Page 43 of Go Deep (A Bad Boy Sports Romance)
“Just don’t run off like you did last time.”
“I won’t.” I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and got up to get dressed.
“Let’s not get your roommate too freaked out. I get the feeling she’d want to join in if she ever caught us together like this.”
Cassidy smiled and starting gathering her clothes too. She was back in bed, relaxing in her t-shirt when I remembered something.
“Wait, I almost forgot about this.”
“What?”
I dug around in my pocket for my wallet and pulled out a small, flat envelope. “Open it.”
“What’s this?” She sat up, and pulled back the tiny flap, slipping two of her slender fingers inside. It was a thumbnail-sized vintage locket, with an amethyst-encrusted peacock engraved on one side. Her eyes widened when it fell into her hands. “Wait, this isn’t…”
“Yeah. It is.”
Back in high school, Cassidy had been over to our place to hang out with Shawn when she lost that locket. Everyone in the house had searched high and low for the damn thing, and months later, I found it in the bushes beside our front porch. Back then I was such a dick, I stuck it in my bedroom chest of drawers instead of giving it back to her.
She was awestruck. “How did you find this after all these years?”
“Okay don’t hate me.”
Cassidy ran her fingers over the ridges, just like she used to when it was around her neck. “No. Don’t tell me you’re the one who took it?”
“No, no. Nothing like that, but…shit…okay, I found it a few months after that day, and I kind of held on to it.”
“Oh my God, you’re not serious. You’ve had this all this time? That was like five or six years ago, Slade. Jesus.”
“I’m sorry. I never really found my opening to give it back.”
“You didn’t need a frigging opening. You could have run with,Hey Cassidy, I found this locket you’ve been hoping to find for years. Here ya go.Seriously Slade, I can’t believe you…” She looked at it again, then got off the bed and wrapped her hands around my neck, burying her face in my chest. “Thanks.”
“You’re thanking me?”
“Yeah.”
“Why the hell for?”
“Better late than never. I didn’t think I’d ever find this. Do you know I still have the necklace it came on? It’s back at my home, but I still have it… Maybe I’ll wear it for Thanksgiving dinner, and I’m definitely telling both our parents what you did!”
I ran my hand through my hair, embarrassed. “Crap. That’s what I was afraid of… Well, I deserve the public shaming. I’ll have to live with that. Anyway, I should get going.”
Cassidy was about to sit at her desk when we heard the key in the door.
“Hey, guys,” Miranda said as she entered. “Slade, how’s it going?”
“Good.”
Miranda shot a suspicious look back and forth between us.
Cassidy looked back from the desk. “We were just running through a few last minute details before we present our project to our business owner.”
I pointed to the door. “And I was just leaving so I can finish that write-up.”
“Right. You guys are so cute, trying to hide this.”
That was as good of a cue to exit as any. “Have a good night, you two,” I said, stepping through the door.
Cassidy didn’t know about the bet, and she wasn’t mad at me anymore either. I had to make sure that whole bet thing got canceled. The sooner everyone forgot about it, the better. Miranda was keeping quiet about the restaurant too.
I was still in the game.
