“And so I get this information about that f**king bastard surfacing, trying to find her and I think I can come here, meet you. Instead, I get to listen to her cry every night. You tell me, Shane Chase, why the hell you think you’re worthy of my sister.”

Shane took a deep breath. “You don’t know me so I can see why you’d be suspicious. It must have been hard to watch your sister go through what she did. I love her. Cassie means everything to me. You don’t know what it was like…what I was like before. She changed me.” He shrugged.

“I f**ked up. I’m sorry. I have this old stuff and seeing her brought it to the surface. I was wrong. I’ve told her that. I made a mistake. I want to make it up to her. I’m not that bastard. I’m nothing like him. You can be mad at the person you love and not try to kill them. I don’t know how to communicate that to her. But I’m going to keep trying until she listens to me.

“And I want to protect her. Yeah, yeah, I know she doesn’t want that. But I love her and I’ll be damned if that freak gets another shot at her. I’m trying to respect her need to do things herself. I want her to learn to shoot a weapon and take self defense courses.”

Brian looked at him funny and then chuckled. “I take it you haven’t talked to her about this plan.”

“Well, no. She just told me about the attack two weeks ago. I’d wanted to talk to her about going to the range and then we got into this fight. Why? Is she afraid of guns?”

“God help you, Shane.” Brian shook his head and started to laugh. “She’s not afraid of guns. After the attack, after she got out of the hospital she went to the range every day and learned how to shoot. At first with her left hand because the right arm was so damaged. She’s a pretty damned good shot. She’s got a license to carry, I took care of that. She’s got a 9 mm. The self defense classes would be good. She didn’t have enough mobility yet after the physical therapy to really get proficient but she started to take martial arts classes just before she decided to up and move here.”

Shane smiled wryly. “Okay, so the fact is that I’m not worthy of your sister. I can’t think of anyone who is. She’s just that special. But I love her and I’ll keep loving her. And she makes me a better person, but I’m not perfect and yeah, I have buttons but so does she. So if I’m willing to work around hers, she should be willing to work around mine. Not that I think I handled it well. I didn’t. But damn it, I deserve a second chance.”

Brian looked at him silently for long moments and nodded shortly. “Yeah, I think you probably do. I have it on good authority that she’s having dinner with Maggie, Penny and Liv tonight at Dee’s. She told me she’d be home by nine. I’ll be out then if you think you might want to talk to her.”

Without saying anything else, Brian turned and walked away but not before looking back over his shoulder and tossing back, “If you hurt my sister again, I’ll make it my business, Shane.”

Matt watched as the man drove away in his rental before turning to his brother. “I like him.”

Cassie spent the evening with her friends, enjoying the time with Michael and the easy communication with people. She began to know them and they her. Mostly they didn’t talk about Shane but in their own way, each of them encouraged her to at least talk things over with him.

And she began to think they were right. Oh who was she kidding? She’d wanted to talk to him for days but was afraid. Afraid that if she did she’d lose him. Indecision had frozen her.

She’d talk to him the next time he called, she resolved as she walked from her car toward her stairs. Stairs that Shane sat on, holding a bouquet of roses, a gold box of chocolates at his feet.

“Those will melt out here in this heat,” she said, walking past him and up the steps to her door.

“I should probably get them inside then, huh?”

“The roses need water too or they’ll wilt.”

He stood but stayed down at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her. “Can we talk?”

“The lives of roses are at stake.” She unlocked her door and walked in, leaving it open.

When he got inside, she’d pulled out a vase and was filling it with water. He locked up behind himself and came into the kitchen, handing her the roses.

“So talk.”

And he did. He sat at her kitchen table and laid it all on the line. “Do you remember our first real fight? We promised each other that we’d step back and then work it through. We said no more not talking for days. So I called you every day. Twice a day. I kept my end of the bargain.

“I was an ass**le. Stupid. I got caught off guard and when I saw you there it wasn’t you, it was her for just a brief second. But I didn’t let it process, I just spoke out of pain and I hurt you and I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you and I did but I’d like the chance to make it up to you.”

“I’m not her! I would never do that to you! How could you even think that of me? I love you. I trusted you with my heart and you hurt me.”

“And I’m not him! Come on, Cassie, give me a break here. I said some not very nice stuff, yes. I take responsibility for it. It was wrong but I didn’t hit you, I didn’t blame it on you. I made a mistake, a stupid mistake. I love you, but we both know it won’t be the last mistake I make. I’ll make more because I’m a clumsy guy and I do clumsy guy stuff. I’m a tool. But I love you more than words can say. I want you to be with me forever. I’m serious about you, about this, us. I want us to move forward and build something. Please let’s move past this. Please forgive me.”