Page 156 of Hot Shot

I’m pacing in the front yard with my phone in my hand when Wilder’s truck turns down the street, and when I see Cricket waving at me out the open back window, I burst into tears.

The truck barely stops before she throws the door open and flies out, squealing my name, her snaggletoothed grin the best, brightest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.

“Oh my God, you’re home!” I sob, holding her head to my shoulder, her legs clamped around my waist.

“I’m home!” She sits up, her face melting when she sees me crying. With her little hands, she cups my cheeks and wipes my tears away. “Don’t cry, Cassie.”

Of course this makes me cry harder. “I’m just so happy.”

“Daddy says him and Pops decided it’s for good.” She smiles with pride. “No more weekends at Nana’s. I can stay all the time now except when I want to. Daddy also said I can get a kitty, since I’ll be here to take care of it all the time.”

“No I didn’t,” he calls like he’s said it a dozen times already. Also like he’s already decided we will, in fact, be getting a cat.

I laugh, raising a brow at Wilder as he closes the truck door with her stuff in his hands.

We turn for the house and head inside. “Guess what else?” I ask.

She lays her head on my shoulder, absently toying with my hair. “What?”

“Avery told the truth.”

Cricket pops up straight, blinking at me from behind her glasses. “She did?”

I nod. “Her mom came over yesterday and we had a good talk. She said she was sorry, and Avery is too. And they told everybody the truth, so I got my job back.”

She squeals, bouncing on my hip, reminding me that she’s way too big for me to carry like Wilder does. “You did?!”

“I did!”

She screams this time, and Wilder and I flinch, but she’s so happy and we’re so happy and the world isso damn happythat I could not care less. She could blow out my eardrums and I’d thank her.

I set her down, and she bounces around like a maniac.

“What do you want to do now, bug?” Wilder asks.

She pauses, tapping her chin like a cartoon character. “Can we watch movies with popcorn?”

“Sure.”

“And I wanna put my stuff up and get my book because I left it, and I was atthe best part. So maybe can I read first?”

“You got it.” He reaches for her backpack. “Want some help?”

But she intercepts, snatching up her things. “I got it!” she calls, running for her room, and I watch her the whole way, beaming.

When Wilder slips his arms around my waist, I sink into him with a sigh.

“You did it.” My smile is content, a mirror of my heart. “You got her back.”

“He didn’t need much convincing—Cricket’s been so upset, he might have decided before I even got there.”

“What did you end up telling him?”

“That I hoped my actions were enough to prove my worth. Thank God he agreed. I honestly don’t know how I would have found it in me to leave her there again.”

“If she would have let you.”

“You should have heard her when Patty tried to get her to leave my lap so Paul and I could talk. She was like,No thank you, all polite.” He chuckles, and I feel it where my back is pressed to his front. “I hate to say this out loud—I don’t want to jinx it—but it feels like something has…I don’t know. Released us. Like the hardest part is done, and now we can just enjoy this. Each other. Our life. Do you feel that too?”

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