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“Spill what?” Cassie asked innocently, hoping her friend would get the hint that she didn’t want to talk about it and leave her be. But she wasn’t that lucky.
Callie rolled her eyes. “I’ve been telling you forever now that you guys have serious chemistry. I’ve never seen Jamal spend this much time with a female since, well, sincenever!The only females I ever see him with are Irma and JJ. He’s got a thing for you, sweetheart. Just admit it.”
Cassie sighed and dropped her head in her hands. “I know,” she whispered softly.
“Then what’s the problem, sis?” Callie asked, sitting on top of the other barstool and grabbing her friend’s hands.
Cassie looked up at Callie. “I’m afraid.”
“Of what?”
Cassie threw her hands in the air. “Of everything! Falling for him. Telling him my crazy history. Losing him. Losing JJ. I should just cut ties with him while I can. They’re better off without me.”
Callie looked at her sadly. “Oh, hon. Don’t you see the way they look at you? Not just Jamal. JJ, too. You’re already part of their family. It would hurt them even more if you walked away than if you just told him.Everything.”
Cassie stared at her friend. “Do you think so?”
Callie pulled her off the barstool and wrapped her in a hug. “I know so. Now, do you want to see something sweet before you go on your date? As grownups?”
At Cassie’s nod, Callie led her up her and Kyle’s winding staircase and stopped at the first door. “Watch this,” she said to Cassie and nodded her head to where Jamal was sitting on the bed with his daughter.
“I told ya, daddy, I’m not gonna go to bed right now!”
Jamal laughed. “I heard you loud and clear, kid. But our kissing routine is just not the same when you’re on a couch playing on an Xbox. Am I right?”
JJ rolled her eyes and slapped at her dad’s knuckles he was trying to get her to pound. “I guess,” she said with a sigh.
Jamal grinned and wrapped his daughter in a hug. “You know you’re the best thing I’ve ever done, kid.”
“Even more than being a basketball all-star?”
“Even that.”
JJ grinned. “Love ya, old man.”
“Love you, too, double J’s. Now, you ready?”
JJ nodded her head. “Ready.”
Cassie watched as the duo said in sync, “Butterfly kisses,” and fluttered their eyelashes on each other’s cheeks.
“Eskimo kisses,” they said as they rubbed their noses together.
“Big kisses,” they said, as Jamal wrapped his daughter in a bear hug and pressed a kiss to her forehead, nose and lips.
“I love you more than softball,” she said, looking up at her dad.
Not wanting to ruin the moment, Cassie softly slid away from the door. She felt her eyes misting over. “That’s probably the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve only seen your dad be like that to you. I know that’s not something I ever experienced growing up.”
“That’s because you only had a piece of shit example to go by,” Callie said with a frown. “Which is why IknowJamal will understand when you tell him what you think is your deep, dark secret. Because, Cass, it’s not a reflection on you or who you are as a person. It’s a testament to the deep, dark hole you pulled yourself out of when you left.”
Cassie looked at her friend, hope in her eyes. “Do you really think so?”
Her best friend nodded her head. “I do. So go out on a grown up date with that hottie of a man that’s one of the best dads in the world, tell him your secret and then get lucky!”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “It that all newlyweds think about? Getting freaky?”
“It’s what you tell all of your first graders. Try it – you’ll like it.”
