Chapter Four
Declan
Two years later
I couldn’t believe that I was back at the damn airport about to get on another mothereffin’ plane. I landed in this exact terminal not three days ago from London. I’d barely had time to unpack and re-pack before I was on the move again. I knew I owed it to my family to go home for a visit, especially during the holidays. I’d only seen them a handful of times in the two years I’d been living in London. Plus, for the first time in a long time, I was excited to go back to Dallas. It was time to see Cassie.
I knew she hadn’t married Steven because Brice had told me during one of his many trips to London. I hadn’t called her. I wanted to, but I knew that she needed time to get her life in order. I needed her to be ready for me. I needed her to be happy, content, and ready to be in a real relationship. A relationship that was fifty-fifty, where we made choices together. A relationship where we each got to be ourselves, flaws and all.
A relationship full of real love, and as much sex as she could handle.
I was ready. I’d more than sowed my wild oats, all over Europe in fact. Man, that was a fun two years. But I never stopped missing Cassie, never stopped thinking about her, wondering how she was.
I chuckled to myself. I was so amped up about seeing her again that women were starting to look like her. I could have sworn I saw her when I was going through security and now I was seeing her again at my gate. Wait. No. Was that…?
“Cassie?”
The woman whirled around at the sound of my voice, her blonde hair fanning out.
Holy. Shit.
“Declan. Oh my gosh, wow. I, uh, I didn’t know you were back from London.”
“Yeah, I just flew in a couple days ago. Man, you are a sight for sore eyes. Come here.” I pulled her in for a hug; she smelled amazing and her body seemed to melt into mine. “What are you doing in Florida?” I was so happy to see her, I couldn’t stop smiling. I felt like my face was going to crack in half.
“Oh, uh, it’s so good to see you, Dec. It’s been a long time. I’ve actually been meaning to call you…”
She was talking into my shirt, her hands on my hips, not making eye contact. But I didn’t care. I’d waited two years to have my hands on her; nothing could ruin this perfect moment.
“Momma?” I felt her go rigid and then she slid out of my arms.
“Hey, little man, come here.” The toddler took two shaky steps before reaching for Cassie’s hand. “I want you to meet someone, Wyllie, this is Declan. He is a friend of Uncle Bricey and Mommy’s. Declan, this is Wyllie. My son.”
Her son? Not in a million years had it ever entered my mind that she could have a kid by now. But hell, if that little boy wasn’t the most adorable child I’d ever seen. He had Cassie’s stunning green eyes and full lips, but that was where their similarities ended. Both his hair and his skin were a few shades darker than hers, like a milk chocolate color. He wasn’t nearly as fair as she was.
He had puffy little baby hands, and was standing holding onto Cassie’s leg. “Wow. Cassie, I had no idea. Congratulations. He’s precious.”
My brain was on overload. Cassie was a mom? I had all these stupid little fantasies about what seeing her again would be like. A lot of them involved us naked against another wall. Did I honestly not think that after two fucking years she might have moved on? Cassie was the whole package, she was perfect. How naïve could I be? I’d wanted to give her space and time to find herself and instead I’d lost her to someone else.
“Thank you. I think so too.” She smiled down at the little dark-haired boy clutching her hand.
“Leave it to you to name your son with a nickname. Just had to stick it to your parents one more time?”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes, “His name is Wylder actually. But yeah, calling him Wyllie did make my mom cringe at first.” She knelt down next to him and started packing up his toys.
Wylder was my middle name. Huh, wonder if she knew that?
There was a wide assortment of trucks and cars scattered all over the terminal. Wyllie stood there studying me for a few seconds before deciding I was okay and holding his little hands out for me to pick him up. I reached down and scooped him into my arms. I could feel Cassie’s eyes on me, but I ignored her to talk and play with Wyllie. I needed a minute to let all this settle in. She had a son. “Uncle Bricey” never mentioned that he had a nephew. I talked to that asshole once a week for the last two years. He came to visit me six times. We banged Russian twins in the same hotel room.
What the hell was going on? Why wouldn’t he want me to know?
“Momma.” Wyllie was reaching for Cassie now that she was standing again. I handed him off and grabbed the bags off her shoulder just as our plane started boarding.
“Oh, it’s okay. I can get those.” She balanced Wyllie on her hip and went to take the bags back.
“I know you can, but I’m here now, I want to help.” Cassie looked down, blinking rapidly. She seemed different. She seemed so much more guarded, so in control. Complete one-eighty from the last time I saw her. Although my last image of Cassie was her beautiful naked body sprawled across my bed, her eyes closed and her head on my pillow.
Man, was she still beautiful. Her long blonde hair hung down her back in loose waves, her skin was sun-kissed. Her skinny jeans were tight, her long-sleeve shirt was loose. No one made dressed down look as good as she did. And her body? Straight sin, just like always. Although it was curvier than it used to be, and it looked damn fantastic on her.
***
Cassie put Wyllie in his seat and pulled this complicated-looking harness from inside one of her four bags. She hooked it to the back of the seat and strapped him in. Then she got out some noise-canceling headphones, a pacifier, and a tablet.
I laughed. “I guess this isn’t his first flight?”
She smiled and collapsed into the window seat. “No, we go to Dallas every other month or so. My stingy cold parents actually turned out to be amazing grandparents. I swear you wouldn’t even recognize them anymore. The house is full of toys and the white couch is smeared with grape jelly. My mother even, wait for it, puts her hair in a ponytail. It’s the weirdest best thing ever.”
“Wait, you visit Dallas? Where do you live?” I clipped my seat belt in and put my phone on airplane mode.
“Seaside.”
I looked up, confused. “You and Wyllie live in Seaside? Since when?”
Cassie shrugged. “Since before he was born actually. I moved there a few months after I found out I was pregnant. Everything was so chaotic. I just needed to be where I felt calm and at peace, you know?”
“Your happy place.”
She laughed. “Yeah, my happy place.”
“What does, uh, Wyllie’s dad? Your husband? I don’t really know what you’ve been up to, and apparently your brother doesn’t like to share.”
Cassie opened and closed her mouth a few times. “Wyllie’s father and I aren’t together. It’s just me and Wild Man.”
Oh. Was he Steven’s? Poor Cassie. Finally got away from that asshole only to get sucked back in. Tied to him forever. “I can’t believe that your parents let you move to another state, pregnant and alone.” What were they thinking? They bossed her around her whole damn life, but when she actually needed their help they just let her go?
“Well, I didn’t ask for their permission.”
“I know you called off the wedding, but doesn’t Steven miss watching him grow up? Wyllie is literally the cutest kid I’ve ever seen. How can Steven stand missing this?” Steven was a dick to the highest degree, and I always figured he’d be distant when it came to his kids. But not even living in the same state? That was bad.
“Oh, uh, well, Wyllie isn’t Steven’s son. But, yes I agree, he is unbelievably cute.” She looked over at Wyllie and ran her hand over his hair in a completely motherly way that made me smile.
“I’m sorry. I just assumed when you said you and his dad weren’t together… I mean, Wyllie is what, a year old?”
“Sixteen months.”
It took all of about twenty seconds for realization to dawn on me. Suddenly every word Cassie had spoken in the past thirty minutes fell into place.
His dark hair.
His name.
His age.
I started to sweat, my knee started to bounce around like I was on speed. My mouth was almost too dry to form my next words.
“Whose son is he, Cassie?”
“Declan, I—”
“Whose son is he?” I knew my tone had dropped an octave and sounded angry and cold, but I couldn’t help it. My world was spinning out of control. I’d thought about Cassie the whole time I was living in England, the whole damn time. I was on my way to Dallas to see her, to look for her. To tell her how I felt and that I wanted to start a life together. But it seemed she’d already started our life, without me.
“He’s, well, Wyllie is, uh—”
“Spit it out, Cass.”
“He’s your son, Declan.”