Page 20 of Defending Casey

He shrugged and his smile barely flagged. “I’m just fine.”

Even though he said the words with conviction, Casey saw his jaw tighten a little.

“Okay, then.” She gestured at the fridge. “Would you like a drink? I’ve got soda and water and-”

“A beer is fine, Case.”

His use of her nickname felt a little odd too.

The only one who really ever used it was Hale. As much time as she’d spent with Brian, she couldn’t quite recall another time when he’d called her by it.

“Sure,” she summoned up what she hoped was an easy smile, “a beer.” Opening up the fridge, she pulled out a beer for Brian and a ginger ale for herself. Her stomach was beginning to rumble a bit. Squaring her shoulders, she turned back and saw that Brian had settled on the sofa. With a shrug to herself, she gave him the drink and sat down.

He didn’t take a sip straight away, instead he cupped the bottle in his hands and looked down at it. “What did you and Hale do today?”

The question seemed a little strange, but then again, her last two days had been more than a little crazy, so she rolled with it. Especially since Brian had been there earlier when they’d talked about car seats.

“Hale and I drove into Colorado Springs and got a car seat for his truck. He picked up a few accessories too. I told him he was a little crazy for getting this tablet thing that wraps around the back of the driver’s seat and plays videos. It was kind of like trying to rein in a horse on its way back to the barn; I was more concerned with him going overboard than anything else.”

Brian still hadn’t looked up at her.

It made for an awkward moment in the living room.

As she pulled herself together to continue talking to him, he spoke.

“Don’t you think it’s a little soon to be letting him drive her around?”

Casey replayed the words in her head again, struggling to understand what frustrated her more, his tone of voice or the way he questioned her decision.

“I’m not sure I understand,” she began, struggling to keep an even tone and still get her point across. “Are you saying there’s a reason why I shouldn’t let my daughter’s father drive her around?”

“No, no,” he put the lip of the bottle up to his lips, but it didn’t seem like he took much of a drink from it, “that’s not what I’m saying. Not really.”

“Not really?” Casey took a big gulp of the ginger ale and swallowed through the carbonated burn in her throat. “Brian, if you know something that might put my daughter in danger, you should tell me.”

The look in his eyes when he turned to look at her gave her another cause for concern. There was such an unexpected look of hope that she wondered what she was missing, yet again.

“Case…” He reached out his hand and set it on her knee. The weight of his palm resting over the rounded curve of her leg made her feel a little claustrophobic. “You know I’m just concerned about what this is going to mean for Nora.”

“She seems to be handling it just fine,” she explained to Brian. “In fact, of all of us, I think Nora’s the one who hasn’t really missed a beat. One day she only knew her father from pictures and other people’s memories and then the next day he’s suddenly here and she’s making plans for him to take her to school.” She couldn’t stop the almost silent laughter that shook her shoulders. “They talk about the amazing resilience of children, and I think we’re seeing it here.

“It’s almost like all of these fears that I’ve had about Hale coming back to town are quickly fading away into the background. I know we haven’t talked about what happened back in the day, but I know he’s just trying to come to terms with the changes that are happening in his life right now.”

“Case-”

“I know I can’t avoid the conversation with him, because he’s going to want to know what happened, Brian. He deserves to know what happened back then.”

“Really?” Brian took a gulp of his beer and set it down on the table in front of them.

Casey watched him take a deep fortifying breath before he turned to look at her.

“You talk about what he deserves and all I want to do is kick his ass. So what if he came back? Where has he been for almost ten years?”

She knew some of the answers to his questions, but she held them back. The anger in his voice made her hesitate.

“I want you to think about it.”

His hand on her leg tightened and Casey leaned away from him.

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