Page 27 of Defending Casey

In all the missions that he’d undertaken, the odds that he’d survived, and the years of danger that he’d faced, he’d never had a moment filled with more pride than when his daughter took his hand and walked with him to his truck so that he could take her to school.

Such a simple joy changed the world for him.

He couldn’t wait to see how the school had changed from his youth. It wasn’t something he’d ever thought about before, but now that he had a child, things seemed to be more nostalgic for him.

Casey leaned into his side and gave him a hug.

Hale wanted to reach out and pull her into his embrace, but he didn’t want to push things. They still had so much to work out, but every moment like this… every moment as a family, gave him hope that there was something more ahead together compared to the years they’d lost apart.

* * *

As they waitedon Ridgeline Road to turn into the school parking lot, Casey looked into the rearview mirror and saw her daughter… their daughter… bouncing up and down in her seat. Nora’s hand kept straying to her hair, giving it gentle pats as if she was worried the flowers had disappeared between the house and school.

“You know,” Hale leaned forward and looked both ways down the opposite side of the road before he crossed over the lane and into the parking lot, “it feels different.”

Casey waved at the crossing guard standing at the curb. “What does?”

He chuckled softly. “Driving into the school. Back when I was a student here, my mom dropped me off.”

“Yeah,” she felt a twinge of grief at the thought of her own mother, “mine too.”

Hale looked at her and nodded. They shared that moment together before he looked back out through the windshield.

Instead of waiting in the line for the drop off at the front curb, Hale pulled into the parking lot at the side of the main building and pulled into the first spot they came across and got out. Casey watched him as he walked around the back of the truck and over to their side of the car.

She expected him to go straight to Nora and lift her down, but he opened the passenger door first and reached out his hand toward her.

Casey would have to be blind not to see her daughter’s giddy excitement at the sweet gesture. Since Hale had come back and met Nora, their daughter had constantly talked about the future. ‘When you marry daddy…’ ‘When you and daddy have another baby…’ It just kept coming and while she always cautioned Nora not to put the cart before the horse, Nora would blithely remind her that, “Carts don’t need horses anymore, they run all by themselves.”

He didn’t stop holding her hand when she was safely on solid ground beside him, and Nora was only too happy to jump from the backseat into her father’s one-armed hug.

As they made their way to the sidewalk outside of the main school building, Casey had to admit that it was different to her too. Seeing how Nora beamed up at Hale as she skipped along beside him.

She knew that while Nora didn’t have to worry about the horses or the cart, as a mother, that was Casey’s job. Yes, having Hale in their lives was shockingly easy. Since he’d walked into the feed store, she’d had the curious sensation of almost floating off of the ground.

Casey knew that they’d have to make the time soon to sit down and really talk, but if she was being really honest with herself, this was nice.

Just ‘being’ a family was nice.

And really, who could blame her for not wanting to upset the apple cart when things were happy. It was almost the dream that they’d had years and years ago. But she could never quite ignore the fact that dreams sometimes came crashing down around one’s shoulders.

They reached the curb, and two little girls ran up to Nora, descending on her like a tidal wave.

She felt Hale tense up beside her, but she knew the girls were fine, so she squeezed his hand gently and he relaxed.

The trio started talking all at once and she could tell by the tightening frown on Hale’s forehead that he was feeling a little lost. While Casey couldn’t understand half of what they were saying, she knew it must seem like gibberish to Hale. He wasn’t used to listening in fast forward like she was.

Nora started to walk away with the girls, moving like a twister across flat land, but she stopped a few feet away and turned back around. She barreled at Hale, and he managed to get down into a crouch before she reached him. A smacking kiss was pressed against his cheek before Nora skipped away to rejoin her friends. “Bye, Daddy! See you after school!”

They stayed there at the corner, holding hands, watching as Nora and her friends greeted people they passed by.

When Hale leaned in closer, she felt a shiver roll up her spine.

“She’s social.”

Casey laughed at the wonder in his voice. “So were you.”

“No,” he shook his head, “not like that. I only talked because I thought people expected it. And I think most of the kids around were there because I was good at sports. It never made sense to me.”

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