Chapter Four
The movie was great, Cassie thought the following day. She had gotten a couple of bags of popcorn, and it had been funny as well. Slade took care of the ice cream, and it had been a lot of fun.
She released a chuckle as she took out another weed, thankful she had on gloves as it looked like another stinger. Her vegetable patch hadn’t been cared for the past week, and she was regretting it. The fruits of her labors were doing really well, but she should have taken care of those weeds. She didn’t like to use chemicals though, so that wouldn’t have done. The sun was shining, but there was another storm heading their way. She wanted to get as much done this afternoon as she could so she didn’t have to worry.
“What are you doing?” Slade asked, opening the loose fence.
“You really need to fix that.”
“Why? It’s not like you’re answering your front door. This came for you?” He held up a box, and she frowned.
“I’ve not ordered anything.”
“I guess you won something?” Slade asked.
She shrugged. “Not that I’m aware of.” Moving out of her vegetable patch, she took the box, and began to open it. When she couldn’t open it, Slade took a blade, and ran it across the edge. “You carry a knife?”
“It’s not that big, but it’s perfect for opening pesky packages.”
Opening the box, her cheeks heated, and she quickly closed it up.
“What is it?” Slade asked.
“It’s a gift from my friend Jessica.” Whom she would kill when she next saw her.
Slade took the box from her, and she tried to stop him from looking inside, but the damage was done.
“Who would send you a vibrator?”
There was no way she could get any redder than she already was, was there? “It’s a joke.”
“I don’t think it’s a joke.”
She groaned.
“Are those the sounds you make during sex?”
“No. They’re not.” She grabbed the vibrator from him, and left the box in his hands. Entering her home, she placed the packaged vibrator onto the kitchen counter. She was tempted to throw it in the trash, but Jessica had told her she needed to loosen up a bit. Could the vibrator help with her dreams?
Just recently Cassie had been having a lot of sexual dreams. The guy was always blurred out, but when she was with him, she was happy. The way he touched her body would drive her crazy with even more need.
“Why do you need a vibrator, and who would send it to you?”
She grabbed them both some iced tea. It was way too hot for a conversation like this. “My friend Jessica sent it to me, like I just said, and now that you’ve overreacted, how about you mow my lawn?” The weeding was a job that was taking her a lot of time. She needed a little bit of help.
“Why would your girlfriend get you a vibrator?” he asked.
If she didn’t know any better, she would think he was jealous, which would have to be completely wrong. There was no way he’d feel like that. He had so many women at his beck and call.
“She thinks I need to lighten up. We were talking, and she said that a vibrator would do the job.” She patted his chest. “No need to worry.”
Leaving the house, she put some distance between them as Slade was starting to look more appealing. She had to remember that he was the fucker that lived next door. He was a horrible man, and yet even as she was thinking all of those things, the past few weeks had been so much fun. They’d even talked. Then she remembered Slade wasn’t an awful guy at all. He was a man that women wanted but didn’t like that he didn’t want them long term. He was no longer such a bad person.
Still, it had only been a couple of weeks, and she imagined he still fucked random women.
He followed her outside, and didn’t even wait as he grabbed her lawnmower, and started to help her out. She finished weeding through her vegetable patch, and then checked on her plants to make sure they didn’t have any pests or diseases. Happy to see that they were growing, she made her way toward the furniture.
She folded down the deck chairs and carried them to the shed. By the time the sun started to set, her garden was spick and span, and they had finished on Slade’s garden. He’d mowed his lawn, and she put down furniture. She wore gloves as she did his garden though. She didn’t know what he’d done on the furniture, and it kind of scared her what she’d catch.
“You know I’ve not fucked on any of this,” Slade said, coming out with a bottle of beer.
Cassie took the beer and sipped at it. She wasn’t a big drinker. She had seen firsthand how bad alcohol could make a person, and she never wanted to be weak like that.
“You’re really crude.” And she was happy that her cheeks hadn’t gone red. There was a time she would have. The vibrator was a different story.
“I call it what it is. I’m not in the habit of avoiding shit.”
“Fair enough. I think we’re done. We shouldn’t be too badly damaged by the storm.” She then glanced at the trees on either side of their property. Some of them were really tall, and it always made her nervous. They had been really lucky so far.
“Will you use it?” Slade asked.
“Will I use what?”
“The vibrator.”
She frowned and turned to him. “Isn’t that a little personal?”
He shrugged. “Don’t care. I think it’s important. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t ask you if you used a vibrator. Do you use a blowup doll?” she asked.
She didn’t like the image of him screwing some poor defenseless doll. It was just not happening for her. “Forget I asked.”
Slade burst out laughing. “No, I don’t and have never used a blowup doll. They look like something out of a horror movie.”
Covering her face, she laughed. “I really, really, shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry.”
“Nah, it’s fine. It’s what friends ask each other all the time, right?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never told Jessica stuff like that before, and I don’t think I’d want to know if it was true.” She sipped at her beer. “Our work here is done.”
Slade looked up at the sky. “Yeah, and it looks like they’re going to open up, any second.”
“I’m going to head back home. Have a good night.”
He was there to lift the fence, helping her.
“Thank you.” She gave him one last smile before heading inside where her phone was ringing. Closing her door, she rushed toward it and picked it up off the cradle. “Hello.”
“About time. I was worried there.”
“What’s up, Jessica?”
“I wanted to make sure you’re okay. You know these storms freak you out.”
Rain had already started to come down, and Cassie moved to the window in her living room, which overlooked the entire street. Within a matter of minutes it had gone from being a light drizzle to pouring it down with rain. “I’ll be fine. I’ve handled storms before.” She hoped this was the last one of the season as she really hated storms. When she lived in the trailer, it always was louder than ever before, and of course there was a fear she’d be burnt alive if lightning struck the trailer.
Most of the time she spent storms alone, and now wasn’t any different.
“What did you do today?”
“Cleaned the garden. Slade helped me, and then we moved to his place, and we cleaned his garden. It all looks great.”
In the background, Cassie heard one of the little ones screaming.
“I better go,” Jessica said. “If you need me give me a call.”
“I will. Thank you.”
She replaced her phone and paused as the lights flickered. She would be fine. There was nothing to worry about at all.
Heading upstairs, she took a quick shower. Changing into her pajamas, she settled into bed, turning on the television. She held a pillow tightly, trying to calm her nerves, but nothing was happening. The storm was getting stronger with every passing minute.
When the lights went out, and the electricity went off, she couldn’t just stick around in one place. Reaching out for her flashlight, she flicked it on. Her heart was racing as she made her way downstairs.
Every now and again, she released a little scream as another wave of thunder crashed.
Finally, when her doorbell rang, she rushed toward it.
There was Slade, completely soaked, but she threw her arms around him.
“Don’t like storms?” he asked.
“Nope. Not at all, and right now I’m totally freaking out.”
He carried her inside, closing and locking the door.
“I heard your screams, so I guess it makes sense for us to hang out for a little while. Or at least until the storm dies down.”
“You’d do that?”
“Of course I would. You clearly don’t like them.”
She shook her head. “I never have. I’m sorry if I disturbed you.”
He laughed then. “I wasn’t doing anything other than watching a movie, which totally cut out on me.”
“Me too. Upstairs.”
“Come on, let’s grab some of that iced tea you like to keep on hand, and play a game or something.”
****
Slade sat in his office, and couldn’t stop thinking about Cassie. He’d stayed with her the entire night. Every time there was a wave of thunder, he’d seen how nervous she was. In the end, he’d fallen asleep with Cassie in his arms.
When he woke the next morning, she’d still been there. He’d not freaked out. In fact, for another hour while she slept, he’d simply held her, enjoying the feel of her in his arms. Not for the first time he’d wondered if that was what got men going first. The feel of their woman in their arms.
“You survived the storm?” Daniel asked, standing in his doorway.
“Yep. The power was out, but not for long. Nothing went bad in my freezer.”
Cassie had also been concerned for hers. Knowing that when she was growing up, food was often scarce, he’d not said anything. Her freezer had been full, carefully labelled, and was a top quality one that had been able to retain the cold.
“I know some water pipes burst, and a few cables came down. The entire town lost power. Not for the first time, I’m going to recommend you and Cassie getting a generator for your houses. They can be expensive, but if you split the bill, it’ll keep your homes running.”
“We handled everything quite well.” He didn’t want to give her power when she was more than happy to accept him into her home.
“Is it starting?” Daniel asked.
“Is what starting?”
“You know, the fall.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“The guy before you started out screwing around, having a shitload of fun, and that changed quite quickly when he realized the gem he had living next door.”
Slade rolled his eyes. “Nothing is going on. I’m just more of a love thy neighbor than hate her. I don’t want her throwing shit bombs over my fence.”
Daniel laughed. “Cassie would never do that. Oh well, we’ll see. I’ve got to head out to the old pastor’s place. He thinks someone has broken into his church again.”
“Okay. I’ll man the office.” He smiled at Daniel, and watched the older man walk away. There was no way in hell that he was falling for Cassie. He was a guy that loved a variety of women, that loved to fuck.
So he’d not been with a woman in a couple of weeks. That didn’t mean anything. He needed time to recuperate. There was no way a guy could be this damn handsome and not need time to gather his strength. He wasn’t falling for his neighbor. Sure, he found her cute, and sexy, but that was what he felt for a lot of women. They were cute and sexy.
Running fingers through his hair, he sighed. He was losing his mind, and he had to get laid.
“Four across, something big,” Cassie said, coming to his door, and holding a newspaper.
She wore a pair of black pants, and a white shirt. Whenever she was working she always wore something conservative. He’d seen her in jeans, and even a dress when she’d been at home.
Why was he obsessing about what she wore?
Why did he even care?
“My dick. That’s big.”
She rolled her eyes. “I misread. Something else for big—huge. That’s four letters across, and that goes with height, which is down. Yay.”
“My dick is huge, just so you know.”
“Why does everything have to be about sex with you?”
He shrugged. “Because sex is the what the world revolves around.”
“Sounds quite shallow to me. Just saying.” She held her hands up.
“Really? You think two people connecting in the most basic way is shallow?” he asked.
“All those women you … dated, did you feel connected to them? Did you have a baser instinct to mate with them? For them to be the mother of your child?”
“Fuck no.”
“Then it’s all really shallow. You used them to get off.”
“And I liked it, and so did they. I have a way of making a woman scream for more.”
“Cool. I’ll leave you to that.”
She left his office and went back behind her desk.
Gritting his teeth, he was determined to prove to everyone that he was not falling for Cassie. She was going to stay in the neighbor column of his life. He didn’t want to connect with anyone. He’d seen firsthand what it did to his parents, and he was determined to never settle down.
When it was time to leave, he headed home, and without going to Cassie’s place, even though he saw Jessica’s car there, he got changed into some jeans, and a shirt, before heading out.
He drove toward the best bar in town, which was out on the high road, and served people from at least five different towns. It was a huge place, that also opened out onto the back, in the summer. Howard’s joint served food, beer, and had a live band as well.
Slade had picked up many of his conquests here.
Getting to the bar, he slapped his hands on the counter, and gave Bethany his sexiest smile. “Hello, beautiful, how are you?”
“Well, well, well, I didn’t think I’d be seeing Slade Coal again. It’s been what, a couple of months now?”
“I’ve been busy. Had a lot to do.”
She smirked, flicked her dyed blonde hair, and winked at him. “Well, honey, you can certainly do me any time you like. You know I love it dirty as can be.”
He certainly did, and that woman had taught him a thing or two. She was in her fifties, and been divorced seven times already. The irony was, she had divorced her men for cheating on her.
She was also a sweetheart, who saw nothing wrong in having a good time.
“Anything new going on here?” he asked, taking the bottle of beer.
“Nope. Just regulars, and a couple of townies here for a good time.”
He checked out the bar, and nearly spat out his beer when he caught sight of Cassie. She was sitting at a table with Jessica, William, and some other guy. He had to wonder who was looking after the kids.
“You know that guy sitting at Jessica and William’s table?”
“That’s Chuck. He’s a rancher that has just been dealing with his cattle. Good friends with William, and rarely comes out to play.” Being behind the bar, Bethany was a wealth of information. “It’s good to see Cassie here on her own. She was here many times as a young’un, trying to get her father to go home. Of course, he’d send her out, and men would be pissed at how upset she looked. She’s doing well for herself.”
Now his curiosity was piqued once again. “You know Cassie?”
He turned toward Bethany, wanting all the information he could get.
“Everyone knows Cassie. Her mother was a whore, and trapped one of the sweetest men in town.”
Slade knew Bethany well enough to see pain in the woman’s eyes. “You loved Bill?”
Bethany sighed. “That man was … he was a darling, Slade. He was hard working, and he doted on his little family. Loved Cassie’s mother so much. It always broke my heart when I’d see her here, drawing men’s gazes. I was emptying the trash out once, and I saw six men taking turns with her, and she was loving it. I was going to make them stop, until I heard her screaming for more. That she wanted it.” Bethany shook her head. “For the first time in my life, I really thought I could have been a good woman to Bill, and given Cassie an amazing life. She deserved more than the mother had given her. Bill did as well. Anyway, he turned to drink when she left town, and that sweet, hard-working man ceased to exist. He was a fucking nightmare. It broke my heart seeing him fall. I guess in that moment, I realized the power some women have over men. Wow, you’ve got me gossiping like an old woman, Slade Coal. Now, tell me, why are you so curious about little Cassie?”
“No reason. She’s my neighbor, and I work with her. I guess she’s a bit of a mystery to me.”
That, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. It was starting to drive him insane.