Melt Your Heart
I hope you're enjoying this so far, it's been fun to play around with the Good Witch storyline and kind of turn everything on it's head! We'll get to see Cassie meeting more of the Middleton residents soon, learn more about her ancestry and, of course, for her and Sam to rub each other up completely the wrong way ;)
Chapter 3: Uninvited
By the time Cassie went to pick up the kids from school, she was exhausted. She had enjoyed helping Abigail in the flower shop, and it had been a welcome distraction from worry about how the twins were getting on but she wasn't used to spending quite so much time on her feet. She wasn't sure how Abigail could manage to work in the shop every day as well as taking care of her duties at the B&B. At least there was plenty to do so Cassie could take her mind of her grief and also not feel like she was taking advantage of her cousin's hospitality. Her new neighbour had seemed to imply that when she had been getting tea at the Bistro, and she didn't want the rest of Middleton's residents to think she was just using Abigail for charity.
Abigail was grateful to have Cassie around. Not only was Grey House too big for one person, even with the B&B guests, but it was nice to have family around. Even if some of that family were only five years old. Cassie had been a natural in the flower shop, and she already seemed to pitch in at Grey House, too. She was sure it wouldn't be long before Cassie was a fully-fledged member of Middleton society. Abigail waved Cassie off at three o'clock so she could go and meet James and Catherine from school.
Cassie was lost in thought the whole way to the school. She hoped that the twins had both had a good first day, and selfishly that they would both be tired. They had settled into life in Middleton relatively quickly, but today had been another big change. When she arrived at the school, she could see the twins' teacher Lori was letting the class out, exchanging pleasantries with their parents and guardians. She looked up and smiled when she was Cassie approaching, pointing out to James and Catherine that their Mom was here.
Cassie eyes filled with tears again as the twins ran towards her and she bent down so she could sweep them both up in her arms. It felt so good to have them back with her again.
"How did they get on today?" Cassie asked Lori once the kids had let go and were happy to hold her hands instead.
"Really great," Lori smiled. "No tears from either of them, but they didn't really seem to want to play with the other children. It's only their first day, so I'm sure they'll start to mix soon."
"It's been tough for them, losing their dad," Cassie tried to keep her voice even. It was still so difficult talking about Jake in the past tense, especially to strangers who had never known her husband. "They've had to rely on each other so much."
Lori smiled sympathetically and put her hand on Cassie's arm.
"They're wonderful children Ms Nightingale, you should be very proud of them."
"Oh I am, and please call me Cassie."
"Okay Cassie, well it was nice to meet all three of you today. I'll see you in the morning."
The twins waved goodbye to their teacher and Cassie led them back to Grey House, listening to them chatter about their day. It was good to hear them to animated again. Sometimes she worried that they had become to quiet and introspective after losing their father, but being around other children of a similar age seemed to be helping. She was relieved. She knew that it might take them some time to settle into life in Middleton, but she felt now that she had definitely made the right decision in coming here.
Grey House was quiet when Cassie arrived home with the twins. Abigail still had another hour or so to work at the shop, so Cassie busied herself in the kitchen. She sat the twins at the table with their colouring books and began preparing vegetables for dinner. She must remember to remind Abigail about talking to Stephanie about starting to introduce dinner as an option for the Grey House guests. She didn't want to step on any toes, not this early into her life in Middleton.
"Something smells amazing," Abigail said, breezing into the kitchen an hour later. She kissed her two young cousins on the tops of their heads and slipped them both a foil wrapped chocolate from her shop while Cassie wasn't looking.
"Save those for after dinner, please." Cassie said, her back to the three of them as she stirred the pan on the hob.
Abigail paused. So, that was interesting, she thought. Cassie definitely was a Merriwick, then. She wondered how much her cousin knew and how best to broach the subject. It was definitely still too early, especially as she had only been in town just over a week and she must be emotionally exhausted from her day. It certainly gave Abigail something to think about.
"This is completely delicious," Abigail said a little while later, placing her fork down on her empty plate. "I will deny ever saying this, but this meal could put even Stephanie's signature dishes to shame."
Cassie flushed. "I don't want it to be a competition. I just love food and cooking so much, but I wouldn't want to do it professionally like Stephanie."
"I'll talk to her about you doing a trial of cooking dinner for the guests, and maybe we could give it a go next week?"
"I'd like that," Cassie replied.
"What is that smell?" She was stopped from replying further to Abigail's question by the arrival of Middleton's resident surgeon.
"Hello Sam," she said, rolling her eyes a little in Abigail's direction.
"That smell is my genius cousin's amazing pumpkin curry," Abigail replied, getting up and stacking plates by the sink.
"It smells wonderful," Sam's features relaxed into a smile and Cassie's felt the tension slipping out of her shoulders. She really wasn't in the mood for another verbal sparring session with the neighbour.
Abigail looked in the pan that was still sitting on the hob.
"There's probably enough here if you wanted to take some home," She suggested. "Unless you had another plans for it, Cassie?"
"No, that's fine, but I won't be offended if you don't like it." She wasn't sure why she was being so snippy with Sam, something about him threw her off her axis a little.
"If it tastes as good as it smells, I think I'm going to love it." He meant every word but he was making an effort to be extra nice. Their conversation in the Bistro that morning had not gone the way he had intended it. He wasn't exactly king of small talk at the best of times, but with Cassie he just seemed to put his foot in his mouth every time they tried to have a conversation.
Abigail put the remaining curry into a Tupperware box and handed it to Sam.
"If you'd got here earlier, you could have joined us."
Sam took in the sight of Cassie's children, both of them had liberal amount of the orange sauce smeared around their mouths.
"Maybe next time," He smiled, but this time it didn't quite reach his eyes.
He said goodnight to them and left with his box of dinner. It would certainly be an improvement on the frozen mac and cheese he had been planning to have before he dropped in at Grey House.
"Does he do that often?"
"What?" Abigail asked innocently, having thoroughly enjoyed watching Cassie and Sam's exchange.
"Just drop in unannounced?" She knew she sounded kind of pissy again, and that irritated her more than Sam did.
"It kind of happens around here," Abigail admitted. "It's the small town thing." Neither she or Sam had spent a lot of time living in small towns until they lived in Middleton, but Abigail had realised that there was really no use fighting it and Sam had gradually come around to this way of thinking, too.
"I'll have to get used to it, I suppose," Cassie said, going over the twins and removing the smushed pumpkin sauce from their angelic faces.
In truth, she was looking forward to becoming part of a community. She kind of liked the idea of everyone knowing each other and looking out for each other, she'd just rather have some prior warning before Sam Radford waltzed into her kitchen. Her kitchen, she thought. Wow, she really was already considering Middleton, and Grey House, to be her home.