How Cassie Got Her Grind Back Read Online Free

ours? You remember how under their thumbs her father and grandfather always kept her. Life happens, man. She has her own successful business, and she’s not at their beck and call anymore. And you’ve had quite a career, as have I. It’s not the specifics of the promise I concerned myself with. It was the spirit of it.”
    “She was too good for that damned place. Too good to stay there. She should be on the stage somewhere.”
    “You didn’t wonder why you never saw her gracing an album cover?”
    “No, but you and I both know she didn’t necessarily want the spotlight. I figured she’d joined a group I’d never heard of.”
    “You were afraid to find out. Admit it. You believed she’d go far because you loved her and had to let her go. You wanted the best for her.”
    “I doubt she found it in Divine. Hank said she’d divorced.”
    It was Ivan’s turn to put down his spoon. “I didn’t know that . Hell, you must’ve had one hell of a reunion with her then.” The spark of envy was uncomfortably familiar, even after thirty years. The only time he’d ever been jealous where his brother was concerned.
    “No. She ran.”
    “What do you mean ran ?”
    Samson made a fingers walking gesture toward the door. “She ran. It means exactly what I said.”
    Ivan scowled at him and shook his head as he stirred his soup. “You gave her the steely-eyed Dominant stare and scared her off, didn’t you?”
    “Fuck. What the hell is that, anyway? I looked at her, yes. How could I not? She’s gorgeous—”
    Ivan held up a hand to halt his twin brother before he could get rolling. If ever two men were less alike in temperament, he wanted to meet them. “You remember what most of the men in her family were like? Talk about dominant and demanding.”
    Samson paused with the spoon halfway to his lips, and then his shoulders slumped. “Shit.” He glanced at the workers rushing around the kitchen in concerted movements and rubbed his hands over his face. “I haven’t seen her in thirty years. I suppose I could’ve used a different approach.”
    “Your favorite John Wayne quote comes to mind in times like these, brother. ‘Life is hard. It’s harder if you’re stupid.’ You should’ve tucked all those dominating tendencies of yours away so you didn’t intimidate her. So are you ending your embargo of all things Divine if it includes the now single Cassie Resendez?”
    “Resendez,” Samson said, a frown forming on his face as he took another bite. “Joseph told me that was her last name. I recall only one Resendez family from Divine.”
    Ivan chuckled, but it wasn’t a happy sound, and focused on his next spoonful of soup.
    “ No . No fucking way,” Samson said, his voice gravelly with dislike. “Bill Resendez?”
    “Yes, but she’s single now.” If he’d known she’d divorced before today, although he might’ve been tempted, he would’ve let Samson know. Samson had fallen for her the moment he’d set eyes on her the first day of their freshman year. He didn’t have a prior claim on her like Samson did. But he’d adored her just as much back then.
    “All these years, I imagined she was happy. That was the only reason I never went looking once I got back to the States. Years had gone by. I couldn’t just butt into her already established life.”
    “I’m just as guilty,” Ivan said, taking out his smartphone. “I wanted her to be happy, even if it was in Divine, married to that fucking asshole.” While Samson finished off his soup, Ivan flicked through the apps and then started a search. He smiled when he found what he wanted—her gorgeous, beaming face on Facebook. She was standing next to a stunning wedding cake she’d evidently created, displayed atop a glass bakery case.
    Samson cleared his throat. “What are you doing? What’s that goofy look on your face?”
    Ivan shrugged. “Taking action for once. You just want to give her steely-eyed looks guaranteed to