Page 34 of Free to Dream
“Sure,” I reply cautiously.
I hear her open a door and the sounds of the outdoors at night come through the line. “I apologize, but trying to have any sort of a conversation with my family listening is a challenge on a regular basis. Also, if I had to listen to Phil bitch and moan about having to pick up any more garbage, I was going to lose it.” Her beautiful laugh mixes with the sounds of night.
I’d give just about anything to be there in person, watching her mass of glorious hair curl down her back, as well as the seductive curve of her lips as the sound trickles from them.
I don’t care that the words she just spoke make absolutely no sense to me at this moment. I want to do everything I can to make her laugh like that again. “Tell me what I have to do to make Phil pick up garbage every day and I’ll do it.”
She laughs harder. “Stop, I can’t breathe.” I start laughing too.
Eventually, our mutual hilarity dies down and we’re left with silence. Yet, it doesn’t feel awkward. I’m grinning so hard. Talking to Cassidy is better than watching an episode of Shameless.
I flip around and come face to face with Keene. Crap. His eyebrow is raised as he pantomimes asking who I’m talking to. I flip him off and walk away, but he follows me. Fucker.
“I just wanted to make sure we were still on for tomorrow,” I murmur quietly into the phone.
I hear her breathe. Shit. Is she backing out. “We are,” she admits.
I breathe.
“But.”
Fuck. This could go either way. “But…” I parrot.
“I need you to pick me up at the farm instead of at my place. And you need to know, it’s going to be chaos here.”
“Oh?” I ask, intrigued. “More so than usual?”
“Why, Mr. Lockwood, I do believe you are a bit of a smart-ass yourself.”
“Just getting that memo?”
A muffled snicker comes through the line. “No, it came with the memo that announced you were autocratic and getting married.”
“Not going to let me forget that one?”
“Probably not for a while, Caleb. Besides,” she adds with definite humor, “we’ll be out with your future husbands for our first date.”
Caleb. The sound of my name on her lips fires a spark at the base of my spine. I snap to stand straight when I realize what she’d said. Damn, I hate not being right there. “You said first, Cassidy,” I growl softly back at her.
“Pardon me?” she responds, confusion in her voice.
“You said first date, as in more than one. I’m holding you to that, you know.”
She goes silent. Shit. I know I’m pushing too fast. I wait for her reaction. What does she do when she’s backed into a corner? Does she walk away? None of this was in her file. It’s seductive, finding out her true secrets.
“Let’s get through Friday night, champ. Just because I said yes, doesn’t guarantee a fuck. I mean dick. I mean shit.” By this point, I’m laughing so hard, I’m bent over at the knees. Her cold voice would probably freeze my testicles if she was staring at me with those eyes. “It doesn’t guarantee you shit, Lockwood. Especially if you don’t give me a clue on what to wear.”
“Have you never been to Molly Darcy’s, Cassidy?”
“I can’t say I have.”
“For an Irish bar, it’s a nice one. Not super fancy. Something along the lines of what you were wearing Monday is more than fine.”
“See how easy that was, Lockwood? Why couldn’t you just say that last night?”
“Because then what excuse would I have had to call you?” I hear the announcement of my flight boarding. Finally. “Cassidy, I have to go. They’re boarding my flight.”
“I didn’t realize you were traveling. This seriously could have waited until you had a chance to call tomorrow.”
