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“Leif wanted to be a vet when he was a kid,” Dad snickers. “Until his first goldfish died.”
“Do you remember how much you cried over it?” Mom adds some embarrassment factor into the conversation.
Cassidy looks at me with a held-in-chuckle.
Owning my shit, I tell her, “Because my grammy wanted to flush it down the toilet. Oink… or was it Moo? Whatever, it deserved a proper burial.”
“Aww, that’s so cute of you,” Cassidy coos. “I flushed Colonel Mustard down that toilet.”
“How old were you?”
“Five.”
“You played Cluedo when you were five?” I was just playing Operation, and sucking at it.
“What can I say? I was advanced for my age.”
“Clearly.”
“Leif was always outdoorsy. We were lucky to have a big yard where he could kick and throw a ball in the rain or sunshine.” Mom’s smile wavers.
Cassidy must sense the change in her demeanour, because her face softens. “We all have our calling.”
Mom nods, sitting back into her seat with a gratified sigh. That is the sign of a woman who likes my girl.
Pulling in a deep breath, I allow all my trepidation to dissipate as I lean forward and wrap my arm around Cassidy’s shoulders.
Maybe she won’t think any less of me when I tell her about my rugby career and how I fucked it all up with one bad decision. It’s why it’s so important that I win her over. That she sees that I’m not some stupid kid anymore. I need her to see me and know me. In short, I need her to fall in love with me.
Laiken’s kid stirs when the staff bring out dessert. His cry is unlike anything I’ve ever heard—loud and fragile at the same time. When I held him this morning, I was so scared I was going to accidentally crush him somehow that I refused to breathe the whole time.
“He’s so small.” Cassidy sighs.
“I can’t believe how much he’s grown in the last four weeks,” Kami says, taking the baby from Laiken and settling him for a feed. “As hard as the sleep deprivation is, I wish he’d stay this tiny a little longer.”
“I can imagine.” For a woman who doesn’t have a mother, Cassidy is incredibly nurturing. It makes me admire the man who raised her.
“So, what are everyone’s plans?” I ask, resting my chin on Cassidy’s shoulder. When she turns to look at me, I press a chaste kiss to the side of her mouth and tell her, “I’m taking you out.”
“You are? Where?” she asks while Laiken and Kami’s plans to spend time with her sick sister and her family morph into another argument about the baby’s name.
Calder, Brooks, Hudson… Surely they can pick one and be done?
“It’s a surprise,” I reply, expecting her to tell me how she hates surprises.
Instead, she nods and rests her hand on my thigh, leaving me completely stunned by the intimate touch. Call me crazy, but her hand kneading my thigh as she holds my stare with a soft smile fills me with hope. And pulling Cassidy completely into me, I hold on to it tightly.
CHAPTER 9
CASSIDY
Snow seems nicer when you’re sitting close to a fire with a hot drink in your hand, wrapped beneath a cosy blanket with an unfairly attractive man.
Standing ankle-deep in the swept paths leading around the city park, Leif’s suite looks over, though… not so much.
However, Leif has a way of making the most undesirable situations opportune. I might dare go as far as admitting he makes them fun. Mostly when he’s not chewing my ear off about the wonders of snow.
“British people make no sense to me.” Leif chuckles, spinning to face me so that he’s walking backwards down the part snowy, part sludgy path. “Almost every person outside of the United Kingdom associates you guys with snow, but if so much as a teeny, tiny snowflake tickles the tip of your noses—” leaning in, he flicks my nose “—life stops.”
