“When it comes to carpentry, I’m all thumbs,” he confessed.
“Happy to help,” Grant said. Andy had told him on the phone that his wife had had a stroke. She’d been in a nearby nursing home, recovering, but would be returning to their house soon. Walking was a distant possibility, so for the time being she’d be in a wheelchair.
“I don’t know how many more years we have together, but we’re going to make the most of what we have left,” Andy told him. “This ramp will make it easier.” He pulled his wallet from his pants back pocket and showed Grant a picture of them as a couple. It looked fairly recent. His wife wasn’t aging as well as he was.
“Nice picture,” Grant said diplomatically.
Andy smiled, glanced at it one more time before shutting his wallet and putting it back. “She’s a great gal. She was a looker, too, let me tell you. Still is.”
Love was blind.
“She was my prof back in college,” Andy continued. “Had a crush on her even then. Of course, it took another ten years of me growing up before she’d even look at me. She kept telling me I was too young. And at twenty I was. But hey, by the time you’re thirty, things have a way of evening out and a ten-year difference isn’t that big a deal.”
Except now it was.
“I finally won her over,” Andy continued. His smile fell away. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll have her, but I’ll be grateful for whatever time we get.”
Those words ricocheted through Grant’s mind as he worked, dogged him all the way back to his lonely room at Gerhardt’s. The last few months flashed before him. Flirting with Cass, dancing with her at her birthday party, eating cake on her back deck, that trip to Seattle. Then came the memory of their last serious conversation at the street dance.
He needed a beer.
He swung by Safeway to pick up a six-pack of Hale’s. Once inside he decided to get some chicken from the deli, as well.
Muriel Sterling-Wittman was standing at the nearby gourmet cheese display. Awkward. He’d pretty much tried to avoid her after their nondate, nodding at her from a distance at parties or community events. Maybe he didn’t want chicken after all.
Too late. She’d seen him. She smiled and said, “Hello, Grant. How’ve you been?”
“Busy.” Yes, much too busy to call you again.
“I’m glad things are going so well for you here. You’ve certainly filled a need. And it looks like you’re getting plugged in, getting to know people.”
He sensed the conversation heading for shaky ground and was about to tell her it was good seeing her and escape.
Before he could, she said, “I couldn’t help noticing that you and Cass seem to be hitting it off.”
Crap. Was she jealous? She hadn’t seemed the type but you never knew. “We’ve become friends,” he said cautiously.
“I saw you together at the street dance. You make a lovely couple.”
Okay, not jealous. Nosy.
“We’re just friends.”
“Always the best way to start.”
“We’re not really starting anything.”
Muriel cocked an eyebrow.
Oh, no. Not the cocked-eyebrow thing. Lou had been good at that, too. It invariably left Grant feeling foolish and fumbling for a defense, like a lawyer who suddenly had no idea how to win his case.
“There’s nothing going on,” he insisted.
She looked disappointed. “Oh.”
“There shouldn’t be.”
Now she looked puzzled. “Why is that?”
Muriel Sterling was a busybody. He frowned.
Maybe he should have cocked his eyebrow, too, because she wasn’t intimidated. “I know it’s none of my business,” she said.
He wanted to say, “That’s right—it’s not. So butt out.” But Muriel had this air of sweetness about her that made it challenging to be stern. She was a cross between Mother Teresa and Dr. Phil. How did a man stand up to that combination? Anyway, his mother had raised him to be polite to ladies.
“Muriel,” he began, hoping the rest of the words he needed to gently put her in her place would magically materialize.
She laid a hand on his arm. “I know it can be difficult to start over.”
“It’s not that,” he said. Good Lord. Didn’t the woman have eyes? Couldn’t she see the problem?
“Then what?” she asked, genuinely perplexed. “You two seem to enjoy each other, and Cass is a lovely woman.”
Lovely. Yes, lovely couple, lovely woman, lovely life. Did Muriel know any other word? Did Muriel know anything, period?
“She deserves a man who can go the distance,” Grant said bluntly. “There’s a huge age difference between us, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
She shrugged. “I noticed. I’m sure she’s aware of that, too. Perhaps it’s not a concern for her.”
“It should be.”
“Maybe,” Muriel said. “I have to admit it’s hard being the one left alone.”
Ha! There. I rest my case.
“But I wouldn’t trade the time I had with either of my husbands for anything. Love is a treasure. Why not grab it and hold on to it for as long as you can?”
“It would be selfish.”
Muriel shook her head at him. “Maybe you should let Cass have a say instead of deciding for her.” She gave his arm a pat. “It’s just a suggestion, Grant. You’re a good man. You deserve to be happy. I think your wife would want you to be happy.” Now she smiled a beatific smile. “And I suspect you could make Cass very happy. Think about it.” She gave him a final pat, dropped a wedge of Brie cheese in her shopping basket and strolled off, leaving him feeling like a character in the old Lone Ranger TV series he’d watched as a kid. Who was that masked man?
That was Muriel Sterling-Wittman, the Lone Ranger in drag.
He got his chicken and his beer and went back to his stinkin’ room and ate his stinkin’ chicken and glared at the stinkin’ TV. What was he doing, anyway? Being all noble and for what? Cass wasn’t bothered by their age difference. His family wasn’t bothered by their age difference. Her family...well, her ex had opened the door to the trophy-wife store. Now he even had townspeople telling him to go for it. So maybe he needed to do just that.
* * *
Stef and Amber had gone blackberry picking, then talked Cass into making blackberry scones. They were in her living room with Petey, sampling the treats, when Cass’s doorbell rang.
She answered it and her mind stalled. Okay, she was seeing things. This had to be a sugar-induced hallucination. “Grant?”
“Are you busy?”
“Uh, no. Come on in. Stef and Petey are over, and we’re all eating scones.”
“Oh.” He looked uncertain. “I can come back.”
He was here. And she wasn’t letting him slip away. “No, come on. We’ve got plenty.”
He followed her into the room and Stef glanced up in surprise. “Oh, Grant. Are you doing some more work for Cass?”
“No, I just stopped in to say hi.”
Just stopped in to say hi. Grant Masters had never just stopped in to say hi.
“Mr. Masters,” Amber greeted him. “It’s about time you came to see my mom.”
Stef caught on quickly. “Well, you know what, I need to...do something. Come on, Petey. We need to go home.”
“But I want another scone,” he protested.
She grabbed one. “We’ll take one with us. Nice to see you, Grant,” she said and towed her son away.
Amber followed suit, but not before she gave Grant a hug and told him it was good to see him.
Cass suddenly felt as twitchy as a girl on her first date. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’m visiting you. Why don’t you put on some musi
c and let’s dance?”
“That’s a switch,” she joked, but she put her phone in her wireless speaker and brought up her playlist. Sting began to croon “When We Dance.” “You know this song, right, old man?” she teased.
“I’ve heard of it.”
Okay, enough joking around. “Seriously, what are you doing here, Grant?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks like you’re leading me on.”
“Well, I’m not.” He drew her closer.
Okay, this was good. But he’d been so adamant about their age difference. “I’m a little mystified. In fact, I’m a lot mystified. We’re still the same age we were when you ran away from me at the street dance. Nothing’s changed.”
“Something’s changed. Me.”
She liked the sound of that. She slipped her arms around his neck. “Yeah? Tell me more.”
“I’m better at showing than telling,” he said and kissed her. Every nerve ending in her body felt the jolt. Thrills and chills, folks.
And there was more where that came from. Plenty.
He stayed the whole evening. They sent out for pizza and talked. Talked about their marriages, their kids, their hobbies, their pasts and their present.
Grant told her about the couple he’d worked for. “I guess talking with Andy was a tipping point. Well, that and a talk with Muriel.”
“Muriel!”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how that woman gets away with being such a busybody.”
“Me neither. I think I’ll send her flowers,” Cass added with a grin.
“Listen, though, if you change your mind at any time...”
“Not on your life,” she said and pushed him down on the couch.
“Would your wife approve of me?” she finally asked. Why was she even bringing that up? Did she want to jinx this? She waited for his answer, holding her breath, wishing she could take back her dumb question.
“Yeah, I think she would. If she was still alive, you two would be friends.”
“I hope she’s happy up in heaven to see you moving on.”
“I hope she’s got better things to do up there than spy on me,” he said and ended the conversation, replacing it with more physical communication.
It was late when Amber came back in and they were still on the couch, wrapped together.
“Don’t mind me,” she said as they sprang apart. She went upstairs, calling, “I’ll put clean sheets on the bed,” making her poor old mom blush furiously.
“You have to work in the morning,” he said. “I need to let you get some sleep.”
Sleep? She was too happy to sleep.
But she did, and her dreams sent her back to that toy store she’d visited earlier in the summer. This time she was with Grant. The giant Ken dolls all pouted and the inflatable man told her, “You sure know how to deflate a guy’s ego.” But this time there was also a good crowd of Barbie dolls, and they all applauded her.
“Way to work it,” said one. “You two are going to be very happy.”
Yes, they were. She woke up with a smile on her face.
One evening at the end of August they were relaxing on her couch, with him giving her a foot rub as the credits rolled on one of her favorite movies, Murphy’s Romance, when he said, “I’m tired of staying at Gerhardt’s. I think it’s time I started looking for a house.”
“I know a place you can stay while you look,” Cass said with a coy smile.
“Yeah?”
“It’s in good shape, has a new roof and a deck.”
“Sounds perfect,” he said, and by the next day he was moved in.
* * *
The days skipped happily along, and summer turned to fall. The leaves burned orange and red, and the weather cooled. But Cass’s love life stayed white-hot.
She’d come home from work, take a nap, then get up and get creative in the kitchen. And Grant was there to appreciate every morsel. On Sunday afternoons they’d go hiking.
They even hiked Lost Bride Trail once. Cass had hoped to see the famous ghost of the lost bride, who’d mysteriously disappeared during the town’s gold-rush years. Seeing the ghost flitting behind the falls was supposed to be a sure sign of an impending marriage proposal.
She never saw the bride, but oh, well. She was happy with what she and Grant had. Every day was filled with love and companionship. Even Lady Gray had taken to the new man, often preferring his lap to Cass’s. The traitor. But Cass didn’t blame her. She was rather fond of sitting on his lap herself.
“I’m surprised you had time for this,” Charley teased when the girls gathered for their chick-flick night. “Now that you’re with Grant, we hardly ever see you.”
“At least not without him,” Cecily added. “But that’s a good thing. You two are perfect together.”
“Dan says he hasn’t seen his dad this happy in years,” Charley said as she filled her bowl with popcorn.
“I haven’t been this happy in years,” Cass said. Being with Grant felt so right. “Sometimes I think I’ve been waiting my whole life for this man.”
“Now he needs to make an honest woman out of you and propose,” Charley said.
“Oh, I don’t know.”
“Just because you didn’t see the bride,” Samantha said.
“I don’t blame her for hiding. I’m not a good candidate. I didn’t do marriage well.”
“You didn’t do marriage with the right man,” Charley told her. “Trust me, it’s better the second time around.”
Still, she wasn’t going to push it. She and Grant were fine the way they were.
But maybe he wasn’t so happy. She tried to hide her surprise when they gathered at Zelda’s bar with all their friends for the restaurant’s annual Halloween party and he announced, “I’m thinking I might want to get a place.”
Black-and-orange crepe paper streamers hung everywhere, carved pumpkins sat on the bar, and patrons dressed as everything from pirates to princesses sat around chatting and laughing and enjoying crazy Halloween specialty drinks, waiting for the band to set up.
The festive atmosphere turned to a blurred background as Cass stared at him in shock. “You want to move out?”
He shrugged. “I thought I might build something. I found a lot on the river.”
“I saw it,” Dan confirmed. “Great place.”
It was all Cass could do not to glare at him and say, “Traitor.”
“Sounds good,” said Samantha.
Cass was still stuck on the idea of him moving out. This was the first she’d heard of it. If he’d wanted her to move out with him, surely he’d have said something. Now, instead, here he was, making a public announcement. They’d get back to her place and he’d drop the bomb. Sorry, Cass. It’s been fun but I don’t see it lasting. Or whatever his cowardly excuse would be.
She barely saw the drink when Rita Reyes, Charley’s pal and best cocktail waitress, set it in front of her. This had all been too good to last. She should have known.
Grant turned to her. “What do you think? Would you be open to starting over in a mountain cabin?”
“Together? With you?”
“Did you have somebody else in mind?”
Relief flooded her. “Oh, my gosh, I thought...”
He looked at her, obviously confused.
“She thought that you were dumping her,” Samantha guessed.
He shook his head at Cass. “Really?”
“What can I say?” The old self-confidence still needed some boosting.
“You crazy woman.”
“That’s me.” Crazy about you.
“So how about it? I know you love your house.”
She grinned and slipped her arms around his
neck. “I love you more.”
“Look in your drink,” urged Charley.
There was something glinting in all that orangey froth and it wasn’t ice. Cass fished out a ring.
“My daughter-in-law thinks we should be setting a better example for the children,” Grant said.
“And the grandkid,” Dan added, placing an arm around his very pregnant wife.
Cass stared at the ring. The diamond was huge. “Best Cracker Jack ring I’ve ever seen,” she said, trying not to blubber.
He took it from her and slid it on her finger. “You can’t have the ring unless you take me, too. I hope you can keep up with me.”
Half laughing, half crying, she said, “I’ll sure try,” and kissed him as their friends hooted and applauded.
Dan stood up on his chair. “My dad just got engaged. Drinks are on the house.”
“Thanks, bigmouth,” Charley said, but she was smiling.
Cass turned to Grant. “When you first talked about getting a place, I thought you wanted to move out.”
“No, just to move on. I think it’s time, for both of us. Don’t you?”
“Absolutely. You know what this means, don’t you?”
“That I have to put up with your ex at Christmas?”
“That, too.”
“Okay, what else?”
“We have to take another hike up Lost Bride Trail.”
He chuckled. “Fine by me. But we’re getting married whether or not you see the bride.”
She could live with that.
Epilogue
Griffin came back to Icicle Falls for the holidays, sporting an engagement ring. It wasn’t the world’s biggest diamond, but to her it was priceless. Matt was happily working in a high-end restaurant and she was beginning to get some work herself. She was glad she’d gotten up the courage to leave her comfort zone and start over.
And what fun to be in town for a bridal shower, this time for Cass.
Stef was pregnant and experiencing what she referred to as all-day sickness, but she’d still begged for the privilege of hosting. Now her new great room was packed with Cass’s family and friends. Dani had left her Spokane bakery in the care of her most trusted employee and come over early to help Bailey with the food, and the refreshment table was laden with appetizers and all manner of baked treats.
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