“What do you mean, Luke?”
He gave Steven a meaningful look, and Steven didn’t want to give one back. He was so afraid that his true feelings would be known. It was just as bad as before when he had wanted Cassandra in their youth. He had wanted her so badly but hid it well. He had hidden it so well that she had chosen another man in their group instead of him. Steven had missed out for years. She had another man’s baby. Steven wasn’t going to make that same mistake again, but he didn’t want to alienate his best friend. He had seen firsthand what happened if one of Luke’s friends went too far with his sister. It was years that had gone by before any of them had spoken to each other. Steven didn’t want that to happen with them, he couldn’t let it happen, so he still had to tread water.
“Why are you helping my sister so much? She would have found something; you didn’t have to swoop in and save her like she is some damsel in distress. She deserves a little distress. I told her not to pick Nelson. I told her what he was, even though I didn’t want to.”
Steven agreed with the sentiment. He had heard one of many conversations where those things were discussed, but she had loved him, declared it so, and Steven still hated to hear her declaration in his mind.
“I just feel bad about everything that has happened, what Nelson did to her. Don’t you want to help her, just so that she doesn’t go back to him?”
Luke thought about it for a moment like it was a possibility, but then said that there was no way. “Cassandra is done with him. I wouldn’t let her go back, even if she wanted to. I will be a dad to her kid if Nelson doesn’t want to step up. He will never be with my sister again.”
Steven liked to hear that the two of them were done, but he couldn’t help but hear the way that Luke talked about his sister like he still had to protect her. She wasn’t a teenager anymore. She was a woman, and Steven wanted Luke to let his sister make her own decisions. Steven really hoped that he would be one of those decisions. That meant, Luke was going to have to work on how protective he was of her.
Chapter 9
Cassandra
“I am telling you, Cassandra, there is something going on with Steven.”
Cassandra shook her head. She had heard it more than once from Aaliyah, that Steven was doing it for one reason or another, but she couldn’t see it that way. He had gone out of his way to help her, true enough, but that was because the two of them had history, as he was her brother’s best friend. They’d known each other a while and Steven was helping her out, likely because her brother wanted him to do it. He was just helping out his friend’s sister. Cassandra was grateful for it, but it was hard not to see it for what it was. Aaliyah wanted to look at it another way, more sinister and sexier. It wasn’t that way. He was just a nice guy.
She reiterated it for her friend, but Aaliyah pushed her long blond hair out of her face and ignored Cassandra’s reasoning. “Honey, I don’t know what marriage did to you, but you should know better than that. I mean, really. You are cute, he is trying to get into your pants. He tried to get into your pants all those years before. You didn’t notice it then, but it didn’t make it any less real. You really don’t pay attention, but you don’t have to. It looks like you are already headed in one direction.”
Cassandra denied it, maybe too much. She was thinking about it as she said it would never happen, and it wasn’t that bad of an idea. She was attracted to him, and the more Cassandra was around him, the surer she was of her feelings of desire and need that she felt when he was around. She wouldn’t do anything because of Luke, but that didn’t mean that Cassandra didn’t think about it for a few fleeting seconds before she pushed it back out of her mind.
“I am telling you, Aaliyah, it’s nothing like that. He is just a really nice guy. That’s all it is.”
Aaliyah clicked her tongue and made a face that was clear she didn’t believe that at all. Cassandra thought that she was just being ridiculous, but what if she wasn’t? Would it really be that impossible? Cassandra didn’t like to think it would be. She couldn’t let it happen, surely not, but she could think about it. Cassandra wouldn’t though, not when she was finally getting along with her brother again. She didn’t like it when he was mad at her and not talking to her. Cassandra didn’t want to go back to that.
The two women did some shopping, and Cassandra tried not to let her excitement for the evening get to her. Cassandra wanted everything to be perfect, because she wanted her family to know that she was able to stand on her own two feet. Cassandra felt like she had to prove herself the mother and woman that she had always been. Nothing had changed, and Cassandra needed to convince herself and her family that she was still the same person they knew so long ago.
Aaliyah stayed for a while and helped her get ready for the dinner. Dennis really liked her, and he was constantly asking for her when she wasn’t around. Cassandra was sure that he had a crush on her, and he watched her son give Aaliyah a tour of his room and try to give her one of his most coveted toys. Aaliyah wouldn’t take it of course, but it was a tender moment and Cassandra didn’t want that to stop. She was so afraid what her son was losing with the move, but she needed to think about what he was going to gain as well. From where she was standing, it was a lot.
Most of her family was in Hartford, and Dennis was able to see more of his family, as well as her cousins who had kids about his age. In the last couple of weeks, everything had gotten better, and Cassandra knew that a lot of it came from Steven helping out. He had millions and had the sway of the town. It came in handy when he was pushing things right along for her. He even had her a divorce attorney that would help, and she had no worries on that front either. Maybe Aaliyah was right, and Steven wasn’t helping just because he was kindhearted. Did he want something from her and if so, what? Cassandra wanted to give herself away and feel the need that Steven had for her, the desire that he kept stuffed down deep but couldn’t cleanse from his eyes. That’s what Cassandra needed, more than anything else, but it also scared the death out of her too.
“Well, even if there was something to his help, it could never be. You know how Luke is. He would never let something like that stand, not after I did it before.”
Cassandra was already thinking about it and that felt like it was bad enough. She knew how much her being with Nelson had messed things up and for such a long time, was she really willing to do the same thing again with Steven? That didn’t seem smart at all.
Aaliyah scoffed, “But you have done it before, don’t act like you couldn’t again. This time, it might actually be worth pissing your brother off a little bit.”
Cassandra didn’t know how to answer. Like always, her friend might be right. She didn’t know how she really felt about Steven, but anything that involved him seemed to be worth it. Cassandra tried to deny that she was even thinking along those lines, but she quickly realized that it was pointless. Aaliyah was right. Steven kept looking better and better the more she thought about it.
Chapter 10
Steven
Steven saw Aaliyah leaving as they got to her door. Aaliyah waved at Luke, but she winked when she saw Steven. He took that as a sign that they had been talking about him. What had they said? What was Cassandra thinking when it came to the two of them? He was sure that he was going to lose himself with her, but now he had Luke to keep him straight. Why couldn’t it have just been the two of them?
His friend commented on the place, and he told him about the extra furniture that he had found ‘lying around’ and hooked his sister up with. Steven could see that Luke knew something was going on, but he didn’t want to get into it too much. He let it go and Steven was ever so grateful for that. There was nothing else that he could do.
Cassandra was stunning, wearing a light summer dress that showed off her curves. She wasn’t dressed to impress though, more to be comfortable, and it had been a while since she’d had that look on her face. Steven felt like she was getting back to her old self and that was more than enough of a payment as far as he was concerned. Cassandra happy again, one way or another, was just what Steven wanted to see. He wasn’t happy, but as long as she was, Steven knew that he would be able to muddle through everything that he needed to.
Steven told her that she looked good and that whatever she was cooking smelled divine, but he didn’t gush too much. Luke was already under suspicion of why he was so nice to her. Gushing out all of the compliments that he wanted to say wasn’t going to show off in the way that he wanted it to.
Luke said that he was hungry, and he seemed to be moving things along. He had an expressive way of asking Steven how he had done all of that in such a short time and Steven waved it off like it was no big deal. It had been, he’d spent a lot of time and energy on making sure she had everything in less than 48 hours, but it didn’t have to appear that way. He just needed to convince Luke of it, that’s all.
The dinner went okay, and everything was going off without a hitch. Steven was sure that something would happen soon, though he didn’t know what. Luke getting called out to go help with their parents’ toilet was not something that Steven had seen coming. He was happy for it though, truly so. As soon as her brother left, Steven could feel Cassandra’s attention moving toward him. She was finally seeing him and that was what he really needed above all else.