Page 41 of Free to Dream
Caleb leans forward and lightly brushes his lips against mine, the barest of touches, his eyes locked on mine. Shivers course through my body which I know he can feel.
Holy crap. Did that just happen? My first, first date kiss? On a staircase at Rosy Tomorrow’s?
I don’t know whether to be thrilled it happened or annoyed it wasn’t somewhere more memorable. I stand there blinking at Caleb at a loss for words.
“Keep walking, Pixie,” he says gruffly. Unable to do anything more, I resume climbing the stairs.
Brett Eldredge is crooning about being drunk on someone’s love when we reach the table. Ryan and Jared both stand. After the man-hug and back slapping that goes on between Caleb and both men, Ryan leans down and kisses my cheek.
“What on Earth made you accept a date with my brother, Cassidy?” He’s smiling, but his expression is one of pure curiosity.
“I’m still not entirely sure, Ryan. I’ll let you know at the end of the night. How about that?” I offer with a sideways look at Caleb. Caleb just shakes his head at me.
Maybe that’s how I get through this date thing, keep thinking of it as a joke.
Except the smile Caleb gives me as he passes the menu has butterflies kicking up in my stomach again. Our date is no joke to him.
“It can’t be because of his looks,” Ryan laments.
Caleb turns to his brother and merely raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, if you keep saying shit like that to Cassidy, I get to say crap to Jared since we’re practically twins, brother.”
“Or his well-educated word choice,” Ryan continues without missing a beat. “You would never know he went to Harvard, would you, Cassidy?”
“Really? Harvard? At least now I have a possible nickname for you,” I say, giving Caleb a look.
He sits back in his chair, crosses his arms over his broad chest and laughs. “Call me that in public and I’ll pull out your nickname. You seem to have more of an issue with yours than I would with mine.”
Dammit, he’s right. Now I openly glare at him until I hear Ryan and Jared laugh.
Jared controls himself enough to ask, “How did you get her to say yes again, Caleb?”
“Weak moment,” I mutter, causing all three men chuckle.
I look at Caleb who’s smiling broadly, and I feel the tension in my body release. I start to smile and get lost in Caleb’s eyes. The two of us could be alone at the table. All I see is the intensity of his gaze focused on me.
Without breaking eye contact, I answer Ryan. “Actually, it might have been the way he apologized so nicely for hitting on me before his future husbands arrived at our meeting the other day.”
Caleb groans loudly as I pat him on the cheek. Everyone bursts into laughter and I pull my burning hand away.
Wow. Holy sweet baby Jesus. Sixteen-year-old girls get through this? What are their mother’s feeding them?
13
Cassidy
About halfway through the meal, I begin to completely relax. I totally get why young girls can do this rite of passage and not have scars on their psyche.
A date. It’s fun.
After thinking it over during our appetizer, even that quick kiss Caleb dropped on me before, was more like a brotherly peck than anything to get worked up about, right?
While laughing at some story Ryan feels the need to share about Jared, I decide to get out of my head and just go with the flow. My laughter comes more freely, and I start teasing these men like I do my own family.
Ryan and Caleb start trading embarrassing stories about one another that have Jared and I reaching for napkins to wipe the tears from our eyes. Ryan catching Caleb in the hot tub with some girl when he was sixteen; Caleb catching Ryan in the cabana with a girl when he was seventeen. The staff at the Lockwood mansion busting them for parties when their parents would go out of town. These two brothers are a hoot when you get them together. Beyond the mischief, you can feel the outpouring of love they have for each other.
Maybe our families aren’t so different, even though one is through blood and one found their way to each other through chance.
I offer up a story about taking Ali, Corinna, and Holly college dress shopping, which has the three men groaning and offering their deepest empathy. Apparently, they can fully imagine losing Corinna to the cooking section of Macy’s, fighting with Ali over the length of her dress, and trying to find Holly because she got bored with the whole thing and wandered off to Best Buy to look at cameras.
