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“I’m already looking, baby,” he said.“All summer?”
“I can move around if I need to,” Cass said.Her voice was deeper than Bea’s, and it hit all the right chords inside Harrison’s head and chest, creating music there he hadn’t heard in a while.“Actually, that might be fun.A week in this house, then another week somewhere else.”
“You might have to,” Grant said, his voice almost a monotone as he studied his phone.“The only way you’ll get something for the whole summer at this point would be to buy something.”
No one said anything, as if Grant had dropped an idea bomb and it hadn’t gone off yet.After several seconds of silence, he looked up.“What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” Bea said, but her tone was the type of forced casual that said her mind was running in circles.Harrison knew, because his ex-wife had spoken like that.
“Maybe we could look at things for sale,” Cass said casually.“I have been thinking about selling the house in Texas.”
Bea gasped the gasp of the century.“You have?What?When?Why didn’t you tell me?”
Cass laughed lightly, and once again it felt like the stars had aligned.Harrison watched her in the rearview mirror, completely forgetting that he should be focused on the road.
“You’re drifting,” Grant murmured, and Harrison jerked the SUV back into the right lane.The ladies in the back cried out, and he’d most likely be the color of boiled lobster before they made it back to the island.
“It’s a new thing,” Cass said once they’d settled and everyone knew they weren’t going to die in a fiery car accident.“I look around the house in Texas, and…I don’t know.It’s notmyhouse.It’sourhouse.Me and West, and he’s not there, and it’s just a thought I’ve had.”
“We need to expand on this thought,” Bea said, but before she did, she leaned forward and placed one hand on Harrison’s bicep.“Oh, Harrison, Cass said she’s excited about going to the Everglades with us.Isn’t that great?”
“Yes,” he said, meeting Cass’s eyes in the mirror again.She gave him a smile he would classify as kind and a little bit flirty.He hadn’t been in the dating pool for a while, though, so perhaps he’d read it wrong.Or maybe he’d read it the way he wanted to read it.“That’s great news.Now I won’t be the third wheel.”
“My fifth National Park,” Bea said with obvious happiness.
Harrison refused to look at Grant, because the trip to Florida and Everglades National Park just got a whole lot more interesting for Harrison.Interesting and enticing and exciting—and Harrison hadn’t felt any of those things since Claudia had said she was leaving and filing for divorce.
“Dinner tonight?”Grant asked as Harrison unloaded Cass’s luggage for her.They’d all go inside Grant and Bea’s beach house, and Harrison hadn’t been invited to stay for the afternoon.
“Yes, come to dinner tonight,” Bea said.“I’m making shrimp scampi, and you inhaled that the last time I made it.”
“I didn’tinhaleit,” Harrison said.He shot a look toward Cass.Bea had just made him sound like a vacuum.
Grant started to chuckle.“You ate really fast,” he said.
“I hadn’t eaten all day.”Harrison reached for the smaller, lighter bag.“And your wife is a good cook.So sue me.”
Cass looked away right as he looked at her, and Harrison almost felt snubbed.She stood only a few inches shorter than him, and she carried an oversized purse that told him she paid attention to the things she bought.She took care of them.She wore a pair of black shorts that went all the way to her knee, and she’d paired them with a white tank top.Classic beauty.
She sure seemed to know who she was, and Harrison liked that.He could feel the confidence oozing from her, and he wanted to ask her to dinner that night.Just the two of them.He’d take her to a nice place out of the tourist zone, and they’d drink wine and laugh and talk until all hours of the night.
His fantasy dried right up as Grant laughed.“What?”he asked.
“Bea asked if you had that meeting for your HOA tonight, and you just stood there.”Grant shook his head and reached to push the button to lower the hatch on the SUV.He moved in close to Harrison and whispered, “You’re staring at her, man.Calm down.”
“I am calm,” Harrison hissed at his friend.Grant had obviously seen Harrison’s attraction to Cass, but it sure didn’t seem like Bea had.Grant would tell her though, and Harrison’s humiliation doubled as he thought of how Bea would react.
“Yeah, I think the HOA meeting is tonight, actually,” he said.“I might not be able to do dinner.”
“Come by after if you want,” Bea said.She turned and started towing the smaller of Cass’s bags up the sidewalk.Cass went with her, no backward glance in Harrison’s direction.
He watched the women go, and then he looked at Grant.“She’s pretty.”
“Mm.”Grant kept his gaze on the two women as they went up the steps and into the house.They’d left the bigger bag for him, but he didn’t seem to mind.Everything about Grant was laid-back and easy-going, and Harrison had liked that during some of the stormier times of his life.
“I know I can’t ask her out.”
“I’m surprised you want to.”Grant switched his gaze to Harrison.“I mean, it’s fine.I’m glad you want to.I’m just a little surprised.You didn’t even tell anyone about Claudia leaving for months.”
