Page 4 of Defending Casey

“Oh, man! Mom! Mom!! You gotta help!”

The back door swung open, and he heard the soft footfalls on the wooden floor. “Nora? Baby, what-”

“This guy’s gonna get sick.”

There she was.

Standing right there in front of him.

And damn, she looked beautiful. Even more beautiful than when she’d been in high school.

“Oh my God, Hale!”

“Hale?” Nora’s startled voice reached his ears. “Hale, like my daddy?”

Daddy.

Shit.

He staggered back, his legs unable to hold him up anymore.

Casey reached for him, but only managed to get a hand on him when he fell down on his ass in the middle of the store, leaning back on a stack of chicken feed as he stared into Casey’s eyes.

“When?”

Casey recoiled from him, putting some space between them which was probably the only reason why he didn’t pass out from lack of oxygen. She’d always stolen his breath away.

He was about to lose his mind. “Why?” He spoke into the silence of the room. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The look on her face went from shock and concern to the hard edge of anger. “You should ask your father, Hale. He’s known all about it.”

* * *

Casey feltthe shock swell and ebb just like the grief always did, but this ended faster. Seeing Hale there in their family’s shop, face to face with Nora had taken her insides and twisted them around and turned the world upside down.

“Mom?”

Casey felt Nora take hold of her hand like she’d done thousands of times before. Only Nora’s hand rarely shook, unless there was a storm in the air. Sonora Foster wasn’t scared of much.

Just like her father.

Casey on the other hand had been scared for years.

Squeezing Nora’s hand, Casey turned, putting her back to Hale so she could look into her daughter’s face. Hopefully blocking her view of Hale for a moment.

“Yeah, baby? You okay?”

Nora’s eyes, so much like her own it shook her sometimes, fixed on her face. “Is that man my daddy?”

Right to the heart of it.

Smiling, Casey nodded. “Yeah. He’s your dad.”

“But,” Nora leaned to the side to look at Hale and then rested back on both feet, “why-”

The back door banged open, and Casey tensed. What more could go wrong?

“Case? You in here?” Her father. “Whose truck is out front? That’s the new F-150! Can’t imagine who-”

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