From Ashes

Isabella was crying softly and Jesse actually left her side and walked right up to John to hug him. John’s eyes went wide with shock and his hands came up and patted Jesse’s back. When Jesse stepped back and tried to thank him, no words would come out and he just hung his head. John patted his shoulder and walked past him to sit next to Isabella on the couch and pull her into a hug as the rest of the family had done.

Tyler wrapped an arm around my waist and touched the exposed part of my back. “That’s awesome, Cass, when’d you get it?” he whispered.

“Thursday. Where’s Gage?” I’d bought a couple of those racer-back tanks; the one I was wearing today was a dark green, the same color as Gage’s eyes, eyes that I’d spent way too long without.

He pulled me back a ways from the living room toward the dining room. “The girls said he went out to ride a couple hours before you got here. He must have gotten back sometime early this morning; I was still asleep when he did and when he left.”

“Gotten back?”

“He went to California yesterday to get you, Cass; got to my parents’ house, and my mom told him you were gone. From what Aunt Tessa said, he thinks you’re gone gone. I’m tellin’ you, Cass. He’s. Fucked. Up.”

“He went to California? How did he know I was there? Did you tell him?”

Tyler looked at me like I was dense. “Cass, come on, I told him when we were in the airport before we even left Texas. I thought you just left without a word. He’d already woken up and was looking for you. He told me about the note you left him—not a good choice, by the way.” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Wait! He has known where I was for two weeks and he didn’t try to come get me or call me before yesterday?” Co

“Gage and I decided it was best. You were slipping away, and it was because of what Gage had done. If he had tried to push you by calling or coming right away, which he wanted to, we both agreed it would have just pushed you even farther away. We agreed to let you work it out and wait for you to come back to him, but he’s been so messed up, yesterday he just couldn’t wait any longer.”

“But now he thinks I’m gone,” I said softly.

Tyler nodded. “Yeah, sweetheart, he thinks it’s over.”

His words felt like a physical blow and I bent slightly, reaching out to grab Ty’s arm to keep myself standing. “It can’t be. I just had to deal with what happened, I had to fix me. And I did. I couldn’t come back to him without fixing me.”

“You guys will figure it out—you’re meant for each other.” He kissed my head and wrapped his big arms around me. “Just be easy on him, all right? Like I said, he’s not doing well.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, and looked back over at Isabella. I remembered all the stories she’d told me of her true love during the times I’d come to visit her, and how she was so sure Gage and I were soul mates and would be together forever. God, I hoped she was right.

G AGE

BEAR AND I were making our way over the last hill before the main house came into view. I’d spent the morning staring at the house I’d built with Dad, unable to make myself go inside. We’d run for a bit to get some pent-up energy out of Bear and for me to try to clear my mind, but nothing helped; it just reaffirmed that Cass was gone. As soon as I saw the house, I saw the other cars, and when we got closer, I noticed a brand-new Tahoe and familiar Camaro . . . Jesse’s. Shit, I thought, something happened to Isabella.

Making quick work of taking everything off Bear, I left him out in one of his fields so he didn’t have to go back into the stable and forced myself into the house. I’d come to really like Isabella over the past two months; she was just as sweet as Mama, and she always welcomed me and Cassidy into the house. I dreaded the day Jesse would call with the bad news. And today, I just didn’t think I could handle it.

I heard laughter when I opened the door and, when it shut, the noise stopped completely. There was a buzz in the air and it was making my heart race. I felt like I should have known what was happening, but I was so far gone from what was going on with Cassidy, I couldn’t focus on it enough. Turning the corner to the living room, I stopped dead and gripped the corner of the wall.

Cassidy, Isabella, and Mama were sitting on the main couch, each with completely different expressions on their faces, but all I could focus on was Cassidy’s. She looked like she was about to burst, like she’d just seen the sun for the first time and was terrified that it was about to be taken away from her.

She slowly got off the couch and made her way to me, stopping when she was just inches from me. All I could think about was the fear she’d had in her eyes the night she left and how she’d flinch away when I tried to touch her. The fear on her face now was nothing like her fear of me, so I slowly brought my hand up, dragged the tips of my fingers across her right cheekbone, and cupped her face. Not once did she flinch, not once did she blink, and her body didn’t still when I touched her; it relaxed.

That was all I needed to know.

I grabbed around her waist to haul her body to my chest and crushed her mouth to mine. Not caring that my entire family was staring at us. Not caring about anything except for that little noise in the back of her throat, and that her arms immediately went around my neck, her hands taking off my cowboy hat and letting it fall to the ground, grabbing fistfuls of my hair. Without another word I walked us out of the house and toward my truck, cursing when I realized it was blocked in. A second later the Tahoe bleeped and the lights flashed, and Cassidy smiled slyly as she handed me the fob.

“How?”

“I’ll explain everything. Can we go to our spot?”

Kissing her soft lips once, I whispered against them, “I’ll do one better.”

I drove us to the house and watched Cassidy’s confused face as it came to view. “What is this place, Gage?”

Swallowing hard, I grabbed her hand and looked at her. “It’s our house, darlin’.”

At the word our, her head whipped around to mine and her eyes went wide. “Our house?” she whispered. “We have a house?”

“If you want it.” Her eyes went bright with unshed tears and she turned to look out the windshield, taking in everything about the outside. “C’mon. Let’s talk and I’ll show you around.”

We walked around the house first. The entire time she held my hand tightly, and her other hand was covering her mouth, which was wide open. By the time we got inside, I couldn’t go any farther; I pulled her to me and kissed her long and hard. Something about being in our house ignited something in both of us and the kiss quickly escalated.

I was kicking off my boots at the same time as I unbuttoned her shorts and pulled them over her hips, taking her lacy black underwear with them. My fingers trailed over her heat and I damn near died when I found her completely ready for me. She moaned and arched against my hand when I slid two fingers in her and her gasp filled the empty house. Her head had fallen back, and she righted it, trying to focus her eyes on my plaid button-up. When she was tugging it down my arms, I took my fingers away and helped her remove the shirt, laying it flat on the floor before standing up and grabbing that sexy-as-sin green shirt she was wearing and pulling it, and another light shirt I hadn’t noticed, off her, revealing Cassidy without a bra.

“Babe,” I growled, and bent to take one of her perfect breasts in my mouth, loving the way her fingers slid through my hair as she gently kept my head in place.

Too soon her hands were gone, but then they were at my jeans and in no time she had them off and had taken my length in her hands, and I had to struggle to stay standing as I kicked the jeans and boxer-briefs away from us. Removing her hands from me, I hitched her legs up around my hips and helped lay her on my shirt on the floor.