Page 30 of Tripped By Love

Cassidy

YEAH BOY

“You got that something in your eyes, I think about it all the time

If you ever wonder if I wanna make you mine.”

Performed by Kelsea Ballerini

Written by Whitehead / Timmer / Ballerini

My soul ached for days afterMarco had told me about Maliyah, his court-martial, and the fact that he thought he broke her heart. The pain in his voice had traveled through me and lodged into my soul. The pain only increased when he returned to texting me instead of calling. I had a feeling it was to prevent himself from telling me more. From truly opening up to someone.

It weighed on me so heavily that it was hard to keep my cheery smile going. So much so that Brady noticed when he came by the restaurant’s kitchen to drop Chevelle off on Friday.

“What’s got you down, oh sister of mine?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me. I’m not Mom,” he said, leaning up against the wall, snapping his bracelets on his wrist.

“Mama, cookie!” Chevelle said, hands on the counter, standing on his tiptoes near the place where he knew the cookies were stored.

“Not until after dinner,” I told him and handed him a slice of carrot that I’d been julienning.

“You’ve created a cookie monster,” Brady said with a smile at Chevelle.

I tickled my boy under the armpits. “Are you a cookie monster?”

“Grrrrrr,” he said, curling his little hands into claw-like shapes and tickling me back.

“Help, Brady, help!” I cried, sitting down on the floor so that Chevelle could attack me with ease. Little did he know that I wasn’t ticklish.

“No way am I helping. You deserve all you get after the number of times you’ve flicked my ear.” Brady’s face broke into a huge smile.

Once Chevelle had tired of attacking me, he took himself off to the tiny, kid-sized table in the corner of the kitchen that was piled with coloring books just for him and these occasions when I had to finish up once Tristan or Brady dropped him off.

“What’s really up?” Brady asked.

“Just a lot on my mind. The Earth Paradise offer, Marco, Chevelle.” Marco’s name slipped out before I realized it, but Brady narrowed in on it immediately.

“Marco? What do you know that I don’t?”

“I just feel bad for him and his family, I guess.”

“Family?”

My eyes widened, realizing I’d somehow let something slip that Marco hadn’t told him.

“What did he tell you about his trip?” I asked cautiously.

“He told me he had to go home and take care of a few things.”

It broke my heart a little bit to know he’d left without telling anyone why he was really gone. Brady and Trevor were his friends just as much as they were his boss and coworker, and yet he hadn’t felt like he could tell them these personal details of his life.

“Honestly, I didn’t even think he had a family. I thought he was a lone wolf,” Brady said.

I wanted to flick his ear and shove his shoulder but this time without the tease. With frustration that he could be so clueless. “He’s worked for you for seven years, Brady. How can you not know he has a family?”