Her father was talking to one of the guys on site, nodding and looking at some notes with a frown on his face.
“Dad?” Cassie called him over. He looked up, his grumpy expression gone when he caught her eye. “Is this supposed to be like this?”
She was pointing to an opening in a wall that could have been a window except it was facing an interior wall. Her dad’s face clouded over and he turned back to the man. He started shouting and waving his hands.
Cassie felt a slight twinge of pity for the guy getting chewed out. She hadn’t meant to get him in trouble, but she was used to being on sites with her dad, and he’d taught her how things should look towards the end.
“Sorry about that,” he said, coming over to give her shoulders a squeeze. “I thought Jimmy could handle this one on his own so I could have a break, but it looks like he couldn’t.”
“Are you going back to work?” Cassie asked as they made their way to the car. The secret reason she was excited to tag along with him was because he always took her to get ice cream after a site visit, ever since she was little. She knew now these visits had started as a way to keep her occupied during school breaks, and the ice cream was her reward for behaving herself. But it was so much a part of their ritual, she didn’t want to break it to him an eighteen-year-old cheerleader wasn’t quite as excited about ice cream as an eight-year-old in pigtails.
“No, I have a bit more vacation time to use.” He wasn’t quite looking her in the eyes when he said it.
“Why are you taking so much time off this year?” Cassie didn’t mean for it to sound accusatory, but it had been bugging her the more she thought about it. He’d never taken more than a few days here and there, maybe a week max for the Fourth of July. It had been almost a month now.
Her dad looked at her, right in the eyes this time.
“It’s my last summer with my little girl at home,” he said, a sad smile on his face. Cassie’s heart melted a little. “I saved up a lot of days over the years. Might as well use them all now before summer internships in the Big Apple lure you away.”
Others may have had the urge to roll her eyes at his corniness, but Cassie beamed at him as they got in the car.
“So,” her dad said as he started the engine. “Were you able to help the Hanes boy?”
She looked at him, but his eyes were on the road. He didn’t turn to look at her.
How much did he really want to know?
“I think so,” she said, tugging on the end of her ponytail. “I drove him to the doctor.”
“Anything serious?”
She shook her head.
“Dislocated shoulder.”
Her dad grunted a little.
“He’s going to Columbia.”
He raised his eyebrows, eyes still on the road.
“I said since you and Mom are alumni, we could answer some questions for him.”
“You can answer them Cass.” His voice was low and hard. “I have nothing to do with this. This is your mess to clean up.”
The bright feeling from just a few minutes earlier disappeared in a puff of dark smoke. Even though she’d always intended to be the one to talk to Logan about Columbia, there had been a tiny hope that her dad would maybe be able to answer some questions, too.
“That’s what I meant, I would answer them,” she said quietly, and turned to look out the window, her stomach in knots. “Like you said, make sure he’s happy, right?”
Her dad said nothing. An icy silence washed over the car that hung over them until they got to the ice cream parlor. As much as she’d been looking forward to it, the ice cream wasn’t quite the treat she’d been expecting.
Back at home, Cassie’s dad disappeared into his office, telling her not to disturb him for the rest of the afternoon. Cassie set herself up in the living room with a face mask and Real Housewives. But she couldn’t concentrate on the show.
Her thoughts drifted to Logan, and she worried that things wouldn’t work out the way her dad wanted. Logan hadn’t replied to her last message from two days ago. Had it been too flirty? Had the winking emoji been too much? She never normally hesitated about stuff like that, but she didn’t really know him. Was he the kind of guy who liked a girl joking around? He probably preferred a more serious girl.
Not that she cared what kind of girl he liked.
But she needed to know a little bit about him for this whole thing to work. She went through what she did know. He was a waiter at Chez Pierre. He rode a bike—an old one but well maintained. He was staying with his aunt and uncle this summer.
None of this was going to help her plans for the summer. What else?
She knew he liked to do things for himself. He’d made that as clear as possible. It seemed like in this case she’d have to let him take the lead and he’d tell her how she could help him.
But she always let others take the lead and tell her what to do. For once in her life, she wanted to be the one to decide how things went.
Her phone buzzed and she looked down to see yet another text from Spencer. She rolled her eyes and didn’t bother answering. Spencer was more than happy to tell Cassie what he wanted, as often as possible and in increasingly annoying ways. Cassie used the excuse of dinner with her dad to avoid seeing him last night, but she knew she couldn’t avoid Spencer forever. That was part of why she was so eager to see Logan again so the ‘get Spencer to break up with her’ plan could finally get started.
After all, this was all about the plan, and had nothing to do with Logan’s damn dimple that she couldn’t stop thinking about. The small smile he’d given her had lit up his face, and made Brittney’s online swooning a little more understandable.
Her phone buzzed again and she let out a curse as she peeled off her face mask. It was impossible to relax at home. Instead of spending any more energy thinking about how irritating Spencer was or how distracting Logan’s dimple was, Cassie decided to fall back into her default time-wasting pick-me-up activity, treasured by entitled teens since the beginning of time.
She would go shopping.
Starting with one of the local art galleries was a strategic decision. There was no way Spencer would be there or even in the neighborhood. He wasn’t into art at all; he didn’t even pretend to enjoy it like his dad did. The Huntington houses were covered in all sorts of rare finds that Cassie always wanted to ask about, but she didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of his parents. She didn’t know much, just what she liked and didn’t like.
No one knew, not even Marissa, but Cassie was hoping to major in art history. Her parents wanted her to major in business, or law, or something ‘useful.’ But she had seen firsthand that a degree like that didn’t really matter. At all of the charity events she attended with her mom, no one seemed to have taken a straight path to their success. Some hadn’t even gone to college! Sometimes she felt like the only reason she was going to college at all was because it would make her parents proud.
So she might as well study something she liked while she was there, right? Her mind flitted briefly to Logan, wondering what he would major in, but she stopped herself. She was at the gallery to distract her from all of that.
“Cassie!”
A huge smile spread across her face when she saw who had called out. Distraction had arrived in an even better form than browsing one of her favorite spaces. Marissa was walking into the gallery.
“Marissa! You made it back!”
Her best friend let out a squeal as she maneuvered around sculpture display cases to hug her. The gallery owner gave them the evil eye, so Cassie hurried her back outside. The warm sun lifted Cassie’s mood even more. The two girls linked arms and headed to the coffee shop down the street. It was just like so many other summer days they’d had over the years. Heaviness spread through Cassie’s chest when she realized there were actually very few of these days left for the two of them.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“I wanted to surprise y
ou. I blew off work for the rest of the week.”
“Can you do that?” Cassie had never had a part-time job—had never needed one.
Marissa shrugged.
“I told them I was sick. And I am! I feel wretched for leaving you alone the other day. Were you super bored?”
Cassie didn’t let her smile slip as her stomach gave a lurch.
“No, it was fine.”
“What did you end up doing? Have you been hanging out with Spencer?”
Cassie nodded but didn’t elaborate. They’d arrived at the coffee shop and there was no line, so they ordered right away.
As they were waiting for their drinks, Marissa launched into the story of why her mom had made such a big deal about coming home right away for some relative’s birthday party. Cassie’s phone buzzed, and she rolled her eyes as she pulled it out, expecting another text from Spencer begging her to come over. At least now she could invite Marissa along and she wouldn’t have to be alone with him.
But it was Logan.
Hey can I ask you a question about the food in New York?
A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She had still been worried about coming on too strong the other day. He probably just wasn’t used to girls flirting with him—not that she had been, of course. Just being friendly.
That depends. Did you get your prescription filled?
An eye rolling emoji was her only response.
“Is that Spencer? Do you need to go?” Marissa pouted a little and Cassie realized her smile had gotten bigger. She quickly pursed her lips and slipped her phone back into her bag.
“No, not Spencer.”
Marissa’s eyes grew wide.
“Is it someone else?”
Cassie couldn’t help but smile again, a brilliant idea flashing through her mind. She’d been trying to figure out a way for Spencer to find out that she was hanging out with Logan, and here was Marissa, the one person who wouldn’t hesitate to jump on an opening in their relationship.
“It’s just Logan Hanes,” she said, her tone coming out the perfect mix of excited but trying to sound casual. She was impressed with herself at how easily she was able to pretend.
Marissa wrinkled her nose.
“Why are you hanging out with him?” she asked as she grabbed her glass full of iced coffee.
Cassie frowned and took her iced tea. In order for her interest to seem genuine, Logan had to sound interesting. But so far she didn’t even know anything interesting about him, besides that distracting dimple.
“He’s going to Columbia. It’s an incoming freshman thing.”
“Oh.” Marissa frowned. “So you decided, then? Definitely Columbia?”
Cassie’s heart sank, realizing what she’d just done. This wasn’t how she’d planned on telling Marissa. And had Cassie officially decided? Her dad hadn’t even pushed earlier in the car when she’d mentioned Columbia, the way he usually did whenever the topic was mentioned. But to Marissa, what else could this mean?
“I…don’t know yet. But just in case, this is part of the requirements.” That sounded lame even to her ears, but Marissa didn’t seem to notice. She was looking at Cassie with wide eyes and downturned lips.
“I just really hoped to be at Missoula with you in the fall.” Marissa stuck out her lower lip and shifted in her seat. Cassie busied herself with her tea, slowly stirring two packets of sugar into it. It was never sweet enough for her. “I thought we had it all worked out? We’d share an off campus apartment and pledge a sorority in the spring. It’ll be like high school but better.”
Cassie finally looked up.
“Better than high school? Is that even possible?” She raised an eyebrow and Marissa let out a giggle. “It was pretty crazy fun, right?”
Marissa nodded.
Cassie took a deep breath.
“I guess I just want something different maybe than four more years of that.”
There, she’d said it. Marissa was her best friend. If she couldn’t say it to her, who could she say it to?
But Marissa was staring open-mouthed at her with her brow wrinkled.
“I don’t understand. You don’t want four more years of having fun? Of being popular? Of dating the hottest guy in school?”
Cassie opened her mouth, not even sure what she could say to that, when her phone buzzed again and saved her. Glancing away from Marissa’s flabbergasted face, she swiped it open eagerly, thinking it may be Logan again. But it was Spencer this time, wondering what her plans were for the day. The desire to shake things up flitted away, as if it had never really been there to begin with.
“Speaking of hot guys, should we finish up and go hang out with Spencer? Make high school last a little longer?” Cassie held back a laugh at how bright and bubbly Marissa got at the mention of Spencer’s name.
As they left the coffee shop, Cassie let out a sigh, however, as she mentally prepared for yet another afternoon and evening like so many others before. Everyone else seemed to want life to go on the way it was. Why couldn’t she be satisfied with the same thing? She knew it was a good life. She wished she could just be happy about it like everyone else.
Chapter Ten
It was Logan’s second night back at the restaurant and things weren’t going very well. He’d been slow the previous night, but luckily so had the restaurant. He’d been able to get by on half speed, taking his time delivering orders and getting the others to help him out a bit. It had cost him a share of his tips, but it was worth it to keep his job.
Tonight, however, it looked like he might lose his job after all if he didn’t pick up the pace. There was no way that he’d be able to perform as well as he usually did. His shoulder still hurt and he didn’t want to take too much of the medication the doctor had given him. He’d already taken a lot during the day to get through his cleaning routines. This was his third summer working for the same company, so they knew him and were willing to go easy on him for a few days, but this was also peak season. If he couldn’t keep up, that would be a second job he couldn’t afford to lose.
Maybe he should have taken up Hideki on his offer to work at the boat house, he thought as he looked at the growing line of people in front of the greeter’s stand waiting to be seated. But he couldn’t just sit around all day behind a counter, checking boats in and out. He had to move. It felt wrong to just sit around. It was yet one more reason he knew New York would be right for him. The city that never sleeps. The energy was palpable even in photographs and lit a fire in him just thinking about it.
Besides, the more experience he got as a waiter, the better, since that’s probably what he’d end up doing while he was there. It was all totally manageable: classes during the day, then working nights and weekends. He was getting so excited about leaving he could hardly sleep at night.
Which was also not helping his performance at work. His manager, Tony, caught him staring off into space and made a jerking motion with his head. Logan’s stomach sank and with a quick glance at his tables—how had he gotten two more already?—he slinked into the kitchen behind Tony.
The kitchen was noisy, hot and busy, filled to the brim with people and smells. It was overpowering and stimulated all five senses at once.
Logan loved it.
He did not love how Tony was glaring at him.
“What is going on tonight?” Tony crossed his arms over his chest. “Is your arm still bothering you?”
“A bit,” Logan admitted, trying not to reach up to touch it. He was supposed to be wearing his sling but there was no way he could do that here. He just kept it close to his body and tried not to bump into anyone or anything.
“Well how long is it going to be that way? We’re getting into the busy season. I need all hands on deck.”
“I know, it’ll be fine in a few days, I promise.” Logan knew it would be more like a few weeks, but he’d always been a fast healer. His mom wouldn’t have even known about half the things he’d done with Hideki if his aunt hadn’t filled h
er in. The bruises and scars had always faded by the time he’d returned home at the end of summer.
“Well, it better be,” Tony said with a cold stare, and then waved him away.
Tail between his legs, Logan turned to head back out, grabbing a plate from the counter as he went, trying to be as useful as possible.
So, of course, he ran straight into someone else in his rush to leave the kitchen.
The clatter of plates and yells drew the stares of all the patrons in the vicinity. Looking around, Logan saw that three of the curious stares were Cassie, Spencer, and a curly haired girl Logan thought was named either Melissa or Marissa.
And they were sitting in his section.
Perfect. Like this night could get any worse.
After apologizing profusely to his coworker, who was covered in sauce and glaring at him, Logan hurried over to Cassie’s table.
She was looking very hard at her menu. Her long hair was swept up in a complicated knot on her head with a few strands falling out to frame her face. Logan took a deep breath and tried to ignore the temptation to brush one behind her ear. He barely knew her. She hadn’t even replied to his request for information on New York; she’d just bugged him again about his shoulder stuff. She obviously saw him as some charity case, which was fine with him. He didn’t need this alumni match thing anyway. He spent enough time with annoying rich people at this job; he didn’t need to spend any more time with her.
Then she looked up he found himself lost in the intense green forest of her eyes.
“Hi,” he drawled slowly, his face splitting into a grin. He’d completely forgotten whatever he was about to say. Cassie looked down quickly, her face cool and blank.
Logan cleared his throat, looking at Marissa instead. “Welcome to Chez Pierre. I’m Logan, I’ll be taking care of you tonight.” Marissa’s eyes widened slightly, and a small smile appeared on her face. “Can I start you all off with some drinks?”
“Yeah, I’ll have a margarita, please,” said Spencer. Logan let out a short laugh, but Spencer’s face was stony.
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