Page 68 of Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Charlie grasped her hands, holding tight. “She said that loving Dad was easy. It was the anticipation of him being gone that hurt the most. The thought of him going on tour, dy-dying.” Her friend’s eyes filled with tears. “But she also said she wouldn’t change anything. She told me every second she spent with my father filled her heart with enough love to last ten lifetimes. You just have to ask yourself if loving my brother, loving Delta, is worth someday losing him. No matter how it happens.”

Was the risk worth the reward? If the reward was Delta, then there was only one answer.

Yes, yes, a million times yes!

The past few weeks had been the happiest in her life. Even now, with her heart broken and bleeding, she could still think of the happy times with Del and smile. He lifted her up, brought a smile to her face with just a thought, and warmed her heart even in the darkest of times.

Yes, the risk of losing it all was worth it. Worth him. Now she just had to figure out how to grovel her way back into his good graces.

“I don’t know if he’ll forgive me.” The words were uttered to herself, but her friend must have heard because Charlie chuckled.

“I’ve done stupider things, and he’s forgiven me.”

“Yeah, but he loves you.”

Her friend stared at her, a serious expression marring her features. “From what I can see, he loves you, too.”

She hoped so. He’d alluded to it last night. Almost said it before she stopped him. But she had stopped him. What if he’d changed his mind? Decided she wasn’t worth the drama? She had to try, right? They couldn’t really be over as he’d said. She had to put her heart out there. Even if he broke it into a thousand pieces, she had to try.

“How is everything going?”

Cassie glanced up to see Lauren, a hesitant look on her face as she took in the two weepy women on the couch. Inhaling a deep, cleansing breath, Cassie smiled. A genuine, hopeful smile. “I think I’ve found the perfect dress. For the perfect guy.”

“Damn right, he is.” Charlie laughed. “And you two are going to be so happy it’s going to make me puke.”

Cassie hugged her best friend, hoping Charlie was right, because nothing in this world—no job, no family, no house—could ever make her as happy as Delta Jackson.

CHAPTER 23

Two days after the incident he liked to call major fuckupery, Del strode his way into Jack’s. He still had a good mad going from his fight with Cassie. Fight? More like annihilation. The woman steamrolled over his damn heart, and she didn’t even care.

No. That wasn’t true.

She cared. He saw it in her eyes. He’d also seen the fear, the doubt.

Damn. It burned his ass to see such raw emotions on her beautiful face. If her parents weren’t dead, he’d call them up and give them a piece of his mind for what they did to their daughter. They had loved her, he’d bet that, but they never showed her love, never made her first in their lives. They could have taken a few days off from saving the world to show their only child she was important to them.

And then they had died. Not their fault. Death took everyone eventually. He knew that, but he also knew that her parents’ deaths had caused Cassie to wall off her heart. To operate under the misguided assumption that things, not people, were what was important in life. To protect herself from a loss like that again. She was afraid of what she felt for him, afraid to love him. And he knew she did…he hoped she did.

“Shit!”

He was an idiot. A delusional fool who’d created their entire relationship in his head. The intimacy changed things for him. He thought it had changed things for her too, but…

Didn’t matter. He loved her, and whether or not she loved him was irrelevant. Until she got over her fears, they could never be together.

Damn, it was going to suck being married to her. How was he going to get through months, possibly years, pretending to be a happily married man when the woman he loved refused to love him back?

Fake it ’til you make it?

The rising lump in his gut warned they might never make it, and a nightmare formed in his head. Days and nights with Cassie, sharing meals, a home, a bed, but never being able to touch her like he wanted. Never being able to share with her again or tell her he loved her. She wouldn’t welcome any of it, he knew. Not until she faced her fears and realized he would always put her first.

He would always love her.

Thumping his fist against his chest, he choked back the stupid tears forming in the corner of his eyes. This wasn’t the time for senseless emotional outbursts. He had a meeting with his brothers, and they would jump up his ass if he went in blubbering like a baby.

The Jackson family wasn’t known for displays of emotions. Their father had been a good man, but hard. Tears had never gotten any of them anywhere with the old man. Not even Charlie had ever shaken Lawrence Jackson with her weepy baby blues.

Pushing open the heavy back door, Del made his way through the gleaming silver tanks full of Jackson Family Distillery’s finest. A quick glance around revealed no one was there, so he headed through the swinging door to the tasting room. Ace stood behind the bar, taking inventory, Del’s job, but his annoying older brother liked to double-check everything. Anal asshole.

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