in that direction like it was a puzzle they were trying to figure out. It was a distinctive type of ring, like that of a rotary phone. Considering how old-fashioned Anna Whalen was, I imagin
ed it was exactly that.

  “Well, looks like they got the phone lines back up and running,” Thomas said. “Rude for someone to call during dinner, though.”

  It was an odd thing for him to say considering the Whalen House was a business, but I chalked it up to one more of those things people in Stonington just did not do. Small-town life had its own rules.

  When Anna began to wipe her hands on the kitchen towel, Abby stood. “I’ll get it, sweetie. You get that plate in front of your husband.”

  “How’s the dock look?” Cassidy asked Casey.