Cas: Heroes at Heart

by Maryann Jordan

  “I’ve got a day off tomorrow, and I thought maybe you’d like to come over. I’ll be in my workshop most of the day, so you can come anytime.”

  Sucking in her lips, she said, “I’d love to. I’d be disappointed if you didn’t want to see me.”

  Letting out a breath of relief, his arms jerked, hugging her tighter. “Honestly? It’s all I can do to keep from dragging you back to my house. After discovering each other again and what we just shared, I hate leaving you.”

  Her lips curved and her smile beamed. “I feel the same. But we don’t have to rush this. I’m not going anywhere.”

  As they walked to her back door, Princess swirled figure eights between their legs. The silence of the night was broken by the crickets chirping, and he felt sure she could hear the pounding of his heart. Once more, as though drawn by a magnet, they stepped closer, her arms encircling his waist as his banded around her back. They stood, their bodies pressed together, wounded hearts now healing, finding peace.

  Hours later, he lay in bed, but sleep was elusive. Memories of the past whirled in his mind, slamming into the present, mixed in with a few thoughts of the future. Rolling over in bed, he stared out the window through the woods. Unable to see her cabin, it now seemed unreal that she was truly there.

  As she was telling her tale of the past twelve years, there was so much information to take in, he had not had a chance to process it. But now, in the dark of the night, those thoughts came. Unhappy home life. Threats from her step-uncle. Heart surgery. Her father’s cancer. And then an ugly lawsuit.

  Flipping onto his back, he stared at the ceiling, the last of her story now sinking in. She has money from her grandparents. A lot of money. The fact that she was wealthy slithered through him, seeding doubts of them together. I build furniture. I work with my hands. I don’t make a lot of money.

  Shaking his head in an attempt to dislodge the uncertainty of them creating a future together, he once more tried to find sleep.

  Bianca woke early, something she always did out of habit. She stretched in her bed, seeing the dawn just peeking through the slats of the blinds. She thought back to the previous day, for a few minutes wondering if it had all been a dream… Miss Ethel, Princess, Cas.

  As she lifted her fingers to her lips, she could still taste him on her tongue and knew that it had not been a dream.

  She had been ready to ask him to stay, completely throwing herself at him, when Princess had meowed once more. She had stepped back, watched as he scooped the beautiful white cat in his arms, and with a final kiss, had walked out into the night with promises to see her tomorrow.

  She thought that sleep would have been difficult but found that she drifted away easily. In giving her story to Cas, it was as though she had unburdened, allowing peaceful rest to finally come.

  Leaping from bed, she hurried through her morning routine. Her phone beeped, and she glanced at the screen, already knowing what she would see. Another text from Lionel… another text she would ignore and forward to her lawyer later. Refusing to let him ruin her plans for the day, she quickly dressed.

  Once in her kitchen, she whipped up blueberry muffins, glad that she had stocked up on the ingredients. When they were finished, she placed them in a basket. With a travel mug filled with coffee, she made her way through the woods to Cas’ house.

  Knowing he would be at work early, she was not surprised to hear noise coming from the workshop. Stepping through the doorway, she spied his body, bent over as he smoothed another coat of stain over the child’s headboard.

  He looked up, saw her, and his smile split his face. She beamed in return and called out, “I come bearing gifts. Coffee and muffins.”

  He finished the strokes of his paintbrush, then walked over, placing a sweet kiss on her lips before snagging a treat. They sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping coffee and munching on the muffins.

  Swallowing her last bite, she said, “Tell me about your furniture.”

  His gaze drifted over the pieces in his workshop, and he shrugged. “I always liked working with my hands.”

  She laughed and said, “I remember. You were carving a piece of wood the first time I ever saw you.”

  “It’s something I love to do. Something my father taught me.”

  “I know you probably enjoy working with Jayden, but if this is something you truly love, why don’t you do this full-time?”

  His lips tightened for a few seconds before he finally sighed. “I’m just learning about the business as I go. It was never something I was going to do as my work, and let’s face it, bills have to be paid. Miss Ethel’s old dining room table was getting too small for our ever-growing family. Between my brothers finding women and a couple of them already having children, the room is large enough, but the table was too small. I took a look at it one day and decided that I could make a matching leaf to go into the middle. I found the right wood, stained it to match, and even dented it a bit so that it would look like all the dents we ended up putting in the table as we were growing up.”

  Laughing, she said, “I remember that.”

  “When I got it in, everybody loved it. That’s when Jayden told me I should start trying to make furniture instead of work as a car mechanic. I was afraid to take that chance for a long time, but now the furniture building business is starting to bring in money.”

  “Are you taking commissioned pieces or just building some and then seeing what sells?”

  “I’m still trying to figure it all out. I made a bed for Zander’s daughter, Charity, and carved a princess into the headboard. Then I did a Hansel and Gretel headboard for Rafe’s son, Rory. Both of them had friends who saw the beds and have put in orders. That’s one of them over there,” he said, pointing to the finished bed, “and this one just needs to have the stain dry and it’ll be ready.”

  Grinning widely, Bianca exclaimed, “Sleeping Beauty!”

  “So, I do have a few people who are starting to request certain pieces. The difficulty is also deciding the price to put on them.”

  “I’m sure you can sell these for probably a lot more money than you were thinking,” she said. “People love handcrafted items, can recognize quality, and are willing to pay for it.”

  “Regina told me that I should set up a website, but I’m not sure about that. It’s not like I can produce a lot of furniture at one time.”

  She scrunched her nose and asked, “Regina?”

  “That’s Cael’s wife.” Chuckling, he said, “With seven sisters-in-law or almost-sisters-in-law, you’ll have a lot of new names to learn.”

  She nodded and said, “Miss Ethel told me that she wanted me to come for one of your gatherings. I was hesitant, not really knowing what to expect, but now that you and I’ve reconnected, I’m excited about it.”

  He stepped closer, bent, and took her lips in a kiss. Barely leaning back, he asked, “Reconnected? Is that what we call it?”

  Giving his shoulder a little push, she grinned. “You know what I mean.”

  He kissed her again before moving over and snagging another muffin. Between bites, he said, “I’m trying to figure out the best way to sell the furniture I make. I’ve gone to some markets, but I don’t want a middleman taking away any of the profits.”

  Nodding, Bianca said, “I know about self-promotion since I publish my own books and do editing for other authors. You could certainly have a website with some of your designs on it but not have any order form. Someone would need to put in a request and give their contact information and then the two of you could talk about what they like to have. You’d be able to set your price based on what they want, and no one is really ordering until you know exactly what you’re building. You can also let them know how many weeks or months it might be before they would get their piece.”

  His lips curved into a smile, and he nodded. “That might just work.”

  Before she had a chance to say anything else, her phone pinged another incoming message, and with a quick glance, sh
e silenced her phone and shoved it back into her pocket. Looking up, she saw Cas’ head tilted to the side and his brows lowered.

  “What’s wrong, babe?” he asked. “Who was that message from?”

  Throwing off a half-hearted shrug, she said, “No one important.”

  “The look on your face when you turned your phone off makes me concerned,” he pressed. Walking toward her, he reached his hand out and cupped her face, his thumb soothing over her cheek. The feel of him was so comforting, she leaned her head into his palm, closing her eyes for just a few seconds. “Babe?”

  Her eyes jerked open and she saw his face, filled with concern, bent low to hers. Sighing, she said, “It’s Lionel. He keeps messaging me.” She felt Cas’ fingers flex slightly against her jaw and watched as something fierce moved through his eyes. “It’s okay. I’ll just keep ignoring him until he goes away.”

  “I don’t think ignoring him is the best thing to do,” he said. “A definite ‘Leave me alone’ message should be given.”

  “Oh, I’ve given it,” she assured. “So, now I’ll just let him get tired of sending messages. I don’t open them. I don’t read them.”

  Stepping closer, he cupped her face now with both hands, his fingertips in her soft hair, and tilted her head back, lowering his until their lips were a whisper apart. “You’ve been alone for so long,” he breathed. “No more.”

  He kissed her, his lips moving slowly over hers. The kiss created a slow burn in her belly, one that did not flame out of control but instead sent warmth to every part of her body. She melted against him, and the realization that she was no longer fighting on her own but had someone willing to step in and shield her heart had her fingers clutching his shoulders.

  He separated, and she languidly opened her eyes, seeing his smiling face so near. “I want to spend the day with you,” he said.

  “I was just going to do some writing.” Shifting her gaze around his workshop, she spied his large desk. “I could do it here.”

  Still grinning, he kissed her lightly. “Perfect.” He walked back over to her cabin with her, waiting while she grabbed her laptop and a couple of notebooks, placing them in a small bag. He reached out and took it from her, and they wandered hand in hand back through the woods to his workshop.

  Soon, with soft music playing in the background, he continued staining the beds he had made, and she sat at his desk, her fingers flying over the keyboard. Watching him work, still feeling his kiss upon her lips, remembering all that he was to her, inspiration struck and the words flowed.

  Occasionally, he would look up, their gazes would meet, and she knew she had found a part of her that had been missing for so long.

  14

  Cas enjoyed each phase of creating furniture, from planning to the finished product. Carving took the most concentration, but today, as his paintbrush moved back and forth over the wood, the light stain bringing out the beautiful grain, he loved what he was making.

  Glancing over at Bianca, he smiled as her fingers quickly moved over the keyboard, knowing a story was being born as he observed. What she did was in many ways so much like his own creating. Ideas. Planning. Execution. Refinement. And then a finished product, born of their own imaginings come to life.

  As he moved from piece to piece making sure the stain was even, he thought about all she had told him and was awed at her strength. At most of his worst moments, he was surrounded by people who cared. His parents when he was younger, then later, Miss Ethel and his brothers. Once he opened up and allowed new friendships to take place, his military comrades had his back. Even when he was wounded, he was surrounded by those who did everything they could to help him.

  His mind drifted to one of the things that Bianca had told him, something that he had pushed to the recesses of his thoughts. Money. While he was happy with the simple life, one that he wanted to share with her, he was filled with uncertainty once more.

  She had rented the cabin next door on a whim, but what happened when the month was over and she decided what she wanted to do next? Travel on? Stay in Richmond but move to a larger house? She admitted that she had inherited a great deal of money, and even though they had just found each other again, he wondered where he would fit in her life. For himself, that question was easy. She could move in with him this very day and he would be happy

  Stepping back several feet, he slid his gaze over the furniture, pleased with the warm stain of the wood. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out. A smile moved over his face as he read the message.

  “Something must be good,” she said.

  Looking up, he found her smiling at him, her head slightly tilted to the side in question. “It’s Miss Ethel. I sent her a message last night that just said I had met my neighbor.”

  Laughing, her eyes bright, she said, “I’m surprised she hasn’t sent a message to me too!”

  Walking closer to her, he said, “Maybe she did, but your phone has been turned off.”

  Blinking as he approached, she exclaimed. “Oh, my goodness… you’re right.”

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and a sweet smile spread over her face. “She did! She also said that she was glad I met my neighbor.”

  “I can’t wait to have everyone meet you again.”

  He watched as she clapped her hands in glee, beaming at the idea that they would spend the afternoon with Miss Ethel and the whole family. Seeing the smile on her face and her eyes glowing as they held his gaze, he pushed thoughts of her money to the side, determined to fit into her life in any way that she wanted.

  “You hungry?”

  Nodding, she said, “I’m sorry. I spent way too much time here this morning—”

  Throwing his hands up, he stepped closer. “Hey! That wasn’t a hint for you to leave. I was planning on fixing something simple for us to eat, and I’d love to show you my house.”

  Eyes widening, she grinned. “Absolutely, I’d love that.” She saved the document she was working on and closed her laptop. Standing, she reached for his hand that was held out for her, and they walked out of the workshop.

  The back of his house held a wide, deep deck, decorated with comfortable furniture and a huge grill. Moving through the sliding glass door, they entered the kitchen and she gasped.

  “Wow! This is nice!” Turning to him, she asked, “Did you do all of this?”

  Shaking his head, he said, “All my brothers helped. Cael and Asher did the design work, and all of us pitched in.” She had just discovered the beautiful oak kitchen cabinets with carvings of dogwood flowers along the bottom edge.

  “You did these,” she breathed almost reverently.

  It was hard not to puff his chest out in pride at her obvious admiration “Yeah, that was my idea. I’ve actually done several for both Cael and Asher’s reconstructions. I did it for them as payback for helping me on this place, but both have put in a few orders for homes that they’re working on.”

  She wandered around the kitchen, seeming to ignore the stainless appliances, focusing instead on his woodwork as her fingers trailed lightly over the carvings. Seeing her appreciation, he wanted to show her more. “Come on. There’s more to see.”

  He led her past the dining room, pausing long enough for her to squeal in delight at the handcrafted dining room table and chairs. They moved to the living room that was more of a great room, a stone fireplace at one end and deep-cushioned, comfortable furniture facing a large, flat-screened TV mounted on the wall. She immediately went to the built-in bookcases, her fingers lovingly touching the spines of the books he had collected and read.

  A memory struck him, seeing her sitting in Miss Ethel’s living room, dusting off books as she discovered each one. “Do you remember the first time you were in Miss Ethel’s house?” he asked.

  She turned and looked at him, unable to keep the giggle from slipping between her lips. “I know what you’re thinking about. When I was dusting off her books on that rainy day when I came over to see if you want
ed to play.” Shaking her head back and forth slowly, she blew out her breath in a puff. “God, I was such a dork.”

  “You were never a dork.”

  Rolling her eyes, she said, “Cas, I was an eleven-year-old girl who asked a thirteen-year-old boy to come out and play. If that’s not the epitome of a dork, I don’t know what is! I’m surprised you didn’t kick me out immediately.”

  Stepping even closer until he was directly in front of her, he reached out and cupped her face and whispered, “You weren’t a dork. Let’s just say you were ahead of your time.” Without giving her a chance to argue in return, he bent and kissed her, loving the feel of her melting into his body.

  When he pulled back slightly, he stared down at her closed eyes, watching as she blinked them slowly open as though waking from a peaceful dream. “Do you want to see upstairs?” His lips continued moving gently against hers. “Specifically, my bedroom?”

  Her breath left her in a warm rush over his, and she nodded. “Oh, yeah, I thought you’d never ask.”

  Taking her hand in his, they linked fingers and he led her up to his bedroom. At the doorway, they turned and faced each other, standing slightly apart. She stared into his eyes and he knew he was drowning. Drowning in memories of what he had hoped would be waiting for him when he returned from the military… drowning in the idea of worshiping her body right now… drowning in hopes for the future.

  As though sensing his hesitation, she pulled back slightly and continued to hold his gaze. With a slight separation between their bodies, she reached down and grabbed the bottom of her shirt, gliding it slowly upward while keeping her eyes on his.

  If she was waiting for him to stop her, the sight of her exposed pale skin threw out any of his hesitation. The material snagged on her breasts, and she continued to draw it upward until it cleared her head and landed on the floor next to them.

  His gaze landed on the scar bisecting her chest, the dark pink line marking the surgery on her heart. He leaned forward and kissed the top of her scar, gently moving his lips along the slightly puckered skin.