Page 27 of Dread’s Beloved

“Didn’t peg you for liking them so young. Is she even out of her training bra yet?” Cass teases and twirls her straw around in her glass.

“Kitty’s a job. I’m here as protection.”

“You sure she knows that because that girl is staring holes through you.”

“She’s just working through a lot of shit and I’m the closest thing to home she’s got right now.”

“I remember Lundie always saying her kids and Robyn’s would get married one day.” She tilts her head to the side. “Maybe she wasn’t too far off in her thinking.”

I grunt and take a drink. “Last thing Kitty needs is another man fucking her life up even further.”

“Well, you are the expert in that department.”

“Low blow. What are you doing here, Cass? We both know you hate it here.”

“I’m just visiting. Life has funny timing, huh?” She curls her tongue around her straw, pulling into her mouth.

“Yeah. God has a great sense of humor.”

“I’m going through a divorce,” she tells me.

“Why am I not surprised? How many this make you?”

“Five.” She grins.

“Shit.”

“What about you? You never remarried. No kids. No girlfriend. Only casual fucks.”

“You been keeping tabs on me?”

She tilts her head again and lifts a shoulder. “I hear things.”

“Like what?”

“Nothing really. Just that you haven’t bene serious about anyone since me and I want to know why that is?”

“If you’re thinking I’m still hung up on you, I hate to break it to you, darlin’. I worked through that a long time ago.”

“I don’t know. I’ve been told I’m unforgettable.”

“I won’t argue with you there.”

“Damn, we had fun, didn’t we?”

“Until we didn’t.”

“Do you ever wonder if we’d made it had we tried to work it out? Had a couple of kids?”

“If we had kids, we’d have fucked them up.”

“You’re probably right.”

“I know I am.”

“Cocky.” She reaches over and squeezes my upper thigh. “Still just as handsome, too.”

“Cass.” I grab her hand and move it away from my dick.