The Open Season diner on the outskirts of Faircrest Heights, a short drive from where Tiana was living with her sister, looked like a popular truck stop diner. It was situated in a small retail park on a busy junction. Its menu, as the name suggested, specialized in red meat platters, the kind that would leave even Davy Crockett in a torpor. Dax had never met Cassie before. He half-expected her to be a female trucker with two chins and two asses, based on her choice of breakfast eatery. And he really wasn’t in the mood to be shouted at by some beer-swilling broad who talked trucker slang. Not when it involved Tiana.

 

He sat at a window table, so he could keep an eye on who came and went—a habit he’d adopted recently, ever since Thad Hollis had gate-crashed his party. A few skinny girls in tight jeans entered. They were too young to be Cassie, who was Tiana’s older sister. She would recognize Dax, she’d said, so he had to just wait for her to come to him.

 

It made him nervous. More nervous than he’d expected. He tried reading a few pages of a Steve Jobs biography on his Kindle e-reader but wound up re-reading the same sentence four times. He put it away and ordered a double espresso. Two more women entered the diner. The first had a loud, coarse laugh and resembled a squat Mrs. Fratelli from The Goonies. The second was long-legged, rangy, thirtyish, and had dark auburn hair under her blue beret. She looked really tired but was still attractive, the same way Tiana was when she was flustered about something.

 

He’d already gotten to his feet when she addressed him and said, “Hi Dax. I’m Cassie.”

 

“Nice to finally meet you,” he replied and offered her a seat.

 

“Did you find it okay?”

 

“Sure. It does kinda stand out.”

 

She took off her knee-length, cream leather coat. The dark sweater underneath suited her and revealed her figure. She was slightly skinnier than Tiana, not quite as busty. And she wasn’t self-conscious at all. Cassie clocked the group of guys at the bar checking her out but managed to shut them out completely. He hated to use the word ‘worldly’…but she was not fazed at all by men and was way surer of herself than her sister was.

 

“Thanks for the invite,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to call Tiana.”

 

She nodded. “Why haven’t you, if you don’t mind me asking? We were both wondering about that.”

 

Okay, so she didn’t beat about the bush. Neither would he. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to call her. When I saw her in the hospital, she clearly blamed me for what happened. And she was right.”

 

Cassie tilted her head to one side, as if she was mulling over what he’d said, deciding if he was being honest or just making excuses so he wouldn’t have to see Tiana again.

 

“I heard you stayed in the hospital for two whole days,” she said.

 

“Closer to three.”

 

“We must’ve just missed each other.”

 

“Yeah. My sleep pattern went to shit. It’s still not right.”

 

“I can imagine.”

 

“But you know what? I’d do it again,” he said.

 

“Uh-huh.” Again the judging gaze, the pause for deliberation. He felt as though he should maybe swear under oath. “Before we get into all that…I’m famished,” she said, signaling for the waitress. “I’m nothing without a big breakfast. How about you?”

 

He could tell her how he’d already consumed his protein and energy content for the morning, shortly before his dawn run, and that if he pigged out here, he’d be throwing a wrench in his carefully calibrated diet and fitness regime. But damn it, all this talk of hospital waiting rooms and sleep deprivation was depressing; and nothing gave him an appetite like feeling depressed.

 

“I make it a point never to be out-eaten on a first date,” he said.

 

She managed half a smile. “You don’t go hungry much, then, I’m guessing. No offense.”

 

Wow. Sass.

 

“Whatcha tryin’ to say?”

 

“That you’ve dated a lot more than Tiana has. Maybe you don’t know what a big deal this is for her, you being in her life like this.”

 

Sass with the sober inside.

 

“Sure I do,” he replied. “Why do you think I’m here?”

 

“I don’t know. You tell me.” But she didn’t give him a chance to respond right away. Cassie didn’t even look at the menu. She ordered a full breakfast with an egg and bacon, hash browns, pancakes and maple syrup—and orange juice instead of coffee. Dax went with the same, only without the juice, plus extra hash browns and a second fried egg.

 

“So how’s she doing?” he asked. “Her throat should have healed by now.”

 

“Her throat, yes. Her spirit, not so much.”

 

The image hit Dax while his guard was down. It reopened a wound deep inside, in that place he couldn’t defend even if he wanted to. She was still there, raw and hurting. She had not recovered. And he had not been there for her…again.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“She gets angry. Out of the blue she gets irritable, snippy. Sometimes she shouts and screams, especially if I try to confront her. It’s defensive, I think. Like they say, attack is the best form of defense. She’s lashing out at the slightest pressure. I think she still feels helpless, as if a part of her is still stuck in that night. Other times she goes the other way and gets really down on herself, depressed. I think I hate those funks worse than the outbursts because she’s bottling it up. It’s eating away at her. I’d rather she goes a few rounds with me and gets it all off her chest. The moping around just puts her back in that headspace—feeling trapped and helpless. I think that’s her biggest problem, Dax. On some level, she just doesn’t feel safe. She’s in retreat, running from it, almost in hiding. I really don’t think it’s helping her. Of course, I’m no shrink, but—”

 

“Shrinks don’t have all the answers. You’re her sister. You know her better than that.”

 

“She has seen a counselor,” Cassie explained. “He said it would be good for her to spend time in normal surroundings. So-called normal surroundings.”

 

“With your daughters, right?”

 

“Uh-huh. Shana and Len.”

 

“Nice.”

 

“Thanks. They love having her around. But it’s that word, normal. I just don’t think it applies to Tiana anymore. The lifestyle she’s had, what she’s had to put up with for so long. Her normal is so far removed from my normal; I just don’t think it’s helping her, being cooped up with the girls and me. She needs some kind of middle ground.”

 

“Like what?” Dax liked how much thought Cassie had put into this. She was really looking out for her kid sister, and he admired her for it.

 

“Like someone who can make her feel safe again. Secure in herself. If she can get some kind of mental footing in a relationship that makes her feel important again, wanted, who knows, maybe that’s what she needs to really heal.”

 

Dax swallowed past the lump in his throat, then took another swig of espresso. “I see where you’re going with this. You want her to move in with me.”

 

Cassie’s resolute gaze fixed on him. She didn’t blink. “If she means as much to you as you do to her, you won’t say no. You can’t say no.” She narrowed her eyes a little in concentration, then they appeared to soften. “Dax, I’m asking you to take her in for a while. I think it’ll be good for her—hopefully for both of you. I haven’t discussed any of this with her. I think it’d be much better if you approached her with it. God knows, you’ve both waited long enough to make the first move.”

 

Harsh but true.

 

“What if she says no? What if she still blames me for what happened?”

 

“She doesn’t.”

 

“What? She told you that?”

 

“In a roundabout way.” Cassie briefly checked the incoming message on her Smartphone, but left it before it broke the thread of the conversation. Another thing Dax admired about her. “Yeah, Tiana thought she’d lost you. But I wasn’t convinced. I suspected you were both hung up on blaming yourselves. Believe me, I’ve had enough rows with my other half to know the blame game inside out. Sooner or later, one of us has to lower the drawbridge and invite the other for lunch. If we didn’t, it’d get real lonely real quick.”

 

Dax was silent.

 

“So what do you think, champ? Is that something you’d be willing to try?”

 

He couldn’t get over how unfazed she was by a.) his bad boy, tough-guy reputation, and b.) the fact that she was laying all these important personal issues on him when they barely knew each other. Calling this meeting had taken real guts on her part, but she’d carried it off without pause and without holding anything back.

 

She was impressive. Tiana was lucky to have her as a sister.

 

“I’m definitely willing to talk it over with Tiana. If you’re sure she wants to see me.”

 

“That’s the only guarantee I can make, I’m afraid. If you go to her, she will see you.”

 

“How do you know that?”

 

Cassie crooked the corner of her mouth. “Because I’ll kill her if she doesn’t.”

 

“Ah, okay.”

 

“And I’ll kill you if you don’t, so there’s that.”

 

He quirked an eyebrow. “Interesting matchmaking, Cassie.”

 

She chuckled. “Just don’t tell my husband I said any of this. He thinks I interfere too much.”

 

“I wonder where he got that idea.”

 

“So you’ll do it?”

 

“I’ll do it.”

 

She nodded. “Good for you.”

 

“Mm. I wish I could say the same for this breakfast.” He shifted the napkin, ready for the waitress bringing their platters. “So should I call her first, or show up in person?”

 

“Uh-uh. I’ve done my bit,” she said. “The rest is up to you two.”