by Stacey Keith
“Do you want me to talk to her?”
“No! If she sees you, that’s going to make it a thousand times worse.”
“Because I’m so hot, right?” Anna flipped down the visor mirror and preened. “I knew it.”
“I just don’t want her misunderstanding the situation here. You’re a new model who needed to up her visibility. And I messed up and told my personal assistant to get me a date for this charity event. I don’t need her thinking there’s more to it than that.”
Anna took a lipstick out of her tote and drew on fresh pink lips. She smacked them and then turned her face to the side so she could admire her profile in the mirror. “Yeah, but you should totally let me talk to her. I know what to say and it’s going to make everything okay again.”
He had a hard time imagining that, but humored her anyway. “Oh? What’s that?”
She gave a little shrug and then tucked her tote under the seat. “The truth, of course. I’m gay.”
* * * *
“Cassidy Dawn, have you lost your mind? Why on earth did you tell Lexie about Disney World?”
Cassidy glanced up guiltily at her mother and then pretended that setting the table for dinner required her full attention. Oh, boy, here they were—the words she’d been waiting for. After all, she’d come over expressly for the purpose of confessing to Priscilla what she’d done, even though explaining anything to her was, in Maggie’s words, “like trying to slice a lemon with a wood chipper.”
The wood chipper stood glaring at her from its place by the stove, soup spoon in hand. Priscilla had her hair in a stylish burgundy flip and wore a house dress covered in red peonies, along with matching red canvas espadrilles.
“I had to tell Lexie about Disney World,” Cassidy said, peeking into the other room to make sure Lexie couldn’t hear her. But Lexie was curled up next to her grandpa, watching TV.
“I still don’t see why it had to be now,” Priscilla complained. “Couldn’t you have waited until after your trip to Dallas? Now you’re committed to going to the damn thing and there’s no guessing… Well, I just think you should’ve kept your schedule open for a while longer, that’s all.”
“I didn’t have a choice. Believe me. Parker and Kayla would have—”
“Kayla. Jesus save me, but sometimes I wish that woman would just get hit by a bus.”
“Mom!”
Priscilla slid a spatula under the grilled cheese sandwiches with a vengeance, as if she could flip back time. “I don’t care what I said and I’m not taking it back, either. Kayla is a public nuisance. She couldn’t mind her own business if someone put a gun to her head.”
Lexie bounced into the kitchen. “Whatcha talking about?”
“Our God given right to shoot people,” Priscilla said. “Lexie, honey, go tell your grandpa that dinner will be ready in five minutes.”
“Can I use your phone?” Lexie said to Cassidy. “I want to text Amy. She’s never been to Disney World.”
Cassidy pulled the phone out of her back pocket. “Hurry.”
She watched her daughter dash away and then went to the rosewood china cabinet where Priscilla kept the soup tureens. As she bent down, she could feel her mother looking at her. In the Roby household, silence always meant that Priscilla was gearing up to ask questions. No matter how prepared you were to avoid answering, Priscilla would find the truth and then drive a stake through its heart.
“So,” Priscilla said. “You and Mason are getting pretty serious, aren’t you?”
Yes, they were, Cassidy thought, but she couldn’t talk about Mason. Not with so many feelings and worries to sift through. She set the blue-and-white soup tureen next to her mother and kept her lip zipped.
Priscilla piled sandwiches on a plate. “Mrs. Felps told Benita Sanchez who came in to get her hair done this morning that a man answering Mason’s description parked his car in front of your house last night. All night, in fact.”
Cassidy spun around, ready to catch Priscilla looking disapproving, but all she saw was her mother’s profile, serene and happy, along with her secret smile. Then Priscilla set down the soup spoon and turned to face her. “I think it’s wonderful.”
“What?”
“All that lovely passion and excitement.” Priscilla’s eyes went wistful. “And with a man like Mason, too. Why wouldn’t I want to see my baby girl happy?”
Of all the crazy things that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, this was the craziest. Moms weren’t supposed to go along with stuff like that. After Parker, Cassidy had just assumed there would be a big lecture. But it did make her feel pleased, if slightly uncomfortable, as though the rules had changed, only nobody had told her.
“Not to burst your bubble or anything,” Cassidy said, “but I don’t even know if I can afford to take the time off to go to Dallas.”
“Nonsense.” Priscilla poured the pot of tomato soup into her blue-and-white tureen and then carried it to the table. “Of course you can. We’ll take Lexie, and I’m sure one of your sisters can feed that horrible cat of yours. You know Darlene and Beth will cover for you at the restaurant. So what’s stopping you?”
Cassidy tucked her hair behind her ears. She sat down at the table. “I’m scared to death that I won’t fit in,” she said softly. “Mason is… well, Mason. He’s famous. He has all these friends who are famous. Everybody’s rich and has beautiful clothes. I don’t belong in his world.” She looked at her mother and at all the comfortable things that reminded her of family. The butter keeper that had belonged to her dad’s mom and had a smiling cow on the side, half-chipped away from years of use. The cat-face clock with its paws pointing the time. The scarred wood floor. With a pang of real homesickness, she thought, After I go to Dallas and see for myself what Mason’s world is like—the fame, the cars, the house—I probably won’t belong in this world anymore either.
She felt a little winded after admitting that, like she had been carrying the thought around for a while. She looked up and saw her mother’s face. Love and loyalty were there, but also a kind of tender pride that she recognized because she often felt it for Lexie.
“Come here, Precious.” Priscilla opened her arms.
Cassidy went into them and sighed, knowing she was always safe there. That no matter what happened, her mother would always love her.
“Don’t you get it?” her mother said. “If Mason wanted a showgirl, he’d date a showgirl. Mason wants someone who loves him not for who he is now, but who he is really. The Mason Hannigan you loved in high school before he became rich and famous. He’s looking for someone real, my darling, and you’re about as real as it gets.”
Her mother’s words made her feel warm, but there was still a tiny cold nugget in her gut that didn’t believe it. How could Mason love her for all the reasons she had such a hard time loving herself?
Priscilla released her in a cloud of her favorite designer knockoff perfume and then handed her the plate of sandwiches to put on the table. “Besides,” she said, “you won’t know if you like Dallas unless you go there. And if you end up having a good time on this trip, next time you can take Lexie and see how she feels about it.”
“I’ve got to survive this weekend first, remember?”
But Priscilla already had her head in the refrigerator and when she came out again it was with a pitcher of sweet tea and a look of steely determination. “Maxine’s is having a sale. We could go there after you pick Lexie up at school tomorrow and see if there’s anything worth wearing to Dallas.”
Lexie rushed into the kitchen and handed her the cell phone. “Mom! It’s Mr. Mason, and I was busy texting Amy so it’s, like, the third time he’s called.”
* * * *
The minute Cassidy swiped her finger across her cell phone screen and saw Mason’s face, she knew something was wrong. She could tell he was at a formal event because of all the
tuxes and evening gowns in the background. He seemed to be wearing a tux himself, which might have made her swoon except he looked so worried, which made her worried, too. She heard him exchange greetings with someone off screen, but then hurry away from them.
“Hey,” he said. “I’m at this charity dinner that I totally forgot I had to go to. Ruth, my PA, reminded me two hours ago.”
Cassidy went to her parents’ den and closed the door. No point having a conversation out in the open like that, not with everyone acting like they weren’t listening.
“It’s not raining there,” she said.
“Is it raining in Cuervo?” For the first time, he smiled a little, but it wasn’t a happy smile. “See? That’s exactly why you should be here with me. There’s a lake full of floating candles, too. All I could think about when I saw them was kissing you there. We could have gotten into a decent amount of trouble.”
She set aside one of her mom’s celebrity gossip mags and sank onto the blue chintz sofa. “So why do I think something’s wrong?”
Mason glanced behind him and then started walking again. “I can’t get any damned privacy. It’s making me crazy. Everybody wants to talk to me about football.” His dark eyes sought hers. She thought dizzily, How handsome he is. Half his face was bathed in the warm glow of a wall torch burning inside a stone archway. It made him look as though he were carved out of darkness and light.
“I’ve got to tell you something, and you aren’t going to like it,” he said. “It’s the kind of screw up most girls would never forgive a guy for.”
He looked so miserable, she almost felt sorry for him. She held her breath, waiting for it. Waiting for the thing that was coming. She’d always known there would be something.
“I’m crazy in love with you, Cassidy,” he blurted out. “I mean it. And even though I fucked this thing up and there are going to be a bunch of photos to prove it, I’m asking you to trust me. I know there hasn’t been enough time for me to prove to you that I’m worthy of that trust.”
I’m crazy in love with you. The phone went slack in her hand. He rattled on about a swimsuit model he’d been fixed up with. From any other man, it would have sounded like the flimsiest of excuses. But all at once, Cassidy knew. She knew.
She could trust him.
Every part of her knew that Mason was telling the truth, and she couldn’t help smiling.
“This is the downside to dating me,” he went on. “There are always going to be photos. And there will always be fan mags or websites or just some asshole with a camera jumping to the wrong conclusions about everything. It’s the part of fame no one prepares you for. They can’t. Because no one knows how much it’s going to suck until they’ve gotten a taste of it themselves.”
“Mason—”
“I can’t tell you how much it bothers me to think of you seeing this crap and assuming the worst.” He paced, taking the phone with him. “There’s nothing to worry about, Cass. I’m yours. I’m yours if you want me.”
She pressed one fist to her chest. She wanted to spin in wild circles until she fell backward, dizzy and laughing. The man she loved loved her back. And even though he’d said it before, she could feel it this time. There were a million things she wanted to say, but here she was tongue-tied again while Mason was in distress.
“Oh, there you are,” a woman said off screen.
Mason jerked his head up. “What the hell, Anna. I’m in the middle of a conversation—do you mind?”
Anna said, “We’d better step it up because they’re all asking about you and I’m tired of doing the heavy lifting.” A woman’s face appeared, and Cassidy’s mouth nearly fell open. She had no idea any human being could look so perfect. It was a friendly perfect, though, like someone you’d want to go hang out at the mall and eat nachos with.
“You’re Cassidy, right? I’m Anna. Did Loverboy here explain the situation?”
Loverboy? Oh, that was funny. “Well—”
“You’ve got nothing to worry about because I don’t bat for his team.”
Cassidy stuttered out a reply that got lost when Anna talked right over her.
“Even if I were straight, which I’m not, I wouldn’t go for Mason. Don’t get me wrong. He’s super nice. He cleans up well and drives a badass car, but he’s way too muscly.”
“I actually like his muscles.”
“Plus, he’s totally gone on you. So just say something to make the poor boy feel better so we can get back inside and finish this publicity freak show, okay?”
Cassidy saw the phone being handed off. Mason’s perplexed, concerned face appeared in the screen. She wanted to kiss it, but realized her lips would look weird, all squished up on the glass like that.
“Yes to Dallas,” she said giddily. “Yes to everything.”
Chapter Fourteen
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Darlene said to Cassidy as she lead-footed her Buick past road signs telling her to go fifteen miles per hour slower. “I can’t believe I’m driving Mason Hannigan’s girlfriend to the airport.”
Cassidy hugged herself in silent joy that felt a lot like nervous excitement that felt a lot like terror. “I keep thinking I shouldn’t be going, that I should be picking up Lex at school or working one of those shifts you covered.”
Darlene made a “get over it” gesture and navigated past a row of orange construction barrels. “Uh, hello? Friends here. Friends drive friends to airports.”
For the hundredth time, Cassidy checked to make sure her suitcase was there. She wasn’t used to going anywhere and there seemed to be a lot of things to keep track of. Thanks to her mom and Maxine’s half-price sale, she wore a pale blue sheath with a billowy see-thru overdress belted at the waist. Her sandals had a kitten heel. The only other heels Cassidy owned, she wore to church.
At first she’d gravitated toward the sophisticated couture dresses, but her mom put a stop to that. “Don’t try to swim with the big fish,” she’d said as though she could read her mind. “They’ve been swimming those waters a lot longer than you have, so don’t even try. The best thing to do is be yourself.”
Darlene punched it when they got to the freeway heading toward Victoria Regional Airport. Her rainbow and unicorn glitter stickers sparkled on the dash. Her favorite nineties band, Smashing Pumpkins, sounded from the tape deck. “So what’s the plan once you get to Dallas? Mason’s putting you in the wives and girlfriends box at the stadium, right? Because I hear you get catering up there.”
“I’m getting in early, so Mason’s sending a car to pick me up at the airport. I’ll meet him at their practice facility. After that, we’ll go to dinner. Sunday’s the game. Then I fly home.”
“Wow,” Darlene said like it was the coolest thing she’d ever heard. “Did you bring your phone? Can you take pictures of his house?”
“I’m not taking pictures,” Cassidy said. “I already feel like a hillbilly tourist.”
But her thoughts kept returning to things her mother had said while they were packing for her trip. You’re going to feel out of place. It’s normal. Not everyone is going to be nice to you. Try not to take what they say personally. Some folks are just mean, is all. But I raised you to be a lady no matter what, Cassidy Dawn, and that’s how I expect you to behave. The only way to hold your own against folks who are full of jealousy and spite is to never stoop to their level.
She shoved those thoughts aside. All that mattered was seeing Mason. Every inch of skin tingled at the prospect of being near him, of feeling the things only he could make her feel, of just smelling him. When he’d taken a quick shower at her house before going back to Dallas, she’d picked up his T-shirt and buried her face in it.
“Did Beth tell you that Parker Nolen came by Artie’s last night looking for you?” Darlene said.
Cassidy looked over at Darlene, hoping she hadn’t heard her right. “What?�
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“Beth said he swung by your house, too, but you and Lex weren’t there. Is the man’s phone broken? Why can’t he just call like a normal person?”
Last night they’d eaten at her parents’ house. A send-off dinner, her mom had called it. Maggie and April were there, too. So why was Parker trying to hunt her down? A premonition of fear crept over her.
You’re being silly, she told herself. He probably just wants to talk about the trip to Disney World now that Lexie called and said we’re going.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Cassidy said.
“You think? Because Beth said he looked pretty het up for a guy who was tracking you down over nothing.”
Cassidy tried hard to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Do you think he knows where I’m going this weekend? Why would he care? Parker didn’t even start coming around again until…”
“Until Mason showed up, right?” Darlene looked pleased with herself, like she’d figured out something important. “Men are such fetuses. Parker wanted you in high school because you were Mason’s. That’s why he wants you now. But the stakes are higher because Mason’s even more important. So of course Parker’s going nuts trying to get to you before it’s too late.”
Cassidy stared blindly through the windshield. It must be true, she thought. This wasn’t about her and Lexie at all. It was an old rivalry that had started smoldering again. And Darlene had been the one to see through it.
“I don’t know why you waste your time at Artie’s,” Cassidy said. “If anyone knew how smart you were, they’d give you your own talk show.”
Darlene bugged her eyes out at her. “And miss this? No freakin’ way. Besides, when you and Mason get married, I’m totally hitting y’all up for Super Bowl tickets.”
* * * *
Mason saw Cassidy from across the practice facility and all he could think was Baby, you’re here.
She looked so beautiful standing there, natural and unaffected in her gauzy blue dress. He had a sudden savage urge to know what that dress looked like on the floor, to have her warm and naked in his arms. But when he started toward her and she recognized him, the only thing he could see were her eyes, clear and shining as church windows, which made his heart thump even harder.