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“He left, I think. Cassandra said that he was gone in the morning, and mom wasn’t too happy that he had bled all over her dish towels. I’m telling you, Steven, that man has some nerve. He should have left before I knew.”
“Why else would she be here?” Steven wondered out loud.
The two men stopped talking when the waitress came over and refilled their coffee. It was a workday, but naturally the two of them were busy gossiping about more interesting things than work. Steven didn’t know what to say to his friend, but he was glad that Luke had gotten a few good hits in. The guy deserved everything that he got. What was wrong with him, cheating on Cassandra? He had never deserved her, and she had finally realized it, that’s how he took it.
“I just can’t believe that she is back here and looking for a place, with her son. He should have given her the house.”
Steven shrugged; he didn’t know the little details that Luke wanted to know. He would like to know what was going on, wished that she had shared something more with him, but that hadn’t happened. As much as he thought about her since she got back, Steven also knew that Cassandra was dangerous. She was connected to everyone, so if he messed up, his world would implode.
“Well, I am glad that she got out of there. You can tell that she isn’t happy. That bright look to her is gone, like he sucked it out of her. I never did like him…”
Luke waved him off. He didn’t want to hear it and Steven didn’t want to talk about anything else. He had never understood how Cassandra had chosen Nelson, even if he wasn’t in the running. How could she have chosen him?
He had left Hartford, would be back later for visits, but Cassandra was looking for a place to stay. She was moving there indefinitely, so his mind was full of possibilities. He just had to be careful, because Luke wasn’t going to take it well if another one of his friends fell for his sister. It wouldn’t end well, but that changed nothing.
The two were in silence for a time, but finally Luke agreed that it was good to have Cassandra back. “It is weird though. I now have a nephew and a sister to worry about. I feel like I am going to have to do a lot to keep them safe. She is too pretty for her own good, that’s what it is. It’s always been that way.”
Steven didn’t talk about what he thought of Cassandra and what he wanted to see happen. He had to keep all of it to himself. Luke wouldn’t understand, and what he was willing to do to a man who looked at his sister the wrong way was still fresh on Steven’s mind. He got the hint. Keep away from his sister.
“Why don’t the four of us go out this weekend? I want to show Dennis the race car that we are working on.”
Steven agreed. He wanted to see Cassandra again, even if it was under the watchful eye of her brother. He also wanted to get to know Dennis. He was a big part of her life, which meant that he was someone that Steven should get to know how to get along with. He was searching for angles to get closer.
When he went back to work later in the day, Steven had a lot on his mind. He knew that Cassandra was looking for a place because of her brother, and he immediately started looking into his own portfolio to see what he had going on. He had plenty of rental properties, and he found one that was pretty close to his own house. It was the perfect place for Cassandra and since it was already full, Steven was just going to have to figure it out.
After a few phone calls, Steven had evicted the people in the apartment, offered them a nicer place for the same amount of rent, and a generous moving budget. It was going to put him out of pocket quite a bit, but Steven would have spent more for less. A chance to help Cassandra, bringing her closer to him, was worth it.
He went to visit Cassandra and see how the apartment hunting was going. He knew the market and it wasn’t a good one. She was having a hell of a time, and Steven offered his help in finding a place.
“How could you help?”
“I thought you kept up with my business. We have a lot of real estate.”
“Oh, I thought it was different kinds of stuff, like that building you work in.”
He insisted that it was a little bit of everything, and Steven told her that he had one that wasn’t far from the city and had the best schools in the area. It would let her pretend that she was still in Hartford, but she would have one foot in the city for work, and him.
When she agreed to take a look at it, Steven danced a little jig inside. It was all going the way he wanted it to go. He needed some time alone with Cassandra, sure that it was all that it would take to get them where they needed to be.
Chapter 7
Cassandra
Finding an apartment was harder than Cassandra thought it would be. She had imagined that she would find something quick and easy. It was a smaller town, so it should have had better rentals. The city that she came from was a nightmare to find a place. She’d looked there first. Easy wasn’t the case though. Instead, it was a smaller market, less places to even go for and while Cassandra wanted to stay in Hartford, maybe she wasn’t going to. She wanted to give herself some space between her and Nelson, but now she didn’t know if she would be able to. Cassandra didn’t want to give in and go home though. How would she be able to divorce him, if she couldn’t live on her own? It wasn’t just that. Cassandra had to find a good school for Dennis. He was young, but education was very important to her.
She was feeling like a failure, and it was like Steven was sending her a lifeline. She had agreed to go look at his place when he had told her about the school system, the size, and the price. Cassandra didn’t think what he had found was possible. She didn’t know that he had gone to great lengths to make it available and affordable for her. Steven was bending over backward; Cassandra could tell that with only half the information. He was obviously there to make sure that she was okay. He had always been a good friend and Cassandra reminded herself that she would pay him back when she worked for him. He had already mentioned it.
What she hadn’t expected was for Steven to be there personally when she went and found a time to meet with someone to look at it. Cassandra knew how busy Steven was, so would never have imagined that he would be there. When he was, she immediately felt like she needed to check her face and hair. She was riding in a cab though, so she basically just had to pay and get out. Cassandra was discombobulated, and it took her a moment to get herself to normal.
“Steven, what are you doing here?” Cassandra asked with a nervous lilt to her voice. She wasn’t trying to be rude, though it came out as such.
He asked her if she didn’t want him there, and Cassandra said that wasn’t the case at all. She was trying desperately not to seem as shocked as she was, but Cassandra couldn’t help it. Steven being there with her in the middle of the day when he had a million other things to do was a big deal, and she thanked him again for helping her out.
“I know you only did it for my brother, but I still want to thank you. I’ve been looking for days, and I haven’t found anything close to what I need.”
Steven disagreed with the sentiment about her brother and explained that there was just something about her that made him want to help. Cassandra didn’t know if it was true or not, but she thanked him regardless of his reason. To her it really didn’t matter. All she could do was be grateful. When he told her that he would do anything to help her, Cassandra took it as something that people said. If she would have really looked at Steven, she would have seen that for him, it was something more. He really meant it.
Cassandra was more than just a little impressed with the apartment. It was just what she was looking for. Two bedrooms with a third she could turn into her home office, two bathrooms giving her one of her own. It had lots of windows and natural light, a big kitchen to cook for her son. It was just what she was looking for, and she asked Steven again if he was her fairy godmother or something. He didn’t handle the comparison well, his face obviously unnerved, but Cassandra couldn’t be in a bad mood, not when the place was just perfect, and she would finally be able to tell her son and her parents that she had found an apartment that was just what they needed. Cassandra had started to doubt herself, even though it hadn’t been much more than a week since she’d been back. So much had changed in just a week though and now it felt like the last piece of the puzzle was found.
