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“I’ll talk to Ryan and let you know.”
“Okay, talk soon.”Cass ended the call and looked at her phone.Surprisingly, none of her friends had texted her.Yet.
She got to her feet and wandered down the aisle.In a kitschy shop like this, the sunscreen would be at the counter, and she asked for some.The woman sold her an overpriced spray bottle of the stuff, and Cass went to rejoin her friends.
Lauren and Joy waited on the bench where Cass had left them, and she held up the bottle as she approached.“They’re still not out?”
“Bessie can get lost and die in a kitchen store,” Lauren said dryly.Cass sank onto the bench beside her.She smiled and agreed.Lauren went right back to her phone, as she usually did in down times.Her job kept her running, to be sure, but Cass glanced over to find her texting with someone, not checking and answering email.
She also didn’t wear her normal frown or look of consternation while she dealt with clients or coworkers.Now, she wore a smile, her eyes filled with delight.
“Who are you texting?”Cass asked, because she’d seen a woman in this situation before.Most recently, her daughter who’d gotten married last fall.
Lauren looked up, her joy washing right out of her eyes.“No one.”She tucked her phone under her leg, the conversation over just like that.
“Oh, come on,” she said.“You don’t have to stop texting him.”
“How do you know it’s a man?”
“You should see your face,” Cass teased.
Lauren gave her a dry look, her eyes filled with knowledge.“I didn’t ask you anything about your face when you came in from your date this morning.”She kept her voice low, but Joy sat on her other side, not that far away.
Cass didn’t need to keep secrets.She just didn’t want to be hounded to death.“Yeah, and what did you see?”
“Your lip gloss was all smeared.”Lauren took her phone out from under her leg.
“You floated all over the house,” Joy added, her smile nearly blinding.“You obviously kissed Harrison with coffee breath.”
Cass laughed, which made the other two do the same.“I did,” she said.She grinned at her friends.“And he wasdelicious.”She giggled again, and Lauren linked her arm through Cass’s and leaned into her.
They all sighed together, which caused them to dissolve into another round of laughter.When they quieted again, Lauren said, “So this is nothing yet.Really, it’s not.”She flipped her phone over and over in her free hand.“Since I’m going to be here for a few months, when this guy asked for my number, I gave it to him.We’ve been texting.”
“‘This guy’?”Cass asked.“Who?You’ve been glued to my hip for days.”
Joy said nothing, but she and Cass exchanged a glance.“I know who it is.”
Cass could admit she’d been wrapped up in her own life lately.Since West had died, really.Between moving here, dealing with Conrad’s ire, calling her twins all the time, having her friends come into town, and starting a new relationship, and Cass hadn’t noticed as much as she otherwise might have.“Who?”she asked.“Wait.You don’t have to tell us.If you want to keep it to yourself right now, that’s fine.”Cass squeezed Lauren’s arm against her ribs.“Really.I know you like to keep things private for a while.”
“I do,” Lauren said.“But he wants to go out tonight, and I’d like to go…” She looked at Cass with wide eyes, then turned and looked at Joy, clearly seeking permission.
“Then go,” Cass said.“I’m going to dinner with Conrad.”She switched her gaze to Joy.“I don’t know what everyone else is doing.”
“Bea and Grant have something with his sister,” she said.“Bessie is making dinner for me and Sage at your house.”
“See?”Cass said.“You could go.”
Lauren kept her eyes on Joy.“You think so?”She and Joy had a special relationship, and if Joy didn’t think Lauren should go, she’d tell her.
“I think you should go if you’d like,” Joy said.“It’s going to be finger foods, Bessie said.She won’t mind.”
Lauren nodded and extracted her arm from Cass’s.She looked down at her phone, swiped it on, and started texting again.Cass leaned over in a really obvious way to see who she was talking to, and the nameBeach Body Blakesat at the top of the screen.
Oh, and those texts… Flirty.Veryflirty.
Cass grinned past Lauren’s bent head to Joy, who likewise raised her eyes to Cass’s.Blake, she mouthed.
Joy grinned and giggled.“Not just Blake,” she said right out loud.“Beach BodyBlake.”
