Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Blake
I haven’t come down from the clouds since this morning.
And I wasn’t even sure I wanted to.
Cassie’s mouth on mine, the way she clutched my shirt and kissed me like she’d been starving—it rewired something in me. I thought I was all in before, but that kiss?
That kiss was her saying yes. To me. To us. To everything I’d been fighting for since the moment I laid eyes on her.
For the first time in years, I believe there’s going to be something more to my life than long shifts and quiet, empty nights.
I lean back in my chair, grinning like a fool as I sip my coffee. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to win the lottery. Now I know.
Her words replay in my head, over and over. Pick me up at seven. Simple, but they’ve wrecked me. I was used to calling the shots, but this time, she’d taken the reins. She’d chosen me—and that was everything.
Thank God I have the next two weeks off. There’s no way I’d be good behind the wheel of a squad car with my head this full of her.
I grabbed my keys off the counter. It was time to stop pacing like a restless panther in a cage and make plans.
First stop: Top’s Steakhouse. I’ve pulled strings before, but tonight I don’t want strings—I want the best table in the place, candles lit, Percy Sledge and The Righteous Brothers crooning in the background. The kind of night Cassie will never forget.
Next stop: the Love Canyon Mall.
I’m not one for shopping. But tonight’s a special night. I need a new dress shirt and tie, new slacks, and shoes without scuffs. I’ve never put that much thought into clothes before. But here I am, forty-two years old, acting like I’m eighteen and getting ready to pick up my prom date.
But Cassie wasn’t just any girl.
She was my girl.