Chapter 85
Chapter 85
Cassidy
ONE WEEK LATER, I arrived home to find my apartment ofles, or goed and let with Somers Tare now units. meals to feed the three of us for over a month, and my parents were texting in men for moter
I would have limited mobility for several more weeks, but didn’t worry me because, not only did
aware
to work again, the company was covering all of my medical bills and Muck warfing & stonear which would all up for life. Admittedly, it was a really shitty way to get set up for life, but I won dive and I wn pracht
We’d managed to fill Maverick in on as much as we could without completely freaking him out Bar he w
he didn’t like to see me in pain, so he hovered a lot. I was tad it was summer so that he could hang our home aud watch me heal. He wouldn’t have done well if he’d had to go to check wry day and function
Something I hadn’t been prepared for were the nightmares. I would relive the incident over and over gan severd times s night, and I hadn’t slept well in quite a while.
A few days after I arrived home, I was planted in the recliner my dad had bought ince it was too pantul to each out ta and Carter walked in from walking the dog, Maverick was on the sofa std we were watching a moose Hi honey?” I cait
“Hey,” Carter leaned over to kiss me. “Do you need anything?”
I shook my head with a smile. “Mav’s got it covered.”
The pain was beginning to get worse, but I wanted to try to wean myself off the narcoties, so I tried to wait longer each time
Carter sat next to him. “Thanks, buddy”
“No problem.”
“You okay?” I asked.
Carter nodded. “Yeah. Just got a weird phone call”
“Weird good or weird bad?”
“Good,” he said.
“Club business?”
Carter shook his head. “The house next door to Hawk’s is for sale.
I widened my eyes. “The cute little blue one with the basement?”
“That’s the one.”
“And?”
“Wondered if you wanted to buy it,” Carter said.
1 gasped. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, babe.”
“But what about your house?”
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Chapter 85
“Aidan can rent it from me. Or buy it if he wants it. He’s open.”
I blinked back tears. “You’d do that for us?”
5 vouchers
“Babe,” he said with a sigh. “I’m not sacrificin‘ anything. I like it up here and May’s already in school right down the street. We’d be close to a brother, and you’d be close to Payton. It’s an ideal situation.”
I grinned. “Hunt and gather, man of mine. I want that house.”
He laughed and nodded. “I’m lookin‘ at it tomorrow. If I like what I see, then you can check it out and we’ll make it happen.”
“Can I come with you, Dad?” Maverick asked.
I laid my hand over my chest. It was the first time Maverick had called Carter ‘dad, and it was precious.
“If your grandma can come hang out with Mom, then yeah, of course you can. Maybe Grandpa can come too,” Carter said.
“Awesome!” Maverick sat up on his knees. “Does that mean I get to live next to Lily?”
“If we buy the house, yep, that’s what it means.”
“Cool,” he said. “Now that Dad’s home, can I please play on my DS?”
“Yeah, honey. Thirty minutes,” I said.
“Okay.” Maverick scrambled from the sofa and headed to his room.
Carter checked his watch and rose to his feet. “You’re due for meds, babe.”
“Oh, good,” I said, the pain getting stronger with each minute. “I hope this doesn’t go on forever. I feel really great for a while and then it just hits.”
“I know, baby,” Carter said, and grabbed my pills.
I took them and smiled up at him. “I’m okay, honey.”
“I know that here-” he tapped his temple, “but here-” he laid his hand over his heart, “I don’t like it.”
“I get it.”
He leaned over me, bracing his hands on each arm of my chair. “If you really got it, Cassidy, you’d quit waiting longer for relief.”
I sighed. “I was hoping you hadn’t noticed that.”
“I notice everything when it comes to you.”
“I’m picking up on that,” I admitted. “I just don’t want to get addicted.”
“Cassidy, you were shot less than ten days ago. You got a whole lotta time before you run the risk of getting addicted. Take the damn pills.”
I reached up and stroked his cheek. “Okay, honey. I’ll take the pills.”
“Thank you.” He leaned in and kissed me quickly, then rose to his full height. “Can you eat somethin‘?”
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:11 pm P MM
Chapter 85
“I could try. Something small, though.”
He smiled. “Okay, babe. I’ll find you something.”
Carter fixed dinner and the three of us ate together in front of a movie.
5 vouchers
Six weeks later, despite the fact I wasn’t allowed to lift a finger, the three of us moved into our new house next to Hawk and Payton. It was perfect. The top floor was a ranch style with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, an office, huge kitchen and great room, and a basement with another two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchenette and a bonus room that Carter wanted to convert into a media room.
I could never have imagined living somewhere so nice, not on my salary and living as a single mother, but as I watched (from my place on the recliner in the great room) the club and my family carrying in boxes and furniture while I sipped water and directed the flow, I realized the dreams I had so long ago were happening right in front of me. They might have. taken a little longer than I expected, but they were no less sweet.
We’d been married now for two weeks. Our ceremony took place at the courthouse as Carter had suggested at the beginning (with Torbig in attendance, but not presiding over the event). However, Carter made up for the low–key event by making the club organize a major party. We’d have to postpone our honeymoon due to my health issues, but I was happy to bask in the glow of him for the moment, the honeymoon could wait a few months. Within all of the drama, Maverick celebrated his birthday, and he was happy that we’d rented out Chuck–E–Cheese for the day and filled it with club kids and friends from school. He loved being the center of attention.
Carter had made the difficult decision to cut ties once and for all with his mother. He left the door open, but there were specific stipulations to her being let “back in.” And the biggest one was that she had to accept me completely, which right now, she wasn’t ready to do. I would have tried, but Carter said that I shouldn’t have to. She was the one with the problem, so she had to be the one to fix it. Again, he was protecting me, and again, I let him, because the alternative wasn’t particularly pleasant. I didn’t want to be at family gatherings and feel as though I wasn’t welcome.
A surprising friendship with Josh’s wife, Melanie, had come out of Carter’s ultimatum to his mother, and I found Mel to be warm and giving, and extremely funny. But she’d been the first to deal with Sheila’s passive aggressive nastiness, and had borne the brunt of all of it. Melanie had confided in me that she hoped Josh would stand up to Sheila one day, but until then, she would live vicariously through me.
As I sat in my recliner and guided traffic, I decided supervising was fun, especially while relaxing and being fussed over by my man in between him utilizing his gorgeous muscles to move heavy stuff. Yum.
I knew that it would take some time to come to terms with not having Carter’s children, but he was right, life apart was torture, but together we could face anything. So, I settled in and took my man’s advice, to not worry so much. I had been blessed beyond measure and it was more than enough.
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AD
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