Page 173 of Daddy, Take Me Away
I saw a flash of recognition and something that looked like guilt, but it was gone so fast I thought I’d imagined it. His eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Please!” I yelled. “I get it, okay? You’re sick of me already. I knew you would be. I’m… a lot. I'm naughty, and bratty and needy, and I don’t know… I’m just a lot. I’m too much. You didn’t know what you were getting into. How could you have?”
“And you deduced this based on what, exactly?” Cas asked coldly.
“You. You’ve been weird all day. You wouldn’t kiss me this morning. You were cold and… weird. You didn’t call me little girl until five minutes ago. You didn’t care when I cussed, and…”
“And what?” Cas glowered.
The road handy wasn’t a good argument, because he was right, it wasn’t safe, and I had no point of context for how he’d react on a day he wasn’t acting weird.
“I don’t know! You’re just acting different, and I can’t help but think it’s because of me. Like you regret everything. And I pushed you into it, and then I just kept pushing. I liked the attention so much, I just couldn't get enough. I’m too needy and you’re obviously tired of me, and wondering what you got yourself into!”
“Aw, hell.” Cas raked a hand through his hair and shook his head. I cut him off before he could deny anything.
“It’s fine… This was a stupid idea. All of it. If you just… get me to the next big town, I can rent a car, and you can turn around and go home. We just need some space and when I get back in a few weeks, we can just pretend like none of it ever happened.” There was no way I’d be able to do that, but Cas didn’t need to know that.
“I am going home. Tomorrow.”
Cas’ soft words echoed in the cab of the truck and I blanched, barely keeping from losing my breakfast. Before I could say ‘fine’ or ‘good’ or push out some other response I didn’t mean, he continued. “Jared called this morning. He didn’t want me to tell you, but he’s coming to meet us tomorrow in Colorado Springs. He said he could drive the rest of the way and do the rest of the trip and I could fly home.”
I nodded. It was starting to make sense at least. Sort of. “And you said yes, because you wanted to, because I’m a lot.”
Cas raised both eyebrows and shot me a look that sent shockwaves to my ass and pussy. I knew what that look meant.
“I said yes, because I couldn’t come up with a good reason to say no,” Cas implored, passionately. “I didn’t think you wanted me to say, “No, it’s all good, don’t come. I’m having fun spanking and fucking your little sister in your absence.”
“Oh.” I stopped to consider his crude but accurate reasoning. I worried my bottom lip. I had a thousand questions and things I wanted to say, but I couldn’t seem to voice any of them. While my brain was shorting out as I searched for a response, Cas undid his seatbelt, scooted across the bench and took my hand in his.
“Polly, I’m sorry I worried you or made you feel like I didn’t want to be with you.”
“It’s fine,” I gasped. Tears filling my eyes, I turned my head to the side so Cas wouldn’t see them.
“It’s not fine. You’re right. I wasn’t being myself.”
I yanked my hand away to wipe at the tears now falling freely down my face. “Why didn’t you just tell me?” I hated the way my voice was cracking.
Cas sighed deeply. “Jared wanted to surprise you, and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t exactly tell him it might not be a welcome surprise.”
That felt like the understatement of the year. My brother was honestly one of my best friends, and there were a million reasons I’d wanted to do this trip with him above anyone else, but those reasons had flown out the window back in Vegas. It had only been four days, but it felt like a lifetime ago.
“Cas…” I dragged the word out on an unholy whine. “What are we going to do? I don’t… I don’t want you to leave.”
He shook his head, looking as broken as I felt. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. It was easy… it was easy to say we didn’t care what your brother thought when we weren’t going to see him for weeks, but now that timeline is moved up, and…”
“He’d kill us.”
“Probably just me.” Cas cleared his throat. “I don’t know what to do yet, Polly. I’ve been trying to figure it out all morning. I’ve thought about nothing else. That’s probably why I've been such a bear.”
I wiped my tears one last time and grabbed his hand again. “You promise that's the whole reason, though? It’s not because you’re having second thoughts because I’m so needy and difficult?”
“I am having second thoughts, but the reasons have nothing to do with you and everything to do with how your brother is going to react.”
“I’m sorry.” I rubbed my thumb over the back of his hand. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Cas looked like admitting that was killing him. “I don’t want to go home, Pol, I know that. I might, but it will have nothing to do with you if I do. Can you understand that?”
“I do.” My breaths came out ragged. “Can we just… can we just try to enjoy today?”
