“I think that’s sweet,” Gran said.
“I think it’s psycho,” Dean countered.
I changed the topic of conversation for him and this is how he repays me? “Really, Dean? After everything Cassie and I have been through, you think my following her work online is psycho?”
“It’s a little weird, don’t you think? You won’t even talk to her in real life, but you’ll follow her online?”
The chair scraped against the floor as I shoved back, jumping to my feet. My breathing hitched as my defenses rose. No one talked about me and Cassie like that. Not even my brother.
“Jack, sit down!” Gran said sternly. “And Dean, stop calling your brother names! You two are acting like little boys.”
I inhaled a sharp breath before sliding the chair back toward the table and sitting down. “I can’t talk to her until I’m not married anymore, OK? So until then, yeah, I will follow everything she does online. And if that magazine can give me a glimpse into how she’s seeing the world, I’ll take it. Because until I’m back in her life, that’s the only Cassie I get. And if that makes me psycho, then I don’t give a fuck. Sorry, Gran,” I offered before she swatted my shoulder.
“I’m going to ground you! I don’t care how old you are,” she threatened with a slight chuckle.
“He started it,” I said, nodding my head toward my brother. “Let’s talk about Melissa some more.”
Dean waved his arms in the air in defeat. “I’m sorry. Truce?”
Before I could respond, Gran asked, “How long are you planning to stay home?”
Gramps looked up from his plate and directly into my eyes. “Your whole off-season?”
I swallowed my last bite of food. “I don’t know. I figured I’d wait for Marc to call me about the annulment, and then I’d go to Alabama to sign the papers and pack up the house at the same time.”
“And then what?” Dean asked.
“I’ll have to bring my stuff back here, but I want to get to New York as soon as possible to make things right with Cass,” I admitted. “I only have a few months before I have to be back in Arizona for spring training, and I still need to find a place to rent.”
“That’s not much time.” Gramps sounded worried.
“I know.”
“What are you planning on saying to Cassie?” Gran tilted her head toward me. “How are you going to win her back?”
“I don’t know yet. But it will be something along the lines of how much I suck and how much she doesn’t.”
Gramps laughed at my words, and I smiled.
“Very romantic.” Dean sarcastically popped two thumbs up in the air.
“Shut up, Dean. No one likes you.”
“You know you’ll have to give her more than just some nice words, dear,” Gran said as she eyed me meaningfully.
“Trust me, Gran. I know.”
Cassie’s face relaxed as she leaned up to kiss my cheek. “I like that you followed me online. I followed you too.”
My adrenaline started racing as I adjusted my position on the couch. “You did?”
“Of course I did. I still loved you, Jack. I cared about you. I wanted to see how you were. It was a big deal that you’d made it into the major leagues. I wasn’t going to miss it,” she explained, her shoulders shrugging like she had no choice in the matter.
“So you don’t think I’m psycho?”
“I didn’t say that,” she teased playfully.
I pounced on her before she could get away, pinning her body beneath mine and against the couch cushions. Her chest moved heavily up and down, and it took everything in me to not rip her shirt off and lose myself in her body. My shorts tightened as I leaned down to kiss her, brushing my tongue along her bottom lip. She moaned slightly as she arched her head back, her lips parting. I pressed my mouth against hers, my tongue and hers touching erotically in a playful tease of push and pull.
I wanted to tear her clothes off and devour her inch by inch. I sucked on her neck, the taste of her skin almost sending me into a frenzy. She ran her hands down the length of my back as she pulled my shirt up. She pressed her fingers into my skin as I kissed and licked her ear and neck before working my way back to her mouth. Jesus, I wanted this girl. She fired me up like no one else. Trying to maintain some semblance of self-control, I pulled back from the kiss, and her hands tightened around my neck. I chuckled and asked, “Don’t you want to hear more?”
Her grip tightened as she pulled my face to hers. “In a minute,” she said, as she grazed her tongue across my lips.