She rolled her eyes, he got up from his chair and moved around the table, bending down to kiss her. “Come on, Cassandra. Let’s make the most of the time we have together while I try to convince you to move in with me. You and Sophie.”
Cassie let him lead her upstairs to the bedroom. He laughed. “You’ve put your things away. Did you work out all your furniture then? Cass, did you see Sophie’s room?”
“I did, it’s lovely.”
“You’re lovely and I want you with me all the time, not just for the weekend.”
“I want that too,” she whispered.
He put his hand under her chin and lifted her face to look at him. “I’ve loved you all my life, Cassie Warren. Everything went wrong the first time we tried, but this time I don’t intend to let you go. I only wish we could have had all the years in between to love each other.”
Cassie’s stomach flipped. It was what she had thought about too, but it kept coming back to her that if they had been together she wouldn’t have had Mark in her life, and the thought of that was gut wrenching.
Almost as if he could read her mind, Patrick pulled her close, murmuring, “I’m not jealous of the time you had with Mark, Cassie. You loved him, and it kills me that you hurt so much when he died. Now I’m here again and want to be with you if you’re ready and I will be here for the rest of our lives.”
“Patrick, I’m so glad I decided to come here.”
“So am I. Now, Cassie, I want to make love to you and sleep with you in my arms all night. I want to show you what every night together could be like.” She turned her face up to him, and he kissed her tenderly. “It’s early, but it’s bedtime, Cass.”
Cassie nodded. “I agree.”
In bed, he kissed her, kissed every inch of her that he could and she looked at him with all the love that he needed to see. “So many times I thought of you, Cassie, wondered where you were, who you were with. Wondered if you were married, if you ever thought of me.”
“Every time I looked at Sophie I thought of you,” she whispered.
Patrick looked into her eyes, those green eyes he had dreamed about. “I love you both so much, Cassie, I can’t even tell you how much.”
“Sophie will love you in time, I am so already there.”
She laughed, and he kissed her again. “I don’t know if I can let you go home. We might just send for her.”
Cassie laughed again. “I have to go home at some point. I do still have a job.”
“Come and live with me, Cassie, you can stay at home or find something up here.”
“In time, we need to get used to this first.”
“I want to do this every damn day of our lives. We’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”
“I know,” she said, pulling him closer to her, “I know.”
Patrick woke her up the next morning, and making love before breakfast seemed like the most natural thing in the world. “How about we drive up and visit Mum and Dad today?”
“Where are they?”
“Up north, a couple of hours drive,” he said, “thing is that I haven’t told them that we’re back together.”
She shrugged. “I’m sure they can handle that. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them.”
“Cass, I took our breakup hard. That first year at Uni, it was a real struggle at times. I don’t know how Mum is going to feel about you.”
“Oh.”
“There’s only one way to make things better though. Come with me, and we’ll tell them about Sophie. Together. Besides, this is what I want. You are what I want. While I would like them to be happy for us, I can live without it if I have to.”
“Patrick, that’s awful. I don’t want to come between you and your parents.”
“You won’t. We have Sophie as our secret weapon. They won’t be able to resist their granddaughter and that will give us time for them to get to know you again.”
“Fine. It makes sense I guess. We’d have to get it over and done with sooner or later.”
“They don’t know about your parents either.”
Cassie nodded. “You were our neighbours for a lot of years. They should know.”
Jane Cross was in the garden when Patrick’s car pulled up. She loved living on the rural property they’d bought not far from the city, but far enough they enjoyed their peace and quiet. He had someone with him today, and she hoped that he’d found someone nice to go out with.
He’d never brought another girlfriend home, and he had gone from woman to woman after Cassie. A fact she still bitterly resented. It was her. A little more mature, but the woman in the car with Patrick was definitely Cassie.
“Patrick.” Jane smiled warmly at her son, barely giving Cassie a glance. He crossed the front of the car, putting his arm around Cassie’s waist and all her worst fears were realised.
“Mum, you remember Cassie?” he asked
“Of course I do,” she snapped.
“We decided to come and see you. Cassie, and I have some news.”
She rolled her eyes as she walked to the house “Come on, I’ll call your father and put on the jug.”
“Cassie,” Brian Cross said, smiling at her. He seemed genuinely happy to see her and Cassie relaxed a little. At least one of them might not be too hard to get through. Jane glared at her husband, and he ignored her. “How have you been love? Keeping well?”
“Not too bad, thanks for asking.”
“How are your mum and dad.”
She blinked, not expecting that question up front for some reason. Before she got a chance to speak, the tears had already welled up. For some reason telling the Crosses what had happened was proving to be more painful than usual. “Are you all right love?”
Cassie closed her eyes while Patrick squeezed her hand. “Actually Dad…”
“They died.”
Jane glanced at her husband. “What happened, Cassie, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“About a week after you left, we had a house fire. I was the only one who survived.”
“Oh love,” Brian said. “I’m really sorry to hear that. Your parents were lovely people.”
“Cassie could have been killed herself,” said Patrick. “As it was she was badly hurt.”
“Oh, Cassie,” Jane said. The compassion was clear in her voice.
“I broke my back and both my legs after having to jump out my bedroom window.” Cassie explained.
“Oh you poor thing, are you fully recovered?” Jane asked.
Cassie nodded. “It took a while and some surgeries, but I got back to normal. Whatever normal is. I went to live with my grandmother in Hamilton.”
“There’s more, Mum, Dad,” Patrick said.
“Patrick it’s a lot to take in.” Cassie raised an eyebrow at him. “Let them digest this first.”
“I guess you’re right. I just wanted to get to the good news.”
“What good news?” Brian asked.
Cassie laughed. “Now you’ve done it.”
Patrick grinned. “That’s because I can’t wait to tell them.”
It was Jane’s turn to raise an eyebrow at Cassie and Patrick. “Tell us what?”
“Cassie was pregnant at the time of the fire. She had the baby. The baby was mine.”
His parents exchanged a glance. “So that would have been what, nearly thirteen years ago?” His father said.
“Yes,” Cassie said, “Sophie had her twelfth birthday a little while ago.”
“That’s her name? Sophie?” Jane asked.
“That’s right, Mum,” said Patrick, “You’re grandparents.”
“Patrick, this is a lot to take in.”
“I know, Mum, but Cassie and I are together again now and you can meet Sophie soon. We need to find the right time to tell her I’m her father.”
“She doesn’t know?”
“We’re still working through everything, Mum. Cassie and I haven’t been back together very long, and her and Sophie have been through a lot of the past couple
of years. What I hope will happen is that they will come and live with me, but we need to make some decisions and do what’s best for all of us.” He kissed Cassie on the forehead, and she grinned, snuggling closer to him.
“I have photos if you’d like to see them.” Cassie pulled out her phone, flicking to the most recent photo of Sophie. “There she is, that's our girl.”
“She’s lovely. She’s so much like Patrick. Especially the eyes.”
Cassie nodded. “She’s very much like him. Quick witted, smart, very sweet girl.”
“Cheeky,” said Patrick laughing.
“That too.”
“If I had known ahead that we were coming I would have brought some baby photos with me,” Cassie said.
“We’d love to see them.” Brian spoke up finally after looking at the pictures.
“Maybe our next trip we can bring Sophie up here herself.”
Jane’s eyes shone with excitement. “We would love that.”
Patrick went outside with his father to look at the improvements he’d made around the house, leaving Cassie with Jane which made her nervous. “Cassie, there’s something I really need to ask you.”
She nodded.
“Why did you break up with Patrick?”
“Do you remember the party Patrick threw not long before you left town?”
“The one that got out of hand, and there was a mess when we got home?”
“I guess, I don’t know I didn’t stay for very long. It was pretty bad when I left though.”
“Patrick said you didn’t show up.”
“I did, and I caught him in bed with Vicki Chalmers.”
At that, Jane did a double take and stared at Cassie.
“Mrs Cross, I was a mess. Patrick and I had sex on the Friday night for the first time, and on the Saturday night he was with someone else. I couldn’t face him after that. It felt as if my heart had been ripped out seeing him with someone else after he told me he loved me.”
“Oh, Cassie, I wish I’d known,” Jane said, “Patrick was so distraught he barely passed his first year at university. Oh there were other girls eventually, but he never really got over you. I’m surprised that you’re giving him another go if that’s what happened.”
“I resisted at first,” Cassie said, “he wore me down. Besides, he swears he can’t remember a thing about what happened, thought I hadn’t even turned up that night.”
“I harboured quite a grudge against you for so very long. You broke his heart, but I can understand why. I wish you had told us about Sophie earlier.”
“Not long after Sophie was born I came up to find Patrick to tell him about her but when I got here, he was with another woman and thought it was best to leave things as they were. She had me. Then I met someone who became practically her stepfather, so she’s had a good life.”
“So what happened to him? Did you break up?”
“Mark died just over a year ago. He had cancer. It was how I ran into Patrick again, we were at the hospital getting another opinion. He helped us through the diagnosis, and then Mark went downhill really fast.” The tears were gathering again and not just in Cassie’s eyes this time.
“Patrick was there for me when Mark died, and he waited as best he could for me to be ready to be with him. Now I am ready, and I swear to you, Mrs Cross that I do love him, I never stopped.”
At that moment, Jane believed the woman before her. Her heart ached for the child who had lost her parents and the young woman who thought the man she loved had cheated on her.
“It’s all right, Cassie. We’ll make things right. I look forward to getting to know you again, and I can’t wait to meet my granddaughter.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
They had spent the rest of the weekend back at Patrick’s place, making love and spending time catching up with each other’s lives. It was with a heavy heart that Cassie said goodbye to him on the Sunday as she readied herself to drive home.
“We don’t have to keep doing this, Cassie. Move up here with me, you and Sophie. Make a fresh start and we can be together all the time and not say goodbye like this.”
“Okay.”
He paused, looking at her as if he couldn’t quite believe what she said.
“Pardon?”
“I said okay.”
“Okay what?”
“We’ll move to be with you.”
Cassie laughed at the expression on his face. “Keep up, Cross, I said yes to moving in with you.”
“I heard you, but I’m not sure if I believe you.”
“Why not?” She asked, laughing.
“That was way too easy.”
“Patrick. I want us all to be together. After this weekend I don’t want to go home, I’m going because I have to. So I’ll go home and resign, work out my notice while we organise the move up here.”
He grinned and pulled her to him for a kiss. “That sounds wonderful. I’ll be here waiting for you and Sophie. I can’t wait to tell her.”
“We need to do it together, I won’t say a word until we’re up here and you and I are ready.”
Kissing her goodbye, he held the car door open while she climbed in. “I wish you weren’t going back now.”
“So do I but I’ve got to do this properly. Mr Smedley has been great, and I need to give him time to find a replacement for me at the store and we need to pack. As much as I would love to go back inside and jump back into bed with you, I have to be a grown up and sort out the rest of my life so we can be together.”
He closed the door, leaning in the window to give her one final kiss. “It sucks being a grown up sometimes.”
Cassie laughed. “Yes it does, but I am just glad we found each other again.”
“We’ll make it work this time, Cassie.”
“You’re right. We will” She kissed him and started the car.
“Drive safely, Cassie.”
“I will. Call you tonight?”
“I’ll be waiting.”
She thought about him all the way home. Whatever had happened when they were younger didn’t seem to matter anymore. This was their fresh start together with their daughter. It made her feel warm inside.
Sophie was over the moon when Cassie told her about the house, showing her photos that she had taken of the place. “My room looks amazing, Mum,” she said excitedly.
“So I’m losing you two to the big city,” said Lauren.
“There is plenty of room for you to come and stay with us, Lauren,” Cassie said, “we won’t be that far away.”
“Maybe it’s time for me to start looking for a job up there.”
“That would be awesome.” Sophie was so enthusiastic about everything it made Cassie smile watching her daughter planning her new life.
“Well it’s still going to be about a month away as I have to hand in my resignation tomorrow. Patrick can support us while I find another job, he made that clear, so I’m not worried about that.”
“What about the house?” asked Lauren.
“I haven’t decided what to do about that yet,” said Cassie, “so I might leave it as is while we settle in up north and take my time working out what to do. It doesn’t feel right to sell, and it would be weird having tenants here, but we’ll see how things go.”
Mr Smedley was sad to see Cassie’s resignation. “How on earth will I ever find a replacement?”
“You have a month, I’m sure there are plenty of capable people around.”
“I’m sure they are, but they’re not you, Cassie. You’ve been with me for so long now, this place is really going to miss you. It’s so good to see you happy again though. When Mark died I never thought I’d see that sparkle in your eye again, but it’s back.”
“I am happy,” she said, “happier than I ever thought I would be again. I’m very lucky to have been reunited with my first love and we’ll make a real go of it this time.”
“That’s great love,” he said, “I’m really pleased for you, Cassie.”
<
br /> Now came packing up. Cassie was sure it would take the full month to do that. She sighed at the size of the task. Her grandmother had lived in the house for years before Cassie moved in, and there was a lifetime of things to sort through.
The phone calls started two weeks later, Patrick had just spent the weekend, and when the phone rang at 3am Cassie thought at first that it was him being cheeky. She smiled even though she was half asleep, picking up the phone beside the bed and lying back down. “Hello?”
There was silence. “Patrick?” She was confused now. Who would call at that hour? When there was no response she hung up. Settling back down to sleep she put it down to a wrong number but then it rang again and again. There was no one. When it happened a third time, she left the phone off the hook to get some sleep. Not that sleep would come as she wondered who was calling her.
“I’m sorry, Miss Warren, all we can tell is that it’s a prepaid number. We can block it, but as we don’t know who it belongs to we can’t do much more than that.”
“Fine, do that. What happens if I contact the police?”
“If they give us a warrant we can give them all the information that we have on the number, but it really isn’t much. We can always change your number too.”
“I would rather try blocking it first in case it’s something being done by mistake. If it happens again, I’ll call you.”
“No problem. I hope this sorts it out for you.” The woman on the other end of the phone sounded so cheerful, too cheerful. Cassie yawned as she disconnected the call, hoping for a better nights sleep.
The next two nights were quiet before it started again. Cassie covered her head with her pillow before leaving the phone off the hook. Sophie woke her in the evening to a call from Patrick. “You all right baby?” he asked.
“I’m fine, just tired. We’ve been getting weird calls in the middle of the night. Phone company can’t stop them, I’m about to change the number though it’s only going to be working for another two weeks.”
“What do you mean the phone company can’t stop them?”
“It’s some prepaid phone. They don’t know who it belongs to, and they blocked the first number, but now another number is calling.”
“Cassie, have you spoken to the police?” He was concerned now, something didn’t feel right.
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