Page 341 of Branded
We drove him to school, walked him in, and left him at the gate, exchanging hugs, and waving goodbye.
Then I got to take my woman to breakfast.
And I got to give her pancakes that made her moan.
And then I got to take her back to her place and make her moan for a whole different reason.
Thirty-Two
Jules
I’d barely accepted Cas’s place in my life.
And now he was gone.
And now I was missing him.
It was freaking awful.
Two days without him—unless I counted catching glimpses of him on the TV screen at CeCe’s and random text messages and a few video calls (which, for the record, I did not)—and I hated that he wasn’t there.
But if I was going to do this with him, then I had to get used to it.
Because his job took him away from Baltimore regularly for half the year.
But I couldn’t deny that he was making an effort.
Not just with the calls and texts, but he’d sent me dinner at CeCe’s the night before. That morning, as I’d walked Ethan out to the car to take him to school, I’d almost stumbled over a vase of flowers.
Pretty, gorgeous flowers.
I’d never gotten flowers before.
And the clinking all around my heart as the remnants of my armor dropped away was cacophonous.
I was out there, fully exposed, and…not terrified.
Maybe I’d regret that in the months and years to come, but I wanted Cas—in my life, in Ethan’s life.
Forever.
Which was a scary fucking thought.
But I’d tabled all the fear to be dealt with later.
Right now, I was enjoying pancake dates and flowers and sweet text messages and video calls that took a sexy turn right at the end.
A scream pierced the air, and I jumped, nearly impaling myself on the stack of freshly sharpened pencils I’d just finished running through the sharpener.
Right.
Right then I was volunteering at school and needed to focus on the fact that I was handling sharp objects around small children.
“Julie.”
And on avoiding Mr. Philips, who I’d misjudged, considering what he told me weeks ago and the subsequent conversations—yes, conversations—I’d had with Ethan, none of which I was sure that had really taken.
But he was still too familiar—only now I had to wonder if it was because I wasn’t used to men being nice to me, especially those in positions of authority.
