Poison by Leanne Davis Page B

however keep the status quo. He would keep ignoring her; protect Cassie and Tim, without her touching his life. No more intimate late night talks for them. As always, Cassie easily got to him.

Chapter Nine
    Cassie went to bed after John left her room that night and tossed and turned until dawn. Memories from the last few years seeped through her mind, keeping her awake and fretting all night. Memories she hadn’t tapped into for a decade seemed to collide with memories of the last month and left her thrashing in bed.
    John had the power to make her virtually homeless. It was humbling. If John kicked her out, she’d have to go to Kelly, no matter if that was the obvious route Marcus would take to find her. She had to take the risk of telling her sister the truth; she couldn’t stand how vulnerable John’s anger made her position in his household.
    She called Kelly and told her sister where she was and why she was here. Cassie begged Kelly to stay away. Kelly finally agreed only because her notoriety was too easy to follow. After John’s confrontation she felt exposed and vulnerable. John had unearthed things she’d been trying for a decade to put to rest about her past. He had once again reminded her of the ongoing theme of her life; her past never seemed to get put to rest. From Marcus to John to the abortion, to the son she did have, it all followed her.
    Cassie hung up the phone after her call to Kelly and began scrubbing out the dinner pan. Tim and Luke were in the next room wrestling. She worried that Tim was growing too attached to Luke, but she also wanted to fold Tim up in all that healthy male attention. Tim hadn’t had any sort of consistent man in his life. Cassie wanted that for him, while at the same time she didn’t want to cause Tim any more pain than necessary when they left. Because that was inevitable, and the less attached Tim was to Luke and John, the easier it would be for him.
    Cassie dropped the pan when a loud thump broke through her revere. The back door slammed. She quickly recovered her dish and calmed her nerves as she recognized John’s footsteps. Strange. He was home early, and Sarah was following him. Damn. She was not in the mood for them. John nodded at her coldly. Sarah smiled and waved her hand.
    “Hey Cassie. How’s it going?”
    “Fine Sarah. What are you two doing here?”
    “Oh we thought we’d help Luke out with babysitting you and Tim.”
    Cassie frowned then met John’s stony face.
    “Great,” she said, as she threw down the dish towel and stormed out of the room, her face hot with anger. She was thirty-three years old and she had to put up with this? Her ex-boyfriend dragging home his young girlfriend to babysit her ?
    “Cassie?” Sarah called after her, and then asked John, “What did I say?”
    Cassie walked into the living room and plastered a grin on her face for Luke and Tim. Luke smiled a greeting. As she sat down, Tim and Luke quit their horseplay, and Tim left the room to come back holding a magazine. Not many six-year-olds had an aunt who regularly appeared in popular magazines. He often spent time searching for Kelly’s ads. It always made Cassie smile as he riffled through fashion and gossip publications, his little lip bit in concentration as he studied each ad, intent in his search for Kelly.
    Cassie had nothing to say. Sarah talked enough for all of them. Cassie smiled as she watched Tim, then she pretended to focus on the TV.
    Tim suddenly yelled, “Here it is!”
    “Here what is?”
    “Aunt Kelly. When she called earlier, she told me she had a new picture out, here it is.” Tim beamed as he pointed to it. Cassie knelt beside Tim to look at her sister’s picture. It was beautiful. Kelly was sultry and sexy, in a bra and panties, in an ad for perfume. Her mane of unbelievably thick reddish hair flowed over her provocatively. Her cat-like green eyes seemed to come off the page with heat.
    Sarah and John leaned down to look. Luke peeked over her