“I don’t think you like her very much either.”
I look from him over to Cassie’s van. Her head is sticking out of the sliding door. She doesn’t glare at me, which I guess is nice of her.
“Fine,” I say, stepping out of the car and heading past Cassie’s van into the tiny house.
Chapter 29
Luke
Harper storms off into the tiny house, leaving me standing by the car, Cassie’s eyes pinned to me. I’m just as confused seeing Cassie here as Harper is, but her parking overnight seems harmless enough.
When I knocked on Cassie’s door, she looked exhausted, and her eyes were red and puffy like she’d been crying. She mentioned something about her credit card not working and that she can’t call to get it fixed until morning, so she’s not able to pay for food, parking, or anything until she gets it sorted tomorrow.
Before I talked to Cassie, I was hoping I’d be able to talk her out of parking in our driveway, but by the time she finished her story, I wanted to bring her inside to get something to eat. I know that’s the last thing Harper would want, but I have to do something.
“She okay?” Cassie says, walking over, arms crossed.
While I’m almost certain all of Harper’s anger is over Cassie ditching her time and time again, part of me wonders if there’s more to it than that.
“Just one of those days,” I say, not wanting to reveal much else. “You going to be okay for the night?”
“Yeah, I need to make a food run, but hopefully I can get things sorted out with my card by morning.”
I look back to the house and then to Cassie. Her face is softer than the last time we were in this driveway together. I still feel a tiny twinge of guilt over the fact that I led Cassie on while having feelings for Harper, but whatever anger she had toward me seems to have lifted.
“I can take you to the grocery store,” I say. I probably can’t make up for how I may have hurt Cassie, but I can at least make sure she goes to bed with enough food to last until she can get her card sorted out.
“I don’t have the money to pay for it.”
“It’s fine,” I say. “Let me see if Harper wants to come.” I already know what Harper will say, but I poke my head in the front door anyway. She’s sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels on the TV. “We’re going on a grocery store run. Want to come?”
“I’ve had enough Cassie for one lifetime,” Harper says, her eyes glued to the TV. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so bitter before.
“Okay then,” I mumble, closing the door and heading back to the car.
Cassie’s leaning against the passenger door when I get there.
“Just us?” she asks, eyebrows raised.
“Guess so.”
The drive to the nearest grocery store is short since Vik is small. We find a Krónan, which might actually be the onlygrocery store in the town. It’s a decent-sized building, probably about a third of the size of a normal grocery store back home.
I expect that Cassie and I will split up in the store, but when I grab a cart, she tags along beside me, occasionally placing food in the front half while I put food in the back half. She only grabs a few things here or there, probably self-conscious of the fact that I’ll be paying. At this point, though, it feels like the least I can do.
“So, how’s the Harper situation working out?” Cassie says suddenly, grabbing an apple and adding it to the cart.
Leave it to Cassie to be bold.
“There’s no situation,” I tell her, thinking back to the conversation we had at the canyon where Harper finally brought up the text message from Wes. I probably could have handled that better.
“Yeah, okay.” She gives me a mocking laugh.
“Cassie, why does it matter?” I say, but it doesn’t feel like I’m saying it just to Cassie. It feels like I’m saying this to Wes and every other person who has wrongfully assumed Harper and I would make a great couple.
“Because.” She pauses, weighing her words. “If you care about someone, you should say something.”
I shake my head, dismissing her, so she continues.
