Sam
“Mom, I don’t need you in my house!” Cassidy shouted as I opened the door to let her in.
She barely slipped past me on her crutches, wobbling as she turned for the living room. Her parents were bringing up the rear with groceries, overnight bags, and some kind of large machine that I didn’t want to know about.
“Honey,” her mother said, stepping inside and hurrying over to her daughter, who was about to wobble right onto her ass. “You need someone to stay with you. You’re on crutches. You can’t possibly get around and do everything on your own.”
“I can and I will. Besides, I only have one bedroom!”
Chuckling, I brought Cassidy’s bag to her bedroom and unpacked it, placing the few items she had in the hospital on her dresser. Her clothes were all garbage and were taken by the police. I wasn’t sure what for, but for the time being, they were evidence.
“You are not staying here! I don’t need you here to take care of me!”
“Well, you aren’t staying alone!” her mother shouted.
“I won’t be alone. I’ll have my books!”
I snorted at that. Books weren’t going to help her when she fell over or make her a sandwich at lunch. Not that she would be alone anyway. She might not know it, but I was staying. I just hadn’t gotten around to telling anyone yet.
Maybe now would be a good time to fill everyone in before there was a mass murder.
“Cassidy, your mother just wants to take care of you,” her father argued.
“There’s nowhere for her to stay!”
“I’ll sleep on the couch,” her mother argued.
“With your CPAP machine taking up all the space in the living room?”
“It’s not that big.”
I let out a loud whistle, finally getting everyone’s attention. “I’ll stay with Cassidy.”
If I thought that would earn me praise, I would have been mistaken. Cassidy narrowed her eyes dangerously at me. “And why would you stay with me?”
“It’s me or them. Take your pick.”
“Hey,” her mother frowned, her lip quivering.
“Now, I know enough about parents and their kids to know they should never live together past eighteen, and even that’s pushing it. I stayed with my old man after my injury. And then I moved to Montana. I really don’t think you want that to happen with Cassidy.”
“No, but…she’s my baby. I just want to take care of her.”
“Mom…” Cassidy sighed, leaning heavily on her crutches.
She was running out of steam fast, but I knew she would fight resting until her parents were gone just to prove she didn’t need anyone.
“I know you want to take care of me, but how about you do that by bringing me food? I love your cooking, and it would be great if you could do that for me. But staying here is only going to drive us both crazy.”
Her mother’s chin quivered as she ducked her head. “We do it at Christmas.”
“That’s one night. And you know we would never make it two.”
Finally, she relented. “If that’s what you really want.”
“It is.”
“But Sam has to stay with you. It’s either him or me.”
I smirked at that, but quickly schooled my features when Cassidy glared in my direction. Now was not the time to laugh at her misfortune. Especially since I was that misfortune.
“Fine. He can stay for the week.”
“Two,” her mother argued.
“One, and then we’ll reevaluate.”
Her mother finally gave in, but it took another ten minutes to get her out of the house, and another five for them to leave the driveway.
“Finally,” Cassidy sighed, hobbling over to the couch.
I grabbed her crutches as she lowered herself to the couch, but getting her leg up there was a little more difficult than she imagined in a splint. I waited, knowing she would never allow me to help unless she proved to herself that it was too much of a struggle.
But that backfired on me when she hauled her leg up with both hands and got herself comfortable.
“See? I don’t need you here either,” she mumbled as she closed her eyes.
“Is it really that hard for you to admit you need help?”
“What I need is for everyone to leave me alone.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening as long as Austin is still on the loose.”
Grabbing the blanket off the back of the couch, I draped it over her, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Stop treating me like a baby,” she grumbled. “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.”
I laughed at that. “Yeah, I’d like to see you say that when the meds start wearing off and you have to go to the bathroom.”
“I did it just fine in the hospital,” she snapped.
“You had nurses around you. And how do you plan to get dressed in the morning when you can’t even reach your toes?”
The look on her face could spear a wild boar, but I didn’t back down. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, she needed me here, and not just because of Austin.
“Why did you even volunteer to stay?” she snapped.
“Because you need help.”
Shoving to sit up, her nostrils flared in irritation. “You didn’t want a relationship before, but now you won’t leave me alone. Just go away!”
“Not a chance in hell.” Scooping her up in my arms, I ignored her yelp as I settled her across my lap. She fought back, slapping me and even got a hit across my jaw, but I didn’t bother to argue with her. She’d wear herself out soon enough.
“I hate you!”
“You do not. You’re just pissed that you’re laid up.”
“I’m pissed because everyone is taking over my life! I told you, I can do things on my own.”
“And now you have me to help you,” I said, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at me. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yeah, until you need to leave.”
She wasn’t wrong to assume that. In truth, I hadn’t totally come to grips with this strange feeling inside me. And I wasn’t about to make her any promises when I hadn’t decided one way or another. I wouldn’t get her hopes up when I knew well enough that I might freak out and decide to leave.
It would break her heart, and in turn, make me feel like shit.
“I’m not offering anything more than I ever have. You know that.”
She nodded, looking away from me. “I know.”
“I get why you don’t want me here, but you can’t stay alone. Not while you’re recovering, and not while Austin is still out there. He tried to kill you.”
“I’m aware of that!” she snapped. “I don’t need the daily reminder.”
“Obviously, you do if you think you can stay here alone. If he broke in here, how would you defend yourself?”
“That’s not his style.”
“No, he also likes to hire gangs to shoot up people’s houses like he did with the Parkers. And he likes to set fire to apartment buildings. You know, Archer and Cheyenne nearly died in that fire.”
“I know,” she sighed. “You don’t have to remind me.”
“Apparently, I do. Because the only way that Archer and Cheyenne are connected to the Parkers is through friendship. And yet, he still went after her.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
The argument died on her lips the moment she finally looked at me. We both knew that the night she was run down, those other incidents weren’t a coincidence. Austin planned to take out as many of us as he could. He just hadn’t considered that we would beat him at his own game.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily. And if you don’t want me staying in your room, I’ll sleep out here so I’m out of your hair. But you are not staying alone. End of story.”
She didn’t like it, but didn’t argue further.
“How’s your stomach?”
“Fine.”
Quirking an eyebrow at her, I waited patiently for her to lift her shirt. The stitches from where she’d been sliced open by glass were healing nicely. But it still had to hurt like a bitch.
“Looks better. You need to rest.”
“I’ve been resting for days.”
“I doubt staying in the hospital equals rest in any way. Trust me, I’ve been in the hospital before. Nurses coming and going at all hours, prodding and poking you…I’m sure you’ll sleep much better now that you’re home.”
“Whatever.”
“Hey.” Lifting her chin, I forced her to look at me. “I really do want to help. This would go a lot easier if you decided to stop being pissy with me.”
“Fat chance,” she spat.
“Then this is only going to be harder on you.”
And with that, I got up and gently set her back on the couch. Then I forced myself to walk away and make myself busy, because if I stayed with her on that couch, I would forget about all my plans and lose myself in her.
I woke to the sound of a crash, followed by swearing that could rival any sailor’s mouth. Sighing, I tossed off the blanket and unfolded myself from the cramped couch I’d been relegated to for the past three nights.
For days, she’d ignored me, choosing to pretend I wasn’t even there instead of talking to me like an adult. Not that I could blame her. She was pissed at me, at the whole world for the position she was in. And forcing my way into her house and refusing to leave only made things worse.
The only time she actually spoke to me was when she demanded I take her to the hospital to get her cast put on. And even then, the Cassidy I was used to was long gone. In her place was a grouchy woman who hated me with every fiber of her body.
I strode into her room and found the dresser tipped over with Cassidy underneath it.
The only reason it hadn’t crushed her was because the drawers slid out and hit the ground first, then her body.
Thankfully, she wasn’t fully underneath it; otherwise, she would be banged up even more than she already was.
“What the hell is this?” I asked, walking around her to lift the dresser off her, while also keeping the drawers from falling out on her.
“Don’t even ask,” she snapped.
“What were you doing?”
“I just said not to ask!” she shouted.
Once the dresser was up, I hoisted her off the ground, laying her on the bed.
“Get your hands off me!” she yelled when I lifted her shirt to see if she was injured. “I’m fine!”
“You’re gonna have a pretty decent bruise,” I murmured. “How’s your leg?”
“My leg is fine.”
But I didn’t miss the tears streaming down her face and the tight lines of pain as she struggled to hold it all in.
“I’ll get your meds.”
“I don’t want them,” she said, stopping me in my tracks.
“Cass, if you don’t take them, you’re gonna be in a lot of pain. You were hit by a car!”
“They give me bad dreams,” she argued.
“Then I’ll stay with you.”
“I don’t want you here! What part of that don’t you understand?”
“All of it,” I said, stalking over to her, pulling her into my arms in the most awkward hold ever.
“I don’t need your help. You stayed. You got my cast. Now, can you just leave?”
“I can’t leave you. Cass, you need someone here. We’ve talked about this.”
“Yes, I’m a burden to be looked after,” she scoffed. “I can take care of myself!”
“You just had a dresser land on you!”
She wiggled hard until I finally let her go. The woman was so damn stubborn, refusing to let anyone help, but that wasn’t the only problem.
“Cass—”
“Just stop!” She shoved to her feet and snatched one of the crutches off the ground, shoving it under her arm. “Can you just…go away for the rest of the day?”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you here!”
“Why?” I pressed.
“Because I’m horny and I want you to fuck me!” she finally shouted.
I was not expecting that, and even more absurd, the thought of fucking her like this made me queasy. She was injured, and I wasn’t sure I had it in me to be gentle with her at any time.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Scoffing, she hobbled to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. The woman was so damn stubborn, and I had a feeling it was only going to get worse as the weeks wore on. It didn’t help that I couldn’t seem to figure out what was going on in my head.
And Deke had been blowing up my phone, asking when I would get back in the ring.
I told him I had a family emergency, and luckily, that held him off for the time being, but it wouldn’t work for much longer.
If I didn’t get back to work, he’d walk away, and it would blow my chance at getting my life back.
But I couldn’t leave Cassidy right now.
Not just because she was in danger, but because my head was still fucked up over the accident.
I couldn’t stop seeing her lying on the pavement with blood gushing from her body.
No matter how hard I tried to wipe the memories from my head, I kept waking up in a cold sweat, reaching out for her, only to remember that I was relegated to the couch where I couldn’t reassure myself that she was okay.
I snagged the clothes that had fallen out of her dresser and folded them, then shoved them back in the drawers. Then I stood there, trying to figure out a way to get through to her. To make her see that I only wanted to help her.
Just as I was about to go bang on the bathroom door, the doorbell rang. I really hoped it wasn’t her parents. That wouldn’t end well. Luckily, it was Alyssa waiting at the door. Maybe she could talk some sense into Cassidy.
“Hey,” I greeted her, stepping aside to let her in.
She shivered, rubbing her hands together as she came inside. “How’s Cassidy?”
“Pissed at me. Angry that anyone’s staying with her.”
“Well, why don’t I give you a break,” she smiled. “I’ll stay with her while you head to the gym.”
“Why would I—”
“Because Deke is calling around town, trying to figure out where he can find you. For now, everyone’s keeping it a secret, but that won’t last forever.”
“Fucking Deke,” I muttered.
“Go. I’ll stay with her while you get some gym time in.”
I didn’t want to leave her. Hell, I didn’t like the idea of her being here with Alyssa while Austin was still out there. But it was daylight, and it was unlikely he’d make a move when everyone could see him.
“Keep the door locked.”
“I won’t let her out of my sight.”
“Yeah, good luck with that.”