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“I’m an artist,” Cass said finally. “I can work from home or anywhere Becca wants to go.”

“But as I understand it, the work you’ve been doing lately has been for charity. You willing to give that up?”

“Hunt, I would give up everything if it made Becca happy. She’s my world.” Cass shook her head. Rebecca wouldn’t be happy with Cass’s decision to scale back with her, but hopefully, they’d find their balance together again.

One week into ‘slowing down’ for Rebecca Cuinn-Giles. Rebecca scribbled in her journal, checking her watch to make sure she had the date right. Not being on a schedule severely skewed Rebecca’s sense of what day it was, so she was taking Ellie’s suggestion of writing a journal to keep her mind focused and busy while trying to transition into a life that didn’t consist of business plans or crunching numbers. Rebecca wasn’t the best at writing anything but business proposals, but she was giving it a shot since she wasn’t good at being idle either.

“I shouldn’t be long today, babe. I think I will check out pretty early today and tomorrow, then we can make it a long weekend.” Cass kissed Rebecca on top of the head, squeezing her shoulders in a light massage.

Rebecca reached up and patted Cassidy’s hand before standing to give her a proper kiss goodbye. “Cassidy, you don’t need to rearrange your schedule for me. I can keep myself busy.”

Cass wrapped her arms around Rebecca’s waist. “I’d rather be the one keeping you busy,” she winked. “Besides, our hot tub is coming on Friday, and I want to be here with you.”

“Afraid I’ll take advantage of the hot tub without you when they’re done with the installation?”

“More like I don’t want you here alone with the installers.”

Rebecca scoffed. “I can take care of myself, Cassidy.” She backed away, anger coursing through her veins. “I saw that.”

Cass frowned. She had barely thought of Samantha when Rebecca said she could take care of herself. But apparently, Cass’s face shouted it out, and now her wife was pissed at her.

“Becca…”

“No, Cassidy. You need to go to work now. I don’t need to be reminded of my past for a second time in as many weeks. How dare you.”

“Becca, please.” Yeah, Rebecca’s indignation was warranted, but usually, they could talk out their grievances without it going further than an annoyance. But now Rebecca was practically kicking Cass out.

“Please what? Please let you explain how you think I can’t take care of myself because Samantha nearly killed me? Because I stayed with her, I’m essentially too dumb to stay out of trouble?”

Cass’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. She couldn’t remember a time when Rebecca was this mad at her. Mad enough to put words into Cass’s mouth that Cass would never say or even think.

“Whoa! That’s not what I thought, Becca. I never want to see you hurt again. I do not think you’re weak or incapable of taking care of yourself, and I certainly don’t think you’re dumb. Part of my responsibility — my privilege — as your wife is taking care of you and keeping you safe. I don’t want you mad at me, baby, but I can’t apologize for wanting to protect you.”

Rebecca rubbed her temples, trying to curb the threatening headache. Had she overreacted? She knew Cassidy would never entertain malicious thoughts about her. So why did this make her stomach hurt as much as her head?

“Fine. I’ll see you later, Cassidy. Be careful.”

Nope. I’m not leaving like this. “Becca,” Cass reached for Rebecca’s hands. “While I’m not sorry for wanting to protect you, I am sorry I upset you. I totally could have handled this conversation much better. But I can’t leave this house while you’re mad at me. I can’t take the chance of something happening while my soul is in turmoil.”

Rebecca sighed. First, Cassidy had been taking their joint yoga sessions seriously. Second, Cassidy was right. If she walked out and something happened to her while Rebecca hung on to her anger… well, Rebecca would never recover from that. Besides, Cassidy explained herself, which was a sweet explanation, as usual.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I reacted that way.” Rebecca wrapped her arms around Cassidy’s waist.

“I do.” Cass pushed a stray strand of hair out of Rebecca’s eyes. “It all started with that douchecanoe last week. You’ve been restless at night, having nightmares. I should have been more sensitive to how you’ve been feeling.”

“Don’t do that, baby. Don’t make this out to be your fault when I was clearly in the wrong.” Rebecca stood on her tiptoes and kissed Cassidy gently on the lips. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you the way I did. I’m not even going to blame it on whatever happened last week or my headache.”

Cass kissed Rebecca’s temple. “Another headache? Need me to stop and get you something a little stronger?”

Rebecca shook her head. “No, thank you, baby. I’m going to go downstairs and meditate for a while. Then, when the hot tub gets installed, we will break that in. A lot.”

Cass grinned. There’s my girl. “Well, until then, I will just have to give you massages to keep that tension at bay.”

“You can massage me anywhere you want,” Rebecca winked. “Now, get your cute butt out of here because you’re going to be late.”

“It’s not a nine-to-five, babe. I make my own hours. However, if I wanna get enough done to take off the next three days, I have to scoot on outta here.”

Rebecca slapped Cassidy’s ass. “You best get to scootin’ then,” she teased. “If you’re lucky, I’ll make something hearty for dinner.”