Yes Man

I looked at the older man accompanying her.

"Corby Richards." He nodded to me for the second time.

"My grandfather." Cassidy added.

"Your mother is Shannon Dane and your grandfather is Corby Richards?" I looked at all of them for a second before switching to look only at Cassidy. "You said your name was Day, not Dane."

"I lied." She looked up at me. "I wanted you to like me because I'm me, not because I'm someone else's daughter."

"But Dane and Richards? You told me you worked for a family owned construction company. Dane and Richards is a corporation that builds luxury high rise penthouse apartments all over the US!"

"We are a family owned company. That's the truth. I also told you that we build stuff and that's the truth too." She shrugged her shoulders. "I get tired of being chased by guys who only want me for my family name, or worse private access to my mother, so I don't go around blabbing who I am to everyone I meet. Not if I can help it anyway. Plus, if you hadn't asked I wouldn't have had to lie to you about it. Not that it was really a lie, it just wasn't the exact truth and I only said it because I wanted you to like me."

"You lied to Lydia too." I just couldn't seem to let it alone.

"I told Lydia and asked her not to tell you." Another shrug and a half twist in Lydia's direction before coming back to center on me again. "I wanted to be sure you wanted me and not the other stuff."

"So you only lied to me." I looked down at the carpet as I considered that.

"Jason..." Cassidy stepped close. "I'm sorry, but I had to know."

I looked up at Lydia who had stopped putting her things into the box. She nodded to me that Cassidy was telling the truth, she'd known but kept me in the dark.

"Jason." Cassidy touched me lightly. "The highway is waiting and I want to go cruising. Please let me come with you."

I just looked at her.

"I told you already; absolutely and definitely yes. For better or worse, I want to go cruising with you." She looked at Lydia. "And maybe with a close friend every once in awhile. Just for the taste of something different."

I didn't know what to say. Cassidy left me go to walk over and pick up the remaining picture from the desk and place it gently in the box.

"Jason is going to need a secretary for his new job. You interested? There's a moving allowance and I'm certain the salary is a lot better than whatever this terrible company used to pay you. Plus there are some really fantastic benefits if you come with him."

"I didn't say I was..." I trailed off when she just looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, fine. You win."

The supernova smile appeared again, only this time it didn't stop after the first brief flash. Cassidy's grandfather chuckled.

"Welcome to the family, son."

Cassidy moved the three steps she needed to go from Lydia's desk to standing right in front of me. Carefully, she buttoned my sleeve then put her arms around my neck.

"You want to go house hunting or live with me at the family estate?"

"Bring him home." Her mother told us before I could say anything. "You might as well since it's going to be yours one day and he's going to be involved with the two of us right from the beginning."

Cassidy turned around to face her mother, grabbing for and holding on to one of my hands as she did it.

"Mother." Her voice took on that icy tone. Not as chilling as her mom's had been when she dismissed Stanwood, but definitely icy.

"Yes?"

"Jason is going to have to be in the family before he gets involved in family affairs. We are not going to screw around with anything this important to me by rushing him into something he might not want to get into very deeply."

Shannon looked at us, her face expressionless for several seconds before she spoke.

"Agreed." She looked at Cassidy first then to me, her voice taking on warmth that had been missing from the conversation up to that point. "I look forward to you hopefully being a very close part of our relationship."

Cassidy rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath. A mutter which sounded a lot like; didn't I just say we weren't going to do that? Which caused a brief smile from her mother while Cassidy's grandfather walked over to Lydia's desk.

"Call me Corby." He said as he easily hefted her box of personal belongings. "Will you come with me if I ask you to?"

Lydia gave him the once over and smiled.

"Yes."