Page 180 of Daddy, Take Me Away
I didn’t think it would come to that. I prayed it didn’t. I couldn’t let either of those things happen.
My eyes filled with tears as I forced myself to nod. Cas and I lay there staring at each other, too caught up in the what ifs to get moving.
I was about to say we needed to get dressed when there was a pounding on the door to our room, and Jared’s voice cut through the silence.
“What’s taking you two so long? I’m starving, and it looks like it might rain again.”
Cas and I both jumped into action. A quick rinse-off shower, fresh clothes, dry hair, and eleven minutes later we gave each other one last longing look, squared our shoulders and walked to the office, ready for the meal that could very well change the course of our lives.
Correction: It would change the course of our lives. The question was, would they be changed for better, or for worse?
Chapter Thirteen
Cas
“Back up. I don’t understand.” I stared at my best friend. At least, the person sitting across from me looked like my best friend, but I was currently wondering if he’d been abducted by aliens. The things he was saying made no sense.
“You guys are perfect for each other. Cas, you have done so much for me, for us. You put your life on hold to help us and for that I will be forever grateful. But we’re all grown now. Even Polly, and you’re still putting your life on hold. You don’t date. You never bring anyone home. You spend all your free time running our house, and as much as I appreciate it, you can’t live like that.”
His heartfelt confession had me all choked up inside. I fought tears that were threatening and shrugged. “It’s fine, bro. I know… I know you would have done the same for me.”
Jared nodded. “I would have, but not to the extent you have. Not to the detriment of my own future. You’ve gone above and beyond, but it's starting to feel like you were living in limbo. Like you weren’t ever going to move on, and almost like for some reason you didn’t want to.” Jared’s brow furrowed as he looked between me and Polly. “It was almost like failure to launch. But that's not you and it didn't make sense, so I had to think about why. Why wouldn't you want to leave? Why were you still in no hurry to move on?”
I scoffed. “Because you wouldn't survive without me. You'd forget to buy toilet paper or pay the light bill.”
I was serious, but Jared rolled his eyes.
“Maybe, but I think there’s more to it than that.” His gaze cut to his baby sister pointedly.
I shook my head. “It's not like that. There was never anything inappropriate going on and…” I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I mean, okay there is now. But there never was before the trip. And certainly not when she was younger, if that's what you're implying.”
Jared laughed. “I wasn’t. Chill. I just meant…”
Polly looked up from the piece of pie she was demolishing with a low growl. “You two are ridiculous and all you're doing is talking in circles. Nothing is getting answered.” Her eyes narrowed on her brother. “Jared, I want to be with Cas. I want him as my Daddy and we’d love if you were happy with that, but we’re also grown-ass adults who don't really need your approval. So we’ll move out if we need to.”
I held my breath, waiting for Jared’s response. It felt like he’d basically given his approval back in the room, but it was surreal. I felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop still. I steeled for a fight.
Instead, my best friend tossed back his head and gave a full belly laugh. “God, the two of you… are really being dense today, aren’t you? I’m fine with you two. I’m on board. Heck, if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have orchestrated it.”
Polly’s fork clattered to her plate, and my mouth dropped open. I quickly closed it. “I… I beg your pardon?”
“Say what?” Polly shrieked. “Explain.”
“You two are perfect for each other, but all you could see was the tension that probably came from holding back your true feelings. I watched you two for months, and I couldn’t see how you couldn’t see it. I knew you never would with me around, so I talked to Savi, and we planned this whole thing out, including the merger that would keep me from taking Polly on the trip.”
“Planned what whole thing out? What do you mean, including the merger? Are you saying…?” I shook my head. That couldn’t be right.
Jared grinned. “The merger’s not real. The company is doing great. Why would there all of a sudden be a random merger?”
“B-but… but you’ve been talking about it for months!”
“Smoke show.” Jared drew out the words, waving his hands in an arch in front of him.
I sat back in the booth, gobsmacked.
I glazed at Polly, but she was also looking pretty gobsmacked as she stared at her brother with her head cocked to one side.
Finally she spoke. “Back the fuck up. Did you say… Didn’t you say Savi? Like… I mean… surely you don’t mean my Savi… That… wouldn’t make any sense.”
