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When the flower shop opened on Tuesday, I walked over and ordered an arrangement for LeAnne and the new baby. With my task checked off, I returned to Windfall to restock bath salts.
Cassandra sat at her usual spot behind her sewing machine, but instead of doing alterations, today she was putting together one of her original designs. I paused a moment to watch.
Despite the court of public opinion, Lucas seemed determined to date her, even if she wasn’t quite as sure they could withstand the gossips. Opposites attract?
A parallel presented itself in my mind, one of me and Kyle. Dudley Do Right and the Witch. We’d survived the town gossips, to a degree. Then again, we weren’t married yet.
“What?” she said, bringing me out of my contemplations.
I laughed at myself. “Sorry, I was thinking about you and Lucas.”
She turned in her chair. “I have no idea what to do with him. I mean, what if it doesn’t work out? What if we aren’t compatible? Seems like an exercise in futility.”
“Wait. You went to school with these guys. You’ve lived here all your life. You should have at least some idea who Lucas is. Maybe it took you a while to connect, but I suspect the attraction is based on more than a sudden interest.”
Her cheeks flushed, shining through the light-colored foundation she wore. “Well, no, it isn’t sudden, but we haven’t spent much time together since high school.” She shifted in her chair, and I detected more to the story.
“Do tell,” I invited.
She looked away, the blush creeping across her skin. “Nothing to tell, really.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
She fiddled with her hair, a stylized mess pulled into a bun on one side of her head and hanging straight to her shoulder on the other side. “Actually, high school sort of makes the case that this is a waste of time.”
She met my gaze head-on. I knew I was smirking—more trying not to grin like a fool over her discomfort. I wasn’t going to ask. She’d tell me if she wanted to share, but I was dying to know the untold story.
“A group of us used to go out in the farm fields on the weekends and drink. Cheap wine. Libby Frazier—you met her, she’s Dylan’s sister—was good at schmoozing people outside the liquor store.” Cassandra stopped, pressed her lips together. “It was a long time ago.”
“Go on,” I encouraged.
“Usually, it was a group of us girls, but one night, Chip—he was one of the groomsmen at Lisa and Dylan’s wedding—and Lucas, and Kelly Goddard, Lisa’s sister...” Cassandra rolled her eyes. “There was a bunch of people who showed up. Lucas, well, he was sitting beside me, and the more we drank, the more people paired off and wandered into the fields. You must have done similar stuff where you’re from, even without farm fields.”
I didn’t need to tell her I had no friends in school, that I wasn’t invited to parties. Instead, I folded my arms and cocked my head. “So you and Lucas paired off? Then you must have dated for a while in high school.”
Cassandra studied her hands. “We made out, but that was all. No official dating.” She looked toward the ceiling. “Boy, did he know how to kiss. I thought for sure he would ask me out, but he never did. After that, whenever we went drinking in the field, he’d hook up with me. I started thinking of him as my boyfriend, except aside from drinking in the fields, he hardly even looked at me. Oh, other than that one time on the Fourth of July. During the fireworks. I was waiting in line to buy a Coke and he took my hand and led me behind the kiosk where no one would see us and kissed the livin’ daylights out of me.”
“So why didn’t he ask you out?”
“He was a year older than me. That was the summer before college.” She studied her fingernails. “He said he’d be leaving and he didn’t want to get tied down.”
I did the mental math. Cassandra was a year older than me, he was a year older than her, which meant he’d had at least two years since he’d finished college. “And now?”
She held her arms out at her sides. “Even when he came home for summer breaks, he never said anything, never called me, like it never happened. I figured I was his practice for college. Learn to kiss, that sort of thing. I suppose I should be glad things never went any further.”
“Never?”
She sighed. “I always thought he’d be my first everything, you know? That when he came home the next summer, we’d pick up where we left off and sort of graduate to the next step, but no.” She leveled her gaze on me. “When he didn’t renew his interest, in a manner of speaking, I explored other avenues when I went to fashion design school in Milwaukee.”
“But you never got over him.”
“I don’t want to be ‘practice’ anymore. You know what I mean?”
“You want him to step up to the plate. Declare himself instead of pretending you’re not there, except as a make-out buddy.”
She cringed. “Well, sort of.”
“Yeah, I get it. You don’t want to be a booty call. But from what Kyle told me, when you went out the other night, he was making a public statement. Your own ‘Nobody puts baby in the corner’ moment. That’s why he didn’t take you somewhere out of town.”
“And look how that went. He still hasn’t called me.”
“You could call him.”
She shook her head. “No. He has more at stake. I don’t want to be a convenience. Let’s not forget he blew me off in high school.”
“So you make the first move. Remind him what a spectacular kisser you were, as evidenced by the fact he kept coming back for more. The more grown-up version of the man might decide he isn’t willing to go without those kisses even one more day.”
She laughed. “I tell you what, I didn’t get my kiss goodnight after we ran into Mrs. Hazelton, and I was really looking forward to one.”
Did I want to share with her how Kyle and I had gotten past our breakup with a booty call? Unplanned, but a reminder a physical connection can sometimes push you over the final hurdle.
I glanced out the window, where Lucas came out of the five-and-dime across the street. “You want a kiss, now’s your chance,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
I stepped outside the store, calling to Lucas telepathically. He stopped, glanced around looking for what had garnered his attention, saw me and waved. I motioned him toward the store.
“Brynn.” Cassandra whispered a warning behind my shoulder.
“Go in the back,” I told her. “I think you might need help getting something off a shelf that you can’t reach.”
She drew a sharp intake of air, face flushed, and scurried to the back room. Part of me worried she’d run out the back door.
“Hey, Brynn,” Lucas said. “I only have a minute. I’m on my lunch hour.” He looked through the window—for Cassandra? “What can I do for you?”
I sized him up, assessing his frame at about six-foot-three. “Cassandra and I were trying to get something off a shelf in the backroom and neither of us is tall enough. You think you can lend a hand quick?”
“I can give it a try.”
He followed me into the shop and set his bag on the counter.
“If you go right on back, Cassandra can show you where.”
She appeared, a sheepish look on her face, blushing prettily.
“Show me what you need,” he said, following her into the backroom.
I moved discreetly toward the windows, merchandising her clothing and trying not to listen, not that there was anything to hear.
Ten minutes later, Lucas reappeared, his mouth red with Cassandra’s lipstick and his cheeks blotchy. He straightened his glasses, adjusted his pea coat, and gave me a shy smile. “I think she got what she was looking for,” he said with one last glance over his shoulder before he left.
Cassandra followed a moment later, readjusting the nearly-sheer white blouse she wore over a navy blue bralette. “That was enlightening,” she said.
“Good enlightening, or bad enlightening? He’s wearing your lipstick, by the way.”
She laughed. “Oh, definitely good enlightening. He hasn’t forgotten how to kiss, and he’s learned a few new tricks since high school.” She winked. “He wants to go out tonight, and he said he doesn’t care who we see or what they say.” Cassandra gave a squeal. “He says he wanted me to be his girl ever since high school, but never felt like it was the right time. He’s tired of waiting.”
I hugged her. “Good luck. If nothing else, you can get him out of your system, huh?”
“I have no intention of letting him go. Nobody else kisses like he does. I can’t wait to find out what other skills he has.” She gave me another wink and settled behind her sewing machine.
Toward the end of the day, she got fluttery and I sent her off to prepare for her date while I started my closing routine. Before I locked the door, the bell announced one more customer.
Jason.