by Dylann Crush
“You were telling me how everyone in town is on Robbie’s side.”
Misty cleared her throat. “Now that’s positively not true.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Oh crap, hold on again.” The sound of someone crying, probably Junior, came through the phone. “Listen, Cassie, I’ve got to go. I’ll have my hands full with Jake being gone, but my mom’s coming over to stay Thursday night to help out with the kids. Do you want to meet up for a drink that night so we can catch up?”
“Sure.” Misty had become the closest thing I’d ever had to a girlfriend. A night out, even if it was only heading to the VFW or somewhere for a beer, was still a girls’ night.
“Great, I’ll text you when and where. Just a sec, boys. Let me finish on the phone.”
“Sounds good. Talk to you then.”
I disconnected and reminded myself of what was waiting for me in Dallas. I’d finally be in charge of a kitchen of my own. Ideas for the menu were coming together. Maybe there would be a way to incorporate those sweet rolls my grandma used to make. If I added a little ginger-infused glaze over the top I could give it an Asian flair. Robbie sure liked them. He told me he’d be willing to do the job for free if I guaranteed him an endless supply for the rest of his life.
My hands tightened on the steering wheel, and I forced Robbie’s smiling face out of my head. That look he’d given me right before he lowered his head toward mine. How his eyes crinkled at the corners and the way the stubble on his chin scratched my cheek every time he moved in for a kiss. My body recalled the night before, the feel of his fingers touching my skin, coaxing me to a climax.
I stepped down on the accelerator and tried to distract myself by recalling the recipe for vanilla crème cake from memory. Flour, butter, vanilla, sugar…Hmm. Robbie had called me sugar once upon a time. I squirmed in my seat and made the turn onto Mrs. Cahill’s street. She stood from where she’d been tending the garden as I came to a stop in front of the house. Her apron sagged in the center, full of her morning harvest.
“Hi there, honey. I was just working in the garden. Come on in and I’ll get us some sweet tea.”
I followed Mrs. Cahill through the front room and into the kitchen. Just being in the comfort of her living room lowered my blood pressure. “What are you picking?”
She lowered the edge of her apron and a variety of vegetables rolled onto the counter. “The usual. A few tomatoes, some green beans. Okra’s looking good.” Her gnarled fingers picked through the rainbow of vegetables, selecting a specimen and turning it this way and that to check for blemishes. “I’ll have to send some of this home with you. It’s way too much for me to eat.”
My mouth watered at the thought of lightly breaded, crispy fried okra. “That would be great. I’d love to take some home. Robbie loves okra.” Damn. It wouldn’t do me any good to keep thinking about Robbie. But, I’d have to feed him something. I wasn’t going to be the one to go back on our arrangement.
“How is that boy these days, dear?” Her gaze met mine. “Tom Schmitt figured Robert would have convinced you to stay by now.”
“Schmitty bet against me?”
She smiled and pulled a vintage Pyrex bowl down from the cabinet. “Lot of folks around here would love to see you stay.”
“Well, Mrs. Hayes says the place is as good as sold. She’s got a few interested parties.”
“Oh?” Her eyebrows lifted. “So you’re heading back to Texas for sure? Hmm. What’s going on with that boy?”
“Why does everyone think Robbie and I are going to end up together?”
“Let’s set a spell, hon.” She pulled a chair out from the table.
I sunk into it, resting my chin on my hands. She rummaged around the kitchen, opening cabinets, then the refrigerator. A few moments later she placed two tall glasses of sweet tea on the table and sat down in the chair next to me.
“Cassie, honey, can I tell you something?”
I peeked up at her. “Sure.”
“Sometimes it’s easier for others to see what’s supposed to be. Does that make sense?”
“No, I—”
“I did the same thing with your mama. Everyone could tell she and Jefferson weren’t meant to be together. But things happen for a reason, honey. And thank goodness for that or she never would have met your daddy.”
“What are you talking about?”
Mrs. Cahill clapped her hands together. “Oh dear. Well, I suppose no one ever had the chance to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“That your mama was once engaged to Jefferson Jordan.”
I sat there, jaw dropped, for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds.
“More tea, dear?” Dotty stood up and moved toward the refrigerator.
I grabbed her arm. “What? How?” A parallel universe had just collided with my world. The insides of my head scrambled like the eggs I’d made Robbie for breakfast the other day. Robbie’s dad? And my mom?
Dotty sunk back down into her chair. “Oh, honey. They dated all through high school. Why, that boy thought your mama hung the moon. Your grandparents were thrilled. Your mama had always talked about moving to the city. Chicago, Dallas, maybe even New York. She was a dreamer, that one. And she was smart.” Her hand tapped the table. “Like a whip. I knew she’d never get a chance to follow her dreams if she stayed here in Swallow Springs. Your grandma knew it, too. But she was so tickled pink at the idea her baby would stay close to home that she encouraged that boy.”
“Robbie’s dad? You are talking about Robbie’s dad and my mom here, right?” I pushed back from the table to pace the kitchen. “How come nobody ever told me this before? They were engaged?”
“They were. But he messed up. I never did like that boy. He had a mean streak in him half a mile long. He was so sure of himself. Didn’t know what kind of a treasure he had in your mama. He got poor Karen Ann in a family way. When your mama found out, she broke up with him and took a scholarship to that school somewhere in Texas.”
“UT-Austin.”
“Excuse me, dear?”
“My mama got her degree in astronomy at the University of Texas in Austin. It’s where she met my dad.”
“That’s right.”
I slumped back into my chair. “Why didn’t anyone tell me this?”
“It’s in the past, honey. They probably didn’t think you needed to know.” She put her wrinkled hand over mine. “It just goes to show you, sometimes life has a way of making other plans for you than what you thought was heading your way.”
“Does Robbie know?” Surely not. He would have told me if he knew.
“I don’t know, hon. Tongues were waggin’ when it happened. But then some fools went and elected Jefferson into the sheriff’s office, and your mama moved away so the excitement died down.”
“Wow.” I blew a breath out, emptying my lungs. “So what does all this mean for me?”
She patted my hand. “It means you’ll figure it all out, dear. Some would say your family was destined to clash with the Jordans. It’s written in the stars.”
“What do you say, Dotty?”
She stood and took my hands in hers. The top of her head barely reached my chin and her blue eyes peered up at me from under a roll of gray bangs. “I say follow your heart, honey. You’ll find your place soon enough.” Her arms folded me into a tender hug.
I took in a deep breath and let the scent of Rose’s milk lotion soothe my frazzled nerves.
“Now, how about we get started on the menu? Little Annabeth Humphrey said those biscuits you made were the best she’d ever tasted.” Dotty moved toward the counter and opened the drawer. “Why her mama even went all the way to St. Louis looking for a caterer. If you ever wanted to give it a go, why I think we’d be able to build quite the business together, right here in Swallow Springs.”
Robbie’s dad and my mom? I pictured them in high school, her wearing his letter jacket and him picking her up for dates in
the old battered truck Robbie used to talk about. Could it be true? Gram and Gramps had never been big fans of Sheriff Jordan, especially the way he treated Robbie and his mom. I wished my grandma was still alive. So many things I wanted to talk to her about, to ask her.
“All right, Miss Cassie, the kitchen is yours.” Dotty stepped back from the counter and tied a fresh apron around her waist.
If there was one thing that would be able to take my mind off of Robbie and secrets from the past, it was spending time in the kitchen. I washed my hands and dried them on an embroidered dish towel. Plenty of time to think about the past later. Better get started creating a happily ever after for Annabeth Humphrey, even if I didn’t know what my own might entail.
23
Robbie
The school bus bumped and lurched over the gravel road, making its way to the highway. Jake sat across the aisle from me, eyes closed. How could he sleep with his head slamming back against the hard seat? I slipped my earbuds in and fired up some tunes on my phone. Four hours in a school bus with twenty-two teenagers was not exactly my idea of a good time. But some of these kids had great potential and deserved the chance to play in front of the college reps that would be scouting out the tourney in St. Louis.
I closed my eyes in an attempt to drift away. Better catch up on some sleep. Spending so much time at Cassie’s place had rendered me sleep deprived.
Something slapped my arm, and I cracked an eye. Jake’s mouth moved, but no words registered. I yanked my earbuds out.
“Huh?”
“Can’t sleep. We shoulda followed behind in the truck,” he said.
“Yeah. But then who would take control of this crowd?”
Half of the boys clambered over the seats, pushing into each other and yelling back and forth. The other half had various electronic devices glued to their hands: phones, tablets, laptops.
Jake chuckled. “You got a point there. Hell, this is still better than bein’ at home for the next few days.”
“I thought you and Misty talked? Things seemed good at the lake.”
“Yeah. She’s pissed at me again though.” He rubbed a hand over his chin and shook his head. “She’s late.”
“Late for what?”
“Jesus, Rob. Her period.”
“Oh. Shit. You worried?”
“Uh, yeah.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of gum. “Fisher’s still a baby. Would be nice to have him out of diapers before we have another one, y’know?”
I nodded. But the truth was, I didn’t know. Sure, I’d hung out with the kids a bunch. But having to be responsible for another human being, especially one so small – that was foreign ground to me. I’d always assumed I’d have kids someday. When I pictured them in my head, the girls looked like Cassie. We used to joke about how many kids we’d have together. She’d always talked about having four. Two boys, two girls. That way they’d each have a built-in best friend. Thinking about that turned my thoughts to my brother. I closed my eyes and conjured up an image of Jeffy, forever immortalized as his fourteen-year-old self.
Jake slapped me out of the zone. “What are you thinking about?”
“I was just thinking about Jeffy. Your boys will be lucky to have another sibling. Two can be a really lonely number.”
He leaned toward the aisle. “You know that wasn’t your fault, right?”
I let out my breath in a long exhale. “He wouldn’t have tried to come get me if I hadn’t missed the bus.”
“Hell, you were eleven years old.”
“Ten.” I shook my head. “But still, I knew how important it was to be home on time that day. Dad was so pumped about the paper coming out to do that story. He’d threatened us with a whupping if we weren’t on our best behavior. Wanted to make sure we’d all be there so he could show the reporter a side of our family that didn’t exist… the happy-go-lucky, we’ve-got-each-other’s-backs side.”
Jake reached across the aisle, nudging my knee with his fist. “Your dad was a dick. If he’d answered his phone when you called, Jeff wouldn’t have tried to come get you.”
“Hell, if I’d kept my fists to myself I wouldn’t have missed the bus. Looking back on it, it was damn stupid to pick a fight with someone so much bigger than me.” Damn stupid but also necessary. Jeff’s best friend, Dustin, had been talking smack about Cassie. I knew he had a crush on her, and it was just his way of letting off some steam. But I couldn’t let his words go unanswered.
Dustin and I got into it and before I knew it the bus pulled out. I tried calling my dad but he didn’t pick up. So I called Jeffy. He’d stayed home sick that day and said he’d take the truck to come get me. Dad let us drive the gravel roads around the farm, but we weren’t allowed to be on the blacktop. Jeffy assured me no one would know. It wasn’t until an hour after we hung up that one of dad’s deputies came to get me. Turns out a semi hauling farm equipment sideswiped the truck Jeffy was driving. The reporter from Kansas City didn’t get his story and there was no family picture. Dad blamed me for Jeffy’s death, and I’d never been able to forgive myself.
“You hear from Dustin at all?” Jake asked.
“Nah. Not since he left town.” After Jeffy died we hardly spoke at all. He considered himself responsible, told me that much at the funeral. But it was my fault. All my fault that my parents had to bury their oldest son.
Jake shook his head. “You need to let it go, Rob. Start working on your future instead of dwelling on the past.”
He was right. And if I had anything to say about it, my future would involve Cassie and a herd of our own. I nodded as I gave him a fake punch to the biceps.
“Maybe you’ll have a little girl this time.”
Jake sighed. Money was tight for them. Between coaching and his full-time job as Swallow Springs’s junior city building inspector, he and Misty were barely making ends meet. Once Cassie paid me for the job on her grandparents’ house I could afford to hire him on for some extra work. Assuming Caroline didn’t convince her dad to blacklist me.
A Nerf football flew over my head and into the back of the bus driver.
I raised myself up in my seat and turned toward the back of the bus. “Hey, settle down, y’all!”
“Can you imagine? I’ve only got two right now. What if number three’s a boy, too? Huh? Misty’s gonna cut off my balls.” Jake shook his head. “Remember when your dad made us watch that vet from Rockville castrate those calves from his big ass bull? What was his name?”
“The vet or the bull?”
Jake whipped his hat off his head and smacked me with it. “The bull, asshole. God, he was a mean bastard.”
“My dad or the bull?”
Jake snorted. “Hell, both.”
“Hades. His name was Hades.”
“That’s right. Whatever happened to him?”
“Dunno. I think my dad finally got tired of taking care of him and sold him off. Why? You worried Misty’s gonna do the same to you, too?”
“She might.” Jake blew a big bubble, and let it pop.
“At least you gave up chewing. If she doesn’t castrate you, she’ll for sure send you packing if you take that up again.”
“True.” Jake spit his gum into an empty cup and stood up to toss it into the trash can at the front of the bus.
“So how are things going with Cassie?” he asked as he sat back down across from me.
“Good. Although I think she’s still planning on leaving.”
Jake cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “You doin’ okay with all that?”
A hot breeze flowed through the half-open windows of the bus. The smell of fresh mowed grass blew over me. “Not really. I just thought once I finally told her how I feel, maybe…” I looked out the window as fields of corn whizzed by. “Hell, why would Cassie want to be with someone like me when she can have everything she’s always wanted in Dallas?”
“A restaurant? You think that’s what she wants?”
I turned to face Jake.
“I don’t know. I think she wants something to call her own, somewhere she can make a name for herself. She and her dad moved every couple of years and she’s ready to stay put for a change. The project in Dallas can give that to her. The restaurant, the roots, the high-profile, the whole shebang.”
“Yeah, Swallow Springs is about as low-profile as you can get.”
I leaned over, settling my forearms on my knees. “Thing is, I can tell she still likes me. We’ve been so into each other since that night at the lake.”
“And Caroline’s completely out of the picture?”
“Yeah. We were done before we even got started.”
“Still can’t believe you’re kissin’ all that dough goodbye. You know her dad won’t keep sending jobs your way.”
“Yeah, we’ll see. I had to do it though. Caroline and I had some good times. But she’s not for me.”
“And Cassie’s the one for you?”
“I think so. See, it’s like Caroline is a vanilla cupcake. Everybody likes vanilla, right?”
Jake nodded.
“Vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. Sweet, satisfying. I mean, a guy could live his whole life on vanilla cupcakes and be perfectly content.”
“Mmm hmm. And I s’pose next you’ll tell me how Cassie’s like a chocolate cupcake, I get it.”
I shook my head. “No. Cassie, she’s like one of those giant ice cream sundae layer cakes her grandma used to make for the Fourth of July, remember? Layers of cake, strawberry ice cream, dark chocolate mousse, banana pudding, whipped cream. I watched her make it once. Took all morning. Hell, it even had coconut and some sort of toasted nuts in it. Maraschino cherries on top.”
Jake’s tongue ran over his lip, probably thinking about how that homemade buttercream frosting used to melt in his mouth.
“With Cassie you don’t just get vanilla, you get it all. Never gets old, and no matter which part you sink your teeth into, you know it’s going to be sweet and satisfying as hell.”
