“I’ll walk you out,” Tameka answered. She turned to the man and smiled. “Take your time looking around, and let me know if you have any questions.”
Once they exited the house, Cassie stopped on the sidewalk and pinched her nose and lips at Tameka. “Don’t sell my house to him. He’s creepy.”
“What do you care? Creepy money still spends.”
“Have you gotten any other interested parties?”
“Half a dozen of them, Cassie. I can almost guarantee you there will be at least a couple of offers resulting from today. By the way, I had James take down the Christmas lights and store them in the garage.”
Cassie glanced at the palm tree and noticed that the flamingos were gone, as well.
“Where are Mutt and Jeff?”
“Who?”
“The pink flamingos.”
“Oh, they’re stowed in the garage, too.”
“You don’t think they gave the place personality?”
“The kind of personality you avoid at parties,” Tameka cracked. “You hate those things anyway.”
Cassie knew she was stealing the argument from Zan, but she mumbled, “They’re kitschy.”
“Mm-hmm. Go dance the tango, and call me afterward so we can decide which offer you’re going to take.”
Cassie’s heart fluttered a little, and she nodded and waved as she inched her way down the driveway.
“Oh, Cassie, by the way,” Tameka called after her, “remember that young girl with the tattoo and the nose thingy down at the pizza place?”
“Vanessa?”
“I’m not sure. I ran into her over there yesterday, and I guess she remembered me having lunch with you in there. Anyway, she asked me to tell you that she’s staying in Holiday for the summer. She said you’d know what that meant.”
Cassie grinned and nodded. “Thanks, Tameka. Talk to you later.”
Cassie recalled her conversation with Vanessa as she made her way up the street toward her car and swung her shoes by the laces. She was so pleased that something she’d said had encouraged Vanessa to follow her father’s advice and stick around for the summer.
“So? What’s the feeling like inside?” Debra asked her. The shift in subject took her right back downward. “Any takers?”
“We’ll see.”
Her spirits were dampened considerably toward dancing as well, but Cassie trailed behind Millicent and Debra as they walked in the door. The lesson was already in third gear, but Richard beamed when he saw them, and he immediately made his excuses to Maureen and headed straight for Debra, grabbing her by the hand.
“Baila conmigo, hermosa chica?” he asked with a gallant swagger.
“Mi placer, señor. Gracias.”
And the two of them moved right into a tango, straight across the center of the floor. When they reeled around and headed back, Richard called to Cassie, “She’s a fantastic dancer. Are you sure she’s your daughter?”
Debra giggled, and they spun around and headed off again.
Millicent tugged on Cassie’s arm. “Get your shoes on so we can dance!”
Cassie worked her way around the edge of the dance floor and sat down on one of the metal chairs along the wall. As she kicked off her sandal and stepped in to her other shoe, a sudden and overwhelming urge came upon her. Despite the fact that it was neither the time nor the place for some sort of religious experience, Cassie’s heart was consumed with the need…to pray.
I know it’s been a long time, Lord, she thought, looking around in a clumsy attempt to hide the fact that she was thinking straight up to God. A really long time. And I’m sorry about that. But…please…I really need You right now. The sadness that’s coming over me about giving up the house in Holiday—I just don’t understand it. What’s going on with me?
Cassie clutched her shirt just over her heart and winced. Then she tossed the shoe she was holding to the floor and bowed her head.
I remember a time when I used to talk everything over with You, from what I was making for dinner to the pain in my right foot when I’d run. And I would feel You speaking to my heart. Remember that? Can You just take me back there, Lord? Just for a moment? Please talk to me the way You used to. Tell me how to rid myself of this awful pain in my heart at the idea of—
Richard plopped down in the chair beside her, completely unaware that he was interrupting a very private moment. “I thought Millicent deserved a decent partner for a couple of steps,” he teased. Cassie looked up and caught a glimpse of Millicent and Debra tangoing their way across the room. “It’s only fair.”
Cassie tried to smile, but it didn’t quite make it up and over her face.
“What’s going on?” he asked her with a tenderness in his voice that gave her a pinch.
“I just came from the open house,” she told him earnestly. “Tameka says there will be more than one offer.”
“That’s…good. Right?”
“Yes. It is.”
Richard knelt in front of her and tightened the lace on her shoe. “Then what’s that face about?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It was the strangest thing.”
“You don’t want to leave.” He said it with such confidence that Cassie didn’t know how to reply. She just sat there for a moment, her mouth forming a lazy little O. “Am I right?”
“Kind of.”
“So don’t.”
“It’s just that I put so much work into making the house what I would like to live in. And now I have to hand it over to someone who is never going to appreciate it the way I do.”
“So stay.”
“There was this one woman with a bum knee, and another one that let her son scrape up the kitchen floors with his tow truck…”
“So keep the house, Cassie.”
“And I just walked out of there feeling so…so…”
“Cassie,” he stated. She jerked her attention toward him. “Keep the house.”
“I can’t do that, Richard.”
“Why not?”
“I have to go home. I have a home there…and friends. And I have to work.”
“You’ll come to work for me,” he said, and then he stood up and smiled at her. “I’ll need someone to help me run the golf course.”
She jumped to her feet and waited. “You… Did you… Is it a…”
“Done deal. I sign the paperwork this afternoon.”
“The golf course is yours?”
“You’ll never believe who helped push the deal through.”
“Who?” she exclaimed.
“Stella Nesbitt. It turns out she’s very close friends with Barney Lipton, the gentleman at the bank handling the foreclosure sale.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope. He called and asked me over to his office this morning.”
“Oh, Richard,” she said. Cassie slipped her arms around his neck. “I couldn’t be happier for you.”
“Then come to work for me.”
“Richard.”
“Cassie,” he mimicked. Then he turned serious. “Don’t leave.”
She folded in half and sat on the edge of the aluminum chair. “Do you have any idea how tempting that is?”
“Good!”
“But I can’t just pick up my whole life and move down here for someone I barely know.” Cassie’s heart was pounding so hard that it made her ears ache.
Richard sat down in the chair next to her and touched her hand. “I’m not proposing marriage to you,” he said softly. “I’m proposing that we take the time to see what this means, and we can’t do that if you sell your Holiday house and go hibernate in Boston.”
She looked up at him, her eyes misted with emotion as she clutched the seat on either side of her.
“I know you feel it, too, Cassie. I know you do.”
Finally, she nodded. “I do feel it, Richard.”
“Then don’t walk away before we find out what it means.”
Cassie rocked on the chair, still clutchin
g the seat, her eyes closed for a long moment. And then she opened her eyes and one lone tear escaped and cascaded down her cheek.
Richard wiped it away with two fingers; then he lifted her chin with them and smiled at her.
“I can’t stay here on the hope that something will develop with a person I hardly know, Richard.”
“No, you can’t,” he said. “But I’m not asking you to stay here for me, Cassie. Stay in Holiday for you.”
Cassie bit her lip and stared into Richard’s eyes. It had been a very long time since she’d done much of anything just for herself.
Stay in Holiday, just for me? she considered. Leave Boston behind for tropical weather, pink flamingos, and the chance to run a golf course instead of a law firm?
Cassie couldn’t think of anything more absurd.
Epilogue
14 ACROSS: One who accompanies; helpmate
Richard clutched Cassie’s hand in his, and he lifted it to his lips and planted a kiss on the center knuckle.
“You look so beautiful,” he told her. Cassie beamed back at him. “Any regrets?”
“None. I’m really happy that I’m here,” she admitted. “I’m not sure when I fell in love with Holiday and the people in it, but it happened.”
“So you’re in love with the people of Holiday,” he said, mulling over the words. “Any Holiday-ite in particular that you love?”
Cassie chuckled and squeezed his hand. “All right, Richard, I love you. Okay? Are you happy now? I admit it. I love you.”
“I am happy now,” he confirmed.
“It doesn’t change anything, though,” she warned him. “Just because I love you, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to be giving up anything for you. It’s much too soon for that. I want to make sure you get that.”
“Oh, I get it,” he conceded. “You are an independent woman, with your own life.”
“That’s not to say I won’t share that life with you, Richard, but I’m not going to hand it over to you completely. You get that, right?”
“Yes, Cassie. I get that.”
“I mean, just because I love you…that doesn’t necessarily point to a full surrender of my independence quite yet. Or maybe ever. You understand what I mean, don’t you?”
“I do, Cassie.”
“Not yet, Richard,” Pastor Sullivan interjected. “Be patient. That comes later.”
Richard and Cassie shared a smile and stepped up to the flowerdraped altar before them.
“We are gathered here today, before God and the good people of Holiday, Florida, to join two of their own, this man and this woman, in the holy state of matrimony,” he told the three dozen or so people in the pews behind them.
Cassie smoothed the slate blue taffeta skirt with her palm and then turned around and handed her bouquet to Rachel.
“If anyone here has good reason to object to a union between Richard and Cassandra, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”
Richard’s hand jerked up toward Cassie’s face, and he placed one finger over her lips.
“Not a word, my love. Not one single word.”
25th Anniversary Cassie Puzzle
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Love Finds You in Holiday, Florida Page 24