I Choose Us: Book 2 in the Crossing Midian Series - A Christian Romance

Chapter 4

–Coop–

Coop was there right on time to pick Cassie up from school. He waited by the front of the Jeep, next to the rolled down passenger side window where Duke had his head sticking out. When Coop spotted her, he held his hand up and waved at her before walking toward the school to meet her.

Cassie squealed with excitement and did a little dance when she saw him. She quickly said goodbye to her teacher before sprinting toward him, running straight into his arms, where he scooped her up easily, and spun her around.

"Are you ready for milkshakes?" he asked as he carried her to the passenger side of the Jeep and buckled her into her car seat.

"Yep," she said as she reached into her sparkly Cinderella backpack and pulled out a folded piece of yellow construction paper. "Look what I made." Cassie beamed, dimples flashing, as she proudly showed him a picture she had drawn.

"Let's see that," Coop said as he looked down at the page. It was a crayon-drawn picture of a stick family, with a dog, in front of a brown house. "This is beautiful!" Coop exclaimed. "You drew this?"

Cassie nodded and pointed to each person in turn. "This is Mama, see she's got long yellow hair. And that one's you."

"I think you mean blonde hair," Coop said with a smile. "And who's this?" he asked, pointing to the smallest figure.

"That one is me, silly, 'cause I'm the little one."

"And is that Duke?" Coop asked.

Upon hearing his name, Duke poked his head up between the front seats.

"Yeah," Cassie said, "I couldn't leave him out."

Coop reached over and scratched Duke behind the ears. "We could never leave Ol' Duke out. Could we, Buddy?"

Duke's only response was a quiet huff before he settled back down.

As soon as Coop put the Jeep in gear and pulled out of the school parking lot, Cassie asked, "When can we go see Santa?"

Coop glanced at her through the rearview mirror. "Christmas is still a few weeks away, Darlin'. It'll probably be a little while before Santa goes on his big Mall Tour. Remember, he starts after the Thanksgiving Parade?"

"Well," she said, turning her head to look out the window, "when he comes to our town, I need to see him."

Coop nodded. "I'll make sure you get to go. In the meantime, you could always tell me what you want."

Cassie's brows puckered in the middle as she thought. "I can tell you some things, but I can't tell you everything. Part of it is a secret." She pointed her finger at him. "And don't you even think about trying to get me to tell you. It's for Santa's ears only."

Coop did his best to hold back a grin as he nodded solemnly. "I promise. But you can tell me the non-secret things. Maybe I can help Santa out. He's a busy man, you know."

Cassie ticked off on her fingers as she said, "A bike. A real one like the big kids have."

"What kinda bike?" he asked, genuinely curious as this was the first he was hearing about it.

"A purple one, with those things that hang on the handlebars, and a basket, and a bell."

"Streamers? Alright, I can do that." Coop shook his head, backtracking his words. "I mean, Santa shouldn't have a problem with that."

Cassie nodded. "And a horse of my own." She narrowed her eyes. "Daddy, you know how big T.J.'s horse, Cloud, is?"

"Yeah, I know." Wesley had gotten T.J. a horse over the summer and Cassie was obsessed with it. She'd been riding a few times but she was so little and if he were being honest, Coop was afraid she would get hurt.