Chapter Eighteen
Eighteen
Cassie held on to the side of her head, which was still pounding, but now she had a new problem.
Frozen at the end of her hallway, she had full view of Ian holding Emily and the front door wide-open with Derek standing on the other side looking beyond pissed. This was the dead-last thing she wanted to deal with in her life, particularly at this moment.
“Derek, what are you doing here?” she asked, slowly crossing the room, praying she didn’t collapse.
“Go back to bed, honey.” Ian turned to her, his face softening as he took in what she knew was impressive bed head. “Emily is fine and he can come back later.”
“Don’t tell my wife what to do,” Derek practically shouted as he shouldered his way past Ian and into the living room.
“She’s not your wife.” Ian’s eyes narrowed. When Emily started to fidget, Ian patted her back and murmured something to her. “I need to feed her and change her diaper.”
Derek’s gaze darted from Ian to Cassie and back to Ian. “What the hell is this? You move in your lover to shack up? Never took you for a whore.”
Cassie didn’t think she could feel worse. She was wrong. But before she could defend herself, Ian had turned back, clenching the muscle in his jaw.
“Apologize,” Ian said in a low, threatening tone.
Cassie had no doubt if Ian hadn’t been holding the baby, he would’ve been across the room in an instant.
“This has nothing to do with you,” Derek shot back. “Why don’t you give me my daughter and get out.”
No matter how awful Cassie felt, she raised her hand to silence Ian and moved closer to Derek. Too bad whatever bug she’d picked up couldn’t be fast-acting or she’d so exhale all over him.
“You relinquished any right you had when you walked out on us.” Cassie laid a hand on the back of the couch for support.
She’d be a little more intimidating if she wasn’t freezing and ready to fall onto her face.
“You can’t just barge into my house and try to take control.
I don’t know why you’re here, but I don’t really care. ”
Cassie felt Ian’s hard body behind her, his strong hand settled around her waist. The man offered support both physically and emotionally with one simple, selfless touch. And the sea of differences between the two men in this room was evident without so much as a spoken word.
Ian had watched her with care, concern and, yes, even love. Derek stood glaring, judging and hating. When he’d first walked out she would’ve done anything to get her family back, but now that he was here, she loathed the sight of him.
“I’m here to see my wife and daughter,” Derek told her.
“I’m not your wife,” Cassie fired back. “And if you want to see Emily, you can contact your attorney and he can call mine. You can’t just charge in here after being gone for nearly a year and expect me to just let you see her. Did you think she’d be comfortable with you?”
“She seems fine with him.” Derek nodded his chin in Ian’s direction.
“That’s because she knows who I am,” Ian stated from behind her. “Now, Cassie has asked you to leave. She’s not feeling good and my patience has just about run out. Leave now or I’ll escort you out personally, then notify the crew’s security to take you off the estate property.”
Derek looked as if he wanted to say more, but Ian stepped around Cassie, keeping his arm wrapped around her waist. He said nothing and kept his gaze on Derek until Derek stepped back toward the front door.
“I plan on seeing my daughter,” Derek threatened. “And my wife. I’ll go through my lawyer, but I will be getting my family back.”
He slammed the door, leaving the echoing sound to fill the silence. Cassie hadn’t seen Derek in so long, she had no idea how to feel, how to react. She didn’t feel like battling him.
And had he threatened to take Emily? Was that what he’d implied?
Cassie sank onto the back of the couch and wrapped her arms around her waist. Maybe she should have listened to those voice mails.
“Go back to bed, Cass. Don’t think about him—just go rest for now.”
Cassie looked up at Ian, still holding Emily. The image just seemed so...right. The three of them felt right. They’d all been random puzzle pieces and when they’d come together they’d instantly clicked into place without question.
Shoving her wayward hair behind her ears, Cassie shook her head. “I can’t rest, Ian. He just made a veiled threat to take Emily. He can’t do that, right? I mean, what judge would let him have my baby after he walked out on us?”
Tears pricked her eyes. She couldn’t fathom sharing custody of her baby. Emily belonged here.
“She doesn’t even know him,” Cassie murmured, thinking aloud. “There’s no way he could take her. Emily would be terrified.”
Ian rested a hand on her shoulder and held on to Emily with his other strong arm.
“You’re jumping the gun here. He didn’t say he was going to ask for custody.
I honestly think those were just hollow words.
He wants to scare you because he’s angry I was here.
I guarantee had you been alone, his attitude would’ve been completely different.
One look at me, especially holding his daughter, and he was instantly on the defensive. ”
Emily started to reach for Cassie, but Ian shifted his arm away. “Go on back to rest. I’ll feed her breakfast and then I’ll check on you to see if you feel like eating. You’re exhausted and working too hard.”
Cassie raised a brow. “Working too hard? Are you the pot or the kettle?”
Laughing, Ian shrugged. “Does it matter?”
Cassie pushed away from the couch and sighed. “Thanks, Ian. Really. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you here last night.”
After a light kiss across her forehead, Ian looked into her eyes. “There’s nowhere else I would’ve rather been.”
As Cassie got back into bed, she knew Ian wasn’t just saying pretty words to try to win her over. The man was full of surprises, and she found herself falling harder with each passing revelation.
And now here she was, 100 percent in love with a man who lived on the other side of the country, who would be leaving in a couple of weeks to go back to his life. And, of all the rotten timing, her ex had decided to show up now.
Cassie curled into her pillow and fisted her hands beside her face as the tears threatened to fall. Somehow this would all work out. She had faith, she had hope and, for the first time in her life, she had love. All of that had to count for something...didn’t it?
Once Cassie had gotten a little food in her, she seemed even more tired, so Ian insisted on taking Emily for a few hours and then checking back. There was no way he could leave her alone with a baby, but he still had work to do.
Single parents worked while caring for their babies all the time, right? Shouldn’t be too hard to send some emails and make a few phone calls.
After fighting with the straps on the stroller and narrowly missing pinching Emily’s soft skin in the buckle, he finally had her secured and ready to go. Diaper bag over his shoulder, Ian set out across the estate, pushing Emily toward his trailer.
Bright purple flats covered her feet as she kicked her little legs the entire way. Ian knew he was smiling like an idiot, but how could he not? Emily was an absolute doll and she was such a sweet kid. He was actually looking forward to spending time with her.
Max Ford and his wife, Raine, were just stepping out of their trailer as he passed by. Max held their little girl, Abby, who was almost two now.
“Look at this,” Max said with a wide grin. “You seeing how the family life fits you?”
Ian didn’t mind the question. Actually, he kind of warmed at the idea of it. “Cassie isn’t feeling too great, so I told her I’d take Emily for the day.”
Max’s daughter pointed down to Emily. “Baby.”
Laughing, Raine took the little girl and squatted down to the stroller to see Emily. “Her name is Emily,” Raine explained.
“You’re pretty serious about Cassie,” Max said in a softer tone. “Happened pretty quick.”
Ian shook his head and raked a hand over his hair, which was probably still sporting a messy look after sleeping on the sofa all night. “Yeah, it did. But I can’t help it, man. I didn’t see this coming.”
“You plan on staying after the film is done?” Max asked.
Ian watched the interaction between the two little girls and Raine and his heart swelled. “I honestly don’t know,” Ian said, looking back to Max. “How hard was it for you with the transition?”
Max’s gaze drifted to his family, and a genuine smile, not what he used for the cameras or his on-screen love interests, but the one that Ian had seen directed only at Raine, transformed his face.
“When you want something so bad you’d die without it, there’s no transition.
It’s the easiest and best decision I’ve ever made. ”
Yeah, that was kind of where Ian’s mind was going. Having Cassie and Emily in his life made him feel things on a level he hadn’t even known existed inside him.
Ian said his goodbyes to Max and his family and stepped inside his trailer.
After settling Emily on a pink fuzzy blanket from her house, Ian placed her favorite toys all around her.
Standing back to admire his feat of babysitting, he went to boot up his laptop, grabbed his phone and sat at the small kitchenette.
Thankfully, the trailer was all open and small, so Emily couldn’t leave his sight.
After answering a few emails, Ian glanced at the little girl, who was chewing on one toy and pounding the other one against the side of her rainbow-striped leggings. So far so good.
As he dialed one of his clients, rising star Brandon Crowe, who was on his way to Texas for filming, Ian scrolled back through his emails, deleting the junk so he could wade through and find things that actually needed his attention.
“Hello.”
“Brandon, glad I caught you.” Ian closed out his email and opened the document with his client’s name on it to make notes. “You arrive in Houston yet?”