The Weekend

Sorry for the delay in updating - I've been watching some of the Good Witch movies and it's hard to write Cassie/Sam when you've just watched Cassie and Jake get married! Thanks again for the reviews, I hope you like this chapter.

Part 4

When Cassie and Sam arrived at the bistro, Brandon and Tara were already occupying one of the larger tables. Brandon waved his stepmother over and, after greeting Stephanie, Cassie and Sam joined him and Tara.

"Where's Lori?" Cassie asked, unwinding her scarf from her neck as she sat down.

"She ran into an old friend from high school; she'll be along in a minute." Brandon replied.

"Was she okay when she was with you?"

"She was quite upset," Tara replied. "But once she'd had a good cry, I think she felt better. She's awfully embarrassed that she interrupted your weekend together though."

Brandon suddenly found his iPhone very interesting during this part of the conversation. It wasn't that he didn't want Cassie to be with Sam; but at the end of the day she was his stepmom and there were certain things about her life, particularly her love life that he really didn't need to think about.

"She can stay with us tonight, if you like?" Tara continued.

"That would be nice," Cassie considered. "But I don't want her to feel like she's not welcome at Grey House; it's her home, too."

"I'll suggest it like a girly night in," Tara replied. "Brandon is on duty tonight anyway."

"That settles it," Cassie smiled, relieved that this plan seemed to work out for everybody. Normally it would be her smoothing things out for everybody else, but she just seemed to be too close this. Maybe her feelings for Sam were clouding her abilities.

"That settles what?" Lori asked, appearing at the table and choosing the empty seat opposite her stepmother.

"Lori, how would you feel about coming over tonight? Brandon's working tonight so we can order a pizza, watch a crappy movie and paint each other's nails or something?"

"That sounds great," Lori replied eagerly.

With that settled, they ordered their food and ate together companionably as a happy, extended family.

"Do you trust me?" Sam asked later that afternoon. After indulging in far too much of Stephanie's wonderful lunchtime special at the bistro, they had decided to take a walk around Middleton. It was still freezing cold, but they were wrapped up warm against the chilled wind.

"Of course I do, what kind of a question is that?" Cassie laughed.

"Ah yes, but do you trust me to cook for you tonight?"

Cassie had a flashback to when he had attempt to cook before and felt slightly uneasy. As nice as it was that a man wanted to cook for her, she'd rather just do it herself or order a takeout.

"Maybe we could cook together?" She suggested diplomatically.

"That could be fun," Sam replied. "But you're always doing things for other people, I wanted to do something special for you."

"This weekend has been so special so far Sam; I couldn't have asked for a better one."

"Me neither," Sam linked his gloved hand with Cassie's. "Well, maybe without your stepdaughter walking in on us in our underwear!"

Cassie laughed. "Yes, that wasn't exactly part of the plan." She squeezed Sam's hand. "It's nice that she's thinking of coming back to Middleton again, I've missed her."

Sam released Cassie's hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulder instead, pulling her closer.

"I love you, Cassie." It was still so new; the feelings and saying them out loud but it felt so right, too.

"I love you, too." She smiled up at him and, for the first time since Jake had died, she felt really, truly happy with her life.

Abigail Pershing was bored. It was only Saturday afternoon, but it felt like she had been away from Middleton for far long than that. She had thought, seeing as she was doing her cousin and Sam a favour by staying out of town for the weekend, that she would at least enjoy herself a little bit. Teenagers were definitely not as interesting as they had been when she was one. She already knew that Grace was a good girl of course, but she had expected as least some of the students on the trip to be at least a little bit rebellious. Even Nick, who had been a bit difficult and liked to act out when he first arrived in Middleton, had now mellowed. Abigail thought this was probably something to do with Grace, and by extension Cassie.

She was starting to miss the flower shop. Saturday afternoons were usually quite busy and had been so successful recently that she was thinking about taking on some extra help at the weekends. With a sigh, Abigail reached for her latte and took a sip, looking out over the snowy landscape. It was warm inside the hilltop cafe but Abigail shivered looking out at the expanse of snow.

"I think you've got the better idea," A male voice said from behind her. "Staying in here with a hot cup of coffee."

Abigail turned around to see a tall, fair-haired man holding a tray with a cappuccino on it.

At that moment, a snowsuit-clad teenager went speeding down the hillside making Abigail wince and grip tighter to her coffee cup.

"I think so, too," She agreed, giving the stranger another closer look. The cafe was quite busy, mostly filled with parents who were waiting for the children to finish skiing or snowboarding lessons. "You can join me if you like."

The man smiled, taking the vacant chair opposite Abigail.

"I'm Harry, by the way." He offered Abigail his hand.

"Abigail," She replied, impressed with his warm, firm handshake. "What brings you out here to the snowy middle of nowhere?"

"I'm supervising some students on a school trip," He replied.

"Me too," Abigail smiled. "But I discovered I'm not really a snow person."

Harry smiled, too. "After the third time I fell over in five minutes, I decided it wasn't for me either."

Abigail was starting to change her mind; maybe this trip wouldn't be quite so boring after all.

Sam and Cassie went to the market together, to pick up ingredients for dinner and another bottle of wine.

"If I'm cooking," Sam said, while Cassie examined the fresh produce. "I think that means you're on clean up duty."

"If you're cooking?" Cassie teased, knowing that it wouldn't be long before she ended up taking over from him.

"Yes," Sam replied, proudly.

They continued their shopping, stopping every now and then for Cassie to exclaim over something or pick up a herb she was getting short of. They were so caught up in each other that they didn't notice what a domestic picture they painted; talking, laughing and occasionally holding hands as they walked up and down the aisles. Neither of them mentioned it, but they both realised that they would happy doing this every Saturday afternoon for the rest of their lives.