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Chapter
Seventeen
Cass lunged forher phone as the group text notification went off.She couldn’t quite grip it because of all the sloppy barbecue sauce on her fingers, and she ended up dropping it right onto her plate.It clattered and clanked, which drew the attention of her husband, West.
“Sorry,” she said around a mouthful of pulled pork.“It’s Bea.”Giddiness galloped through her the way the young fillies did out in the front field.
West said nothing and ignored her as she got up to wash her hands with soap and water, as well as clean her phone with an antiseptic wipe.Bea had sent a picture—a gorgeous seascape with plenty of sunshine and crystalline blue water.
This is from the deck at the Harbor Town Lighthouse, she said.Isn’t it amazing?
Sage had already chimed in about the amazingness, but Cass frowned.This was not the type of news she wanted.
Bea had ignored her barb from that morning, and everyone else had skated by it too.Perhaps Cass could come across as blunt and unfeeling, when really she was so dang excited for Bea and she wanted all the details.
Another picture came in, with another view from the lighthouse deck.Lauren and I loved this lighthouse.It has a museum in it as you walk up theone-hundred-tensteps.
“Cass, hon,” West drawled, and Cass looked up from her phone.
“Yeah, baby?”She almost tripped over Beryl, the golden retriever who never got too far from her.He seriously acted like he hadn’t eaten in days, that she kept him chained up outside at night instead of snuggled into her side.“Beryl.”She bent down and grabbed onto the dog so she wouldn’t topple forward as her legs collided with the eighty-pound animal.“Move, buddy.”She smiled at him, wondering where Conrad was and why he hadn’t called yet.
West held up his phone.“Conrad said he tried to call you, but you didn’t answer.”
“He most certainly did not.”Cass stepped around the canine and marched over to the dining room table, where she and West had settled with their store-bought feast of Texas barbecue.She nearly ripped the phone from her husband’s fingers.“Con?Where are you?”
“At the theater still, Mom,” he said, clearly frustrated too.“I called you four times.”
“I can assure you that my phone did not ring once.”
“Her phone didn’t ring,” West yelled, and Cass gave him an appreciative smile.
“They asked me to work late,” Conrad said.“Can I?”The boy had been saving for a truck, and Cass admired his work ethic and determination.
“Of course, baby,” she said, sinking into her seat at the table.West’s phone felt too heavy in her hand, as he put a bulky case on it to protect it when he dropped it.The man had broken more cellphones than any other human alive, and Cass’s heart warmed when she thought of her husband.“How late?”
“One,” Conrad said.“I’ll come wake you up when I get home.”
Cass was fixing to go to bed in about an hour, as she forced herself to stay up until at least dusk.“All right,” she drawled.“Wake up Daddy, okay?I have to get up early for a ladies’ meeting for church.”
“You’re still goin’ to that?”West asked, his attention leaving the newspaper beside his plate.The barbecue house they ordered from wrapped their brisket in it, and while it was a replication of some old paper from the 1920s, West always read it like it bore today’s most important headlines.
“Yes,” Cass said, giving him a look.“Be safe, Conrad.If you have a problem, call—”
“I know,” Conrad said.“I gotta go.”
Cass let him hang up, and she handed her husband his phone.“He’s working late.”
“That’s what he said.”
She wondered why she’d had to talk to Conrad if he’d already told West he wouldn’t be home until late.“I think we should tell him we’ll go in on the truck with him.”
West looked up then, the fake newspaper forgotten.His right eyebrow went up, and Cass smiled at him.“How much?”he asked.
“Half,” she said.“We did that for the twins remember?”
“Did we?”
“Yes,” Cass said, surveying her plate.She didn’t want to eat anymore, and she picked it up and headed back to the kitchen sink.“Will you tell him?”
