Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Cassius
I blow another big breath into the black balloon, tie it off, and hand it to Cammy as I fight off the urge to pass out.
“Next year, we’re getting a machine.”
Cammy laughs as she connects it to the other black balloons and attaches it to the arch between the teal bunches we already made.
Chrissy insisted on a balloon arch for the doorway leading into the dining room and kitchen… because she saw it and fell in love. I couldn’t tell her no. She’s never had a birthday party before. Never had friends over. Hell, I’ve never even met anyone she’s considered a friend. Today is big.
“I’m so worried about this,” Cammy says quietly as she picks up the little gold balls that attach to the open spaces between the balloons.
“The arch?” I ask, stepping back to look at it. “Why? These kids are old enough to not put the pieces in their mouths and choke on them.”
Cammy gives me a scathing look, and I can’t help but laugh.
“I mean having all these kids here.”
“What’s the problem with that?”
She looks toward Chrissy’s room. The door is closed and the music is on. She’s been getting ready all morning and closed her door about thirty minutes ago to change. Which I’m sure she’s done a hundred times—just like she did with her hair and her nails.
Cammy looks back at me and whispers, “How do we know these kids are actually her friends?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because they’re being nice to her all of a sudden.”
“Did you think that maybe they’re being nice to her because Chrissy now has confidence to talk to them?”
She frowns.
“Cammy, we’ve basically been her parents forever. I get being worried, but part of having kids is letting them make their own mistakes.”
She shoves me, and I laugh again.
“Why the hell are you in such a good mood?” she complains, pulling a balloon from the package.
“I’ve barely seen you to give you the good news…”
She raises a brow. “What good news?”
I grin, rocking back on my heels before I say, “I signed a contract with Stone Timeworks. I’m an official employee. I start on Monday!”
Cammy squeals and leaps at me, throwing her arms around my neck. “I’m so happy for you, Cass. That’s freaking awesome.”
When she steps back, there’s a strange look on her face, though. Like she’s worried about something. Nervous, maybe.
“What?” I say. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s maybe something I need to tell you…”
“You better not say you forgot to submit the application for school—”
“No, I did that. Trust me. I put them all in. I’ve been panicking about it every day, waiting for a response, even though I know I have weeks before I get a letter.”
“Then what?” I demand, putting my hands on my hips.
Taking a deep breath, she takes my hands, holding them tight. “Don’t be mad at me.”
“Tell me what you did, Camarra.”
“Oh, full name, huh?”
“Cammy,” I growl.
“Okay! I didn’t do anything, really. It’s actually a good thing, and it’ll be good for us, but now that I think about it, I’m worried you’ll think I’m stepping on your toes.”
“Huh?”
“Harmon offered me a job…”
My eyes widen and my jaw drops. Cammy shoves me. “Not that kind of job! A job at his office.”
“Whoa, hold on. He did what? When?”
“The other day, when he dropped me off at work. He looked like he wasn’t about to let me out of the car. He was concerned about the area and said it wasn’t safe.”
“It’s not.”
“Yeah, I know, but I dealt with it because we needed the money and it’s not like I can flaunt my PhD around.”
“Okay, so, wait… you have a job there too?” I ask carefully.
She bites her bottom lip and nods. “He also said I could start on Monday.”
“Holy shit!” I shout, lifting her up and spinning her around. “This is fucking awesome!”
“What are we celebrating?!” Chrissy asks excitedly. “I hope it’s me.”
I pull her into our hug. We all jump up and down, acting like fools. We whoop and cheer and shout and celebrate.
“Tell me! I want to know!” Chrissy shouts, still jumping with us.
“I told him about the job,” Cammy says.
“She knew?” I blurt out.
We’re still jumping
“Of course. We’re sisters,” Chrissy says, leaving out the duh I know she’s thinking. “So, you’re both like real adults now? With real jobs?”
“The laundromat was a real job,” Cammy says, keeping her feet firmly on the ground.
I hide my laugh behind my hand.
“Yeah, but, like… this is a real job,” Chrissy says.
“She’s not wrong,” I say, which gets me a dirty look from Cammy. “Wait, so what are you doing? Did he make up a position for you too?”
“He made up a position for you?” she asks loudly. Then she holds up her hand. “Never mind. Of course he did. And no, he didn’t make it up. Apparently, the person who had my position quit about a month ago, and they haven’t posted it yet.”
“So, what is it?” I growl, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. “Tell me!”
She laughs, swatting my hands away. Clearing her throat, she holds her head up high and says, “You’re looking at the new Visual Merchandising Assistant.”
“I have no idea what that means, but it sounds important.” I grab onto her and start jumping again. Of course, they join in. “This is so fucking cool.”
This time our jumping ends in a firm hug, all three of us crunched together.
“Thank you,” she whispers, and I don’t miss the emotion in her voice.
“I didn’t tell him to do this.”
“No, but you’ve done everything else. You pursued him and look what it’s turned into.”
“And you always take care of us,” Chrissy adds.
I ignore the tears in my eyes.
Five of Chrissy’s friends show up for her party, which is not bad at all. They’re sitting in the living room watching a scary movie, eating junk food and drinking soda. I have no idea what kind of homes these kids come from, but they feel like good kids.
I’ve never seen Chrissy so happy. And trust me, I keep seeing her because she’s sitting very close to a boy who looks like he gets a lot of girls’ attention in school.
The friend he showed up with also looks like the same kind of kid, and if this turns into one of those awful scenes from those teenage 80s movies, like with someone asking her to prom and then leaving her hanging, I will murder them both and hide their bodies somewhere no one will find them.
“Cassius,” Harmon says softly. “Stop growling.”
I look at him, narrowing my eyes. “I’m not growling.”
“Actually, you are,” Cammy says with a laugh. “And it’s your turn.”
I bring my attention back to the cards on the table.
There’s a red five on the top now, and I don’t have any red cards.
But I do have a five in yellow, so I slap that on top, then bring my attention back to the kids.
They erupt into laughter at whatever is happening on the TV, which is weird considering I thought it was a horror, but to my horror, that boy leans closer to Chrissy.
“He’s way too close,” I say.
“Cass, you better knock it off,” Cammy chastises. “Seriously, leave her alone. It’s not like they’re going to start making out right there in front of everyone.”
“You don’t know that.”
Harmon chuckles and puts down a yellow +2.
I give him a dirty look before picking up my two cards.
We moved the dining table and chairs into the inner-living room so we could keep eyes on them. We’ve been playing card games while they watch movies, giving them some distance but not too much.
Of course I lose every game because I am not paying attention. But thankfully Chrissy gets up and announces everyone is ready for cake.
Harmon, Cammy, and I get everything we need together while the kids file around the table, letting Chrissy sit.
Cammy gets the candles in the cake, lights them, and I carry it out of the kitchen and to the kids.
We all sing Happy Birthday to Chrissy. I’ve never seen her face light up the way it does when I put the cake down in front of her.
It’s plain, decorated in black and teal with gold lettering—the colors she chose for her theme.
She makes a silent wish and blows out the candles.
We clap and cheer. I fight tears in my eyes as I glance at Harmon, who is watching her with such fondness that it makes it almost impossible not to shed a tear.
Cammy asks Chrissy if she wants to cut the cake, but she declines, so Cammy does and passes out a piece to everyone. The kids chat and laugh, while the three of us adults stand to the side, eating our cake and watching them.
This is… so nice. It’s normal and just fucking nice.
When the kids are done eating cake, Chrissy wants to open gifts. She gets gift cards from most of them, except for that one kid. The one who was sitting next to her. He gets her a pair of earrings.
Her fucking ears aren’t even pierced.
I’ll give it to him though—he does look ashamed of not knowing. But Chrissy laughs and says, “It’s okay. I was thinking of getting them pierced, anyway.”
Even though, no… she was not.
I shake my head and roll my eyes. “Someone needs to tell this girl not to change for boys.”
“Yep, I’ll get right on that Mister part of being a parent is letting your kids make their own mistakes.”
“That was different!” I hiss at Cammy.
She just laughs.
The kids start trickling out an hour later, their parents slowly coming to pick them up. When it’s the four of us left, we sit down to watch a movie together. Chrissy chooses another scary one. They’ve been her favorite lately, and I wonder if it has anything to do with that boy…
“Before we start the movie, Chrissy, can I give you your present?” Harmon asks.
I hadn’t thought twice about Harmon not giving Chrissy a gift. He does so much for us already. I didn’t expect it and it isn’t needed… but it is very him to do so.
Cammy and I gave her our gifts first thing this morning.
We set our alarms to wake up early, this way we could sneak them all there for her.
Once they were all around her room, including on the bed with her, we blew party horns to wake her up.
She groaned and complained for all of two seconds before she realized what was going on. Then she was wide awake and laughing.
“Is that even a question?” she says with scoff.
She smiles and sits up straighter.
Harmon chuckles, grabbing a large gift bag from the side of the couch.
I don’t know how I missed that there. He hands it to her but pulls it back at the last second and speaks quickly.
“I hope you like it. I picked out everything myself, and I have never bought a gift for a single person in my life.”
“Not even one?” she asks.
“Not even one.”
I put my hand on his thigh. “I’m sure it will be perfect.”
“It makes me feel special,” Chrissy says.
Harmon didn’t ask for my help to get her something, and that makes this all the better. He tried his best. I know he did. And if I know him, everything in there will be thoughtful.
Chrissy takes the bag and pulls out the gold tissue paper and then a teal throw blanket. I can tell all the way from here that it feels like a cloud. Chrissy rubs it against her face, smiling.
“Wow, this is so soft.”
“That’s exactly what I thought,” Harmon says with a small smile.
Chrissy digs into the bag and pulls out two more things. A white box and then a much smaller pink one. She puts the bag on the floor and opens the bigger box first.
“I was just saying I needed some of these!” she squeals, pulling out an expensive pair of headphones.
“I hear you like loud music, so I figured this will help out your brother and sister too.”
“They’re so awesome,” she comments as she puts it aside and takes the last box. She gasps once it’s opened. “Wow, this is so pretty!”
She pulls out a watch. Thin, silver, and so very much her.
“Wow, that’s beautiful,” Cammy says, leaning over to get a better look. “Is it one of yours?” she asks Harmon.
He clears his throat. “No, it’s actually a medical watch.
It has seizure detection software programmed into it.
It isn’t one hundred percent accurate yet, but I figured it may give you all some peace of mind.
It comes with an app that you can install on your phones.
It’s also discreet, which is what I wanted to go for considering she’s a teenager, and—”
I shut him up with a kiss. His heart is beating a mile a minute, and his face is warm. I press my lips to his firmly, those tears back in my eyes again. This man is… too good to be true. He’s too good to us.
When I pull away, I look him dead in the eye and say as quietly as I can, “We’re going to your house tonight so I can fuck the hell out of you.”