Page 7 of Defending Casey

Chapter 2

Casey was exhaustedwhen she fell into her bed that night. Torn in so many directions at once she finally understood the old punishment of being drawn and quartered. Only her torment didn’t end. She still felt like she was being torn in pieces, and the pain kept coming.

Her father hadn’t said much. Not in front of Nora, but the fact that he’d taken so many things on his shoulders that night, she knew he was upset. He wasn’t a man who liked to talk through his anger. He preferred to mull things over and then talk when he’d figured out how he felt.

So he’d helped Nora with her homework, and he’d made sure she bathed after dinner. He’d even read Nora a story, or three, seeing how long he’d spent in her room.

Nora had given her so many looks throughout the evening.

Casey could tell her daughter was dying to ask questions, but she was ridiculously happy that Nora hadn’t asked a single one.

Honestly, Casey had no idea what she could say without opening a really painful can of worms.

She shuddered at the thought.

Worms.

Hale didn’t mind them. He and her father had gone out fishing numerous times and enjoyed each other’s company. Or rather they had.

It was Nora’s job to go out with her grandfather to the lake and fish now. Something Nora could have had with her father too.

Hale.

Seeing him again had been a shock in more ways than one.

Relief that he was alive.

Frustration that he’d picked now to come into the store even though he’d been in town for about a month. A month! And he was just getting around to coming to see her.

It had taken her a few moments to recognize him.

At first, she’d been concerned that someone was sick in the store. That her daughter was involved had added more than a bit of terror to the thought.

Then she saw him.

It wasn’t his body that she recognized.

How could she?

Gone was the young man with his slim, muscular build and in his place was a man built of muscle. Muscle like the models from the calendar that Sparrow had given her a few birthdays ago. And those men were built.

Thinking about it now, she noticed so many things about Hale that had changed in the last nine… almost ten years.

His eyes were still the same dark brown, almost black when his emotions were high, and yet, they seemed deeper set than they were before. Maybe it was the way his face had filled out with deeper shadows and sharper lines.

And his once clean-shaven face had become rugged with the addition of a close-cropped beard.

Casey caught herself reaching up to touch her cheek, wondering what it would feel like against her skin.

The tentative brush of skin against skin triggered more feelings, more reactions.

Her nipples tightened and an ache formed between her legs.

Hale.

It never failed.

Thoughts of him brought up a whole pantheon of differing emotions, but her body always reacted the same way.

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