Melt Your Heart

Two updates in one week? I know, I can't believe it either! Thank you to everyone who is still reading - your support keeps me going!

I really enjoyed writing this chapter...but I feel like we're getting more OOC as we go!

Hope you enjoy this chapter, more to come soon!

Chapter 13 Feels Like Home

Cassie couldn't invest too much time thinking about the arrangements she had made with Sam, for both Saturday and Monday, because the trial dinner at Grey House on Friday night loomed larger. She spent so much of the next few days preparing and planning for the first meeting of the annual Middleton Halloween committee, and then giving her children her undivided attention, that she had barely had time to entertain thoughts about her irresistible neighbour.

Her conversation with Abigail had put her mind at ease somewhat, but she still realised that she was trying to find reasons not to enter into something real with Sam. Sometimes she still forgot that Jake was really gone and that she would never see her husband again. She knew he would want her to be happy, and wouldn't want her to mourn his passing forever but it still gave her reservations about moving forward. Would it be easier if she was dipping her toe back into the dating pool with someone she cared about less than Sam? Even if the two of them had not shared a romantic connection or even an ounce of that sparkling chemistry, Cassie would still have liked and respected the man. She didn't want to lose the budding friendship that had been growing between them - it just made her feel like the stakes were too high

Okay, so perhaps she had been lying to herself. It seemed like she did have just about enough to think about him after all. And, if she was being completely honest with herself, he had been living in her head rent free for quite some time now.

She knew that it was the same for him, too. Although she wasn't quite sure how or why she knew this.

Thinking about Sam wasn't going to help her to prepare the perfect meal to knock the socks off the Halloween committee, especially not Martha Tinsdale. Cassie felt that there might be a bond their between the two of them, but it was going to take Martha a while to accept her into her circle.

That was alright, Cassie decided, she didn't have any plans to leave Middleton in any kind of hurry.

No, moving to Middleton was the best thing to happen to her since Jake's death.

It felt like home.

"Something smells good," Abigail sighed as she entered the Grey House kitchen on Friday afternoon. She had lost count of the times she had greeted Cassie with the same phrase since her cousin had moved in, but the novelty of having an excellent cook in the house hadn't yet worn off. The fact that Cassie was happy to assist with the morning breakfast routine for the B&B guests was just the icing on that particularly delicious cake.

"Here, try this," Cassie replied, approaching her cousin with a spoonful of steaming, creamy sauce.

Abigail closed her eyes as the flavours exploded on her tongue, giving a slightly improper sound of pleasure.

"Oh wow, that's amazing," she replied, between Cassie's cooking at home and Stephanie's sensational meals at the Bistro, it was a minor miracle that she hadn't gone up at least two dress sizes.

"I just hope Martha likes it," Cassie said wistfully as she turned back to the pan that was simmering happily on the stovetop.

Abigail made a face, a very different one from the look of sheer pleasure she had made on tasting Cassie's incredible béchamel sauce.

"I think even Martha will have trouble finding fault with this," she smirked.

"And what about Stephanie?" Cassie asked with real concern now. "I really don't want her to think I'm trying to step on her toes."

Abigail took a clean spoon from the drawer and dipped it into the sauce, making another groan of near-erotic pleasure. It somehow tasted even better the second time she tried it.

"You don't need to worry about Stephanie," she replied, slipping the spoon into the dishwasher so that her face was hidden from her cousin by the veil of her long auburn hair. "I can handle her."

Oh, Cassie thought as she returned her attention to the meal she was preparing, interesting.

She had initially mistaken Abigail and Sam's close friendship for more than it was, and had perhaps slightly overacted to the knowledge that Sam had attempted to date Stephanie when he first arrived in Middleton, but she had an inkling that this time her feeling might be right.

Cassie was exhausted by the time she went up to bed on Friday evening. She popped her head around the twins' bedroom door and smiled at their cherubic, innocent sleeping faces. When she had first found out that they were expecting twins, she had been concerned that looking after two babies was going to be too much of a challenge. Jake had reassured her that they would manage, and they had. Somehow, even now she was raising them alone, it didn't feel like too much work. She wished she could bottle these moments so they could last forever. With tears in her eyes that weren't exactly sadness or grief, she pressed a kiss to each of their foreheads and retired to her own bedroom.

Despite her exhaustion, Cassie thought the evening had gone remarkably well. She was grateful that someone was taking the minutes of the Halloween committee meeting because she been too anxious about whether the meal was being well received to give her full attention to the plans being drawn up. She hoped she hadn't been roped into doing anything too terrible.

Sleep came easily to her that night, and she was dozing as soon as she switched off her bedside lamp. She hadn't even had time to set her alarm for the following morning when the tiredness claimed her.

When Cassie came downstairs on Saturday morning, the house seemed unexpectedly quiet. She knew that Abigail was working in the shop but there were none of the usual sounds of the twin playing with their toys in the bedroom or watching cartoons in the upstairs sitting room.

And then it came flooding back to her.

Sam.

As she walked into the kitchen, she was grateful she had dressed casually in slim fit jeans and a pink chequered plaid shirt. He was dressed in a similarly relaxed style, and she found she liked this look just as much as when he was suited and booted in his smart work clothes.

"Good morning," he grinned at her from where he was slathering slices of buttered toast with jam for the kids.

The domesticity of the scene flummoxed Cassie, and it took a moment for her to get her equilibrium back. It all looked so normal. To an outsider, or one of the B&B guests, they would just look like two married parents sharing a leisurely Saturday morning with their children.

The thought made something clench inside her heart.

"Good morning," she replied as breezily as she could muster, grateful for the opportunity to turn away from him as she took a mug down from the kitchen cupboard.

"I believe you promised me coffee," he teased, seeming to sense the tension in the room and wondering if he had overstepped. "Abigail let me in. She was on breakfast duty herself, but then she got a call from her supplier to say her delivery was already waiting for her at the shop."

"It's fine," she assured him. "Thank you. Abigail should have woken me up."

Sam smiled fondly. "She said you were tired after your entertaining last night, and you deserved a lie-in."

They both raised their eyebrows at each other at this revelation. As much as they both cared about Abigail, it seemed a little out of character. Cassie sensed that she might have had another motivation other than letting her catch up on her beauty sleep.

"I haven't got up this late on Saturday, or really any day of the week, since the twins were born," Cassie offered, and as they began to chat and finish preparing breakfast, it felt like the tension had broken and they had taken another step forward together.

"Just wait until they're teenagers, then you'll never be able to get them out of bed," Sam replied with a grin, accepting the cup of coffee she offered, inhaling the bittersweet aroma with a reverence that made her smile.

"Did you really hate my tea that much?" She asked, blowing across the surface of her own mug.

"Well, firstly, it's tea so it isn't coffee," He shot back, with the briefest wink. "It wasn't that bad, but this is really good."

He did seem to be thoroughly enjoying the beverage, which gave Cassie a little jolt of female pride.

She didn't have a chance to reply, because she needed to step in before the twins ended up wearing more jam than they'd eaten.

"Are you sure that you're okay with this?" Cassie asked, as she gently scrubbed strawberry jam from James' chin while he tried to fidget his way out of his mother's grasp.

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't." Sam assured her.

She had to look away, because the honesty and intensity in his gaze was more than she could handle.

"I want to go outside," Catherine moaned suddenly, dragging out the syllables in a sulky manner and, for a moment, looking for all the world like her cousin Abigail. "Now."

Cassie sighed and searched for patience. The twins were usually so well behaved for her, but if they were going to cause mischief (or, more accurately, give her a pounding headache), it would always be when someone else was present.

"Well, first you're going to need to put your coat on, Miss Russell," she was pleased that her tone managed to be both pleasant and admonishing at the same time. "And remember that Sam has given up his Saturday morning to come and play with the two of you."

Catherine sobered at that, and it didn't take much persuading to get her bundled up in her winter coat. James was much more placid, and kept stealing glances at Sam when he thought no one was watching. He was a little in awe of their neighbour, mostly because he had expected to be in trouble when he had broken the window but he hadn't been. Now Sam had come over at the weekend to teach him how catch and throw properly, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Hey," Sam knelt to help James zip up his coat, sensing the quieter twin had something on his mind. He couldn't help wondering if the last time James had played ball with a man had been with his father. Having had a close, although sometimes fraught, relationship with his own dad, he couldn't imagine what it must be like to lose that. "You're not still worried about my window, are you? I promise you, nothing is going to get broken today. Well, maybe some World Records."

James nodded thoughtfully, following his sister out into the garden. Cassie and Sam brought up the rear of the party.

"This is going to be a little strange for him," Cassie admitted before Sam had the chance to say anything. "Jake used to play with them both as much as he could, but it was typically him chasing James around the garden, and Catherine and I playing with her dolls inside or baking together."

Sam nodded, aware of the gravity of what he was investing in. He was certain that the three of them were worth it, although he still couldn't believe he had gone from confirmed bachelor to someone who wanted this family of three to become a part of his.

"I don't want to tread on anyone's toes," he said, 'or try to anyone's place' he added silently. "But I'm happy to be there for him, he's completely outnumbered at Grey House!"

Cassie's smile was warm and heartfelt. It had been an emotional conversation, and difficult to watch James wrestling with his own complex feelings, but somehow Sam knew just what to say.

If she wasn't very careful with her heart, she was going to end up giving it to him. For a long time, she didn't think she'd ever have enough of herself left to be able to love someone again, but every day in Middleton was a new surprise.

Somewhere between witnessing Sam's quiet man-to-man chat with James, and watching him patiently teach both of the twins how to safely throw and catch a ball, their tiny hands dwarfed by his worn catcher's mitt, Cassie realised it was too late.

She was already falling for him.