From Ashes (From Ashes #1)(65)

My eyes rolled and I held back a laugh as Ethan spoke up. “You can’t cheer on both teams, Cass. Pick one or the other. And remember what Gage said: you ain’t in California anymore, baby girl.”

“But it’s so hard!” She stamped her foot. Actually stamped her damn foot.

“Darlin’ ”—I couldn’t hold back my next laugh—“did you really just stamp your foot?”

Her eyes had begun drifting to the TV as Jake got it on the channel where they were still doing pregame footage and she did a double take, her eyes going wide. “Shh!” Her hand flew up and she turned more so she could watch, her hand still up in the air, like that would keep us all from still talking. Oddly, it did.

I did let out a groan though when I saw what she’d seen and was now intently watching. As soon as Tim Duncan’s interview ended I started talking again. “You happy to be gettin’ your fix?”

Cassidy turned and her eyes were bright, her smile bigger than ever. I shook my head at her but pulled her close and kissed her hard. I wasn’t complaining; she was so damn cute when she got excited over watching Tim Duncan. I didn’t even mind that she always reminded me she would leave me for him; if Tim Duncan was the worst thing I had to worry about, I’d say I had it pretty easy.

“You know what I think isn’t fair?” Jake asked. “That Gage gets a girl like Cassi. She actually knows what’s going on in every sport we watch, and she enjoys watching the game. Where’s my Cassi? That’s what I wanna know!”

“I’ll find you one, Jake,” she promised as everyone laughed, and left my arms. “Nothing fancy tonight, guys, I’m just gonna make sandwiches. Anyone wants a beer, we stocked up the fridge at the bar; help yourself.”

“And that. Right. There. I want a damn SMB too! Doesn’t matter if she thinks it’s ‘nothing fancy’ or not, there isn’t another SMB out there like Cassi. That’s it, I’m kidnapping and keeping her.” Jake sounded exasperated.

“What the hell is an SMB?” Ethan asked, but we all looked confused.

Jake looked at us like we should know this already. “SMB? Sandwich-Making Bitch.”

The room got tense as at least Adam, Ethan, and I got ready to rip into Jake for talking about Cassidy like that. But all of a sudden Cassidy burst into laughter so hard she had to grip my arm to keep herself standing. Jake and Grant laughed with her.

“See, she gets it,” Jake said, and picked the remote back up to turn up the volume.

Cassidy was wiping tears from her eyes when her laughs turned into soft giggles. “Jake, just for that I’m making your sandwiches first and I’ll get your beer for you.”

“You’re serious right now?” Ethan asked her, still looking pissed off. At least there were some sane people in the room still.

“Well, yeah. That was the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while.” She looked at me and her smile faltered when she realized I wasn’t finding anything about that funny. “All right, Jake, did you mean that to be offensive?”

Jake said, “Hell no. That’s the best compliment I could give a chick. I won’t let just anyone make me a sandwich.” He grinned ridiculously at her.

“And I didn’t take it as offensive.” I still hadn’t relaxed my tense frame, and from the looks of it, neither had Ethan or Adam, so she kept talking. “It’s like that whole women-belong-in-the-kitchen-barefoot-and-pregnant thing; it’s funny. If Jake meant any of that literally, I doubt he’d be okay with me watching the game with you guys.”

“Exactly!” Jake threw an arm out toward Cassidy, pointing toward her. “She gets it, why don’t y’all?”

Cassidy kissed my cheek and moved to the kitchen. “But, Jake, I expect an early birthday present this year of a Cowboys jersey with the initials SMB on the back rather than a player’s name.”

“Gage, you are one lucky motherf*cker. That’s all I’m gonna say,” Grant said, soft enough that I doubted Cass could hear him, and Jake grunted his agreement.

“Seriously, man, it’s a compliment, you need to relax,” Jake said, and turned up the volume even louder.

But by this point, I was relaxed, completely. Something Cassidy said was replaying through my mind over and over again, and I turned to look at her. She glanced up as she finished getting everything out of the fridge and smiled softly at me. That smile I’d realized was reserved just for me. She turned to get a carving board and bread and I let my eyes roam over her again, her long hair reaching her waist, the tank top Lakers jersey resting loosely on her hips and those super-short black shorts that were driving me crazy right now. My jeans got tight as I continued over her legs down to her bare feet. The corner of my mouth lifted slightly and I snapped my eyes back up a little just in time for her to turn. I kept my gaze in that spot, letting the image she’d put in my mind play through, and finally looked back up to her beautiful face. Was it twisted that I hardened even more at the thought of Cassidy pregnant? Before the guys could notice I was sporting a hard-on again, I turned and headed back for our room.

How many times had I thought about marrying Cassidy and having a family with her? Thousands, at the very least, but for whatever reason I’d never thought of her actually pregnant. And damn if I ever wanted that image to leave my mind. It’d only been a month and a half since we’d gotten together, but I’d been in love with her for almost two years now. That’s not too crazy, to think of this already, is it? Fuck . . . who am I kidding? Of course it is. I’m only twenty-two, and she’s nineteen. I shouldn’t be thinking about this for years. And I doubted I would have actually thought about having kids if she hadn’t made that one completely innocent comment. But she did, and now it was all I could think of. Cassidy round with my kid. That would be an incredible sight.