Wild Forces: A Friends to Lovers Romance (O-Town Book 2) by Karen Renee (summer reads .TXT) 📕

I followed suit. Then she curled into a ball on her bed. I scooped her up and put her in the middle of the bed.

“Nuh-unh, Cassie-Cass. You can’t be an island by yourself over here. But if you prefer spooning, that’s cool,” I said, as I wrapped her in my arms from behind.

Her body pressed into me as she took in a deep breath. I rubbed her arms with a hand, and she grabbed hold of that hand.

“You will never believe what my mother said to me at lunch,” she whispered.

I clenched my teeth to keep my temper in check. “I’m sure I won’t from what you’ve told me about ‘Mother,’” I said, doing my best Danzig impression.

It flopped in terms of lightening her mood. I squeezed her with the arm I still had wrapped around her.

“I had just told her I was picking up Mom’s ashes today, and she stated how surprised she was that I had gone so far in higher education since I couldn’t decide on my cat’s name when I was nine.”

Yeah, clenching my teeth wasn’t cutting it, and I failed at hiding my disgruntled sigh. She let go of my hand to stroke my forearm.

“Believe me, Gabe, that’s tame compared to other times. You remember I thought my sister’s marriage might be fake? Well, I don’t know why it never occurred to me, but I really have to wonder about my parents’ marriage. I mean, she’s so frosty and nearly bitchy to me. What—”

“No ‘nearly’ about that shit, Cassie.”

Her head moved, and I figured it was as close to a nod as she could manage on the bed. “But, still, what does my father see in her?”

I sighed. “You know, Dad always said what you see from a couple on the outside isn’t always what goes on on the inside.”

She turned around to face me. “How on earth would that come up without your mom in the picture?”

I shot a lackluster smile her way. “My Aunt Sandy wasn’t able to stay married, and I never understood it. That’s one of the ways it came up.”

“Oh,” she whispered. Then she stroked my beard. “I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “It’s okay. Everything worked out the way it should. But what I’m getting at is maybe your mother puts on a different front with your Dad.”

“I don’t know, Gabe.”

I nodded. “Well, that’s one of the many reasons I hate the saying, ‘what you see is what you get.’ It’s bullshit.”

Her eyes darted to the side. “Not always, Sullivan.”

I squeezed her. “I don’t buy it. Most everyone has something hidden. Everyone gets pushed to extremes and that’s when their darkness comes out.”

By the firm set to her lips I knew she didn’t want to say what was really on her mind.

I arched a brow. “Spit it out, Cassie.”

“Well, from what you just said, you should be more understanding of your mother. Why are you still so hard on her?”

Any other time, her words would’ve set me off. For some reason that wasn’t happening today. I stroked her face before guiding a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Do you know what it was like to watch Dad struggle? I know lots of people have it harder than we did, but he tried to give us female influences to soften us up some...or whatever a mother figure is supposed to provide to her sons.”

“Okay,” Cassie replied, sounding more like she was asking a question.

I felt like I had a lump burning in my chest because I had never admitted this to a woman. “For a long time, I only wanted her to come back. That’s all I ever wanted. Later, I blamed myself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe she’d have been around for Brock and Cary if I had never been born.”

Pain and concern chased across her face while she gasped. Being so foreign on her, the vision was nearly marvelous, but I hated her feeling those things on my behalf.

“You didn’t try to hurt yourself, did you?” she asked.

I smiled ruefully. “Not like you mean. Though, picking fights with bullies and guys three times my size is its own kind of self-harm, right?”

“I suppose,” she whispered.

The silence between us stretched. It had begun awkwardly, but as it grew, surprisingly, it became comfortable.

“So, did your dad suspect?”

“Ha,” I blurted. “Not really. Teenagers are prone to blow-ups and saying surly shit. I said it was always my fault she left and that’s when Dad put it all together.”

She nodded and watched her finger trace the edge of my tank top. “Your Dad sounds like a really good man.”

I smiled. “He is. Best man I know. You’re around the next time he does one of his fly-by visits, I’ll make sure you come with us.”

Her head came up. “What is a ‘fly-by visit?’ I thought he lived in Daytona.”

With my thumb, I traced her plump lower lip. “Yeah, but Marnie works in Maitland, so he’s closer most of the time. When he feels like it, he drops by and takes us to breakfast or whatever. Seems like you and Cecilia talk, so I’m surprised she never mentioned that to you.”

She shook her head. “Why would she?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess I find it funnier than she does. The night after Brock brought her to our place, Dad dropped by just before Cecilia could sneak out. It was pretty damn funny.”

“I’m sorry to be such a downer tonight, Gabe,” she whispered.

I rolled into her. “No more apologies, baby. You sure you don’t want to talk about your cat? Or anything else that’s buggin’ you?”

Her eyes flared for a moment. “I know I said I wasn’t going to be good company, but I’d rather we communicate in a different way.”

I smirked, because I could damn sure communicate with her in that way.

21Coffee People Got It All Wrong

Cassie

AFTER MAKING SLOW, sweet love to me twice, Gabe spent the night. He groaned when my alarm sounded, but he rolled out of bed with