Read Online Finding Cassidy by Laura Langston - Free Book Online Page B

reflection , but it’s as good as it gets. You are no longer Cassidy the Separate. You are Jason’s girlfriend. You love him. I opened the door. Go prove it.
    Jason was already in bed, leaning against a stack of pillows. Watery light from a small reading lamp gave his blond hair and bare chest a halo-like glow. Was he completely nude under the covers? I wondered.
    “You don’t have to do this.”
    “I know.” Turning my back, I pulled off my sweater, removed my jeans and slid into bed beside him. The room spun. I lay rigid, my hands folded over my chest, waiting for the movement to stop.
    “Cass, I—”
    “Jase, I—”
    We both chuckled softly then rolled on our sides to face each other.
    “You first.”
    “No, you.”
    Jason reached out and traced my lips with his finger. “I’m fresh out of champagne and chocolates.”
    “I don’t care. I just…” How to explain? “I just want to feel close to you.” Close to someone. My eyes filled. Horrified, I blinked and swallowed, willed the tears away.
    He pulled me close. Relief turned me limp. He wore a pair of sweatpants under the covers.
    I wound my legs around his, snuggled into the crook of his neck and relaxed. Slowly, the room stopped spinning. Under Jason’s careful questioning, I told him about the conversation with my parents. What I knew about my conception. “I’ll find out more tomorrow. About who he is and stuff. They’ve got the paperwork in the safety deposit box.”
    He kissed me. I touched his shoulders, ran my fingers down the length of his back, to the bony bit at the base of his spine. I wanted to slide my hand under his pants, but I didn’t have the nerve. I wanted him to make the first move. He didn’t. Instead, his kisses slowed, then stopped.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing’s wrong, but nothing’s exactly right, either.” He settled me in the curve of his arm with a sigh. “The timing sucks, that’s all.”
    “What do you mean, the timing sucks?”
    “I mean, we’ve both been drinking, and you’ve hadthe shock of your life. I’m not…It’s not…Not tonight, Cass.”
    I struggled to sit up. “But you wanted to!”
    “Ssssh!” He frowned and pulled me back down. “Not like this. I don’t want your first time to be wrapped up with a shitload of bad memories.”
    Was this Jason speaking? I-want-to-take-our-relationship-to-another-level Jason? “Last night you were ready to do it on the dock!”
    “Yeah, well.” I heard a smile in his voice. “You couldn’t relax on the dock, and I can’t relax with my mother upstairs.”
    His mother. If I’d been thinking back on the beach, I would have dragged him to a hotel. “Can I stay?”
    “I should call you a cab.”
    “Just for a few minutes?”
    “Okay,” he murmured sleepily. “Just for few minutes.”
    “Jason Elijah Perdue!”
    The cabbie yelled at Jason, motioned him over with fingers the colour of Jell-O shooters. Orange. Green. Midnight blue.
    “Get your sorry ass out of there.”
    The cabbie didn’t want to help. He was mean, loud. I hid behind Jason. We had to get away.
    “And you!” The cabbie grabbed my shoulder and ripped my coat off. He poked me in the stomach with a big, black stick. “You have a phone call.”
    The cabbie dissolved into the mist.
    “C’mon, Princess, get your bits together and get them out of my house.”
    I jerked awake. My head was an explosion waiting to happen. Only one person in the world spoke to me like that. Jason’s mother. She jabbed me in the stomach with the phone. “You have a call.” Was it morning? Night? And why were the covers down around our feet? I sat up, grabbed the blanket with one hand, the phone with the other.
    Jason said, “Ma, wait, it’s not what you think.”
    Over his head, I saw the clock radio. 6:20 a.m. Dear Lord, we’d slept for almost five hours.
    “You don’t know what I think.” She jerked her thumb angrily toward the centre of the room. “Now get out of that bed.” Jason’s