Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CASSIDY JOGGED DOWN THE STAIRS WITH A SMILE PINNED ON HER FACE. She made her way into the kitchen and grabbed herself a water bottle from the refrigerator before pausing at the sight of Christina Blaire sipping his coffee as he read something off of his computer.
"Morning, Sweetheart."
"Morning," Cassidy hummed, her mood far too high to be affected by anything he planned to say. "What are you up to today?" He closed the laptop infront of him and took his glasses off, rubbing his eyes as he took another sip of coffee. He noticed how happy she seemed and hoped it had nothing to do with the Maybank boy.
"Just goin' to town with Sarah. Gonna do some shopping," Cassidy lied easily to him as she had done so for the better half of her life. She almost never got caught, no matter how much she did it. "Sounds fun. You know what time you'll be home? I could use some help with some of the mess outback," Christian asked, nodding towards the direction of the back door.
Cassidy already knew that he wanted help cleaning up the remnants of her mom's studio, her smile faltering for a second. "I'm not sure. I shouldn't be too late," she answered, the smile coming right back into view as she spoke. She felt that she had finally come to peace with the fact that Renee was gone. It was time to accept that she was never coming back.
Her father nodded and then opened his laptop yet again, his attention falling back to whatever it was that was on his screen. "There's no waves in Washington."
Cass stopped walking to turn and face her dad again. She took a deep breath and dropped into the chair besides him, a small frown on her face when she saw that Georgetown University filled the laptop screen. "Dad—"
"Baby, I want you to do whatever you want to do. If this is what you want, then you got it," Christian gave her a small smile and grabbed her hand, squeezing it to reassure her that he meant what he had said. "I love you, Cassie. More than anything in the world. All I want for you is to be happy."
Cassidy paused for a second, thinking about what made her happy. Only one thing came to mind and it was the blonde boy who was currently on his way to her; the same one who made her world feel like it stopped moving and she would never find peace like that again if he ever failed to be there.
"JJ Maybank makes me happy."
"Cassidy—"
"No, Dad, you want me to be happy and I'm happiest with him. I understand that he isn't Rafe or Topper, I really do, but he is so much more than them. He puts his friends before anything else and he does that willingly. He's selfless, just like Mom was."
Christian closed his eyes at the mention of Renee and pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing softly after she spoke. Every word that had came out of her mouth was depicting the mirror image of the woman he had once loved and it was the same woman that had brought him the uttermost pain.
