She slumped forward, as if the coat was flattening her. “This weighs a ton. How am I supposed to shoot hoops wearing this.”
“You’re not.” Matt flashed her a purposely diabolical grin. “The better for me to win, my dear.” When she’d shoved her arms through the sleeves, he stepped closer and began snapping up the front.
“I’m not five,” Cassie complained.
“I know.” Standing this close to her, he definitely knew. He brushed a section of her long hair out of the way, over her shoulder, and the aroma of whatever perfume or lotion she wore made its way to his brain, numbing all common sense. He moved a bit closer and kept snapping, and she let him.
“There. Now you’ll be warm.” He’d fastened all but the top snap, wanting her to be able to breathe, though he hardly could right now. It was just the two of them, alone in the dark foyer of the house. The dishes had been done, the boys had been tucked into bed, and even his parents and siblings had said goodnight and gone to their rooms. It was the most alone he and Cassie had been since the night they’d cleaned his apartment. That had turned into a pretty good night, and basketball promised to be even more fun. He supposed they should go outside and start their game.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Their eyes met, and for a brief second, he imagined that her yes didn’t refer to playing a game but was a response to the desire he’d been battling since he’d arrived at her apartment Wednesday morning. Yes. You may kiss me, Matt. If their circumstances ever changed, if they were ever in a position where kissing her wouldn’t be ten kinds of wrong, he intended to do it properly and ask her first, just as he’d asked to be her friend. He wasn’t being a very good one right now, standing so close, alone in the dark, her lips mere inches from his.
“Let’s go.” His voice was hoarse, and he cleared it as he reached past her for the doorknob.
“Don’t you need a jacket, too?”
Probably not. He felt about to burst into flames any second, but he grabbed a sweatshirt from the closet anyway.
Once outside, he led her around the garage to the pad on the side of the house. “The caveat here is that if you overshoot too much, you’re chasing the ball to the beach,” he warned. “Shoot carefully unless you like sand in your shoes.”
“Love it.” Cassie stood hunched over, legs spread, her hands out to receive the ball. “Ladies first, right?”
“Wrong.” Matt shot from the far corner of the pad, a full nineteen feet, nine inches. He knew because his dad had measured exactly before they’d poured the court years ago. He’d wanted his growing son to have a good place from which to practice three-pointers. The ball swished through the net, a feat made not only impressive by the distance, but by the fact that the garage light closest to the hoop was out.
“Why don’t we play pig,” he suggested, not wanting to show off or be too aggressive with her. “Or, if you’re worried you’ll lose too quickly, we can make it horse.”
“More like elephant.” Cassie collected the ball and crossed the cement to take his spot. She dribbled a couple of times and feigned shooting. “Just trying to remember how this is done.” With that, she released the ball. Its arc was nearly as perfect as Matt’s, and with just a little rim, sank into the net. “My turn to shoot, or do you want to play a real one-on-one?”
“Yeah. I want to play.” Matt grabbed the ball and dribbled near the hoop. Cassie was there in a second, hands held high as she bounced around in front of him, trying to block his throw. He ducked around and tossed it almost effortlessly into the basket. “Two for me. We play to eleven.”
“Two all.” She shot and scored after only one bounce and before he’d made it over to the side. “You’re gonna have to be faster, old man.”
Matt laughed. “All right. That’s it. No mercy for you.” He worried she just might outrun him on the court as she had on the soccer field.
“I don’t want mercy,” Cassie said. “I want to play.”
“You got it.” He was sure the hungry look in her eyes matched his own. He snatched the ball on the rebound and went immediately for a lay-up. She jumped and knocked it away at the last second.
“Did you just use your head? This isn’t soccer.” He claimed the ball again.
“It was interference only. Not on purpose.” Cassie rubbed the right side of her head, near her ear.
“Are you okay?” Matt stopped in front of her.
“I will be when I beat you.” She stole the ball right out of his hands and tossed it backward. It bounced off the backboard but managed to make it into the net anyway.
“Cheater.” Matt scored a lay-up and then another, using his size and strength to keep her away. She might be able to outrun him, but he still had some advantages.
Cassie shrugged out of the jacket and tossed it at him, just as he sank another basket.
“Hey!” He caught the jacket as she caught the ball and shot it, making two more points.
They forgot about playing only to eleven, and the next twenty or so minutes was a heart-pounding, perspiring, rule-breaking game of trying anything and everything to outmaneuver each other. At last, when Matt had scored three three-pointers in a row, Cassie raised her hand, waving it back and forth slowly.
“White flag. You win.” She leaned over, panting, her breath visible in the cold air. Matt tossed the ball through the hoop one more time, then came over to her.
“Good game.” He held out his hand, and she shook it. “You don’t play like a girl. I like that. Wish you’d been my sister instead of Megan.”
“Thanks.” Cassie straightened and started to pull away, but he didn’t let her.
“Thank you,” he said. “I wasn’t looking forward to coming home, to this weekend, but you’ve made it great.”
“You’re welcome.” She ceased trying to pull away from him. “Even though your family is a little nuts, this has been really fun for me, too. Noah is in heaven with all these kids. I wish he had some cousins on my side or that Devon’s sister didn’t live so far away.”
“I wish—” What he wished didn’t bear saying and would hurt her terribly. “Come on. Let’s go sit on the sea wall and cool off.” Reluctantly, he released her hand, then turned toward the beach. She stepped up beside him, and they walked through the backyard, out to the low wall separating the patio and narrow strip of grass from the beach. Matt sat down, and Cassie hopped up on the wall beside him. Ahead of them, the surf crashed onto the shore, soothing and exhilarating at the same time.
“I used to come out here a lot when I was growing up,” Matt said. “It was my place to calm down when one of my siblings upset me, my place to brood when our team lost or when the girl I asked to prom said no.”
“She didn’t.” Cassie turned to him, and in the moonlight, he could barely make out her appalled yet sympathetic expression.
“Did,” Matt confirmed, “but it was my fault really. She had a boyfriend already, and I hadn’t done my homework to find out. I just knew she was a pretty girl in my chem class, and I wanted to take her out.”
“What about you?” he asked. “Who took you to your senior prom?” He had no doubt she’d gone. Girls as kind and as pretty as Cassie always got asked, and he was sure she’d been both, even back then.
“Devon took me.” Her voice was wistful.
“You two knew each other in high school?” Somehow, for all the conversations they’d had, Matt hadn’t known this.
“Knew each other, went steady, were practically engaged when we graduated.”
“Wow. That’s some serious history.” Maybe he understood her devotion a little more. “Was he your first boyfriend?”
“He was my first and last everything.” Cassie’s feet kicked slowly against the stone wall. “We called each other just about every day the whole time I was away at school, and I came home every chance I could to see him. We got married as soon as I had my undergrad and Devon had graduated from the police academy. We were on our way to this
wonderful life, or so we believed.”
The catch in her voice was too much. Matt couldn’t not offer comfort. It would be wrong. Friends were supposed to be there for each other, a shoulder to cry or lean on, and he and Cassie were friends, weren’t they? Without examining his motives any further, Matt scooted closer to her on the wall. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. After a slight hesitation, she came, leaning into him.
“I’d tell you I’m sorry about all you’ve had to go through, about the life you wanted and haven’t been able to have, but that’s lame and inadequate.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” she said. So he didn’t, just continued to hold her close to his side, his arm around her doing as much or more for his solace as it possibly was for her. The air was cool and heavy, the fog that would engulf them come morning already making its way to shore. Matt could barely make out the surf rolling and receding on the beach, its sound contributing to this perfect moment with Cassie.
“You know,” she said after a few minutes, breaking their silence, which had become almost magical. “I’m kind of jealous of you.”
“Why?” He turned his head and leaned forward to better see her expression. “Other than my amazing free throw abilities, that is.”
She laughed. “That is something. You’re good. I can see why you earned all those trophies.”
“You were good, too,” Matt said. “Was basketball your sport?” Several times now Cassie had mentioned being on teams and competing, but she’d never said what, exactly, those teams had been.
“Nope. Not basketball. Not soccer.”
“If I guess, will you tell me?” His arm was getting tired, so Matt let it slide from hers, bracing it on the wall near her hip.
“Sure. But you’d probably sooner guess Rumpelstiltskin’s name.”
“I love a good challenge, and the gauntlet has been thrown.”
Cassie gasped. “How did—” She pressed her lips together, but Matt had already realized she’d given him a clue.
“Ah ha.” He gazed at her speculatively. “Really?”
She looked away and didn’t say anything.
“It would certainly explain you being fast on your feet all the time.”
“Motherhood explains that,” she said flippantly, but he saw through her attempt at appearing nonchalant.
“Were you, by chance, a member of a fencing team?”
She sighed. “I made that way too easy for you.”
“You did,” Matt agreed, chuckling. “I don’t think I ever would have guessed, except for your faux pas. So how did you get into that sport? I didn’t even know people still did things like that.”
“Most people don’t, but my dad was a fencer, and since I was his only child, it fell to me to carry on the tradition.”
“Is Noah going to carry on this same tradition?” Matt realized there may have been more to the choice of the Three Musketeer costumes than he’d thought.
“Only if he wants to,” Cassie said. “Once you get over the nerdiness of it, fencing is pretty fun.”
“And killer good training for a lot of other sports. too,” Matt guessed. “No wonder you run circles around me. Remind me never to duel with you.”
“All right.” She let out an overly dramatic sigh. “Guess I’ll just have to get over being jealous instead of getting out my rapier.”
He tucked away the part about being jealous, the second time she’d used that word, to be addressed in a minute. For now he was still stuck on the sword fighting. Instead of thinking it was nerdy, he was fascinated. “You have a rapier— a real one?”
“A few,” she said. “Most were my dad’s. They’re at my mom’s house.”
“Knowing this, I am not sure how you were able to give the boys those horrible, floppy foam swords on Halloween. I mean, come on.”
She winced. “I know. But they’re too little for real swords yet.”
The yet excited him. “Promise me you’ll let Austin and Asher in on the fun when you start teaching Noah?”
“If they want to, and you approve.” She looked at him sideways, and Matt realized again how close they were, sitting side-by-side, his arm around her, but more than the physical closeness, it was their friendship warming him. He still wanted to kiss her. He still thought she was gorgeous and tempting, and he wished they could take their relationship to the next level, but what they had right now, the way they’d been there for each other the past few months was nothing short of awesome and inspiring and miraculous. Cassie was his best friend, in a way Jenna hadn’t been for a long time the past years of their marriage. He had only himself to blame for that, and he did— he forever would— but being someone else’s friend, being there for Cassie, to make her life and Noah’s a little better, was somehow cathartic. Maybe this was his chance to do better, without any other motive or reward than having her as a friend also.
“Why are you jealous of me?” He pulled his gaze from her lips out to the dark sea.
“A dozen reasons,” she admitted. “Both of your parents are alive. You have siblings, so your children have cousins. You have two children. I’d love for Noah to have a brother.”
“So my mid-thirties athletic physique has nothing to do with it?”
She tapped a finger to her lips. “Nope.”
“Man.” He hunched forward, pretending hurt. “In that case, the best I can offer is to share my nutty family. They’re all yours whenever you want them. Now that my mom is fairly certain you don’t really tattoo people for a living, I think you’ll be welcome to stay anytime.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to come again.” She sounded sad. “I shouldn’t be away from Devon.”
“I know, but I’m glad you came this time.”
“Me, too. It’s going to be a memory Noah never forgets.”
“What about you?” Matt nudged her shoulder.
“I’ll always remember this weekend, too,” Cassie said. “Especially tonight.”
Matt’s parents' shop resembled their house, as far as the signage went at least. “Kramer’s Crabbing and Fishing” hung over the entrance to the humble little building near the pier, and tacked along the wall inside were a dozen other signs and slogans. Cassie wondered if any had ever driven a potential customer away.
We’d love to see you naked, but state code requires shirt and shoes and Prices subject to change according to customer’s attitude seemed like they might be a bit of a turn off for some people. I can only please one person. Today is not your day. And tomorrow isn’t looking good either, didn’t exactly seem friendly, but the young man wearing overalls and working behind the counter had a ready smile and cheerful greeting for them.
“Good to see you again, Matt. Taking a boat out today?”
“We’re going with my dad,” he said. “Cassie’s never been crabbing before.”
Cassie’s never been on a boat in the ocean before. She’d worry about the crabs later. For now she was just hoping not to be seasick.
“Cassie, this is Cole, Dad’s right-hand man,” Matt said. “Cole, this is my friend Cassie, a tattoo artist from California.”
“Really?” Cole’s eyes lit up. “Savage. I’ve been wanting to get something on my other arm. Something feng shui to balance with this one. Maybe you have some suggestions?” He pushed up the sleeve over his left arm, revealing sculpted biceps and a tattoo of a compass.
Cassie shot Matt a you-are-so-dead look as she scrambled for fake tattoo advice. “Well— have you ever considered getting… a treasure chest, like one that might belong to a pirate? I wouldn’t put a skull or crossbones anywhere on it, though. Too common and stereotypical.”
“Yeah?” Cole nodded as if absorbing some sage wisdom.
“The thing about a treasure chest,” Cassie continued, “is that it could have a lot of different meanings. I’d have the lid slightly open but without revealing what might be within. That way no one really knows for sure unless you tell them. Your ‘treasure’ could be any nu
mber of things. The compass”— she pointed to the bulging circle on his arm— “is what you use to find your treasure.”
“I like it.” Cole slapped his hand on the counter. “I may have to take a trip to California to have you do it personally.”
“That could be painful.” Matt winked at Cassie when Cole wasn’t looking.
“Tell you what,” Cassie said, ignoring the wink. “Why don’t I do one on Matt first, and you can check it out the next time he’s home. If you like what you see, we can talk then.”
“That’s lit. You’re on.”
“And we have to be off,” Matt said, rescuing Cassie from further tattoo talk. “Just sign this waiver, and we’re good to go.” He reached behind the counter and pulled the top form off a stack.
“What rights am I waiving away here?” Cassie took the pen Cole offered.
“Oh, you know, just the basics.” Matt leaned against the counter.
“You won’t sue us if you drown and that sort of thing,” Cole added.
Cassie rolled her eyes. “It would seem that I can’t sue you if I’ve drowned already.”
“Yeah. Probably not,” Cole agreed.
“But in case you’re prone to haunting people from the grave, we have you sign anyway.” Matt’s casual attitude and grin were less than reassuring. She loved the beach and the ocean, but that was when she was firmly on shore. Going out onto it was entirely different.
“Just you two and your dad going out?” Cole asked.
“And the boys and you, of course.” Matt flexed his arm and shook his head. “These middle-aged muscles may need help pulling in those pots. Or at least keeping our kids from going overboard. That reminds me. Cassie, you’ll need to sign a waiver for Noah as well.” Matt handed her a second form. This one she had a harder time putting her signature on. It was foolish enough to endanger herself, but to put Noah in harm’s way as well…
“I was just teasing. No one’s going overboard. Everything’s going to be fine.” Matt placed his hand over hers on the counter, and their eyes met briefly. She knew hers were filled with apprehension, but Matt’s reflected confidence.
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