Four days. That was how long it took Casey before she’d started blowing up my phone with text messages. To be honest, it was about two days later than I expected her to start. It was my fault for not manning up sooner.

I snorted at the last one. She must really be pissed, because I’m pretty sure this was the first time Casey had ever cussed. I hadn’t intentionally been ignoring her though. Well, technically. After the debacle on Tuesday night, I might have been avoiding her, but I hadn’t been ignoring her. I’d worked late at the club last night so I slept in. Then, I had Pippa’s gymnastics meet in the afternoon, followed by chauffeuring Molly to a sleep over, because Clarissa and Larry had another date night. By then, it was time for me to head back into work. It was now three a.m., and I didn’t think it was a great idea to return her messages.

I’d just closed the front door when my message alert sounded. Tempted to ignore it, I quickly glanced at the screen. Even though I shouldn’t have been, I was shocked as hell that it was another text from Casey.

Knowing it was time to stop avoiding her, I texted back.

I waited, wondering if she was going to be agreeable or stubborn.

Agreeable then.

Or not.

After ten minutes passed, I knew she’d finally listened. I took a quick, hot shower and crawled into bed. I was both dreading and anticipating our conversation later this afternoon.

* * *

When my alarm started buzzing, I sleepily rolled over and slammed the off button. Reluctantly, I rolled out of bed, knowing I couldn’t put off seeing Casey any longer. I was actually surprised she hadn’t already started texting me. I grabbed a quick bite to eat, stopped at the grocery for a few things I figured she might need, and made my way to her house.

I knocked sharply before letting myself in. As expected, Casey stood in the middle of the living room, arms crossed, tapping her toes. Knowing she’d follow me, I walked into the kitchen to put the groceries away. I heard her footsteps, but she continued to remain silent. A silence I knew wouldn’t last much longer. I faced Casey, leaned against the counter, and mimicked her pose, minus the foot tapping.

She glared at me, but as petty as it seemed, I was going to wait her out. She had been ready to ream me out last night, so I was going to let her get it out of her system.

“I’m waiting for you to apologize,” she said snippily.

My brows rose in surprise. “Apologize? For what?”

“Do I really need to go through the list?”

“Apparently you do.”

She huffed and began ticking off my various alleged offenses on her fingers. “You took off the other night without even talking about what happened. Then, you faked being sick for days just so you could continue not speaking to me. You ignored every single text message I sent you yesterday. Do I need to go on?”

“There’s more? Because I thought you were pretty thorough there. Then again, I’m sure if you thought really hard, you could find some other thing to be pissed off at me about.”

“Don’t be flippant, Philip. I’m already irritated enough with you.”

Casey was adorable with her little pout. Plus, her crossed arms pushed her boobs up nicely. Add in the heaving chest to her perturbed attitude, and I was mildly turned on. If she could read my mind, it would be one more tick of her fingers. So, I acted the repentant. She was right though. There was a lot I needed to apologize for.

“Well, I’m here now. You want to talk, let’s talk.”

She seemed flustered for a moment before gathering her composure. I don’t think she expected me to be quite so direct. But she obviously had a lot to get off her chest.

“Can we sit?”

“Lead the way.” I gestured toward the living room.

Casey took her regular spot on the couch, legs curled underneath her, while I sat in the chair opposite, ankle crossed over opposite knee. I sensed her disappointment that I hadn’t occupied the other end of the sofa. She fidgeted a bit, her hand smoothing her hair, as she plucked at a fabric pill on the arm of the couch.

She cleared her throat before speaking. “You made me cuss.”

That was the first thing she was gonna bust my balls about? I guess it was better than talking about what had happened on Tuesday night. Although I’m sure she was just getting started.

I nodded solemnly. “So I did.”

“I don’t remember ever cussing before. Ever. So you have to realize how mad I am at you, especially since you completely ignored me yesterday. Which is why you need to apologize.”

Fine. Sometimes you had to pick your battles. I was saving my battling for the next conversation. “I’m sorry I made you cuss, Casey. And for the record, I didn’t intentionally ignore you yesterday. I was on Uncle duty.”

She narrowed her eyes and studied me while I tried not to squirm under her regard. Seemingly satisfied with what she saw, she nodded primly. “Oh. Well, thank you for apologizing anyway.” She paused for breath before continuing. “Now that we have that out of the way, we need to talk about earlier this week. You really hurt me, Philip.”

I inwardly flinched. “I know. I moved too quickly, and it was entirely my fault.”

Casey shook her head. “Don’t be dense. You know that’s not it at all. You hurt me by walking out. I know you said we’d do things your way, but if I remember correctly, you also told me that if you did anything to scare me, we’d re-evaluate. Well, I’m pretty sure there was no re-evaluating the situation. You declared we were done and that was that. You didn’t bother to take my feelings into consideration, which was extremely selfish. I’ve had far too many selfish people in my life. My mother, my father. It can’t work that way Philip. I have to have a say in this too. Especially because I’m sure this won’t be the first, or last, hiccup.”

Damn, I hated that she was right. It hadn’t been fair of me, but she didn’t understand what it had done to me to see her completely crawl inside herself. She hadn’t even been in that room the moments after those stupid words escaped me. She’d completely checked out, and it had scared the shit out of me. I’d panicked. My stomach had dropped, bile had risen to my throat, and my heartbeat had pounded in my ears. It was one of the worst moments in my life.

“You’re right. It was more about me than you. It was difficult, to say the least, seeing you like that though. You want me to take your feelings into consideration, but you also have to do the same for mine. I’ve seen a lot of things in my life, Casey. I’ve been to war and have seen things that haunt my nightmares. However, none of them destroyed me like Tuesday night did. I apologize that I left the way I did, but at that moment, it was the only thing I could do.”

Her expression was slightly shame-faced. “I guess I didn’t look at it that way. It seems as though I should be apologizing to you as well then. I’m sorry. You’re my best friend, Philip. We should be able to talk about these things. There’s only so much I can talk to Josie about, you know.”

Now I moved from the chair and slid onto the couch next to her, taking her hand in mine. It was so small, and she trembled a little at my touch. “It might take me a few days to calm down, but no matter what happens between us, you can always talk to me Casey. Always. Even when I’m an asshole.”