AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ok. No problem. Thanks so much for coming.”
“Thank you for everything.” She walked up to me, leaned in, and gripping me around the waist, she kissed me.
I kissed her back, keeping a rein on my desire for her, since I didn’t want to scare her away. But it thrummed underneath my skin all the same. When she pulled away, I put my hand on her shoulder, my thumb brushing against the skin at her neck.
“Can I see you again?”
“Of course! You’ll see me at work on Monday, too.” She winked at me, but I could tell she was hiding behind a façade.
“All right.” She left then, turning to smile at me before she left the room, and when the door shut, I sank against the counter.
“Daddy?” Camilla asked, coming out into the living room.
Shit.
I forgot about Camilla needing to say goodbye.
“Is Cassie ok? Where did she go?” Camilla came to me, wrapping her arms about my legs, looking up at me with wide eyes.
“Sorry, honey, she wasn’t feeling very well. Maybe too much ice cream. She wanted to say goodbye, but she had to rush out, worried she’d make you sick too, in case it’s contagious.” My lie was pretty good; I had to admit.
But it still made me nauseous, thinking about it.
“Oh, that’s ok. We’ll see her another time, right? Maybe I can make her a card wishing her to feel better.”
I hoisted Camilla up into my arms. “That would be a really nice idea, Camilla. She’d like that.”
Cassie had said we’d see each other again, but only at work, and I worried that I’d just introduced my child to someone who was going to skip out on this. I thought there was something more, and I’d followed my attraction to Cassie and the mind-blowing sex to maybe making it more than it was. To asking her to join us for the day and loving every second of it, wondering if it could be my real life.
“Hey, should we watch a movie?” I asked, needing anything for a distraction.
“Lion King!” she cried, jumping down from my arms to go to the TV.
“Lion King it is,” I said, coming to help her with the remote.
CHAPTER17
BRAD
The next day,I woke up feeling like shit. I didn’t drink the night before, but I’d slept terribly, my mind completely on Cassie. As I sat on the edge of the bed, I put my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. This was why I didn’t get attached. This was why I kept myself away from all that. It only brought me trouble.
But Cassie is different, and you know it.
I worked out in the home gym while Camilla played, and after I showered, she and I decided to take a walk to get some brunch. It was a sunny day, even though November added a little chill to the air.
As we held hands, walking down the sidewalk, Camilla said, “Daddy, why doesn’t it get as cold here as it does in the north of the US?”
I looked down at her with a big smile. “How’d you know how cold it gets up there?”
“Because we learned it at school, and I looked it up too. I wanted to know. I saw pictures of kids with really big coats, playing in the snow. Maybe I can play in the snow someday?”
“Yeah, of course. If you want to. We could go to a cabin up in the woods, if you want.”
“That would be so cool, Daddy! But why doesn’t it get so cold here? Why doesn’t New Orleans have snow?” She frowned, and I chuckled at her odd wish.
“You know, there’s a lot of people who don’t like snow. Who think it’s way too cold. But it doesn’t get snow here because we are closer to the equator. You probably learned about that in school, right?”
“Yeah. The equator. Like a big line around the earth.”
