Cassidy leaned her bike against the living room wall and marched into the kitchen, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You’re drinking coffee?” She wore the same expression a detective might wear during an interrogation.
Surprisingly, Lulu didn’t cower. “I was tired, so Levi offered to make some coffee.” Good to see that she was at least sober enough to come up with a solid cover story. “But then I took a sip and remembered why I hate it.”
“I’m not very good at making it,” he admitted. She’d probably be better off going out in the backyard and filling her mug with dirt and water. But it seemed to be serving its purpose.
Cassidy leaned a hip against the countertop, crossing her arms while she glared at them both.
He knew he should say something, but damn that spandex…
“Oh, and he brought the most wonderful news too.” Lulu prompted him with a nod.
Right. The news. The job. He tried to banish thoughts of peeling those shorts off Cassidy’s body with his teeth. So many games they could play with spandex…
Cass looked at him expectantly.
Damn, she made it hard for him to think. “Jessa wants to hire your mom to work at the shelter.”
“What?” The word came out breathless, but it was impossible to tell if that was good or bad.
“We were at dinner tonight, and Jessa was talking about how much she needed help at the shelter,” he explained, still trying to gauge her reaction. “I suggested Lulu, and Jess thought it was a great idea.” That might’ve been a stretch, but it would all work out great and everyone would be glad he’d butted in.
Cassidy turned her attention to her mother. “You want to work at the shelter?”
“It seems like a good place to start.”
He had to give the woman credit. She may have been afraid of starting a new job, but she spoke with more confidence than he’d heard in her voice since he was a kid.
“Jessa said you two could stop by sometime this weekend to discuss the details,” he added, drawing her attention back to him.
“Sounds like the perfect plan to me. We can go on Saturday morning.” Lulu pushed out the chair next to her. “Now why don’t you sit down, sweetie? I wouldn’t recommend the coffee, but there’s iced tea in the fridge.”
“Actually, I need to take a shower. I was out longer than I planned, and I need to get cleaned up.” She headed for the small hallway that led to the bedrooms. “That’s great about the job though,” she said awkwardly on her way past him. “Thanks for thinking of her.” Without a goodbye, she disappeared.
Damn. Levi kneaded his forehead. She’d perfected her disappearing act whenever he got within ten feet of her. He’d gladly follow her down that hall, but Jessa had warned him about coming on too strong. “I guess that’s my cue to leave.”
Lulu stood. “You should stay. You still have all that wonderful food Naomi sent. You could warm it up in the oven for the two of you.” She hurried to the kitchen counter and dug her phone out of her purse. “I’ll get in touch with Darla and see if she’d like to go shopping. A few of the boutiques are open until nine, and I’ll need some new clothes for my job.”
Levi tried not to look shocked, but he hadn’t seen Lulu wear anything except for sweatpants since he’d been back. “You want to go shopping? With Darla?”
“Out of all of Cass’s friends, she comes over to visit the most.” She tapped her fingers on her phone. “I’ll send her a text. That woman has quite the sense of style. I’m sure she’d be happy to walk around with me and give me some advice.” She finished typing and gave him a mischievous look. “Then you can surprise Cass with a nice, quiet dinner. Alone.”
Surprise her or send her running for the hills? He had no idea what Cass would do when she saw him in her kitchen, but he couldn’t wait to find out.
Chapter Eleven
Cassidy took her sweet time showering and getting dressed. As a general rule, she could be ready for anything in twenty minutes. Working and going to school full time hadn’t given her the luxury of fussing over her appearance, but in the last half hour, she’d done everything she could think of to drag out the process, even exfoliating and using some special lotion Jessa had given her for Christmas last year.
When she was sure enough time had passed for Levi to take the hint and leave, she threw on a T-shirt along with a pair of yoga pants and paused by her bedroom door, holding her breath and straining her ears.
No murmur of voices, which meant the coast should be clear.
Her twelve-mile mountain-bike ride had been exactly what she’d needed to clear her head and refocus on her future plans. Riding was the only time she felt free—moving weightlessly forward with nothing dragging her down. But when she’d cruised into the driveway and seen Levi’s truck parked in front of her house, all the peacefulness she’d felt on her bike had fallen away, leaving room for the tension to crawl back in.
Levi affected her. He charmed her and teased her and touched her in a way that made her want him. And that drove her crazy. She didn’t need competing desires right now. She had a singular focus—get her mother healthy so both of them could actually have a life.
Sure, she appreciated that he’d found Lulu a job, but she didn’t need him showing up all the time. Especially when he insisted on wearing those rugged, form-fitting jeans. The man had quite a lot to show off. Seriously. She hadn’t thought about sex this much since their book club had read Fifty Shades of Grey.
And there she went again.
Cursing Renegade Jeans Co., she charged out of her room, ready to have a long talk with her mother about going back to work. That’s what she needed to think about—not how Levi’s jeans accentuated certain parts of his body.
“Let’s get takeout and cel—” The words drowned in a gasp as she came around the corner and got a full view of the kitchen. Her mother wasn’t sitting at the table where she’d left her. In fact, she didn’t seem to be around. Levi, though, was standing at the counter tossing a green salad. And the table was set. Two plates, silverware, glasses. Lit candles flickered between them.
She blinked, wondering if she’d stepped into some alternate universe. Or maybe she’d had some sort of fall in the bathroom and hit her head…
“Hungry?” He carted the salad over to the table as casually as if this was something they did every evening. “I kept the lasagna in the oven. Didn’t want it to get cold.” He hurried back to the oven.
“Lasagna?” She smelled it now—that delicious garlicky scent of meat and melted cheese. Hunger rolled through her stomach, ending in a grumble that he hopefully didn’t hear. “Where’s my mother?” She stood her ground in the living room. Lulu was supposed to be sitting at the kitchen table so they could discuss the new job. Levi was supposed to be long gone…
“She texted Darla and asked her to go shopping.” Levi slipped on two oven mitts and slid a casserole dish out of the oven, bending over just enough to display that perfect ass of his.
Damn jeans. “Shopping?” She really had stepped into an alternate universe. Her mother hadn’t been shopping in years.
“Yeah. She wanted to look for some new clothes to wear to work.” He set the steaming dish on a hot pad next to the salad. “Naomi sent me home with all this food so I figured we could have dinner together.”
She opened her mouth to tell him she didn’t want dinner, but her gaze shifted to that rich casserole, still bubbling and sizzling. She loved Naomi’s lasagna, and the woman knew it. “Did she know you were coming over here?” Cassidy asked in a clipped tone. This little dinner had conspiracy written all over it. First, Naomi—and likely Jessa—packing up food for him to bring along and then her mom calling Darla out of the blue to go shopping.
“Does it matter?” He worked his lips into that sly, sexy grin. “I’m here. It’s dinnertime. And we have all this amazing food. What’s wrong with sharing it?”
“Nothing.” At least there shouldn’t have been anything wrong with it. She’d shared a meal
with plenty of men. Even men she didn’t particularly like. Maybe that was the problem. After years of completely disregarding Levi as a selfish, conceited jackass, maybe she was starting to like him a little too much.
The thought trapped her where she stood. He would know it. If she spent any time alone with him, he would see it. Then they’d end up right where they had the other night—in the backseat of his truck halfway to making love. Except now they had a bedroom accessible. And a couch…and a kitchen table…
“You okay?” Levi approached her. “You look a little warm.” His eyes seemed to see past her calm facade. “Aren’t you hungry?”
Starving. Nerves fluttered up and down her chest, softening her knees in that amorous way. God, she was in trouble. “I’m definitely hungry,” she mumbled, slipping past him.
Before she could sit, he stood behind her. “Good. I am too.” He pulled out her chair, and she settled into it, glancing once again at the lasagna. Inhaling the garlicky scent, she forced her heart into submission. She’d make this quick—wolf down her lasagna and salad, thank Levi for dinner, and send him on his way. No big deal. She’d spent all her high school years pretending she didn’t have a crush on him; she could easily continue the charade.
“So why didn’t you eat with your family?” she asked when he sat across from her.
“I wanted to tell you and your mom the good news about the job.” He unwrapped his silverware from the cloth napkin and set it on his lap.
Where the hell had he found the cloth napkins anyway? She hadn’t used them in years. As she unwrapped her silverware, a memory struck her. Christmas morning her junior year. Levi had spent the night and joined them for breakfast. While they’d eaten her mother’s traditional egg casserole and blueberry pancakes, he and Cash had turned these same cloth napkins into lassos, trying to snatch the bottle of syrup from the middle of the table…
“Besides, it’s nice to eat with someone other than my family once in a while.” He served her a generous piece of lasagna and a helping of salad. “Sometimes I feel like a third wheel when I hang out with the newlyweds.”
She could relate to that. At least Darla was still single though. “What about your dad? Don’t you two stick together?”
“Haven’t you heard? Dad and Evie eloped. We think they’re coming back soon, but I have no idea when.”
If her mouth hadn’t been full, her jaw would’ve dropped. “Seriously?” She almost laughed. Luis Cortez had gotten hitched? “You didn’t know they were planning to get married?”
“Had no idea.” Levi’s head tilted as he stared at her across the table. “He just went for it. Knew what he wanted and made it happen. I find that very inspirational.”
The deliberate hint in his tone dropped her gaze back to her food. She took a few bites to derail that line of conversation. “So…um…how’s Naomi feeling?” She simply had to control the topics of discussion. As long as she stuck to the safe ones, like his family, she could sail right through this.
“She seems fine,” he said as though he saw right through her tactic. But he must’ve decided to let it go. “I made the mistake of asking if she was having twins…”
“Twins?” Cassidy couldn’t help but crack a smile. “You asked a nearly full-term pregnant woman if she was having twins?”
“I know, I know.” He shook his head. “I already got the lecture. Trust me.”
She could picture Jessa jumping all over him. Smiling bigger, she ate more, letting the sauce and cheese and pasta all melt together in her mouth. Wow. Naomi must have a magic spatula. “I wish I could cook like this.” All she had time to make was grilled cheese.
“It’s my mom’s recipe,” Levi said, his eyes downcast, focused on the food.
“Your mom’s?” She studied him. He never mentioned his mom. After she’d left their family, it was like she’d ceased to exist in his world. Cassidy had always wondered if he ever tried to contact her. Every time she brought it up when they were in high school, his face would get all dark and angry, and he’d tell her he didn’t care about his mom. “She used to make lasagna?”
“When we were little.” He stirred the salad on his plate with a fork. “She left most of her stuff behind. There was a book with some recipes. Naomi and Jessa have perfected them.” There was no hint of his charming grin now. His jaw had clenched with tension. He took another bite, but Cassidy couldn’t. She couldn’t look away from him.
After his mom had left, Levi changed overnight. All the Cortez brothers had, but for him, it seemed to be more of a dangerous turn. He’d stopped caring about school, took more risks, drank a lot, and experimented with drugs. Then he’d started that fire at the rodeo grounds one night after discovering his father was having an affair with the rodeo commissioner’s wife.
Lucas had taken the blame and had gone off to prison for three years. That had seemed to turn Levi around. Not long after Lucas was arrested, Levi started hanging around her family’s house more. He’d never talked about any of the issues with his family, and she’d almost forgotten he’d been through all that pain. He’d hid it well.
“Did you ever hear from her?” She’d always wondered. With all of Levi’s notoriety, surely his mother had followed his career.
“Nah.” He shoved his plate away, though he hadn’t finished eating. “I looked. We all looked, but she must’ve changed her name or something.”
It was a rare thing to see his expression so still, so subdued. Levi almost always grinned, always had that glimmer of humor in his eyes, but not now. Instead of the flirtatious glances he usually gave her, a look of pain haunted his eyes.
She’d rarely caught a glimpse of him so unguarded. Almost vulnerable. Sympathy spilled through her. For all of Lulu’s problems, she’d never abandoned her kids. She’d never rejected them. That was a wound Cassidy couldn’t even begin to fathom. “It must be awful not to know. Where she went or what happened to her.” Though it had nearly broken her when Cash died, she couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to have someone missing from your life and not know where she was or if she was even still alive. There’d be no closure…
“It’s hard.” Levi’s jaw tightened. That devastated expression struck her. Ever since Levi had come back to Topaz Falls, she’d looked at him like the same cocky high school kid who’d always found a way to lighten the mood with a joke. But now she could see that boy was long gone. Levi was a man. A man with much deeper feelings than she’d realized.
He raised his gaze to hers. “I’ve never been good at dealing with hard.”
It was maybe the first time ever he’d let her see something besides overflowing confidence in himself.
“Most of us aren’t good at dealing with hard.” Her voice lost power.
“You seem pretty good at it. You don’t run away from it. Not like I have.”
She couldn’t hold his gaze. It was too intense, said too much. “I guess I didn’t have a choice. Mom needed me. She still needs me.” There’d been times when she’d been tempted to run away from it—from the constant pressure of work and school and worrying about the woman she loved most in the world. But in the end, she’d always forced herself to remember how often Lulu had taken care of her. How often she’d come to her rescue. How often her mother had sacrificed her own happiness and needs and dreams to give her a good life. Lulu had taught her that you make sacrifices for the people you love. Levi hadn’t learned that. His mother had taught him to run.
“People needed me too,” Levi said hoarsely. “You needed me.”
Emotion charged the air between them. For the first time, she saw something deeper in him. An unrelenting desire to undo the past. “It’s fine,” she murmured, fisting her napkin in her hand. “We managed. And you did really good for yourself, Levi.” She was desperate to let him off the hook. Maybe then he’d leave her alone.
“It’s not fine. I was selfish. And immature. And stupid.” He groaned with frustration. “After we lost Cash, I could’ve stepped up. I could’ve bee
n there for you.”
“Stop.” She reached for his hand across the table, squeezing it lightly. “It’s okay. I forgive you. You don’t have to do this. Show up at my door with food and make me dinner. Find my mom a job. I don’t expect you to do penance.”
The sudden longing in his eyes dried up her throat. She quickly pulled back her hand and reached for the glass in front of her, lifting it to her lips for the first time. A familiar but forgotten sweetness flooded her mouth. She sipped again, savoring the taste, smiling at the memories it brought. “You made me a Shirley Temple.”
Levi’s hard frown relaxed. “It was always your favorite.”
She peered into the glass, marveling at the thick reddish color. “But…where’d you get the syrup?” It wasn’t like she kept grenadine in the refrigerator.
“I made it.” Levi lifted his own glass and sipped, wincing slightly as he swallowed.
“You made it?” She laughed. She couldn’t help it. The man really was trying to do penance.
“I had plenty of time,” he said with a pointed raise of his eyebrows, as though he knew exactly why she’d taken so long getting ready. “Found a recipe online. Is it any good? Is it supposed to be that sweet?”
She took another sip, drinking in the flavor of her early teens. “It’s amazing.” Even better than she remembered.
“Glad you like it.” Without taking another drink, he stacked their plates. “But if you think that’s amazing, wait until you taste dessert.” Just like that, the flirtatious Levi with the million-dollar smile was back.
That was fine with her because that other version was getting harder to resist. “I like dessert. What did Naomi make?”
“Nothing. I made it while you were taking a shower.” His eyes lingered on her as though he liked the thought of her in the shower.
“Oh.” That long, heated look was enough to make her hand fumble with her napkin as she tried to lay it on the table. She stood, her legs as unstable as her resolve to keep him from reaching her heart. “I’ll go ahead and do the dishes.” She stood, desperate for something to keep her busy…
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