Her hand stills against my chest. “I always wanted a sister.”
I place my hand over hers. Not sure how to answer.
“What was her name?”
I close my eyes.
It’s been so long… It’s been so incredibly long since I’ve said her name.
“Freya.” I say it so quietly that I can barely hear the hitch in my voice.
My throat burns, and I have to swallow twice before I can pull in another breath of air.
Cassandra tips her forehead against my sternum, and I’m sure she can hear my thudding heart.
“Freya,” she repeats. “It’s a pretty name.”
I nod my agreement, even though Cassandra isn’t looking up at me. Hearing someone else say my sister’s name is… I fill my lungs again. It’s cathartic. It… it makes her real, having someone else say it. Like not every part of her is gone.
CHAPTER 35
Cassie
A timer beeps back in the kitchen, and I force myself to step back from Hans.
“Sorry.” I apologize again, brushing my hand over the damp spot on his T-shirt, which is thankfully not super noticeable on the black material.
“Please stop apologizing.” Hans lets his hands slide away from my body.
“Sorry,” I automatically reply before I can catch myself. Then I use my fingertips to wipe away the lingering tears under my eyes.
I don’t know why I responded like that. It feels like an overreaction, but I’m not certain it was. The man I’ve been crushing on for a year, who I’ve been getting very close to in the last couple days, just told me his whole family is gone. And that he lost his only sibling in one of the worst ways.
His overbearing actions make more sense now. His impulse to control.
Too fragile for this awful world.
My heart aches even more at his explanation.
Hans reaches out and brushes back a loose curl stuck to my damp cheek.
“It suddenly smells like cinnamon rolls in here.” His voice is gentle, and when I finally look up at him, his expression matches.
I sniff one last time. “Mom always makes them as dessert when we do breakfast for dinner.”
He gives that loose strand of hair a gentle tug. “Probably could’ve told me that before you fed me a whole second serving.”
I brush at my eyes again. “Maybe I wanted more cinnamon rolls for myself.”
Hans narrows his eyes at me, and I feel the sadness start to dissolve around us.
He steps forward, bumping his body into mine. “Get back to your chair, Girl.”
A genuine smile pulls at my mouth. “Or what?”
When Hans reaches for me, I jump back and hurry to the kitchen.
CHAPTER 36
Hans
Cassandra and her mom are still saying their goodbyes when I finish lacing up my second boot, her mom giving advice on what to pack in her carry-on just in case her main luggage gets lost on the way to Mexico tomorrow.
After our little sidebar in the hallway, the rest of the evening was filled with light topics and a surprisingly fun game of Scrabble, which I won.
Cassandra accused me of cheating, but when I won the second game, too, she settled for giving me adorably fake dirty looks.
Scrabble. With my sexy neighbor and her parents. What has my life become?
I brush off my knees as I stand to my full height and find Cassandra’s dad watching me.
I can tell that he wants to ask me something.
He glances at the women, then steps closer to me, keeping his voice low. “Did they catch the people who hurt your sister?”
His jaw is tense, and I can see it in his eyes… the dread that I’m sure every parent holds deep in their chest. The worry of what could happen.
I think of the men responsible.
Bent limbs. Slit throats. Entrails trailing across the floor.
I hold his gaze and answer with the truth. “They got what they deserved.”
He nods once. “Good.” Then he looks over at his beautiful daughter. “Keep an eye on her, yeah?”
I suppress the inappropriate urge to smile but once again answer with the truth. “I do.”
Giving her mom one last hug, Cassandra turns to me. “You finally ready to go?” She laughs at her joke as I pull the door open and usher her out into the hall.
Her steps are bouncy, which is her normal way of walking, so when she bumps into my side for the second time, she doesn’t notice my hand sliding into her bag.
And as she uses her hands to tell me about the time her mom’s suitcase burst open on a baggage carousel, she’s too animated to notice my attention is pulled down low and off to my side.
While she finishes her story, I download my location tracking software onto her phone.
As we exit the building, I place my hand on her back, and she sways into me, just like I knew she would.
The sky is right on the edge of darkness, so when I reach across my body and slip the phone back into her bag between us, the colorful case is hardly visible.
CHAPTER 37
Cassie
“So…” I drum my fingers on my knees as the highway hums below us. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
It’s dark inside the truck, but when I glance at Hans’s profile, I can see his brows rise.
“What part of me having my hand on your hot little pussy makes you think I could have a girlfriend?” His tone is dry.
My face flames at his choice of words, and I shift in my seat.
But if he’s going to be direct, then I will too. “Well, it was probably the part when you got a bunch of text messages, dropped me over the back of the couch, and rushed out of my house.”
He waits a beat. “Oh.”
I press my hands between my thighs. “Was it a woman texting you?”
“Yes.”
His answer spears through my chest, and I regret asking.
“Now ask me if it was personal or for work.” The tone of his voice tells me the answer, and that spear evaporates.
“Oh.” I repeat his response from earlier. “Is the woman your boss?”
Hans huffs out a breath. “Feels like it sometimes.”
We slow, and Hans takes the exit to our little town.
I want to ask if health inspectors usually get called out to job sites on a Friday night, but a different question comes out of my mouth. “Have you slept with her?”
His head jerks in my direction like he can’t believe I asked that. “No.”
I roll my lips together. “You’re sure?”
“I tend to remember who I’ve slept with. Our relationship is strictly professional.”
The sound of the blinker is loud inside the truck as we make our way closer to our neighborhood.
It only takes another minute before I break the silence. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. It’s none of my business.”
I mean, it kind of is my business if he has a girlfriend because I don’t want to be the other woman. But I believe him.
Hans doesn’t say anything at first, but I hear the steering wheel creak under his grip. “Have you slept with any of the men going to Mexico?”
“My coworkers?” My face pulls into a disgusted expression, and I see Hans glance over to catch it. “No.”