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He straightened and fell back a step.“I wasn’t going to say that.”
“You were,” she said.
“I wasn’t.”He did start walking then, and she fell into step beside him.When they reached the end of her driveway, they went right, and Harrison breathed out.“I was going to say that Jane doesn’t like me much.In fact, she doesn’t like me at all.So much so that she had to drug herself to get through meeting me.”
“No,” Cass said.
“And that yeah, I’m not sure me bein’ here is that great of an idea.”
“I want you here.”
“And then, Conrad’s here?And you didn’t tell him I was coming?”He shook that cowboy-hatted head and exhaled again.“Like he has to come sailing in to the rescue if I’m here.”
“It’s not that,” Cass said.
“Then what is it, Cass?”Harrison paused in the shade of her huge oak tree, and Cass did too.
“I don’t know,” she said, her frustration building and building.“I don’t know, okay?I think they’re all just…” Cass gestured beyond the trees, where the house stood.“First off, Jane has been taking those gummies for who knows how long.It has nothing to do with you.Secondly, Sariah’s been stressed about her new job and the apartment hunt.Once they move, they’ll be fine.And Conrad’s…Conrad knows you.He likes you.He spent all summer with you.”
Harrison nodded, but he didn’t look convinced.Cass couldn’t believe she’d just made excuses for two of her children.“I don’t like their behavior either, but they’re adults, and they can act however they want.”She slipped her hand through his arm.“It doesn’t impact how I feel about you.”
He looked down at her without moving his head.“Cass, they’re yourkids.”
“I don’t want to break up.”
“I don’t either, but I don’t want family gatherings to be Jane passed out on pot and Conrad squinting at me like I’ve done something wrong, then Sariah huffing and rolling her eyes.It’s sotensein there.”He shook his head and started strolling again.
Cass swallowed, her throat so narrow.“Grief looks different for every person,” she said quietly.“Sariah is overprotective of me.Conrad is worried he’ll lose me like he lost his father.Jane is…” She blew out her breath in a loud, explosive sigh.“Jane is coping the only way she knows how outside of therapy.In fact, this is Janewiththerapy.I can’t even imagine what she’d be like without it.”
Actually, she could imagine, because she’d tried to heal and come to terms with things on her own, and it hadn’t been pretty.
“Maybe they need more time.”Harrison’s words floated on the air like wraiths, and Cass wanted to bat them back with her palms.
“They’ll have all the time they need.”
“Without me around,” he said.
Cass didn’t know what to say next.“I want you here,” she said again, because she didn’t feel like he’d heard her the first time.
He paused again, turning toward her.“Then I’ll be here.”He leaned down and kissed her, and Cass didn’t care who saw them, who drove by, or if her kids hadn’t accepted that she could move on sooner than them.
Kissing Harrison only cemented what she already knew—she wanted to be with him.She wanted him here.Everyone else would have to learn how to deal with their own emotions and feelings.
That evening,Cass lifted a huge platter of enchiladas between Jane and Sariah.“All right,” she said with a grunt as she lowered it.“Everything’s ready.”She smiled at her daughters and went to take her seat across from them.
Harrison waited too, pulled out her chair, and then slid it in for her before taking his seat.She caught Sariah rolling her eyes, and instant humiliation and anger shot to her head.“Remember that boyfriend you had your freshman year?”she asked as casually as she could.She lifted the Caesar salad and started serving herself.
She looked across the table to Sariah, who wasn’t rolling her eyes now.
“What was his name?”Cass asked, as if she couldn’t remember.“Spencer?”She glanced at Harrison, as that was his brother’s name.“Steven?”
“Sebastian,” Sariah said.
Cass snapped her fingers, her smile instant.“Sebastian.That’s it.”
“YouhatedSebastian,” Jane said.She’d woken an hour ago, all apologies and bright eyes.She’d showered, and clearly, she hadn’t picked up on any of the vibes around the house.That, or she didn’t care.She laughed as Sariah elbowed her.“What?She did.Both she and Daddy did.”
Jane looked across the table to Cass, who’d passed the salad to Harrison.She picked up a piece of garlic bread.“I didn’t hate him,” she said.“I simply knew he wasn’t who Sariah should be with.”
