Page 74 of Cash

His head tipped to the side. A move so uncharacteristically Cash it took me by surprise. Uncharacteristic and cute and that wasn’t a surprise—it was shocking. Cash was a lot of things, cute was not one of them. The man was positively hot. The kind of masculine beauty that made women lose their minds. The kind that would have women writing him love letters and marriage proposals if he ever found himself arrested and his mugshot was blasted over social media, not caring what crime he’d committed.

But cute… no.

Unfortunately, there was a secondary byproduct of that head tilt. One that I had no chance of hiding without a bra, and only a thin t-shirt to cover. I mean, who knew Cash looking cute would make my nipples tighten? Not me. Cute men did nothing for me. Yet there I was standing, staring at the man I’d thought I said good-bye to forever, aroused and feeling very exposed.

Before I could lift Cash’s hoodie to cover my chest and the evidence of a new-to-me unlocked turn on—the sound of glass shattering had Cash darting from the room.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“I’m sorry!” Cara cried from her perch on the counter, goopy pancake batter dripping from the spatula onto her lap. The measuring cup that had been next to the bowl was shattered on the floor under her dangling feet. “It was an accident.”

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Just stay⁠—”

“Lolo!”

I lunged as Cara started to push off the counter. Thankfully, I got to her before her bare feet could hit the glass-covered floor and swung her up into my arms. The fortunate part about this was Cara wouldn’t be getting a visit from Dr. Spenser to pull shards of glass from the bottoms of her feet. The unfortunate part was when I turned, Stella was right there and Cara was eye level with the angry, unmistakable handprint around Stella’s neck.

Fuck.

Cara went solid for half a second before her little body started to tremble.

Jesus fuck.

“You’re hurt!” Care shouted and struggled to throw herself out of my arms into Stella’s.

That couldn’t happen.

“Sweetheart—”

“You lied!” I felt Cara’s accusation slice through me. The fullness of it had yet to penetrate when she chanted, “You lied, lied, lied.”

“Cara—”

She cut Stella off and once again proclaimed, “You lied.” This time the claim was accompanied with a tiny fist to my chest.

My eyes tipped down and tears were swimming in her big, innocent blue eyes. Christ, that seared through me down to my soul.

“Cara!”

This time it was me who interrupted Stella. “You’re right, sweetheart I did.”

I glanced up at Stella long enough to issue a warning. “Don’t clean that up. I’ll do it in a second.”

Her response was nonverbal, but her eyes spoke volumes about how she felt about me ordering her around. I would’ve smiled at the ‘eat shit and die’ glare Stella was aiming my way if I didn’t have a ticking time bomb in my arms in the form of a little girl, with no understanding of how to defuse the situation and repair the damage I’d already done. But it was good to know Stella wasn’t going to let her asshole of a brother best her nor was she going to let yesterday dim that fiery attitude of hers.

I left Stella in the kitchen, part of me hoping she disobeyed so I could give her shit, push her limits, and watch her light up. But the other part, the sane piece of me, hoped she followed me into the living room with a head full of good ideas to smooth things over with Cara.

I got part of my wish when I sat on the couch, adjusted Cara so she was next to me, and found Stella had followed. Though she kept her feet and her distance and her silence.

Fucking perfect, leave the idiot who was abandoned in an alley who has zero emotional intelligence in charge of emotional fallout.

“Okay, Cara, I’m gonna give it to you straight,” I started. “You’re right; last night I lied to you. That wasn’t cool. But sweetheart, I did it to protect you.”

Her little-girl face scrunched. It was cute as fuck and I vaguely wondered if she gave that face to Stella, and if she did if Stella caved and gave her what she wanted.

“From Lolo?”

“No, not from Lolo. From what happened to her. Yesterday was scary and I didn’t want to make it worse by scaring you more. So I lied and told you she was sick because the truth is, she’s hurt and I didn’t want you scared and upset about that.”