Deacon grinned at him. And he wasn’t the only one amused, so were the two dogs. Jury whimpered in the passenger seat, her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth.
“Strike out again?”
Fuck.
“Means she ain’t for you, cuz.”
“Thought you were headed back to The Barn.”
“I am. Just wanted to ask you to get a box of wraps for me, too.”
“Coulda texted me.”
“Coulda, but spotted you across the parking lot talkin’ to that blonde again and decided to watch.”
“Great,” Judge muttered under his breath.
Deacon chuckled. “Grab me a box of Magnums.”
“You don’t fuckin’ need Magnums.”
“And you won’t need any wraps if you keep strikin’ the fuck out.” The window rolled shut and Deke pulled away.
Asshole.
“You didn’t have to do this, Cass.”
Cassidy put the last of the bags onto the counter and turned toward her younger sister. “Yes, I did. It’s the least I can do.”
Heather shrugged one shoulder and began to unpack a bag. “You’re not obligated.”
“I feel bad crashing here. And you paid, I just did the heavy lifting.” Her sister hated grocery shopping, so that was the least Cassie could do to help out around the house.
“You’re my sister.”
“Yes, and you’re my baby sister. And it’s not just me staying here, it’s Daisy, who can be hell on wheels.”
“What does that mean, Momma?”
Cassie frowned, not realizing her daughter had snuck into the kitchen. When her daughter was quiet like that, she worried. Normally Daisy made sure everyone knew where she was and why.
Heather snorted. “It’s fine.”
“I don’t want to cramp your style... Interfere with...” Cassie raised her eyebrows and didn’t finish since big ears were now settled at the kitchen table with a coloring book and crayons. Daisy might look like she was occupied, but Cassie knew her daughter was absorbing every word like a sponge.
“Yeah, well... We’ll just get you two ear plugs for the time being,” Heather teased.
Her twenty-eight-year-old sister had only married her husband a year ago and since Tyler was forty, they’d decided not to wait to start a family. Which meant, they’d been working on it and now with two more people in the household...
“Tyler’s parents are coming, right?” Cassie asked.
“Yep. And his brother, sister-in-law and nephew.”
“So that’s nine of us for Christmas.” She shoved a gallon of milk into the already full fridge. “I hope I got enough.”
“If not, we can do another run. We’ve got plenty of time and space since I’ve got an extra fridge plus a full-size freezer in the garage for when Ty hunts.”
Cassie paused. “What about...”
Heather’s hand stilled and her blue eyes hit Cassie’s. “I talked to Mom and Dad yesterday...” She shook her head.
“I had nothing to do with it,” Cassie forced the whisper past the lump in her throat.
“I know that, but they refuse to believe it. They don’t understand how you couldn’t have known.”
“I didn’t know!”
Heather came over to her and put a hand on her arm. “Cass, I know. I know you would never do anything like that.”
“I’m their daughter. Why don’t they believe me?” Her parents not having her back hurt more than everything else that happened.
Heather shook her head again. “I don’t know. You would’ve been,” her sister mouthed the word arrested before continuing, “too, if the,” she mouthed investigators, “thought you were. They found no,” she mouthed evidence, “of that.”
No shit. Cassie knew all of that. When everything went down it had been the scariest moments of her life. The rug had been pulled from under her and she had been left trying to make sense of it all.
“But the ‘rents are getting a lot of sh— crap from people they know because of it. Maybe once that all dies down and it’s old news, they’ll see things more clearly.”
If it took for everything to die down and become old news, Cassie wasn’t sure she’d ever forgive her parents. They should believe her now. Currently, they were blaming Cassie for everything that happened and everything they had to deal with.
Like being ashamed and embarrassed.
Well, she was ashamed and embarrassed, too.
Because of that whole damn thing, she also had to leave her job and her home in New York and come to Manning Grove to avoid some of the shit that had splattered all over her.
She’d already decided she wasn’t going back there ever again. She’d need to find a fresh start for her and Daisy elsewhere. A place no one knew who they were. Or who she’d been married to or who Daisy’s father was.
She just didn’t know yet where that would be.
In the meantime, her sister and brother-in-law, Tyler, were kind enough to take them in. Cassie just felt bad about putting them out. Especially since they were still in their “honeymoon” phase.
She turned and glanced over at her daughter, who was her clone. It was during her own honeymoon when Daisy was conceived.