Chapter 24 Cash
***Cash***
“The PR people called and said it was time for another date. Cassidy’s face is healed enough, I guess.” I noticed I was shaking my leg and forced it to still. “Have you talked to her?”
Hayes nodded. “Earlier today. I think she’s so happy that they’re letting her out and about again that she forgot that she hates us. She sounded eager to see us.”
“It was kind of bullshit that she’s the one who got punished in a way. It wasn’t like she elbowed herself in the face.” I scowled at West. “She had you to thank for that.”
To say there was still tension in the house would be an understatement.
Cassidy had thrown out some painful truths and we’d been stepping around them like mines.
Hayes and I should’ve put a stop to Weston’s drinking.
He should’ve put a stop to it himself. All of us should’ve been wallowing in our own bullshit a lot less.
“Yeah, I got it. I fucked up.” West flipped me off and then directed his attention to Hayes. “She’s up for tomorrow night?”
“Yeah. Are you?”
West grunted. “I’m not the one who’s been on lockdown for nearly two weeks while her face healed. She’s not going to lose her shit once we’re in public, is she?”
“Who knows?” Hayes stretched and rubbed his eyes. “Are we all going to be able to act like fucking adults tomorrow night?”
I pointed at my chest. “Me? An adult? Nah.”
He threw his hands up and walked towards the stairs. “I’m passing out.”
West waited a few minutes to speak again. “He seems more uptight than normal.”
Bile rose in my throat. Hayes was more uptight and stressed. West had been drinking himself stupid. And then there was me. Uninjured and absolutely fucking fine. If you didn’t count the crushing guilt that kept trying to smother me. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Hey. I didn’t mention it but I talked to Cassidy before she was quarantined. I apologized.” He stood up and scratched his stomach. “I just wanted to let you know. I fucked up but I didn’t just leave it.”
I was starving for more information about her. “What’d she say?”
“I think she forgave me. That was before she had to miss almost two weeks of work and class because of me, though.” He frowned. “I don’t know if she’s as awful as we thought. Is that fucking stupid?”
I’d been thinking the same thing but Savannah was our sister. Our sister who’d been calling almost nonstop since the news of our fake relationship reached USC. If Cassidy had been horrible to her, we couldn’t just pretend that hadn’t happened. Could we? “If it is I think I’m fucking stupid, too.”
He snorted. “Coulda told you that, dick.”
I stayed up for a while, trying to ease my constant heartburn with spoonfuls of mustard and nearly a whole bottle of pepto.
I’d probably spent close to two thousand bucks on the pink shit since the game against USC.
Even when I got distracted and forgot to feel like shit for a while, my body didn’t.
I slept like shit once I did sleep and practice was brutal the next morning.
It took everything I had in me to get cleaned up for our date.
Once we were outside of Cassidy’s house, though, I felt a surge of energy.
Instead of pretending like I didn’t want to go knock on her door I jumped out first and strolled up her sidewalk.
Before I could knock she opened the door and took my breath away. Standing there in a white dress that floated around her thighs, Cassidy had a bright smile on her face and looked genuinely happy to see me. It did something to me to see her looking at me like that. I felt ten fucking feet tall.
“W-wow. You look stunning, Cassidy.”
She stepped out of the house and locked the door before turning back to me and running her hands down her flat stomach.
“I feel silly. The PR team sent me a box with this dress and pictures of me on our last few outings with red marks all over them. Pretty sure it was that asshole guy who did the red marking.”
“Deacon. Yeah, he can be a dick. It sounds like something he’d do, giving you a play by play of just how he thinks you fucked up.” I shrugged. “I thought you looked good.”
She started towards the truck and only stopped when she realized I wasn’t following. She turned back to me and the dress flirted higher up her thighs. I wanted to thank whoever picked the dress. “What?”
Remembering who the fuck I was, I smirked at her. “Even that white tank top? It got red marks?”
Her grin made my dick stiffen. It was pure trouble. “Apparently Texas football royals don’t mix with women who have nipples. Both of mine were circled in that red ink and crossed out. I wanted to be sure they meant my nipples and didn’t just circle the wrong things, though.”
I followed her movement as she pushed her shoulders back. The dress stretched across her chest and nipples. I let out a bark of laughter but it turned into me choking when she ran her hands over her tits and made her nipples harden. “Fuck.”
She grabbed my arm and tugged me towards the truck.
“Come on. I’ve been so desperate to leave the house that I looked up the restaurant menu as soon as I heard we were going.
I have my meal planned out completely and I can’t wait to get my mouth on a breadstick.
God. Aunt Jolene and I aren’t cooks. She was out with Elvis all the time and would bring me back doggy bags but I’ve been dying for food that hasn’t been sitting in a bag for half an hour before it gets to me. ”
It was like all the shit that had happened after that first night hadn’t happened. She seemed excited to see us and so damn happy that it made me smile in return without meaning to.
I followed her, torn between watching the dress dance around her upper thighs and the back of her head as she rattled on. Her ponytail swung from side to side, just as excited as she was it seemed.
She was already crawling across the seat before I could tell her I’d go around to the other side. I saw a flash of white lace and groaned. I didn’t know what the fuck was happening but it was going to happen with a boner for me.