The Wedding Agreement (20 page)

Nina seemed to ponder that for a second.

Cass knew she was going to regret the next words out of her mouth before she spoke them. “Maybe we should both try it. Then we'll know if we really don't like it.”

Nina looked both excited and apprehensive about Cass' suggestion. After thinking it over for a minute, much to Cass' dissatisfaction, Nina nodded. “Okay. Let's do it.”

“Awesome.” Cass tried to infuse some excitement into her response, but she was pretty sure she'd failed miserably.

Alex caught her elbow as they walked toward the ride. “You don't have to go on. She'll get over it.”

Cass shrugged like it was no big deal, even though it was a
very
big deal. Cass had always imagined that her version of hell would consist of a roller coaster forever on the verge of its speedy descent toward imminent death. Though she guessed if she were already in hell, the threat of death would be less frightening. But none of that mattered as she waited in line to face her greatest fear. Or die from it. Whichever.

When they were next in line, Alex leaned into her to whisper in her ear. “I chose this coaster because it's pretty tame. It goes fairly high, but there's no loops or anything. It'll be okay.” He put a strong, comforting hand on her back. “Thanks for doing this.”

She turned to look at him, taking in the virile male beauty that was Alex Walker. She gave him a small smile. “No problem.”

And there wasn't a problem. Until they boarded the rickety cart that Cass was sure hadn't been tested for safety since the early sixties. The fact that she had no idea when the park had opened or when the ride had been built made no difference to her assessment. She was obviously getting on a vehicle designed by Satan.

Nina sat between Cass and Alex, clutching at them both as the ride began its slow climb up the first hill. Cass wished she could clutch back.

As they approached what seemed to be the end of the track—the point that made it appear as though you were either going to soar into the sky or drop off the unfinished edge and hurtle toward the hard cement below, Cass did something she hadn't done in years. She prayed.

In truth, the hill wasn't very high. But the fear in Cass' head likened it to Mount Everest. And as they reached the top and hovered there for their final moments on earth, Cass thought about how at least she was facing the end with her favorite people. That thought was cut off by her own piercing scream as the ride flew down the hill and whipped around a turn. Once they disembarked the ride, Cass might admit that the terms “flew” and “whipped” were slight exaggerations, but for now her terror tended to blow things out of proportion.

Thankfully the ride was brief. Before Cass could even take inventory of all her body parts to make sure they were still where they were supposed to be, the ride was pulling back into where it started.

The safety bar lifted, and Nina jumped up. “That was awesome! Wasn't that awesome, Cass?”

Cass tried to get her shaking under control as she stood and climbed out of the cart. “It was something.”

As Nina skipped toward the exit in front of them, Alex wrapped his arm around Cass' waist. “So, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you haven't been converted into a thrill-ride enthusiast.”

“The only way I'd get on one of those again is at gunpoint. Even then, it may be worth taking the bullet.”

He tightened his hold and moved closer to press a kiss to her temple. “You're amazing. You know that?”

She curled into him, putting her own arm around him in return. “So you keep telling me.”

They both laughed as Nina thankfully announced that she was ready for the water park. They spent the rest of the day riding water slides, eating junk food, and laughing hysterically. When Nina seemed to be struggling to keep her eyes open, they decided to call it a day. They changed back into their dry clothes and met outside the locker rooms. As they walked toward the exit, Alex put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the card they'd been given earlier. “I forgot all about this. Want to stop and see what it looks like before we leave?”

Cass
did
want to see the picture, but a glance down at a silent Nina made her reconsider. “Not sure this one is going to make it through any pit stops.”

Alex looked down at his exhausted daughter. “Come here, honey,” he said as he scooped her up.

Cass slid the backpack that had their wet clothes and towels in it off his shoulder so he could better carry Nina, who was already resting her head on her dad's shoulder with her eyes closed.

The photo center was right next to the exit, so they walked over. Alex gave the attendant the card and she cued up the picture on the screen. As it appeared, Cass couldn't help the smile that spread over her face.

“You have a beautiful family.”

Cass was so wrapped up in the photo, she didn't even notice the older couple standing at the screen next to them until the woman spoke.

Cass smiled at the woman before turning back to their screen. They really did look like a happy little family. The thought made Cass proud. She shifted closer to Alex and wrapped her hand around his free arm, needing to feel close to him. “Thank you,” she replied to the woman.

Alex looked over at her before pressing a soft kiss to her temple. To the attendant he said, “We'll take two copies.”

Cass didn't let herself think about it for too long, but she recognized that moment for what it was. She'd known she had the feelings for quite some time, but right then, in front of the picture booth, was when she finally became okay with the fact that she was in love with Alex Walker.

Bottom Line

Cass settled into the chair and began hitting buttons like she was preparing to land a space shuttle. “How do I get this to stop going up my ass?”

The girls leaned out a bit from their pedicure chairs and craned their necks to see her.

“What?” Cass asked, looking to the left and right at the three sets of eyes trained on her. “Are you gonna help me or not? This thing's gonna give me hemorrhoids.”

“Just turn it off,” Lauren said.

“Fine,” Cass said, clicking the button. “But I like the shoulder part.”

Simone eyed her suspiciously. “I'm sure Alex will give you a massage later if you ask him to.” Then she sat back casually, as if she hadn't just called Cass out.

“Oh damn. Shade thrown,” Lauren said.

Ignoring Lauren, Cass looked at Simone with feigned bewilderment. “What does that mean exactly?”

Simone kept her eyes closed, enjoying the part of the massage chair that Cass couldn't figure out how to work. “You know what it means.”

And Cass did. Clearly Simone—and no doubt the rest of her crew—had figured out that her pretend relationship wasn't that
pretend
anymore. She just hadn't expected her friends to notice so soon; she'd just noticed herself not that long ago. Though she shouldn't have been surprised. Cass had been spending a lot of her free time with Alex and Nina. And her group of girlfriends had been close for fifteen years. If they could tell when she had her period, they could certainly tell when she was falling for a guy. Especially since she'd never fallen for one before.

Though Cass was a bit relieved that her friends had picked up on the change in her relationship status, she didn't know exactly how to explain what that change
was.
It was better to see what they thought first. “You'd better open your eyes and look at me before I close them permanently,” Cass joked. “What is it that you think is happening between me and Alex?”

Simone's eyes opened again, and when they fixated on Cass, she immediately wished she could retract her question. Simone had a way of getting the truth from people like she was waxing someone's eyebrows; you didn't know exactly when it was coming, and it was usually painful. “It's not what I
think
,” Simone said. “It's what I
know
. And what I know is that now you want more than just his dick.”

The woman painting Simone's toes jerked her head up in shock, but Simone didn't seem to notice. Or maybe she just didn't care.

Cass rolled her eyes, mainly because she didn't know how else to respond.

“I'll take your silence as confirmation that I'm correct,” Simone said.

Cass inhaled deeply, preparing to let go of some of the theoretical weight she'd been carrying around. “I'll talk to you about it. I've been meaning to anyway.”
Just not today.
The girls' eyebrows lifted in what Cass guessed was surprise. “But I don't even know that I can explain how this whole thing turned into something . . .
real
. It's like one day we were faking our love for each other, and the next we were . . .” Cass let her voice trail off, unsure she wanted to continue. But she found her nerve. Admitting it to her friends couldn't be as hard as admitting it to herself had been. Cass let out a heavy sigh. “And the next we were
in
love,” she finished quietly. “At least
I
am.”

The girls' eyes widened even more in disbelief. Clearly, they hadn't expected her to say
that
. Lauren's jaw dropped as if she were about to speak, but no sound escaped it. Quinn spoke instead. “I'm happy for you, Cass. Really. I mean, I'm totally shocked you admitted to that,” she added. “But I'm happy.”

Cass offered Quinn a small smile.

“Does he feel the same?” Simone asked. Her voice was quiet, almost hesitant, but there was a steel behind it that let Cass know Simone had an opinion Cass probably wasn't going to like.

“I think so,” Cass replied, meeting Simone's gaze.

“You
think
so? You guys haven't talked about it?”

Cass bristled at Simone's tone: a mixture of disbelief and recrimination. “Well, no. The feelings kind of just snuck up on me.”

Simone sighed. “I know I'm probably coming off like a bitch. But just hear me out. You guys have been pretending to have feelings for a while now. I'm
worried. Worried that you've spent so long pretending that you're confusing that with genuine feelings. I don't want to see you change your whole life around to accommodate a figment of your imagination.”

Cass rolled her eyes. “Who said anything about changing my whole life around?”

“Come on, Cass.” Simone didn't need to say anything else. Those words combined with the “don't bullshit your best friends” look Simone was aiming at her were enough.

Cass shrugged. “Okay, so loving Alex would change everything. But . . . it's how I feel.
Really
how I feel. Not how I've convinced myself to feel. I mean, seriously. You think I
want
to feel all turned inside out? I don't know how these two hookers survived it,” she said, jerking her thumb toward Lauren and Quinn.

The girls laughed the tension away, and when Simone spoke again, she was smiling. “Then I'm happy for you too. Still a little worried. But happy.” Simone paused for a second before continuing. “So what are you going to do now?”

“I'm not sure.” Cass smiled, but she didn't feel it reach her eyes. “And that's the truth.”

“What's wrong?” Lauren asked. “Tell us. That's what we're here for.”

“Look, I know we haven't talked about any of the specifics, but I'm pretty sure he feels the same way about me—I hope so anyway.” Cass let out a long sigh. “But I don't think now's the right time to discuss all this. Alex still has a few more weeks with Nina. And if our relationship isn't what I think it is . . . If he just wants to stay friends . . .” Cass knew she was rambling. But now that she had verbalized her feelings—though unfortunately not to the person they needed
to be verbalized to—she couldn't stop the stream of consciousness.

Cass and Alex had come this far with their plan, and she didn't want to fuck that up by discussing their feelings, especially if Alex's weren't the same.
But they are.
The voice inside her head came out of nowhere, but she knew why it'd spoken. What she'd felt that night after Alex's dinner with Nina, what she'd felt . . . Alex
had
to have felt it too.

“You need to tell him,” Quinn's voice was calm but certain.

“I know,” Cass agreed. Looking down at her hand, she noticed the ring on her finger. She'd gotten so used to it, she wore it more often than not now, even when she didn't have anyone she needed to convince of their fake nuptials. It just . . . felt right on her hand. The clarity of the diamond shining at her gave her clarity as well. “I will. When all this is over and Nina's back at Tessa's. I'll tell him then”—she shook her head absentmindedly—“when we can focus on
us
and what this all means.”

Lauren's face was impassive. “I'll tell you what it means,” she said. “It means you're getting married before me.”

Complaint

Something wasn't adding up. Alex looked back through the stack of paperwork in front of him and pulled out an arrest record.
How the fuck could this guy have been arrested in Miami if he was already serving time in Halifax?
This was the kind of shit this case didn't need: dumb clerical errors that made his team look incompetent. Combine that with the fact that the bodies Travers promised he'd lead them to didn't even exist, and his team's work on this case was nothing short of embarrassing.

He'd turned over the file on this case to the federal prosecutor two weeks ago, but they'd sent it back a few days later with a note that outlined the discrepancies they'd found. Now Alex needed to fix what his team had overlooked the first time. Usually he was more of a perfectionist than this. He'd never let mistakes like this past him before. But with having to drop off and pick up Nina from camp, as well as
keeping her entertained once they got home, he'd let some of the other guys pick up his slack. And he'd paid for it with a snarky note from the prosecutor and an ass-reaming from his boss.

It wasn't that he regretted taking time away from work to spend it with Nina—that was all part of being a father. But he also had a responsibility to his job, and he needed to see that responsibility through. He was thankful that Cass had been around to help. For the past week, she'd met them at his place a few times after she'd finished work so she could keep Nina occupied while Alex retreated to his office so he could get some things done. She'd been a lifesaver.

Alex continued shuffling around papers in an attempt to piece together the past ten years of this guy's life. He'd lost track of how long he'd been in there when he heard a throat clearing behind him. He turned to see Cass standing in the doorway.

“Dinner's ready,” she said.

“Oh, uh, thanks.” He turned back toward his desk. “I'll grab some in a bit.”

“Why don't you take a break and eat with us?”

“Sorry, can't right this second. I'll be out soon.”

“Yeah, right,” Cass muttered.

Alex turned back to her. “What does that mean?”

“You know what it means. You've been totally consumed by this case for the past week.”

Alex scoffed. “I think you're exaggerating just a little.”

“Oh really?” Cass stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. “What meaningful time have you spent with Nina since you brought this case home?”

“What are you talking about? I've only worked from home on this case a few times since it landed
back on my lap. I've done all sorts of things with Nina since she's been here. When you take in the scope of the entire summer, what do a few days matter?”

“Yeah, you pulled all kinds of grand gestures when she first got here, but now you're getting complacent. Baseball games and trips to the beach are all well and good, but she doesn't need a father who can fill a highlight reel. She needs someone who will sit down at the dinner table with her and ask about her day.”

“How the hell do you know what
my
daughter needs?” Alex couldn't keep the anger out of his voice.
Where the hell does she get off?

“Well, seeing as I'm the one currently attending to her needs, I figured I had some insight.” Cass' words were biting, and Alex felt the sting.

“You're way out of line. Nina and I have gone to dinner, watched TV, played outside. You're acting like I've been holed up in here for the past six days, completely ignoring her.”

Cass sighed, relaxing her posture slightly with the exhalation. “Alex, I don't want to fight with you. Honestly I don't. It's just . . . you wanted this time. We went through a lot to get her here. And now you're wasting it. You're here, but you're not really
present
. Sure, you've retreated to your office only a couple times, but you've been preoccupied all week. It's been obvious that your mind has been elsewhere, even if you're physically sitting right next to her.”

“I have a job to do. You, of all people, should understand that. What I do is important. If this guy goes free, there are lives at stake. Don't act like you wouldn't be the same way if one of your clients broke a nail or posted a selfie taken in poor lighting.”

“Okay, first of all, you're being a real dick. Second of all, do you have any idea how much I've sacrificed
at work to be here for you and Nina? I've turned down two weekend events my boss requested I attend, I've ignored phone calls from clients that came outside working hours, and I even had to pass on a major project because it would take up too much of my time. None of this,” she said as she gestured around her, “is my responsibility, but I'm here anyway.”

“Then go.”

“What?” Cass narrowed her eyes. Alex could tell she'd heard what he'd said, but she'd asked him to repeat it anyway.

“You said it wasn't your responsibility. And you're right; it isn't. It's mine. All of it is mine: my job, Nina, the house—all of it. None of it was what you signed up for, so if it's such a burden to you, just leave.” He heard his voice rising, but he did his best to keep it down. Despite his anger, the last thing he wanted was for Nina to hear them fighting, especially when the fight had something to do with her.

Cass crossed her arms over her chest. “I never said it was a burden. Don't put words in my mouth. Don't try to make this about me. This is about
you
and
your
responsibilities as a father. You're the one who said life's about showing up, remember? You've said you learned your lesson, that you won't make the same mistakes you made with Tessa—”

Alex tossed the pen he'd been holding across the desk and stood at the mention of Tessa's name. “Don't bring her into this.”

“I'm not bringing her into anything she isn't already a part of. Like it or not, you were married to her. Tessa is Nina's mother. I know you hate what she did to you, what she did to your family. But I also know you hate what
you
did to your family just as much.”

“You don't know anything about my family.” Alex
heard the tension in his voice, the anger. He could feel how cold his stare was, but he didn't care. He wasn't going to stand there and let Cass talk about something she knew nothing about.

Cass took a step toward him, but then stopped as if the proximity to him caused her physical pain. “Really, Alex? I don't know what I'm talking about? Because I'm just repeating what
you
told me. You weren't there as much as you should've been. Your mind was elsewhere.
You
told me that. I didn't make it up. And now you're doing it all over again. Don't you see it? Same shit, different day.”

Alex felt his jaw tick as his mind formulated what it wanted to say.

Then Cass' voice softened. “Your job is important. I get that. Believe me—I do. But it's not more important than that little girl sitting downstairs who thinks her daddy hung the fucking moon. This is one of those things that's not going to be about how you started. It's going to be about how you finish. And Nina is going to go home in two weeks, feeling disappointed that her dad didn't pay more attention to her.” Cass stared at Alex, her gaze heavy on his as she shook her head slowly. “You say you've changed,” she said quietly. “So fucking act like it.”

Alex looked at her for a second, unsure of what to say. All of the words that had been circulating in his head as she'd spoken seemed to vanish. It wasn't that he couldn't see where she was coming from, but his anger at her insinuating that he wasn't the father he should be overruled any rational thought. He glared at her for a moment before finally speaking. “Thanks for the speech. I love getting unsolicited advice.”

Cass laughed humorlessly and spun around to walk toward the door. She hesitated with her hand on
the knob. “I get that you may think my advice is meaningless. But I know what it's like to have great parents. And you know what I remember most about my dad, growing up? The times he let me help him repair things around the house, and when he let me stay up to watch scary movies with him even though my mom would've ripped him a new one if she'd known, and when he threw me pop-ups outside for hours, even though his arm had to have been hurting like hell. He probably had work to do too, but he never made me feel like he had better things to do than spend time with me.” Cass pulled the door open. “I'll eat with Nina, and then I'm heading home. That should buy you another half hour.” And with that, she left.

Alex looked at the empty doorway for a minute before glancing back at the papers strewn across his desk. He'd known that Cass had sacrificed in order to help him. But where did she get off acting like a martyr when it was her own fault she was involved in the first place? If she'd kept her mouth shut, they wouldn't be dealing with this whole fake-wedding nightmare, not to mention the fallout that would eventually occur from it. If she thought Nina would be upset because he had to spend a few nights focusing on work, just wait until she saw the devastation Nina would experience when he told her the wedding was off.
Oh wait. Cass won't need to see that, because she won't be the one who has to break the news to Nina.

Alex willed himself to calm down. So many emotions were rolling through him, he was having a hard time pinpointing exactly how he felt. Did Cass have a point? Or was she unnecessarily attacking his parenting? Was he angry at her or angry at the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation he
found himself in? He let himself marinate in his feelings for the half hour Cass had told him he had before she left, and then decided to head downstairs. He glanced out of an upstairs window first to make sure Cass' car was gone before he went to find Nina, telling himself it was because he didn't want to have an awkward encounter in front of his daughter. Though he knew the truth: he'd rather face Hannibal Lecter than a hundred forty pounds of irate female.

He found Nina sitting on the couch, watching some Disney movie about princesses. “Hey, baby. Whatcha doin'?” He slid in next to her and put his arm behind her on the couch.

“Just watching TV. Cass left.”

Alex ignored the comment, opting to change the subject instead. “Did you have a good day at camp?”

Nina shrugged. “I guess.”

Alex hoped he was just overanalyzing the situation in light of his argument with Cass, but Nina seemed reserved around him. “You really into this movie, or do you want to go for a walk with me? Maybe we can hit the playground and then grab some ice cream on the way back?”

Nina didn't look at him. “That's okay. I know you're busy.”

Ouch
. “Hey.” He bumped Nina's shoulder and waited until she looked at him. When she did, he smiled at her. “I'm all done being busy. I want to go play at the park with my favorite daughter.”

It was faint, but Alex saw a smile begin to form on Nina's face. “I'm your
only
daughter.”

“Okay, with my favorite
person
then. You in?” Alex stood and held out his hand.

Nina looked at it for a second before putting her hand in his. “I'm in.”

As they walked out of the house together, Alex told himself that he wasn't spending this time with Nina because of Cass' scolding, but because he was a good dad. He didn't need a self-proclaimed bachelorette for life to tell him to how to do right by his daughter. And for the next couple of hours, Alex forgot about the people who might be transient in his life and focused on the constant in front of him.