Mario looked down at his plate. “Yeah.”
“Good. The protein will help your muscle mass. We’ll talk later about nutrition and what kinds of foods will help your muscles grow so you can better catch the fliers.”
It was exactly the right thing to say. Mario sat up straighter in his chair and gave Leo a small smile. “Awesome,” he said softly.
The mood in the room had lifted slightly, but Cassidy was still very nervous about the long-overdue talk she needed to have with her son.
All too soon it was time for Leo to leave. Mario was sitting on the couch watching a documentary on TV about cheerleading. Leo leaned over and kissed the top of his head and said, “Love you, Mario.”
“Love you too, Leo.”
Cassidy felt as if her heart was going to burst. Every time she heard her son and Leo exchanging I love yous, she got a little teary. As Leo passed, he snagged her hand and took her with him as he walked to his front door. He pulled her outside, and as soon as the door shut behind them, he backed her up against it and kissed her. Hard.
They hadn’t made love since she’d been rescued. They’d both been exhausted from the stress over Smoke’s condition. But they had slept in each other’s arms every night since then, and Cassidy had never felt safer.
This was the first hint of passion they’d shared since that awful evening, and Cassidy felt her libido stirring as Leo kissed her. She loved being pressed up against him. Loved feeling caged in by him. Leo was her safe place, there was no doubt about that.
“You okay?” he asked after lifting his head.
Cassidy nodded.
Leo studied her for a long moment. “You’re not, but you will be. Call me when you’re done talking, and I’ll come home. Take you both out to lunch. Then we’ll head over to Silverstone before Mario’s practice this afternoon.”
Cassidy swallowed hard. “You don’t think I’m a horrible parent for keeping him out of school today?”
Leo snorted. “No, Cass. You couldn’t be a horrible mom if you tried. School is important, but his mental health is more so. If that means you take him to Chicago to watch a cheerleading competition for fun, great. If it means you go to the zoo, New York City to watch a Broadway musical, or the mall, or even to fucking Chuck E. Cheese, fine. Spending time with your son, making sure he knows he’s loved and that he’s the most important person in your life, would never make you a bad parent. Besides, you both need this. Mario needs to know what happened, why you made the decisions that you did.”
“He’s upset with me,” Cassidy replied.
Leo nodded. “Yeah, I think he is. But he’ll understand once you talk to him.”
“I hope so.”
“I know so.”
“Leo?”
“Yeah, Cass?”
“Thank you for agreeing to go to El Paso with us when my parents get back from Mexico,” Cassidy said. “I know it’s not your favorite place to be, but I appreciate you coming with us.”
“No way in hell I’d let you go without me,” Leo told her.
“I love you,” she whispered.
Leo leaned down and kissed her briefly. “And I love you. You got this. That kid loves you too. You’ve been each other’s entire world for eleven and a half years. He’ll understand—just be honest with him. He’s not a baby anymore, Cass.”
“I know. And I think I hate that,” she said with a small smile.
Leo smoothed her hair back from her face, took a deep breath, and stared down at her.
“You gonna go?” she asked after a long moment had passed and he didn’t back away.
“Yeah,” he said regretfully. “I never understood why Bull, Eagle, and Smoke were so anxious to see their women at the end of the day, but I get it now. I love being with you, Cass. You make me want to be a better man, simply by breathing.”
God, that was beautiful. But Cassidy knew she needed to get inside and have a chat with her son. She’d chicken out if she waited too much longer. “Go,” she said semisternly, pushing at his chest. “The sooner you go, the sooner I can text you and let you know we’re done so you can come back and take us to lunch.”
Leo smirked and leaned forward and nuzzled the skin by her ear. Then he bit her lobe gently, and Cassidy shivered. Goose bumps broke out on her arms, and her nipples hardened. “Tonight, I’m gonna make love with you,” he said, his warm breath against her ear making her groan. “I’m gonna eat you out, watch as you come around my tongue, then I’m gonna make slow, sweet love to you . . . and you won’t be able to think about anything other than me being inside you.”
“Leo,” Cassidy complained as she struggled to get air into her lungs.
In response, Leo took a step back, leaving her feeling cold without his body pressing against hers. He smiled at her and walked backward off the porch, staring at her the entire time.
“That was mean,” she told him.
His smile grew.
But when Cassidy looked at the front of his jeans, she knew she wasn’t the only one who’d gotten all hot and bothered by his words. “Drive safe,” she called to him.
“Always,” he responded. “Inside, Cass.”
Doing as he asked, she opened the door and waved once more before heading inside to talk to her son.
She went to the couch and sat down next to Mario. She watched him for a long moment before he sighed and clicked off the TV.
“You wanted to talk, so . . . talk,” he said.
Cassidy didn’t like the attitude Mario was exhibiting, but knew he wasn’t purposely being mean. He was confused and struggling to come to terms with what had happened. Deciding not to beat around the bush, she jumped into the conversation headfirst.
“You’re mad at me for locking you in the safe room at Silverstone,” she said.
Mario blinked, then looked down at his hands in his lap and nodded.
Taking a deep breath for courage, Cassidy started at the beginning. “When I met your father, I thought I loved him. He was successful and much older than me. I wasn’t head over heels in love with him, but I respected him and thought he felt the same about me. From the beginning of our marriage, things weren’t great between us. But even if I could, I wouldn’t go back and change anything about my relationship with him. You know why?”
Mario looked up at her and shook his head.
“Because it gave me you,” Cassidy said earnestly. “You are literally the best thing to ever happen to me. The day you were born, I swore to always do what was best for you. I thought I was doing that when we moved to Jamaica. Living in El Paso wasn’t good for me after your father and I got divorced. He had a lot of friends, and whenever I ran into them, they looked at me as if I was insane for divorcing him. They couldn’t understand why I’d let such a good catch go. But we didn’t love each other, and it was better for both of us to separate. So I went to Jamaica thinking you and I could live there for a year or so to regroup. I’d planned to come back to the States and get you enrolled in a good school somewhere. I didn’t know where, but it wasn’t going to be in El Paso.”
“Was my father upset that you took me away?” Mario asked.
Cassidy bit her lip, then decided she needed to be as honest as possible. “I think he was, but I also think at that point in his life, it was a relief. Not because of you, but because he wouldn’t have to see me and be reminded of his failure.”