“Samson. Yeah, I think so, too. It’s a nice feeling to know that big guy cares so much. Would you believe my mom is coming to live with me?”
Sympathy showed in Jessica’s eyes. “Just when you had an empty nest, too. Are your guys disappointed?”
“Nope. They come from a tightly knit family and approved of the move even before I’d made the decision. And you’ve kind of been in that boat yourself before, haven’t you?”
“Well, not quite as extreme, but yeah, I had to leave Houston with no notice when I found out about my abductor getting free. I knew he’d come after me and the baby. And even though they’d only just met me, Lydia and her men hid me in a remote part of their ranch to keep me safe, and then when it was closer to time to have Bella, they moved me by helicopter to a cabin close to the main ranch house.”
“Mmm,” Cassie said, sipping from her wineglass and hiding a smile. “Tank and Troy were a big part of that, weren’t they?”
Jessica looked down at her hands in her lap. “They were the ones who rushed me to the hospital. I realized later, after I’d had Bella, they’d been keeping an eye on me the whole time I was living near the ranch house. I knew they were handy and wanted to be helpful, but I had so much on my plate with the baby and figuring out my next step…”
Cassie said, “So what’s holding you back now, besides the nightmares and nerves?” As if those weren’t huge obstacles.
“I know I shouldn’t be intimidated. That would never be their intention. They’re nothing like Trevor Dornan. But they scare me when they…loom over me, and it triggers this panic response. I hate it.” Jessica looked over her shoulder, surveying the crowd as if she was looking for someone and then turned back to face the bar. “I hate it.”
Cassie hoped wherever Trevor Dornan was, he was suffering at least as much as his victim still suffered. “I’ll check back with you in a little while, after my dance.”
“Okay,” Jessica said as she lifted her glass in a small toast with Cassie.
But after her dance with Samson, when Cassie looked for Jessica, she was already gone.
Chapter Sixteen
“So, Mr. Cutter, you’re executive chef at Hermione?” Joseph Resendez asked as he took his seat beside Tamara and opposite of where Ivan sat next to Samson. Cassie and Delicia were seated at either end of the dining room table.
Lightning flashed outside, followed several seconds later by the rumble of thunder as Ivan cut into the succulent turkey breast, but the storm didn’t necessarily serve as a mood-setter for their Thanksgiving gathering. Cassie’s grown kids took after her in looks and were a credit to her as a mother, and they’d proved welcoming enough when the introductions had been made the day before.
Ivan set down his loaded fork and lifted his glass of iced tea. “That’s right, Joseph. And feel free to call me Ivan.”
Joseph was an amusing mixture of protective son and ardent admirer because Hermione’s far-reaching reputation for quality was partly Ivan’s doing. Hermione Jones might be high maintenance, but she was an ace with the marketing, and he was her ace in the hole behind the kitchen door.
Joseph nodded as he took another bite of dressing and cranberries, and merriment filled his gaze, his eyes the same color as Cassie’s, which were like her mother’s. “Just not sure I can do that, Chef, being a fan-boy and all.”
Ivan heard the amusement in Samson’s soft snort. Tamara and Joseph been more reserved with his brother since arriving the day before on the eve of Thanksgiving. What they didn’t know was that, behind Samson’s steely-eyed seriousness, he worried they might not approve and give Cassie a hard time in private.
It’d been several weeks since he and Samson had spent that amazing night with Cassie. At first he could tell she’d been braced for bumps in the road in the days that followed, but their lives had settled into a comfortable rhythm.
Ivan didn’t see her quite as much as he wanted because of work and living in Morehead. It was the same for Samson, but they were making it work. Cassie welcomed them on any night they saw their way clear to spend with her, which had allowed for some time alone with her, as well as nights where the three of them fell asleep together, crammed onto her king-sized bed. She was a little cold natured, so snuggling between them suited her just fine.
He wasn’t surprised by how natural it was being with her, no matter what they were doing. Delicia had taken their presence in stride, and gradually the worry over how the rest of her family would react had faded. They were being discreet to avoid her having to deal with more histrionics from her father after what Samson had told him had happened at the hospital.