Chapter 18 Cassian #2
“Not because of what you said. He didn’t arrange to have us kidnapped. He didn’t…” she trails off, hiding the hand with the missing finger in her other one. “I’m not talking about this. You’re wrong about that. You know what? This was a mistake. Take me back. I want to go back.”
“Relax. We don’t have to talk about it. That’s not why I’m doing this.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“I don’t know,” I say without meeting her eyes.
“Just take me back, Cassian.”
I glance at her. “I guess I’m trying to make up for what happened back there,” I say, feeling sheepish.
She studies me like she’s trying to decide if I’m telling the truth.
“In fact,” I start, looking over my shoulder before crossing four lanes of highway to get to the exit that we almost don’t make.
Allegra gasps, sitting up, her expression one of surprise. “What are you doing?”
“You like frozen custard?”
“What?” Car horns blare at us. She looks over her shoulder. “They’re so mad at you,” she says, turning bright amber eyes to me like she doesn’t believe I did that.
I grin, shift gears, glancing in the rear view to see one of the SUVs miss the exit. The second one makes it, and Enzo’s face in the driver’s seat tells me he’s not happy about it.
“Do you?” I ask.
“Do I what?” she asks as I drive onto a single lane road.
“Do you like frozen custard?” I ask.
“Oh, yes. I mean who doesn’t? But it’s November and it’s not even noon.”
“There’s no bad time for frozen custard.”
“Why are we talking about frozen custard?”
I reach over and close my hand over one of hers. She looks at it, then at me.
“Maybe I feel guilty, Allegra.” She looks confused. “I shouldn’t have left you in the crypt. You were scared. I am sorry about that.”
Her eyes search mine, uncertain, and she pulls her hand out from under mine, but she doesn’t argue so I take that as a win.
We fall silent, the stretch of road long. The second SUV comes into view, but it’s only us on this cloudy November morning. Allegra is silent, her mood sad.
“We used to come here when we were little,” I tell her, wanting to give her something.
My own way of groveling, I suppose which is very much unlike me.
“My father would bring my brother and I.” I slow, taking a hairpin turn.
“Sometimes that life feels like it belonged to someone else,” I say, not sure why I say it out loud, even though it’s true.
I feel her eyes on me, the weight of that silence expanding.
“Everything changes so fast. I miss my mom. A lot,” she says.
A glance shows me how her eyes glisten, but I note what she said. She misses her mom, not her dad. “I miss my family too.”
She looks at me confused. I clear my throat. “Here we are,” I say, turning onto the dead-end street where the frozen custard shop that hasn’t changed since I was little stands with its red and white checkered awning. The two windows, one to order and the other to pick up, look out at us like eyes.
“Oh, it’s closed,” she says, disappointment evident in her voice.
“Nah.” I park the car, honk twice and climb out. She opens her door as I come around to her side. I can smell the salty sea air in the brisk wind. I breathe deeply, filling up my lungs. Life seems easier here in this tiny, simple place.
I extend a hand to help her out. She looks at it, then up at me.
“I don’t bite.”
“Well, I mean, you do bite,” she says and slaps her hand over her mouth. Clearly that slip was unintentional.
My laugh is unexpected even to me, but I’m loving how she blushes.
How pretty she is right now, looking at me like she is.
A little shy. A little embarrassed. A lot honest. And sweet.
Like no one in any mafia family should be or even could be.
It makes me want to wrap my arms around her, pull her to me to keep her that way.
Keep her safe from this ugly, violent world.
I lean toward her. “Like I said before, you taste good enough to eat.” Her blush deepens and I straighten. Wink. “But time and place, Allegra.”
She snorts, but sets her small hand in mine and I help her out.
The wind blows and Allegra shivers, hugging her arms around herself.
She’d slipped her coat off during the drive.
I drape my arm over her shoulders and pull her to my side to keep her warm.
She resists at first, but then her body yields and I can’t explain what I feel when she does that.
“Well, I’ll be,” says an old woman’s voice I recognize.
I watch as Mrs. Thurston slides the window wide open.
“Am I seeing a ghost?” she asks, rubbing her eyes. “Is that you, Cassian Trevino?”
I smile wide, so happy to see her. She must be in her eighties now and I’m not sure what I expected when I took that detour. For all I knew, the shop could have been boarded up years ago. It’s been a decade at least since I’ve been here.
“No ghosts, Mrs. Thurston. It’s me, Cassian.”
“Come over here, let me get a look at you,” she says, peering out from inside the window. I extend my hands to hers and she takes them, squeezes, her old eyes searching mine.
“I’m surprised you remembered me,” I say, noting the papery skin on her hands and face.
“I’d never forget those eyes. Where’s Seth? And your daddy?”
I clear my throat, my smile faltering. “Not here, but I brought someone else. This is Allegra. Allegra, this is Mrs. Thurston of Thurston’s frozen custard. Best you’ll have in your life.”
“Well now,” Mrs. Thurston says, letting go of my hands to take Allegra’s. “Nice to see Cassian has a girlfriend. You’ll make pretty babies with her, Cassian,” Mrs. Thurston says, and Allegra’s face goes a deep red.
“Oh, we’re not—” Allegra starts, but is cut off.
“Grandma, what are you doing? It’s freezing out there,” comes a voice from inside the shop which is attached to the Thurston’s modest home.
“Oh, here we go,” Mrs. Thurston says, rolling her eyes. “It’s all right, Libby I’m fine. And we have customers.”
Libby peers around her grandmother to see us, raising her eyebrows. I remember Libby as an awkward teenager. Now she’s grown up and carrying a toddler on one hip. Her surprise is evident when she sees me.
“Cassian?”
“That’s right,” Mrs. Thurston says. “And before you embarrass yourself, no, Seth is not here.”
I chuckle and Allegra smiles. Libby used to have a very obvious crush on Seth.
“Gran, go inside. I’ll take care of them,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “How are you, Cassian? What are you doing out this way?”
“Thought I’d stop by on my way to Atlantic City.”
“Because we’re so on the way.”
“I missed your custard.”
“Let’s remedy that. Two?” she asks, glancing at Allegra.
“Yep.” She sets her little boy down on the counter and I check out his toy truck. He’s Gage’s age, maybe a little younger. “Who’s this?”
“This is Joey. Say hi Joey,” she says, handing the first custard to Allegra. “He’s shy.”
“It’s all right. I have a nephew your age and I think he might have that same truck.”
“Really?” Joey asks.
I nod, take my wallet out to pay when Libby brings the custard. “Your granddad?” I ask.
“He passed away a few years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear it.” A beat passes. “I’m glad to see your grandmother is still a force.”
“That she is.”
“How’s business?”
“Better in the summer, but we do all right.”
Wind howls and Joey shivers. She grabs him up. “Here, let me pay and you can get inside.”
“It’s on the house.”
“Here,” I say, handing her two hundred-dollar bills. She raises her eyebrows. “It’s nice for some things to stay the same,” I tell her.
“Well, thank you. We appreciate it. Say hi to your family, Cassian.”
I nod and turn back to Allegra who is eating her custard, shivering. I reach into the car to get her coat and slip it over her shoulders.
“You’re right. This is really good custard. Thanks.”
“Let me show you something.” I lead her around the tall, blowing grass to a rickety stair we climb up that leads to a plank down to the deserted beach. The wind is freezing, and I keep her close.
“Aren’t you cold?” she asks.
“I’m fine. Look.” We walk a little farther and she gasps. I look at her, watching her eyes as she takes it in for the first time, this wild, gray-green water, the crashing waves.
“Oh, my God. It’s amazing.”
It is. She looks up at me, the tip of her nose and her cheeks pink from cold. A gust of wind blows, and she turns her face into my chest, shivering. “Come on. We’ll finish these in the car.”
We hurry back to the car. I open the driver’s side door and stand aside.
She looks at it, then up at me, eyebrows high. “I can drive?”
I nod.
“It’s not a trick?”
“What trick would it be?” She shrugs a shoulder. “Just until the highway. And don’t hit anything.”
She gives me a look, but hurries to get in before I change my mind, I guess. I close the door, walk around to the passenger seat and open the door. One of the SUVs pulls up and Enzo climbs out raising his eyebrows.
“Quite the detour.”
“Keeping you all on your toes. She’ll take us to the end of the road. Give her some space, will you? I’m not sure about her driving skills.”
He chuckles. “Noted.” I get in the car.
“You’re not sure about my driving skills?
” she asks, eyebrows raised. “Well, you’re not changing your mind.
” She finishes the last of her custard and rubs her hands together, eager to adjust the seat and rear-view mirror.
I finish my custard. She turns the key in the ignition. “Where’s drive?” she asks.
“Shit. Please tell me you’re fucking kidding.”
She grins an evil little grin and shifts the car into first gear. “Hold on!” she says, and presses her foot to the accelerator, making me grab hold of the dashboard as the car leaps forward and she laughs wildly.
“Jesus Christ!” I reach over to adjust the steering wheel as she speeds down the road, shifting gears, the ride bumpy as hell. But I find I don’t care. I find myself enjoying watching her laugh.