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He’d bet his life it wasn’t Cass, but her son.Sure enough, Conrad opened the door, and Harrison gave him the brightest smile he had.“Hey, Conrad.”He’d not spent a lot of time with the teen—young adult—since the night of their manly grilling party, when he’d come back with a bottle of Miracle Whip and angry questions about Harrison dating his mother.
The whole can of worms had been blown open then, and they’d never really been addressed.
“Hey, Harrison,” the other man said.“Come on in.I guess she’s having an earring crisis, and she said she’ll be out in a minute.”He stepped back from the big door, and Harrison entered the foyer.
“You guys painted in here.”He looked at the walls, which were no longer gray, but a light, robin’s egg blue.
“Did we?”Conrad looked at the walls for what they were: walls.He obviously wasn’t impressed.“My mother is never happy with what we have.She’s always changing something.”He didn’t say it in a mean or judgmental voice, but it certainly sounded that way in Harrison’s ears.
Conrad turned and walked further into the house, and Harrison wasn’t sure if he should go with him.Cass’s bedroom sat to his right as he entered the living room, the back wall of windows overlooking her patio straight ahead.The stairs leading to the second floor sat to his left, and the living room opened up ahead of him, with the kitchen and dining room around a corner.
Her son went that way, and Harrison decided he’d already entered the beast.He might as well go all the way into the belly.He followed Conrad into the kitchen, where he’d sat at the bar, a bowl of noodles and broth in front of him.He still wore his tour company uniform, which was a pair of forest green shorts, and a bright yellow shirt with navy blue and dark green writing on it.He’d propped his phone up against a gallon of milk, and he tapped the screen to start the show again.
So he clearly wasn’t interested in talking to Harrison.Still, Harrison asked, “How’s the job?”
Conrad nodded and finished chewing his food.“Good.Great.I really like it.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah.”Conrad looked at him, his eyes a step or two darker than Cass’s.She’d told Harrison he looked just like West, and Harrison felt like he was being judged by both the father and the son as the nineteen-year-old sized him up.“Don’t tell my mom, but I’m thinking of taking my gap year this year.”
Harrison’s eyebrows lifted like a shot.“Oh, yeah?And staying here?”
“Yeah.”He went back for another forkful of noodles.“I don’t know.I liked Baylor, but—”
“She’s almost ready,” Lauren said, interrupting them.Her shoes slapped the floor as she passed from carpet to tile.“She says you can drive fast on the way to Charleston.”She smiled and gave Harrison a light hug.
He kissed both of her cheeks, smiling all the while.“I can,” he said.“We have a little buffer.”
“Charleston?”Conrad asked.He turned fully toward Harrison.“What are you two doing in Charleston?”
“It’s a secret,” Harrison said.
“Sounds scandalous,” Lauren teased.She moved into the kitchen and clicked on a burner.She lifted the teakettle from it and moved to the sink.
“You’re not going to sleep with her, are you?”Conrad asked.
Harrison drew his attention from Lauren filling the kettle to Conrad, shock moving through him.“I, uh—” he stammered.“No.”
“Good.”Conrad narrowed his eyes at him.“I’m surprised she’s dating at all, to be honest.”
“Conrad,” Cass said, catching all of them unaware.She moved to Harrison’s side before he could truly look at her.The scent of her expensive perfume arrived a moment later, and she slipped her arm through his.She wore a black and white dress, fitted on the top and flaring at the waist.It fell in a wide skirt to her knees, and then the shapely, sexiness of her legs captured his full attention.
She wore a pair of black heels on her feet, with a buckle around the ankle that looked like it had been studded with diamonds.For all Harrison knew, they were real and not cubic zirconium or cheap gems.Nothing Cass owned was cheap, he knew that from the scent of the perfume still enticing his pheromones.
“You have no right to tell him that,” she lectured her son.“I know what I’m ready to do, young man.”
Lauren said nothing, and in fact, she turned her back on the whole conversation as if that would make her invisible.
“Whatever,” Conrad said, turning back to his dinner.
Cass looked at Harrison, and he looked at her.He could feel her weight on his lap from that morning, and when she smiled at him with those ruby-red lips, he could only smile back.“Ready?”he asked.
“Yes, sir,” she drawled.“What else were you and Conrad talking about?”She looked over to her son, and Harrison did too.
Conrad’s eyes widened and filled with apprehension, and that was Harrison’s clue to keep what he’d said about his gap year to himself.“School,” he said vaguely.“Work.”
“Sounds innocent,” Cass said.She stepped over to her son and cupped one hand around the back of his neck as she leaned down to say something to him.She held there for a few seconds, then backed up.He nodded; she did too; then she faced Harrison.
He got the full view now, and she lifted one arm as if brandishing an umbrella, and said, “How do I look?This is a new dress.”
“It’s phenomenal,” he said, drinking in her curves and swells.His throat turned to sand.“I really like it.You look fantastic.”
She’d painted her face, but he’d seen her in makeup before.Maybe not this much, but enough.She wore a pair of black teardrop earrings, and they matched the shape of the gem sitting right in the center of her collarbone.It was held up by a thick, silver chain, and once again, Harrison got the impression that everything she owned cost a lot of money.
It made him wonder why she liked him.He didn’t dress the same as her.He didn’t drive a vehicle like hers.He only had the house he did because he’d gotten a deal on it.Feeling very self-conscious, he reached for her hand.“Ready?”
“Ready.”She squeezed his fingers, her eyebrows going up.She didn’t say anything as they left the house, and as he helped her into the truck and she smoothed down her skirt.He wasn’t sure what she’d seen on his face, but when he got behind the wheel, she looked at him.“What’s wrong?”she asked.
He wanted to say, “Nothing,” but they were both too old to play games.So he didn’t say that, but the words he wanted to say tangled and knotted, and he couldn’t get them out.
