AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Regina took off her sunglasses and squinted in their direction. “Cassidy? Is that you?”
“Hi, Regina. It’s nice to see you.”
“Regina.” Tate tipped his cowboy hat in her direction. “How are things?”
Regina walked toward them with her mouth hanging open. As always, she tended to be on the dramatic side. “What are you doing here, Cassidy?” Her eyes pivoted to Tate. “And why is Tate here?”
Well, hello to you too, cousin. She didn’t quite know what to make of her cousin’s blunt questions. Why hadn’t her parents told Regina she was coming home? Years ago they’d hung out in the same social circle and had been the best of friends. Occasionally they’d struggled with petty jealousies and rivalries. But they’d been close, whispering secrets in Cassidy’s bedroom well after her mother called for lights out. Now Regina was staring at her as if she was as unwelcome as a raging thunderstorm on a summer’s day.
She took a deep breath, reminding herself that Regina sometimes had a gruff approach that hid a softer, more vulnerable side.
“I’m here to be with my mother,” she explained in a calm voice.
“Does she know you’re coming?” Regina asked.
“Of course she does. She asked me to come home,” she answered. Regina’s comments were making her feel like an outsider.
Regina’s eyes widened. “She did?”
“Yes, I am her daughter after all. Who better to nurse her back to health than me?”
“Enough with all the questions,” Tate said pointedly, his eyes flashing warning signs. “Cassidy’s had a long day that ended with her car breaking down over by the church. You can save the interrogation for later.”
Relief swept through her, and she shot him a look of gratitude. Dealing with her cousin wasn’t always easy. Somehow Tate had always possessed a knack for being able to handle her.
Regina turned to Tate, her eyes filled with remorse. Her voice softened. “I’m sorry. I was just so surprised to see the two of you together after all this time. I had no idea Cassidy was coming back to town, so it was a little jarring running into her out of the blue like that.”
Cassidy sighed. “My car broke down right outside Main Street Church. Thankfully Tate drove by a few minutes later. He called the auto shop and gave me a ride over here.”
Regina grinned. “That’s our sheriff. Always riding to the rescue.”
Cassidy didn’t miss the way Regina leaned toward Tate and playfully jabbed him with her elbow. She felt a twinge of irritation. Some things never change. Regina had always been a little bit of a flirt. She wasn’t proud of it, but she’d always been a tad jealous of the playful interaction between the two of them back in the day. A tightness constricted her chest as the realization hit her that Tate and Regina might have connected over the years, perhaps even dated. It wasn’t as if her mother ever mentioned Tate’s love life in any of her phone calls or emails since Cassidy had told her long ago that he was a taboo topic of conversation. The sole exception had been when her mother had given her the news that Tate was the new town sheriff.
Regina and Tate? No, Cassidy told herself. Tate wouldn’t do that to her. He knew that she and Regina loved each other despite their ups and downs. He wouldn’t betray her like that with her own cousin. Or would he? He’d been so angry with her when she’d called off their wedding. Although she’d tried to explain herself to him, he hadn’t wanted to hear a word of it. She remembered vividly their last moments
together. When she’d ended things, Tate had slammed his fist into the barn door of his family’s ranch. His hand had been bruised and bloodied. It was the first time since she’d known him that his actions had frightened her. The look of intense anger in his eyes had chilled her to the bone and left her quaking with unsettled emotions. Love, fear, guilt. It had been so confusing dealing with all her jumbled feelings, so much so that all she’d wanted to do was leave town and all her troubles behind her in the rearview mirror.
And in doing so, she’d earned herself a permanent place in West Falls’s hall of shame.
“Tate driving by at that exact moment was a godsend,” she replied in a calm, even tone. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if he hadn’t driven by.”
Regina’s eyes twinkled. “Well, you know what they say. God works in mysterious ways.” Regina was smiling and looking back and forth between them. She was trying to insinuate that God had placed the two of them together for a reason.
Tate was shooting daggers at Regina. Clearly he hadn’t missed her innuendo and wanted nothing to do with it. Heat burned her cheeks as she turned her gaze away from Tate. It had been ages since she’d felt so embarrassed. She sent her cousin a pointed look. She wasn’t in the mood for Regina’s matchmaking. Did she seriously think that they could just walk back into each other’s arms after all this time? Didn’t she realize that the truth about the accident stood between them like a wedge?
The sound of a car crunching on the pebbled driveway caused them to turn away from each other and focus instead on the gray sedan idling in the driveway. With her heart in her throat Cassidy watched her father exit the car and scramble around to the passenger side, where he opened the door and gingerly pulled her mother from the car. Her mother, dressed in light blue slacks and a short sleeved polo shirt, leaned on her father’s arm and walked with measured steps.
The sight of her mother walking toward her pulled at Cassidy’s heartstrings in a way that nothing else could. She was thin, she realized, so much thinner than she’d ever seen her. The color in her face was unlike her usual healthy complexion. She looked sallow and worn out. Although her father had warned her about what to expect due to the chemotherapy treatments, nothing could have prepared her for the sight of her ailing mother.
Maylene Blake had always been a beautiful woman, and she still maintained traces of that beauty, despite the illness ravaging her body. With auburn hair that fell around her shoulders, emerald-green eyes, bow shaped ruby lips and a pair of dimples that would make the angels cry, Maylene had been a Miss Texas and competed in the pageant circuit. She was wearing a wig, Cassidy noted, no doubt to mask her thinning hair and bald patches. Although her lips had lost a little color, her eyes still lit up like the bulbs on a Christmas tree as soon as she spotted Cassidy.
“Cassidy!” her mother cried out. “You’re here. Oh, the Lord is good to me.”
Cassidy took two long strides and quickly reached her mother’s side. With all the tenderness she possessed, she pulled her mother into an embrace. Her mother kissed her on the cheek and murmured thanks to the Lord for bringing her back home. The scent of her mother’s Chanel No. 5 perfume rose to her nostrils and hurtled her straight back to childhood when she’d played dress up in her mother’s closet and spritzed herself with enough of the scent to last a lifetime. She couldn’t help but feel her mother’s rail thin body through her shirt when she wrapped her arms around her. If nothing else, she was determined to cook for her mother and put some meat back on her bones.
She watched as Tate leaned down and planted a kiss on her mother’s cheek, then turned to shake her father’s hand. Genuine warmth flared between them. Her mother’s eyes twinkled as she gazed upon the man who’d been slated to be her son-in-law.
“I’m going to leave you all to your reunion,” Tate drawled, with a polite nod in her parents’ direction.
