Author's Note:Well, a couple of notes actually! First, happy 4th of July! Second, I had to post this so quickly because of all of the great reviews I got! I couldn't leave you hanging ;-) Third, the song I used in this is 'The Beach' by The Racket, who is actually Ashley Leggat (Casey)'s favourite band :-) They're a really great band from Hamilton, Ontario, and you should check them out! And lastly, I wanted to tell you all that I'm reading a book and in it the stepbrother and stepsister actually fall in love and get married! It's called Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon. The stepsibling marriage thing is actually a sub-plot though; the main plot is how they witnessed the assassination of Abe Lincoln. Random, I know. BUT I had to bring it up because of the stebrother/stepsister thing ;-) Okay, that's enough of my rambling. Enjoy this (long!) chapter and please review!
Casey closed the window as it audibly started to rain outside. She had just gotten Brianna to bed, revved up on sugary snacks that Kylie had allowed her to eat. Over-tired herself, Casey turned the news on to a low volume as she picked up Brianna's scattered toys around the small living room of her apartment.
It was an extremely small apartment, with just one bedroom shared by the two, a tiny living room, a bathroom, and a kitchenette. But it was all that Casey could afford with her waitressing salary and the few cheques she got per year from her mom and George for "school books and exam-time snacks."
Casey worked long shifts at the local diner in order to pay the bills and raise her daughter by herself. Her friend and next-door neighbour Kylie helped out a lot by babysitting Brianna whenever Casey had to work, which she appreciated immensely.
Kylie was a sweet, young girl of only eighteen who had made some bad choices in her life. She had gotten her act together when she had her son Matthew, and now had a job tutoring high school-aged kids at her apartment on weekdays. That, along with child support from Matthew's low-life father, allowed Kylie and Matthew to survive.
Just like she and Brianna, Kylie and Matthew were simply surviving.
Thoughts of Derek suddenly filled Casey's head, and she turned up the news in hopes to tune it out. She didn't want to think about Derek, and what they had done last night.
How he had held her like he never wanted to let her go, and how he made her whole body tremble with just one touch. How good his lips felt on her skin, kissing a pathway down her chest, teasing her to the brink of ecstasy as he moved slowly inside of her.
He was gentle but rough, forceful yet compliant. Perfect in every way.
"Damn it!" Casey cursed out loud, throwing one of Brianna's stuffed animals across the room. I have to stop thinking about him! This is stupid, Casey. Get it together! She shook the sense back into her and sat down on the ratty sofa she had gotten last year at a garage sale.
She heard her cell phone ring and picked it up from the floor, where she had dropped her purse when she came in a few hours ago.
"Hello?" she asked, muting the small television set.
"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" Kylie demanded in her ear and Casey allowed herself a little smile. Kylie loved a good juicy story. She was one of those people who would always know the latest news about every celebrity couple in Hollywood and every secret scandal in the entertainment business. Basically, she was a gossip. But Casey found that part of her endearing.
She reminded her a lot of Emily in that way.
"Well… you know my stepbrother? Derek?"
"Brianna's father?"
Casey winced a bit at that. "…yes."
"He was there!"
"Yes."
"Oh my GOD!" Kylie practically burst Casey's eardrum. "You're kidding!"
"Hardly," Casey sighed.
"So…what happened? Did you tell him about Brianna?"
"No," Casey leaned back on the couch. "But… he brought his girlfriend over."
"Ohhh…." Kylie was really getting into the story, Casey could tell. "What'd she look like?"
"Flawless," Casey replied bitterly.
"And how did Derek look?"
"Hot," Casey admitted softly.
Kylie giggled. "So… did fireworks go off or what?"
"Not so much," Casey bit her lip. "But… something did happen."
"What?"
"We… kinda had sex."
"What!" a stunned Kylie exclaimed.
"Yeah…" Casey trailed off awkwardly.
"And?" Kylie pressed. Of course she wanted to know details.
"It was just as amazing as I remembered," Casey sighed truthfully. "But then, the next day… he was back with Amy. He wouldn't even look at me."
"Pig!" Kylie expressed her anger towards the male race loudly.
"Yeah," Casey agreed sadly. She couldn't believe she had been so stupid to believe that he would just dump his gorgeous girlfriend in the blink of an eye over her, his stepsister, Plain Jane Casey.
"So… you didn't tell him about Brianna, then?" Kylie interrupted Casey's thoughts.
"Oh no. I couldn't. Especially not after that," Casey shook her head to herself. "I don't need him anyway. Brianna and I are doing just fine."
"I'm sorry things didn't work out, Casey," Kylie said sympathetically. "I know how much you love Derek."
"Love?" Casey blurted. "No, no, I'm so over him. Long over him."
"Sure you are, hun," Kylie said in an "I-don't-believe-you-at-all" kind of way.
Casey didn't respond to that, and her mouth opened up into a yawn. "I'm gonna go try to catch a few hours of sleep."
"Alright. You still have the day off tomorrow, right?" Kylie asked.
"Yup. Maybe we can get together for lunch?"
"Sure. 'Night, Casey."
"'Night, Ky." Casey hung up the phone and her eyes started getting heavier. She closed them for a moment, and began drifting off to sleep. She had only nodded off for a few moments when she heard a knock on the door.
Opening one blue eye dazedly, Casey looked over at the clock. Who would be coming over to my apartment at this late hour?
Thinking it might be Kylie, Casey crossed the room and opened the door without another thought.
And her mouth dropped when she saw the last person she would ever expect to find standing there, drenched from the rain.
Derek.
Derek couldn't believe that he had actually found her. He stared at his stepsister in disbelief.
"Derek, what are you doing here?" Casey breathed, obviously in shock.
"I…" Derek trailed off. "I…don't know."
Casey didn't look quite so impressed with that answer.
"Can I, uh, come in?" he asked awkwardly, shoving his hands into his pockets as he looked past her at the small apartment she was living in. It looked like a dump. A run-down hole-in-the-wall dump.
Casey suddenly looked panicked. "Uh, no," she said quickly, trying to block his view of her place.
Derek just stared down at her, blinking. She was so beautiful. And he had come all this way.
Why couldn't he tell her?
"Casey… what you saw today…"
"Derek, I don't want to talk about this," Casey cut him off. "I'm tired. It's been a long day. I don't know why you're here, and apparently you don't either. So maybe you should just go home. Goodbye." And with that, she shut the door right in his face.
But Derek didn't flinch, as if he was expecting that.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled to her through the door before turning around and exiting the building once again. He ran through the parking lot in the cold rain and got back into the car he had rented. He didn't have a hotel, and was too tired to begin searching. So he turned on the heat of the car for warmth and leaned back in his seat, getting as comfortable as possible in the small Honda.
His mind immediately filled with an image of Casey, and so he turned on the radio to try and concentrate on something—anything—but her.
I drove all night I don't believe it
The things you say they have no meaning
Tank is full, I broke my rear-view
Am I coming home
I don't have a home
So I hit the beach
And I ran a mile
Things were just in reach
My mind was blank but
I couldn't breathe no more
But I took a step
As I hit the floor
I think the ocean wept
And I could feel the sun down on me
I felt them waves come crash around me
I looked up and I seen clearly
Am I coming home
I don't have a home
I went up to your place
My clothes were soaking wet
I looked into your face
How could I forget
That I was happy then
The way you cared for me
That we were more than friends
Things will never be again
And it can't be true
That I left for someone new
It's a choice I don't believe
I've done to you what she's done to me
I know you don't want to see me
That you don't wanna hear my story
But believe me when I say I'm sorry
You're not coming home
You were my only home
So you shut the door
But that's what I would do
I don't deserve no more
Then what I've done to you
So I'll be on my way…
The words of the song stung Derek like a slap to the face. And before he had a chance to actually think his next move through, he was bounding out of the car and sprinting across the parking lot yet again. He ran over to her apartment and this time knocked with driven intent.
It took Casey a few minutes to answer the door, and honestly she wasn't that surprised to see Derek. But she was a bit taken aback by the look of determination across his face.
"Casey, I have to…" Derek trailed off at the sound of small feet running towards them.
"Mama, who dat?" a toddler awkwardly dressed in little pink feety-pajamas latched onto Casey's leg and stared up at Derek as she stuck her small thumb into her mouth.
And Derek lost all of his breath as he looked into his own wide brown eyes staring back up at him.
