Another Chance (14 page)

Lauren grinned. “You lucked out so maybe I will.”

“There you go.”

After the meal they sat in the living room telling stories, Cassie and Mark wrapped in each other as they usually were. “I remember the old days where we used to drink all weekend and still get up on Monday morning for work,” said Mark’s friend Ian, “Wasn’t that long ago but I bet we couldn’t do it now.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“You’re an old man, Mark, we’re past that.”

“Well they say you’re only as old as the woman you feel, so that makes me thirty.”

Cassie laughed. “If only that were true.”

He kissed her. “I’ve never heard any complaints.”

“I’ve never had anything to complain about.”

“You need to get a ring on this woman’s finger,” said Ian, “you don’t want her slipping away. She’s far too good for you.” Everyone laughed.

“We don’t need that crap. Cassie and I are perfectly fine the way we are. Aren’t we, Cass?”

The colour had drained from Cassie’s face. It wasn’t that they hadn’t had the conversation, it was that he had never put it that way or put her on the spot like that. “Cass?”

She smiled, but her eyes didn’t. “Who wants a coffee? I could do with one.”

“Sure,” said Lauren brightly. She waited until Cassie had left the room and glared at Mark. “Dick.”

“What did I do?”

“Do you really need to ask?”

She stood at the bench with her back to him when he walked into the kitchen. “Cassie?”

“Water shouldn’t take too long, I’ll make some cups and bring them in so people can help themselves.”

“Don’t avoid me.”

When she faced him, he frowned as he spotted signs that she had shed tears. Her eyes were a little red, but it was late, and she had worked all day organising the evenings events. “Cass, I’m sorry if that upset you. You know how I am about marriage.”

“You didn’t need to make it sound like you didn’t want me that way.”

“If I did, I didn’t mean it. I love you, Cassie, I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me that.”

She lowered her eyes. “Oh hell, Cass, it does mean something to you. Why haven’t you ever said anything?”

“I figured if you wanted to you’d ask me. My parents were happily married for twenty years until they died, I always thought I would have what they had.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “Would you be this emotional about it if we had a child?”

Cassie shrugged. “It has driven me crazy that I haven’t managed to get pregnant, I wanted to give Sophie a brother or sister and give you a baby.”

“Love, I want what makes you happy. And it’s all my fault that we haven’t had a child together, me and my dodgy sperm count.”

That made her laugh. “I still love you though. You and your dodgy sperm.”

“That’s my girl.”

“I love you, Mark.”

“Love you too, now lets get this coffee out to them and kick them out. I want my birthday present.”

Her long dark hair hung down her back, in a plait so that it stayed in place instead of the wild way it usually fell. Cassie greeted Mark in the bedroom dressed in a translucent nightgown, and he had never seen her more beautiful. He was left speechless as she approached him slowly, kneeling before him and gazing up at him with more love than he had ever seen before.

“Cassie,” he murmured as she gestured for him to remove his shirt while she went to work on his pants. As she had aged, he thought she had matured beautifully. She had curves in all the right places which he loved. After being reintroduced to sex she had taken to it with great enthusiasm and now she was about to go down on him, something he loved her doing.

She had been determined to get it right, and now for his birthday she took his length in her mouth and deep throated him in one move that left him gasping. “Holy crap, Cassie, you’ve never done that before.”

He was sure she was grinning down there. It didn’t take him long to climax and when he did she grinned at him. “Did you like your birthday present?”

Mark pulled her to him and kissed her. He loved this woman more than he had ever loved anyone his whole life. “It was amazing babe, you are amazing. I am luckier than I have any right to be, Cassie. So lucky to have found you.”

“I feel the same way my love,” she said, stroking his face. “I love you so much, Mark, and I hope we have many more birthdays together like this.”

“Cassie, about earlier. If I thought you wanted to get married that badly, I would do it in a heartbeat. I’d do anything to make you happy.”

“Right now to make me happy I want you to take me to bed and do whatever you want for your birthday.”

He laughed. “Your wish is my command.”

Everything was perfect.

“I’ve had an offer of some work, Cass, and it’s worth a lot of money.”

Cassie rolled her eyes, she had heard this one before, and nothing ever panned out. “What is it this time?”

“A contract in Dubai, proper building work. For three months. We could all go, but it’s an almost immediate start so you’ll have to work out time off as soon as possible.”

“Mark, we can’t all go to Dubai.”

“Why not?”

“Well for starters we wouldn’t be allowed to live together over there, you have to be married.”

He stared at her. “It didn’t even cross my mind.”

“No, it didn’t.”

“I’ve already agreed to it. It was through an old mate, and he’s given me work before. It never occurred to me.”

“Did you sign a contract?”

He had that guilty look. The puppy eyed look to beg forgiveness. “Mark,” she whined.

“I’m sorry, it seemed like a good idea, and I thought Sophie would enjoy it too.”

“Well she’s going nowhere without me and besides you still couldn’t take her there as you’re not her father.” The words came out without thinking. “You know what I mean.”

“I’ve really fucked this up, haven’t I?”

“Yeah you have. When do you go?”

“In a few days. I’ve got a small job coming up, but I can find someone else to do that. Cass, I’m really sorry. Hell, I don’t want to be away from you for that long.”

“It had better be worth it.”

“Money wise yes.” He grinned and pulled her into his arms. “The thought of not having you in my bed for all that time is very concerning though.”

“How concerning?” she asked, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

“I love you so much, Cassie, and I am such an idiot for doing it. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“It always does, Mark, though it’s not taken you away for so long before.”

“It should be over quickly, and I’ll be back. When I do get back, let’s do things properly.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, confused.

“Let’s get married, not have to worry about anything like this again.”

“Mark Burrows, is that a proposal?”

“Shit. I’ve cocked this up too, haven’t I?”

She shook her head. “Let’s go to bed, you can show me something that you can do right.”

“I hope so.”

Cassie laughed, Mark grinned and kissed her. “Come on love, I can prove to you that tonight isn’t a complete waste of time.”

Within days, he was on the plane, and Cassie and Sophie missed him like crazy. The place wasn’t the same without Mark around. Cassie kept herself busy with work, but she hated the nights alone in bed and wished he was back in her arms.

It was a month into the trip that the call came, it was late, and Mark had called a few times at that hour to catch up with Cassie. He hated being apart from her, and the sound of her voice was comforting. This time however, he had news. “Cassie, I’m coming home.” He sounded tired and strained.

“Are you all right?” She asked.

“Love, telling you over the phone might be the most stupid thing I’ve ever done but I can’t keep it from you.”

Fear gripped her. “Mark, what is going on? What’s happened?”

“Something happened love, I didn’t feel well so they insisted I see a doctor and he found something.”

“Found what?” Her voice shook as she was torn between needing to know what was going on but not wanting to know.

“Cassie, it’s melanoma. It’s advanced, but I don’t know exactly how bad it is.”

“Cancer,” she whispered.

“Yes. So I’m coming home so I can see doctors there and see if we can get it sorted.”

“Oh, Mark,” she cried, bursting into tears.

“I’m sorry love, I should have waited until I was home, but I knew you would want to know why. I’ll be on the next plane out of here, I’ll give you the details.” She recorded the details, and he left the call, needing to get packed and to the airport. It was a long, lonely drive to Auckland to collect him. She had left Sophie with Lauren, not wanting the girl to see her upset.

As excited as she was for Mark’s homecoming, she was equally terrified of what might be on the way and wanted to be in his arms again, feeling the comfort of his embrace. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel, her mind on the words he had said on the phone. It might not be bad, but her gut told her it was, and while it would have been easier to ignore that nagging feeling, it stuck to her.

She waited while the plane landed, and Mark went through customs. It seemed to take forever, but he was there, wrapping his arms around her and telling her everything would be fine.

“Let’s stay in a motel for the night.”

“We’re an hour and a half from home tops. Lauren and Sophie will want to see you too.”

“Do they know?”

“Lauren does, Sophie doesn’t. I told her your contract ended early because I figured you would want to tell her together. Hell, I need us to tell her together.”

“So call them and tell them we’re staying the night. I want some time with you alone before I face the real world again.” There were plenty of motels around the airport, and once they were in their room Mark sat on the bed and pulled Cassie to him., “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“What are we going to do?”

“I’ll go see a doctor, confirm the diagnosis and we’ll find out about treatment options. We’ll beat this, Cassie, I’m not letting anything separate me from you.”

There were tears in her eyes now. “As if I would let you go that easily anyway.”

“Let’s go to bed. I want to make love and forget the rest of the world for just a little while.”

She nodded, smiling at him. “That sounds real good to me.”

Cassie was glad they had stayed the next day. Telling Sophie was the hardest thing she thought she had ever done. “Dad has cancer?”

She nodded, and Mark squeezed Sophie’s hand. “That’s what the doctor says love. Now I’m home, and we’ll go see a doctor here and find out how to get rid of it.”

Sophie hugged Mark tight. “I hope they can fix it quickly, Dad. One of the kids at school had cancer, but he died. I don’t want you to die.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine, Soph. How can I not with the love of you two? Best girls ever.”

Cassie wiped her face. “Are you okay, Mum?” Sophie asked.

“I’ll be happy when Dad gets the all-clear sweetheart.”

“Me too.”

Cassie saw the concern in Mark’s eyes. Since he had insisted on spending the night in the motel, and had been so tender that night she was sure that it was worse than he was letting on. Now she knew for sure.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Patrick Cross rolled over in bed. Another dream featuring Cassie. He didn’t understand why, it was twelve years since they’d last seen each other. Yet there she was, night after night, taunting him.

One fumbled coupling before she broke up with him and here he was all these years later, waking up with a woody at the memory of her. She was his first and the one he had genuinely been in love with. For years, he had regretted the time he hadn’t spent with her, the years that he had been too afraid to tell her how he had felt in fear of being rejected.

He battled the depression that went with being dumped by the girl you’ve loved all your life. Over time, he fought back, becoming a highly skilled cosmetic surgeon, very much in demand.

It would have been easy to pack his bags and leave the country, and he had done for a while, but he came back in the hope that one day he would get another chance with her though every day that passed that looked less likely. In the meantime, he filled his life with empty affairs in the hope that he would find something that resembled what he felt for Cassie. No luck so far.

Now he had to deal with this morning’s result of that obsession. “Hmmm. Speaking of obsession, I need to get out of bed and go deal with Emily.”

He stood in the shower, letting the water fall over him, Cassie still in his thoughts. Patrick didn’t know why she had been on his mind so much lately, he thought of her off and on over the years but not as much as recently.