She looked up, and her smile was sad and honest.“Now I’m not sure I know what success actually means.”
“I think we each have to make our own definition of success,” his mother said as she stood and started clearing plates.Lucy helped, leaving Bryan and Cassidy alone at the table.Through the windows, the Gulf stretched dark and vast under a scatter of stars.
“Thank you for inviting me,” Cassidy said.“Your family is wonderful.”
“They’re loud, nosy, and completely lacking in boundaries.”
“They love you.That’s obvious.”She traced the rim of her water glass.“I can’t remember the last time I had a meal like this.With people who actually care about each other, who make time to be together even when they’re busy.”
He thought about all the meals he’d eaten at this table.Sunday dinners after church, birthdays, holidays, random Tuesday nights when his mother decided she wanted everyone together.He’d taken the easy comfort of family and tradition for granted.
“You’re lonely,” he said.It came out more as an observation than a question.
Cassidy didn’t deny it.“I have colleagues, networking contacts, and people I see at industry events.But friends?Real friends?”She shook her head.“I’ve been too busy climbing the ladder to notice I was climbing it alone.”
“You’re not alone anymore.”The words came before he could think better of them.“You’ve got the Harbor Ladies, Winnie, and the festival committee.”He paused.“Me.”
She met his eyes, and a strong current pulled between them.Not the hostility from their first meeting, not the wary truce from the storm, but something warmer and more dangerous.
“Bryan—”
“We should probably talk about the vendor contracts,” he said quickly, before whatever was happening could become something he’d have to acknowledge.“I pulled together the applications from last year.We can use them as a starting point and see who else we can get.”
If Cassidy was disappointed by the subject change, she didn’t show it.She pulled out her phone and opened her notes app, and they fell back into the comfortable rhythm of work.
But later, after she’d left and he was cleaning up the back room, he found himself thinking about the way she’d laughed at Lucy’s jokes and the way she’d eaten seconds of his mother’s cooking.
He thought about the way she’d looked at him when he’d said she wasn’t alone.
He was inserioustrouble.
