Cassidy
Carter nodded, his face stricken with sadness. "You made a mistake, Cass. God knows I’ve made a shit ton myself... you just got stuck with—"
"If you say I got stuck with a consequence, I will end you. Maverick is not a consequence. He’s the best thing that ever happened to and if I had the chance to go back and change what I did, I wouldn’t," I sobbed. "Because I got him and he’s worth it." Again, with the fucking crying. Damn it! I needed to get hold of myself.
Carter wrapped his arms around again. "I’m sorry, Cass. Seriously. I will never bring it up again."
"You can’t make choose between you and him, Carter. You’ll lose."
He lifted my chin and cupped my face. "Does that an I have a shot here?"
"That’s not what I an."
"Answer the question."
"Do you want a shot?" I challenged.
"Yeah, baby, I want a shot." He kissed gently and then stroked my cheek. "I love you, Cassidy. That never stopped. I ran because I’m an asshole, but I figured out, kind of recently, that so... no, a lot... of this is on ."
I took a deep, shaky breath. I wasn’t quite ready to let myself believe he was standing in front of .
"Please, Cassidy," he whispered.
"I... I don’t know."
"You take all the ti you need, babe. I’m not going anywhere."
I pushed away from him and wiped my face again. "I don’t know where we go from here, Carter. Our lives are so different now. I don’t know how to make them sh."
"We can figure it out as we go. There’s no pressure."
I snorted. "There is pressure, Carter. I have a child to think about now."
"And I will get to know him."
I shook my head. "Not yet."
"What the fuck, Cass?"
"I need to know if this is going to work before you ’get to know him.’"
"It’s going to work, babe, because I’m not losing you again."
I let out a groan of irritation. "So, that hasn’t changed."
"What’s that?"
"Your need to make every situation your bitch."
He chuckled. "There’s nothing we can’t accomplish together."
"Well, thank you, Maya Angelou." I flopped back onto the chair.
"Hey." He followed, sitting across from again. "You still love ?"
"No."
Carter smiled. "Liar."
I studied him for several seconds and then rolled my eyes. "Yes, I still love you, you dipshit bolt."
"Love you too, nut." He grinned as he reached into his shirt and pulled out a chain that was around his neck. Attached to it was the matching nut and bolt to mine and his dog tags. "I still haven’t taken it off."
I bit my lip and pulled out mine. " neither."
He lifted my hands to his lips and kissed my palms. "I will do anything, Cassidy. Whatever you need to do, but I won’t lose you again."
"I don’t know how to get past the hurt... the hurt I’ve caused you more than anything."
"I know. We’ll have to figure it out, but if you promise to dig in with , I’ll do the sa. I forgive you, baby. Do you forgive ?"
I nodded. "Yes."
"Are you going to figure this out with ?"
"Do I have a choice?"
He chuckled. "No."
I leaned forward and laid my head on his lap. "Can we wait to tell our families anything for a little while?"
"Yeah, baby, we can." He stroked my hair. "But I want to et Maverick."
I nodded. "Fine."
"Why’d you call him Maverick?"
I sat up and smiled. "Why do you think?"
"Fuck , Cassidy. I love you." He rose to his feet and pulled with him, wrapping his arms around .
"I’m thinking now wouldn’t be a good ti to tell you what his middle na is."
"Carter? Seriously?"
I blinked up at him. "I just said now would not be a good ti to tell you that."
He chuckled. "You didn’t say I couldn’t guess."
"Not really the point, Carter."
"Kind of is the point, Cassidy." He cocked his head. "Backtracking a bit, what did you an by you didn’t know I was okay? I sent you letters."
"No you didn’t."
"Babe, I did. We almost never had reliable internet, so I sent two handwritten letters in the packages I sent ho with a note for my mom to forward to you. I had one or two opportunities to send stuff ho, so I packaged shit up together. I know my brothers got everything I sent, so I’m sure she would have forwarded."
"Well, I didn’t get anything from you, Carter, except that email, so I don’t know what to tell you."
"I’ll talk to my mom and figure it out, honey, but I swear to Christ I sent you letters."
I bit my lip and nodded. "Okay."
"How do you want to handle the Maverick thing?" He stroked my hair. " establishing myself in your lives?"
"I don’t know. I guess we’ll take it slow. He knows who you are... sort of."
"He does?"
I slipped out of his arms and nodded. "I have a couple of pictures of you that he’s looked at more than a few tis. I have the one of you in your flight suit and the one in your uniform, rember? You gave them to after BMT? Plus, all the ones from when we were kids."
Carter nodded. "I didn’t think you’d keep ’em."
"I have everything you ever gave , Carter," I said. "Maverick obviously didn’t see you walking toward the kitchen earlier or he probably would have called you by na. You have always been Uncle Carter in my ho."
"Shit, Cass! Uncle Carter? I’m not your fuckin’ brother!"
"Well, I’m sorry, Carter, what would you have had tell him instead? ’Honey, this is Carter. He was my best friend a long ti ago, and I still love him more than anyone in the world outside of you, but I decided to screw your biological father and now the love of my life won’t speak to . Please bear with while I never date another man as long as I live, and a part of my heart never truly heals, probably because I nad you after him, all the while we’ll stare at his pictures together and wish for what could never be’?" I sighed. "I think that would make a pretty crappy mom, buddy. It was easier to just say you were Uncle Carter, and you were off flying planes and saving the world." I looked up at him and rolled my eyes. He was staring at as though I had lost my mind. And then he let out a roar of laughter that had scanning the room for sothing to throw at him. "Bite , Carter Quinn!"
He continued to laugh, but picked up and threw gently on the bed where he covered my body with his and kissed , his laughter and my irritation drying up pretty quickly. I had never been kissed like this. Don’t get wrong, I’d been kissed before, but even Pierre, who I considered to be a boyfriend regardless of how long it lasted, never kissed like this. I knew Carter would be good at this... he was good at everything... but I hadn’t banked on just how good. He slid his tongue into my mouth and I t it with mine, arching into him when he slid his hand under my shirt and cupped my breast. He tugged one of my bra cups down and ran a fingernail over my nipple, making it pebble instantly.
His mouth moved to my neck, his warm breath against my skin sending shivers down my spine. "Baby," he whispered. "God, Cass, you’re amazing."
"Wait, Carter." I pushed at his shoulders.
"Huh-uh," he whispered against my skin. "Not waiting anymore."
"No, Carter. Stop." I pushed at him again.
He rolled off . "What the hell?"
"I’m not doing this with you."
"Ever?"
I blushed. "Well, no, but certainly not today."
"Why?"
I slid off the bed. "Oh, I don’t know... maybe because you had your hand up another woman’s shirt less than three hours ago."
"Fuck!" he hissed.
"And you offered to do that to her later."
"Cass—"
"And you have a reputation of being a total man whore."
He sat up and scowled. "Who the fuck have you been talkin’ to?"
"That’s not important."
"Yeah, it fuckin’ is, Cass. Those bitches—"
"Please don’t call them bitches."
"Fuck , Cassidy," he ground out. "If those won can’t keep their mouths shut, don’t matter that they’re old ladies, we’re gonna have a problem."
"Well, you better get over that really quickly, buddy, because I like them, and I honestly don’t get the impression they’re going around saying anything to anyone else. They were simply filling in on what they’d heard from their husbands, mind you, so if you have an issue, talk to them." I crossed my arms. "Just don’t start a fight."
"Holy shit, woman, what the fuck does that an?"
"I just heard you like to fight, which surprised a little, because you were always so good at keeping your anger in check."
"Yeah, well it’s been a shitty few years, Cassidy, but that’s not really the point—" Before he could finish whatever he thought would change my mind, his phone buzzed on the nightstand. He groaned and grabbed for it, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Maverick’s looking for you."
I nodded, setting my clothes right. "I’m the worst mom ever."
"Baby, calm down. He’s safe. We’ll go down and check on him."
"I shouldn’t have to get a text from another person telling he’s looking for ! I should be down there with him—" I ranted as I fixed my hair, "—not up here letting you paw at ."
"Paw at you?" Carter laughed. "I haven’t even begun to paw at you."
"Carter, shush." I closed my eyes, my body thrumming with desire. I couldn’t wait for him to paw at for real.
"Cassidy Eleanor Dennis." I felt Carter’s hand on my waist and looked up at him.
"What?" I whispered.
"You’re a great mom. There isn’t a person in the world who would argue that point. And I know Payton and Dani enough to know that they would make sure Maverick’s safe and happy, regardless of if it’s for a minute or a year, so that text was a courtesy text. Not a ’get down here right now’ text. Hawk would have said sothing different if it was."
"You think so?"
"I know so. They may be loose with their opinion of , but you, they love."
"I think they like you just fine, but yeah, they like better, which is why I was warned."
"Figured." He smiled and leaned down to kiss quickly. "Now, let’s go find Maverick."
I nodded and followed him downstairs.
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