Free Cassie's Choice by Donna Gallagher Page A

hard.”
    “You better believe it, son. A woman just gets under your skin and you can’t stop that itch. Does Cassie have any idea how you feel about her?”
    “Of course not,” Riley’s answering tone an indication of how ridiculous a question it was. “Like she would have taken me seriously at eighteen. Probably would have kicked me right out her door.”
    “This is the first time in this whole conversation where I’ve felt like boxing your ears, Riley Walters. How the hell do you know that’s what the girl would have done? I know Cassandra Davies very well and she strikes me as a very nice young woman. I remember the two of you spending time together. You went out for, what, a year? Do you really think that if she wasn’t interested in a relationship with you, she would have kept you around that long? Every bloody single footy player under thirty was sniffing around that lass and yet she always went home with you, until that night you all had a brain explosion. I tell you now there is no way I could share your sister with another bloke. Rip the bloody head off any man that tried.”
    “How the hell was I supposed to know? She never said anything to me,” Riley blurted out. He hadn’t ever thought about it from that angle and there was the shock over Brodie’s violent declaration.
    “You didn’t say anything to her. Why should she have said something to you? Seriously, you young people could learn a lot by just communicating with one another. And I’m not talking Facebook and Twitter.”
    Brodie tapped his finger on the desk in front of Riley. “This is my take on the situation at hand. You fell in love but were not man enough to let the woman know, then you made a bad choice and thought you could handle some bloke touching her. Nope”—Brodie shook his head side to side—“not likely to work in most relationships. Just like the average Neanderthal, poor male, you want your woman to yourself. Trust me in this, Riley, there is not a man I know that would want his woman touched by another. I know some people are into that sort of thing, and I have to admit I’ve been invited to participate in similar situations as yours, way before I met and fell in love with your sister. I was never that interested. Call me old-fashioned but I just can’t come to terms with the fact that people who are truly in love would ever share that special closeness with another. Your reactions were maybe a bit over the top, but I think you have them confused with the actions of a sick man. You love Cassie. Mandy’s ex did not love her, he just didn’t want to lose to another man. He hurt her repeatedly while they were together, yet you say you have never once wanted to hurt Cassie. In fact, you are putting yourself through all this angst to protect her. That mongrel was thinking of his ego more than anything else when he attacked Mandy. He would have killed her rather than let her be happy. Does that really sound like what you want? No, of course not, and if you have any doubts about that whole horrible episode go and talk with Mandy yourself. Let her tell you what the reasoning was behind that maggot’s actions. Ask JT how he would react if a man made a move on his wife.
    “That aside, I still think we need to sort out the effect this has had on you, maybe find you someone more experienced in this sort of trauma to help you get it sorted out in your head.”
    Absorbing everything Brodie had told Riley, he felt the weight of years of worry start to lift and the constriction he had been feeling in his chest eased. Could Brodie be right?
    Am I really just feeling like that of a man in love, same as JT and Brodie? Is it something common, a jealous reaction that others have felt? Am I just some shmuck who couldn’t voice his own emotions and made a hash of everything? Have I been so influenced by my own memories and fears that I jumped to the wrong conclusions?
    It was true Riley would never lay a hand on Cassie—the idea had