Spinning around, we found Shelley standing in the doorway looking like she’d just walked off the catwalk at Derby Day. She wore a long, floral dress that was dancing on the breeze, white sandals, and an oversized wide-brimmed hat with a giant white bow and some pink flowers shoved in the side.
“Shit,” Nash swore quietly.
“Hey, Mom,” I greeted, quickly dropping my hold on Kellie, something that turned out to be the dumbest move I’d made in weeks.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Kellie
Barely recovered from running into the barn and finding Cassie on the wrong side of the bars with a bull who could trample her to death and think she was nothing more than a speed bump, I found Jake’s mom had appeared.
Things had cooled since I’d raced out her front door like someone had lit my ass on fire, but we were still a long way from being friends and even further from calling each other family. Time and hindsight were great levelers, and while I understood where she was coming from and what she’d done, it still hurt. I might be ready to forgive, but it was going to take a lot longer before I forgot.
“What’s going on?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest while Nash and Sawyer reached for the hats on their heads. Damn those southern boys and their perfect manners. Down here, their mamas raised them right.
Before anyone got to answer, Cassie skipped over to Shelley. “I got to cuddle Gladiator!” she told her excitedly.
“You cuddled Gladiator?” she repeated, making it sound like a question while eyeing Jake over the top of Cassie’s lopsided pigtails.
“Yep. And he licked my face.”
Shelley looked appalled, but thankfully held it together. For now. I had no doubt she’d have a few choice words to say about her granddaughter and the beast when little ears weren’t around to hear them.
“Ew! Did you wash your face?”
“No.”
“Do you think you should?” Shelley asked Cassie, looking at me, no doubt judging me for letting her run around covered in bull slobber.
Completely ignoring her and changing the subject like only a kid could, Cassie asked if she was still allowed to collect the eggs in the morning.
“If you want to.”
“I do.”
“Make sure there’s an adult with you, though. You know Colonel isn’t very nice.”
“He is nice. He lets me give him cuddles,” Cassie informed her. “Doesn’t he, Dad?” Cassie asked, looking over her shoulder to Jake for backup.
“Yeah, he does, princess,” Jake confirmed, both of them completely missing the shock, almost knocking Shelley on her ass. Guess the ‘d’ bomb Cassie just dropped hadn’t been completely missed.
“Cassie,” I called out, snagging her attention.
“Yes, Mom?”
“How about you and I go back to the house and get cleaned up? Maybe we can make some brownies for dinner,” I suggested, needing to hightail it out of there.
“Yay!” she replied, bouncing on her toes.
“Go say thank you to Nash and Sawyer, and then we’ll go.”
We all watched as Cassie ran from man to man, hugging their legs and saying something we couldn’t hear but left the laughing.
Holding my hand out, Cassie ran over and took it, and we’d almost made it to the door when she stopped short.
“What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t give Dad a cuddle,” Cassie said meekly.
