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Her heartbeat pounded, and she wasn’t sure why.She wasn’t responsible for Jane’s actions.Not when the girl was twenty-two years old.
“Jane,” she said, but she didn’t know how to continue.
“We’re back,” Robbie said.“Harrison and I can get her in the house, and she’ll sleep it off this afternoon.”He met Cass’s eyes in the rearview mirror.“Okay?”
She nodded at him, because he’d been the one sane spot in her life these past couple of weeks.Jane and Sariah even ganged up on him, and Cass didn’t even think they realized it.
Her jaw tightened as they rounded the last corner and her house came into view.Well, at least the trees in the front yard.As Robbie approached, Cass also saw another car, and her pulse picked up speed again.
“Conrad’s here,” she said at the same time Sariah did.Her tone carried surprise; Sariah’s did not.She’d likely called him and told him about this weekend’s plans, as Conrad hadn’t mentioned anything to Cass about coming home for a weekend visit.
This isn’t your home besides, she reminded herself.
Robbie parked alongside Conrad’s white sedan, meeting Harrison’s eyes once more.Sariah and Robbie piled out of the car, and with Jane out of it, she leaned closer to her boyfriend and said, “I didn’t know he was coming.I have a bad feeling about this.”
“It’ll be okay,” Harrison said just before opening his door.He got out and turned back to help Cass.“Will you get my backpack so I can help with Jane?”
“Yes, sir,” she said.She went to the back of the SUV to do that, and she brought up the rear as they all paraded up the front steps and into the house.It was an extremely familiar position for her, bringing up the rear, carrying the most stuff.The buck always fell to Cass, and she took care of everything for every family trip, every picnic, every afternoon at the beach.
She packed lunches.She brought sunscreen.She made sure everyone had what they needed to be happy, and anytime someone forgot something in the car, Cass was the one to go get it.
She carried so much for her family, and she’d always done so happily.Now, though, the teensiest pocket of resentment had crowded into her heart.Inside, she closed the door quickly behind her, hoping to shut out the negative emotion as if it could be done physically.
She dropped Harrison’s bag over the back of the couch and then bent down to give Beryl anI’m-backscrub.He wagged his tail and smiled his golden retriever smile at her, and when she lifted her eyes, she looked right into a pair that had once belonged to West.
These were Conrad’s eyes, though, and while her pulse pinched, Cass smiled.“Hello, son.”She drew him into a hug.“What are you doing here?”
“Sariah said your boyfriend was coming.”At least he hadn’t lied about it.“Sounded like a real family affair, so I thought I better make the trip.”He did smile as he stepped back, and Cass returned it.
“Nothing exciting,” she said.“I haven’t been back to Hilton Head since I dropped you at school, and we miss each other.That’s all.”In fact, she wanted to take him outside and around to the walk-out lower level.He had a hammock on his back deck, and she loved lying in it with him.They’d sink together, curled into one embrace, and just enjoy the come and go of the hammock as it swung.
This house had a hammock hanging from the underside of the deck too, and she’d found Jane there a couple of times in the afternoon, napping.She knew now that her daughter had probably eaten too many CBD gummies and then had to nap in the hammock, and Cass didn’t know what to do about that.
Robbie and Harrison returned to the kitchen, and Cass tucked her hands in her back pockets.“You want the tour?”she asked, glancing around at everyone.She couldn’t believe she’d suggested such a thing, as if Harrison would want to see where she and West had raised their family.
“You know what?”She looked around at everyone.“I’m going to order lunch.We can eat it on the deck.”She pulled out her phone and started tapping.“Who wants what?”
No one said anything, and Cass knew this would be up to her and Sariah.Her daughter had promised to be on her best behavior this weekend, as Harrison was only going to be here for twenty-nine hours, several of which Cass still had to rope him into helping to move Sariah and Robbie to San Antonio.
“Harrison, let’s go for a walk.”She shoved her phone in her back pocket and reached for him.
“It’s burning hot outside,” Sariah said, but Cass ignored her.She’d make a fine mother of teenagers, and she found herself hoping her daughter had a dozen girls who would throw their attitude right back at her.
“We’ll survive.”She turned and left the house, Harrison coming with her.His footsteps didn’t land the same way West’s had, because he wasn’t wearing cowboy boots.When she turned at the bottom of the steps so she could hold his hand, Harrison had put on a cowboy hat.
She froze, every cell in her body suddenly vibrating.“Wow,” she said.
“Ma’am.”He tipped the hat, his smile gorgeous and growing wider by the second.
She laughed and hung onto him.He wrapped her in his arms and laughed with her.“Where did you get that?”she asked between the giggles.
“You went still at the sight of it,” he teased.“You have a thing for cowboys I don’t know about?”
“I’m from Texas,” she said, as if that summed up her feelings for cowboys.
“I’m gonna take that as a yes.”He reached up with one hand and pushed his cowboy hat lower.His smile faded, and they didn’t walk anywhere.“Cass, I—”
“Don’t say we’re not going to work out,” she blurted.
