“So?”
“Did you give her your keys?”
“No.” He picked up a pillow and held it to his face.
“How did you tell her to leave?”
“I walked her outside. Why do you care? What’s with all the questions?”
“You locked her out of the damn apartment without a way to go anywhere or call anyone! She was in her damn pajamas and, if you didn’t notice, it’s fucking freezing outside!”
“Wait—if you knew all this, why are you even asking me?”
“Because I was hoping what she told me wasn’t true! She walked to my place and by the time she got there she was blue and completely frozen! She could have died, you son of a bitch!”
“Shit, I didn’t even think—oh God, is she okay?” He stood up and I punched him again before he could go anywhere. Adam came up behind me and kept a firm hand on my shoulder.
“You are a worthless piece of shit. Do not come near Cassidy again, you hear me? I don’t know why she’s clung to you her whole life; all you’ve ever done is let her get hurt. I didn’t understand how you could let her get hurt in the past, and I sure as hell don’t understand why you would treat her like this just because she wouldn’t have sex with you. You don’t deserve her, and I’ll kill you if you hurt her again.”
“Can you just tell me if Cassi’s okay?”
“She’s fine. And she’ll be fine as long as she’s with me.”
“Whoa, wait!” We all turned to see Cara standing there with a disgusted look on her still-flushed face. “You’re dating your sister?!”
“She’s not his sister, and he’s not dating her anymore. He’s all yours.” I jerked my head in the direction of my old room and Adam followed me in there. I grabbed Cassidy’s bag from her closet and shoved as much of her clothes as possible into it, grabbed her phone and charger, and headed to the bathroom before throwing everything in there in another bag Adam was holding. When we walked back through the living room, Cara was on her knees in front of Tyler with a towel wiping the blood off his face and chest.
“Gage—”
I cut him a hard look and he stopped talking. “I’m serious. Stay. Away. From Cassidy.”
When we got back to my place, Dana jumped up and put her finger over her mouth before whispering, “She finished a second cup of coffee and just fell asleep like three minutes ago.”
“Did you put sugar in it?” The coffee was decaf; I wasn’t trying to make her stay up the entire night, but I wanted her to drink something hot and wanted the sugar in her system.
She nodded. “And milk.”
“Thanks, Dana, I appreciate it, and I’m sorry for interrupting your time together.”
“Don’t even worry about it. She’s one of my closest friends and takes care of you boys all the time. I owe her for keeping my guy fed.”
I grunted in agreement and couldn’t help but smile when I walked around to the front of the couch. She looked adorable. There was no other word for it. She was drowning in my sweatshirt; the hood was up over her head and her wavy hair spilled out the sides. Her cheeks were pink from the heat of the fire and she was still fully wrapped up in the comforter.
After a quick good-bye to Adam and Dana, I took both of her bags into the spare room before going back out to the living room and picking up the girl I love. When she was all settled in the guest bed, I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt off her head and brushed the hair from her face. God, she’s beautiful. And she’s here. She’d run to me. For the first time ever, she’d gone to someone other than Tyler. Granted, all this was his fault, but she’d gone somewhere else, and it’d been to me.
“I love you, Cassidy,” I whispered, and pressed my lips to her forehead before reluctantly leaving her to go back to my own room.
CASSIDY
THE SMELL OF coffee woke me the next morning and I was briefly disoriented when I didn’t recognize the room I was in. When I started to get out of bed and fell back with a groan, the night before came rushing back to me and I wanted to die when I realized how Gage had taken care of me. And Tyler—what the hell? How could he do that to me? I’d never once kept my feelings for Gage a secret, and he knew I needed time to get used to us as a couple. I thought I’d progressed significantly, but apparently not enough. I couldn’t believe he’d just bring someone home like that though. It wasn’t like my Tyler at all, and I was surprised by how much it hurt. It wasn’t anything like when Gage broke my heart, but it still felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. Or maybe that was just a side effect to whatever was going on with the rest of my body. I tried to sit up again but didn’t make it far before my head hit the pillow.
There was a soft knock on the door and Gage poked his head in. “Mornin’, how are you feeling?”
“Like a truck ran over me.”
“What were you thinking, Cass?” His eyes narrowed as he sat on the end of the bed.
“Wait . . . you’re—are you mad at me?”
“Mad? Darlin’, I’m furious. You could have died! Does no one understand that? Because apparently Tyler didn’t get the memo either.”
My breath stuck in my throat. “You spoke to Tyler? When?”
“When I left you with Dana last night, I went to go talk to him.” His green eyes flashed and he looked away quickly before settling his narrowed gaze back on me.
“I don’t remember a lot of last night. Just coming here, and parts of the shower.”
His eyes softened for a second. “Cass—just tell me why you didn’t try to get someone to help you. Or ask someone to use their phone.”
“I don’t know anyone’s number; it’s all just saved in my phone. And it was really late, I didn’t think it’d be safe to hitchhike over here.”
“And walking over here in sleet wearing your pajamas is safe?”
“Seemed like it at the time,” I mumbled lamely as I finally managed to get off the bed and tried to ignore the way my entire body felt like it was two seconds from collapsing and never getting back up. “Sorry I bothered you, Gage. Thanks for taking care of me. I’ll see you later.”
“What? Where are you going?”
My eyes widened in surprise from the anger in his tone. “I’ll go to Jackie’s until I can get my own place.” I stopped walking and stood there still as stone when Gage’s sweatpants fell off me and straight to the floor. Let’s just add on one more thing to be humiliated about when it came to Gage. At least his sweatshirt was big enough that it still covered everything important. I flushed when I realized he’d already seen everything last night. “Can I please use your phone so I can call her? Or Ethan,” I asked through clenched teeth.
“Cassidy, why are you leaving?”
“Because I shouldn’t have come here in the first place! Obviously it was a bad idea.”
“I don’t want you to leave.” His voice softened drastically and he reached out to grab my hand to pull me back to the bed, coughing out a laugh when I tripped out of his sweatpants. “Sorry, that’s the warmest clothing I had for you last night.”
I just nodded and turned my head so he wouldn’t see my blush.
“Hey.” He put his fingers under my chin and turned my head so I was looking into his dark green eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you; you just scared the crap out of me last night. I was seconds from calling an ambulance. I probably should have but I was too focused on warming you up.”
That just made my blush get about ten times worse. Oh my God, I can’t believe I was in a shower with Gage. Not that I was able to enjoy one second of it or even realize at the time what was really happening. “Gage,” I began after a few silent moments, “was she still there when you got there last night?” I almost told him not to answer that, but then his face morphed into one of pity and I no longer needed him to. “I’m kind of tired,” I said, quickly changing the subject, “is it okay if I go back to sleep for a bit before I call Jackie?”
“You can go back to sleep; you need to rest as much as possible after last night. But I want you to stay here, Cass. Adam and I brought most of your stuff over last night. You don’t have to, but you’re more than welcome to live here. As long as you want.”
Live with Gage again? But he hated having me with him last time. “I appreciate what you’re doing, Gage, but you don’t owe me anything. And I don’t want you to give me a place to stay because you feel sorry for me.”
“That’s not it at all. I want you here—honestly I’d rather have you here than anyone.”
I doubted that. But the idea of being this close to Gage again had my stomach fluttering. I realized I still hadn’t said anything when he stood up and walked over to me.
“Just think about it.” His raspy voice got even deeper. “But go back to sleep now, darlin’. I’m gonna go for my run. I’ll check on you when I get back.” His hand brushed across my forehead once I was under the comforter and he frowned. “Are you hot?”
“No, actually I’m still kind of cold. Can you throw me your sweats?”
Gage cursed under his breath and headed out the door, tossing me his sweats on his way out. Before I could try to pull them back on he’d returned with the comforter from his bed. “Here you go.” He brushed his hand across my forehead again and down my left cheek. “I’ll be back soon, okay?”
“Have fun,” I mumbled as I curled into a tight ball. I didn’t even have the strength to try to put the sweats back on.
GAGE
I HADN’T EVEN gotten down the driveway when I ran back inside and grabbed my keys. I couldn’t run. Not right now when I was worrying about her so much. As soon as I was in the truck, I called my mom. Yeah . . . I know. I was that desperate.