by Bella Andre
Though she wasn’t sure she’d ever live down what Flynn had walked in on—her skin threatened to flush beet red every time she thought about it—she was still pleased to see him.
Lola had clearly thought he was here to ask her for a date. Heck, her sister had practically shoved Cassie into his arms. But Flynn looked like a man on a mission—and not one that involved hearts and flowers either.
“Why did you need to talk with me?”
“I was reading through the draft of my screenplay in the library when I realized it was all wrong. I trashed it.”
She looked up from her worktable. “Oh no.” She knew how hard it could be to get partway through a project before facing up to the fact that it wasn’t going to work. “Again, I’d offer to help, but my brain has never worked in a twisty-turny sort of way.”
“Actually, I think you’re exactly the person who can help.”
He’d surprised the heck out of her when he’d walked in on her in her underwear. But hearing that he thought she could help him with his screenplay was almost more of a surprise.
“How do you possibly think I could help?”
“I’m going to start the script from scratch. New story. New characters. And I’m playing with basing one of the characters on you.”
Any secret hope that she’d had about Flynn having a romantic interest in her died in that moment. Last night, when he’d said how any guy would be a fool not to be interested in her—sweetly seductive words that had played inside her head, over and over again, ever since—he’d obviously meant it from a strictly professional standpoint.
Trying to shove away the disappointment when she’d known all along that he was miles out of her reach, she asked, “What would you want to know about me?”
“Everything.”
His answer took her aback. No one had ever been so interested in her before. Honestly, she still couldn’t figure out why he was.
Then something hit her. “Don’t all the women in your movies die in a really horrible way?”
He frowned. “You’re right, they do, which now that you’ve pointed it out, is pretty messed up. How about this—what if I promise that the character I base on you won’t die?”
She thought about that for a moment. “Not dying is a good start. But I’d like it better if she were actually happy.”
He looked uncomfortable for a moment. “I’d like to say I can promise you that. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can write happy convincingly.”
She waited for him to tell her why that was—after all, saying he didn’t really understand happiness was pretty huge.
Instead, he simply said, “This is yet another reason why I think who you are, and what you do, could provide some really solid inspiration for my writing.”
Inspiration? That suddenly seemed a whole lot bigger than just helping him out with some candy-confectioner-from-a-big-family character research.
“Why would you need me to inspire you?” She held out her arms. “I’m just me. An open book without dark secrets or hidden mysteries.”
“That’s exactly why I need you.” He must have seen that she still didn’t get it. “When you’re with Ruby, joy radiates from you.” He looked uncomfortable again as he said, “The truth is that I haven’t felt much joy in my life.” His discomfort ratcheted up yet another notch. “I need to understand it. Not just for my screenplay, but for Ruby too. Trust me, your agreeing to work with me on this would be the best thing that could happen.” He pinned her with a serious look. “Will you do it, Cassie?”
The hope in his gaze—so uncertain, yet there all the same—had her nodding before she realized it.
“Thank you, Cassie.”
She was more than a little shell-shocked that she had just agreed to be an Oscar-winning screenwriter’s inspiration. But at this moment it was far more important for him to know he was wrong about himself than it was for her to poke into things she could sense that he’d prefer to leave untouched.
“I can maybe understand why you might want to look at your characters in a different way for your movies, but when it comes to Ruby, you don’t need me to teach you how to feel joy.”
He stared at her as though she were speaking another language, so she tried to make herself clearer.
“You should hear yourself laugh when she makes a silly face. That laughter comes from the deepest part of your heart. I know it does. It’s obvious that you love Ruby with everything you are.”
“Of course I love Ruby. She deserves the best of everything—to know joy and hope and the power of real, lasting love.”
“So do you.” Cassie was so impassioned that, without realizing it, she’d walked around her worktable and reached for his hands. “You deserve to know joy and hope and love, too.”
The buzzing of his cell phone had her belatedly realizing that she’d completely invaded his personal space. Jumping back, she smacked her hip on the sharp corner of the stainless-steel countertop.
Hastening back to her workstation, she counted out pieces of the various shapes and colors of her homemade candy while he looked at his phone. “Everything okay?” she asked once he’d slipped it back into his pocket.
“Ruby’s doing great.” He looked hugely relieved. “Your mom just let me know that they played in the yard with the dog, and then Ruby ate lunch, and now she’s settling down for a nap until I come back to pick her up.”
“It’s okay if you want to pick her up early, you know.” Cassie’s voice was gentle.
She could see how much he wanted to do just that, even as he said, “All of the baby books say it’s important to foster positive time apart.”
“There’s a big difference between something someone wrote in a book and going literally overnight from being a single, child-free guy, to being responsible for raising a child. It would be a really huge change for anyone to deal with. Don’t get me wrong, you’re amazing with Ruby. Even Ashley thinks so, and she isn’t too thrilled with most of your gender. But it’s not like you had nine months to prepare for Ruby, or got to sit down with a girlfriend or spouse and talk about whether you wanted to have kids. It must feel like your world has been completely upended.”
“I can deal with my world being upended,” he said in a low voice. “But I’ll never forgive myself if I screw everything up.”
“You won’t. You aren’t.”
“My parents did.”
Though he didn’t offer up anything more than that, she sensed he’d just let her into a part of his heart that he rarely shared with anyone.
“I don’t know anything about your parents, Flynn. But what I do know is that you have created an extraordinary life for yourself regardless of how they raised you. I get that you’re nervous about being Ruby’s father—”
“I don’t even know who the guy is.”
“That’s just biology. You are her dad now.”
He sat back on his stool, looking utterly overwhelmed. “Dad. I never thought I’d be anyone’s dad. That I’d have a little girl to raise and protect…and love.” He looked down at the text Cassie’s mother had sent, longing written all over his face.
“We can work on your character stuff tomorrow morning. I’ll still be here building the Town Hall. But right now, you need to go be with your baby girl. Give her a kiss for me, will you?”
As he raced out of Cassie’s workshop to get to her parents’ house in what would surely be record time, her heart turned to mush.
CHAPTER NINE
Flynn spent the next twenty-four hours thinking about his conversation with Cassie. He’d gone to talk about how she was the inspiration for a new character…and yet somehow they’d ended up talking about him.
He’d opened up to her more than he had to anyone else. He’d told her he didn’t know the first thing about happiness. He’d admitted that he was terrified about whether he had what it took to raise Ruby well. And he’d confessed that his parents hadn’t been good ones.
Only to have her give him the pep talk o
f all pep talks—and genuinely seem to mean every word.
Flynn had never felt guiltier about being a lying son of a bitch.
The next morning, he and Ruby were up early enough to hit the park in the square before he took her to Beth’s. Yesterday afternoon, Flynn had discovered how much Ruby loved being pushed on the swings. No less delighted today, she kicked her feet and clapped her hands with every push.
Sometimes, when Flynn looked at his little girl, he wasn’t sure his heart could withstand the force of his feelings. He’d never known anyone could be so sweet, so pure, so ready to be happy.
Except for Cassie.
He didn’t let himself second-guess his urge to make a detour toward Cassie’s Confections on the way to Beth’s house. He might not be able to give Cassie the truth, but he could at least give her a few minutes with his adorable other half.
Now that Ruby’s tooth was in, she was a bundle of joy. All morning, she’d been giggling as she played with Ellie the elephant, then her new striped socks by pulling them off and throwing them across the room, then a beautifully colored leaf that had fallen into her stroller. Everything seemed a wonder to her as she happily played, whether with his participation or independently.
In Los Angeles, they’d both been wary, nervous, anxious. But in Cassie’s cabin in the woods, with the forest literally at their doorstep and some time with Beth and the dog at the Sullivan family home, Ruby seemed to have a totally new outlook on life. One that Flynn longed to share with her, if not for his guilt over lying to Cassie—and by extension, her whole family.
They were soon at her office, his heart pounding fast as he rang the bell. Flynn hadn’t been this nervous about seeing a woman since he was seventeen and newly arrived in Los Angeles. Already six foot four before he was out of his teens, he hadn’t quite filled out by that point, but he’d soon realized that whatever it was women seemed to like, he had. Thirty pounds of muscle later, he’d never had trouble getting a date.
And yet, though he wasn’t trying to date Cassie, here he was with sweaty palms and a racing heart.
“Flynn! Ruby!” Cassie beamed at them both as she opened the door, and when she immediately reached down to unbuckle Ruby from the stroller, pick her up, and cuddle her, he wasn’t at all surprised. In fact, he would have been surprised if she hadn’t.
He couldn’t help but compare her instinctive need to pepper Ruby with kisses every time she saw the baby to the way his ex had reacted to Ruby. Anja had not only never hugged or kissed Ruby, she had barely looked at her before saying good-bye.
“This is the best surprise ever,” Cassie said as she brought Ruby through to her workshop and Flynn followed, leaving the stroller outside. He would never have done that in LA, but he couldn’t imagine anyone in Bar Harbor making a run for it with his stroller, no matter how expensive it was.
He couldn’t help but continue to make comparisons, this time between Bar Harbor and Los Angeles. Southern California had been a huge step up from the desolate back of nowhere in which he’d grown up, but he’d still been looking over his shoulder in Hollywood, still been on edge, still operated with a base level of suspicion toward everyone around him.
Whereas here in northern Maine, it was starting to sink into his extremely hard head that suspicion would be nothing more than a waste of time. Especially when he had so many Sullivans on his side.
“I thought you might like to see Ruby before I dropped her off with your mom,” he said. “And I knew she would be thrilled to see you.” Just like I am.
“That’s so thoughtful of you to bring your sweet little girl to see me.” Cassie looked at him as though he’d just given her the world’s greatest gift.
When he’d given her diamonds, she’d been horrified and couldn’t wait to return them. But she would happily accept the gift of time with Ruby any day of the week.
Something cold inside his heart began to thaw, just from watching Cassie with Ruby as she made the stuffed elephant talk.
“Ruby,” she said in her silly Ellie the Elephant voice, “your eyes shine brighter than any jewel. Your smile is prettier than a rose garden. And your kisses are sweeter than all the candy in the world.”
Ruby giggled, the same delightful sound that he was lucky enough to listen to all day long.
“She’s happy.” He knew Cassie could see this for herself, but it felt good to say the words aloud.
“She sure is.” Cassie gave Ruby another kiss. “Good job, Dad.”
He hadn’t been fishing for compliments and still didn’t believe them when they came. “It’s being with you, and your mom, and getting to live in your cabin and be outside in the woods that’s doing it.”
“All of that might be helping out a little bit,” Cassie replied, “but like I told you yesterday, it’s you making her happy.”
He opened his mouth to argue with her, but her sudden peal of laughter stopped him. Ruby was holding the elephant now, waving it in the air the way Cassie moved the stuffed animal when she made it talk, while making little singsong sounds.
“Look at how smart she is, making Ellie talk and move all on her own!” Cassie exclaimed. “It obviously runs in the family. Just watch, she’s going to end up being a brilliant storyteller, just like her daddy.”
It was amazing how easily she said the word daddy, as though it was unthinkable that Flynn wouldn’t have what it took to step up to the plate and be a great father to Ruby.
“If I end up having a story to tell.”
“You will.” She mimicked the notoriously morose donkey from the children’s books in Ruby’s bag, obviously poking fun at his response. Flynn couldn’t remember the last time anyone had teased him like this. Probably because it had never happened. “After all,” she continued, her smile back in place, “you have me to inspire you.”
When she laughed again, clearly not taking herself at all seriously, her laughter lit up the same part of his heart that Ruby’s giggles did.
Just then, his phone buzzed. Before he could pull it from his pocket, she said, “I’m going to bet that’s Mom getting angsty about seeing her little treasure.”
He read the message and nodded. “I should take her over now.”
“You’ll come back, won’t you?”
He liked Cassie’s obvious desire to spend time with him, more than he should given that she could never be his. But if all he could have was the next few weeks together learning the heart and soul of what made her who she was, he would take it.
“I will. After all,” he said with a smile, “I still need to get to know you better.”
When she smiled back, he found he couldn’t look away from her beautiful face. Another text buzzing in from her mother finally got him back on track, buckling Ruby into her stroller and walking down the street to the Sullivan family home.
* * *
Cassie’s mother and Ruby couldn’t have been happier to see each other.
Again, Cassie’s father was out, leaving Flynn feeling as though he’d just had his reprieve extended. Flynn wouldn’t be surprised if the first time Ethan Sullivan got him alone, Cassie’s father sent him out to walk the proverbial plank—and he wouldn’t blame him for it either.
He was halfway back to Cassie’s office when he passed a flower shop. Her smile was so radiant, he wanted to do whatever he could to make her smile again. Inside, he nearly bought the biggest, showiest bouquet. But then he realized it would be like giving her the diamond bracelet—meant more to impress than to give joy.
He stood studying the flowers for a few minutes. Which ones would Cassie like best? Her candy confections were incredibly colorful. No shrinking violet, his Cassie.
He caught himself a moment too late. She wasn’t his. She couldn’t be his.
But he was still going to buy her flowers, damn it.
In the end, his instincts told him to go with an array of bright Gerbera daisies in red, orange, coral, pink, and yellow. The woman at the register asked if he wanted them sent over, but he wante
d the pleasure of seeing Cassie’s reaction.
Flynn had never walked down any street carrying a bouquet of flowers before. Passers-by smiled at him, the kind of smile you gave a man when you knew he was about to make his sweetheart’s day.
If only they knew the truth: that Cassie deserved flowers from a far better man than he. Why was she still single? It was something he didn’t understand—one of the many things where she was concerned, actually. There should be men lining up around the block to be with her.
Then again, perhaps he shouldn’t be so surprised. Men, in his experience, could be complete idiots.
Once again, he was standing at her office door, his heart pounding a little too fast. These nerves were becoming a regular thing where Cassie was concerned.
He rang the bell, but when she didn’t come, and figuring she may have left it unlocked because she knew he was coming back, he decided to try the door. He called out to let her know he was in the building, and he was pleased by how happy she sounded when she told him to come on back.
He wouldn’t win any points for wishing he might find her nearly naked again…but that didn’t stop him from wishing anyway.
Of course, when he walked into her workshop, she was fully clothed, with the added layer of an apron. Her back was to him as she counted out gumdrops from a jar behind her.
“Flynn, perfect timing! I was just about to—”
Her words fell away as she glanced at him over her shoulder and saw the flowers.
“I bought these for you.” He felt like a thirteen-year-old with a crush on the most unattainable girl in school. “I hope you like them.”
The candy fell out of her hands as she spun around to take them from him. “Are you kidding? I love them.” She inhaled their scent, a look of utter bliss on her face.
He half hated himself for a sudden, and rather desperate, fantasy of seeing that blissful look on her face in bed, the sheets tangled around them, her skin flushed and warm beneath him as he made love to her.