by Becky Harmon
“That was an adventure.” Rory nodded toward the boys.
“Good kids, but I don’t think they know anything about paddling a canoe.” She laughed.
“Well, you tried.” Pete shrugged. “We could hear you up here.”
She watched the boys as she only half listened to the guy’s conversation. They were good kids. Darby especially was very polite and courteous. Derek and the oldest brother, she still couldn’t remember his name but she was sure it was another D name, were typical teenagers. On Monday she had tried to tell them about the bike trails and show them a map, but they weren’t interested in listening to her. She was glad to see that their dad had gone with them the first day, and she hoped that on succeeding days he made them at least take a radio. The woods around the lake were made for exploring and were fairly safe, but you could never anticipate an accident.
“…And it’s all because of some hottie…” Dillon’s words registered as he drove an elbow into her side. “She’s probably dreaming about her now.”
“What?” Cassie elbowed him back.
“I was just telling the guys about your new kids.”
“Sounds like you guys will have a very eventful summer,” Pete said.
Cassie sighed. “Eventful is fine. It’s traumatic that I want to avoid.”
The guys laughed.
“Are you worried?” Pete asked.
“Well, yeah.” Cassie frowned. “Worried and scared.”
“We’re going to have a blast,” Dillon insisted.
His confidence pushed the anxiety that was starting to build in her aside. Two weeks to prepare seemed like forever and no time at all.
“So tell us about the woman. What’s her name?” Rory leaned toward her over his bicycle handlebars.
“Her name is Kathleen, and she works at the agency that takes care of the kids. She was very nice and not at all what I like in a woman, so you guys can stop the third degree.”
Rory held up his hands. “A bit defensive, aren’t we?”
“I think there’s too much protesting,” Pete joined in.
“What’s not to like?” Dillon chimed in. “You said she was hot.”
“Really, guys. She would not survive a day on the farm. She’s a city girl. Nice to look at. Okay, well, very nice to look at, but probably not a keeper. Plus,” she held up a hand to keep them from interrupting her, “she lives in the city and I don’t have any plans on driving there again in the near future.”
Clearly she wasn’t the only one not convinced by her statement; the guys were laughing when she walked away from the picnic table. Zoey and Pandy, dripping wet, joined her when she crossed the driveway. Happily, they both laid down in the sun when she went inside so she brought them a bone to chew on.
Wandering through the upstairs bedrooms, Cassie began thinking about how to move the furniture to accommodate the new beds being delivered next week. Arranging the different ideas in her mind, she quickly realized she needed to order smaller dressers for each room. She returned to her office and pulled up the furniture store on her computer again. She quickly selected four small dressers and added them to her already scheduled delivery date. The large dressers already in the kids’ rooms would need to be moved; one could go into the guest room upstairs and one downstairs. That was definitely a job she needed Dillon’s help with.
The afternoon passed quickly, and Cassie was glad to shut the office down at five and retreat to her house. The grill heated quickly and she placed vegetables in an aluminum foil pack beside the chicken. She fed the dogs and then sat outside watching them chase each other around the yard. After moving into Lake View, she quickly decided she needed the company of a dog. Dillon had insisted she needed two. When she went to pick out her puppies, the woman only had one left. She bonded with Pandora immediately and then spent a miserable night listening to Pandy cry for her missing family. The next morning she sent Dillon on a mission to find another two-month-old labradoodle and he had come back with Zoey.
Both dogs were primarily black, but the white mark on Pandy’s chest was larger than the one on Zoey’s. Though they got along well, they had stopped being inseparable after the first couple of months. Now each one was independent. Pandy preferred to be outside with people, and Zoey preferred the peace and quiet of being alone. Both were friendly with guests, but they didn’t roam the resort without Dillon or Cassie.
Cassie ate her dinner in the dim light coming from inside the house. She watched the lightning bugs blink across the yard until she couldn’t hold her eyes open. Dropping her plate into the dishwasher, she climbed the stairs. She had spent much of the day trying to push thoughts of Kathleen out of her mind. What she had told the guys earlier was true. Kathleen was a city girl and wouldn’t fit into Cassie’s lifestyle. Though her farm wasn’t rustic, you couldn’t walk down the street for coffee or anything else for that matter. The town of Riverview was at least a fifteen-minute drive away and on a road that was narrow and not made for pedestrians. Unfortunately, all the logic in the world didn’t stop her from dreaming about Kathleen even before she fell asleep.
Chapter Five
Kathleen’s thoughts wandered in and out, torn between the excitement of her planned day and the important agenda Joyce was covering. When the meeting finally ended, Kathleen bolted back to her office before anyone could stop her to chat. Noticing Tiffany getting coffee in the breakroom when she passed, she grabbed her briefcase and hurried past the empty reception desk. Tiffany would make her pay for sneaking out without telling anyone, but right now she just wanted to get on the road.
The two-hour drive to Riverview, unfortunately, would give her plenty of time to run scenarios in her mind. A home visit was an opportunity to get to know the host family a little better and that’s what she intended to do. She would be utterly professional. She couldn’t help that the visit was bringing her a large amount of pleasure. If she was lucky maybe Cassie wouldn’t see through the explanation for her visit.
* * *
Cassie and Shelley went through each room rearranging and mentally placing the new furniture. Cassie repeated everything she knew about the girls’ arrival while they worked, but Shelley asked more questions than Cassie could answer.
She shrugged for what felt like the hundredth time. “I don’t know.”
“You didn’t ask specifically for a female supervisor?”
“I want them to choose the best candidate, male or female.”
“Did you at least ask if the girls had any violence in their past?”
“No. It doesn’t matter to me. I want to take them at face value and deal with what they give me.” Cassie’s excitement was increasing as her anxiety faded. As a police officer, she had dealt with a lot of juveniles from broken or no homes; few of them had had any love for law enforcement. Playing a different role was a challenge. She looked forward to making an impact in each girl’s life.
Shelley wrinkled her face. “I guess I understand and I don’t mean to sound callous but what if you’re bringing a thief into your house?”
“I trust Kathleen’s judgment.”
Shelley rolled her eyes. “You don’t even know her.”
“I know enough.” The words made Cassie’s stomach lurch. She didn’t know Kathleen actually, and yet she felt like she did. She hadn’t been far from Cassie’s thoughts in the last forty-eight hours. She’d almost decided, in fact, to call her. Why not? It had been so long since she’d asked someone out that she couldn’t remember what it felt like to be rejected. Besides if she rejected her, wouldn’t that be easier to take over the phone?
Cassie smiled to herself as she pushed the heavy dresser toward the hallway. The thought of hearing Kathleen’s voice again made her want to stop what she was doing and call her right now. She looked up to find Shelley standing in her path. Her eyes squinted as she studied Cassie’s face.
“It’s almost eleven thirty. Call Dillon and tell him to get his ass in here and help us.”
Wiping the smi
le from her face before Shelley could ask any questions, Cassie pulled the radio from her belt and keyed the microphone. “Hey D, time to lift some weights.”
“Busy.”
“Doing what?” Cassie frowned. Her mind filled with Kathleen and the girls, she wondered what she had forgotten.
“Jason is here.”
“Well, crap,” Cassie groaned as she climbed around the dresser and headed for the stairs. “I don’t remember the farrier being on today’s schedule.”
“I don’t remember seeing that either,” Shelley called after her.
Cassie left the house at a trot with both dogs on her heels. Trimming the hooves on eight horses was a job that took most of the day, and normally she and Dillon both helped out.
As she approached, Dillon was holding the bay mare and Jason was filing the hoof on her right front foot.
“What’s up, guys?” Cassie asked, joining them in the small pasture.
“Juliet was limping a little when they came in to eat this morning and I could see something stuck in the tip of her hoof. Since it was more in her hoof than in her foot, I gave Jason a call. He was down at the Myers Farm so he came straight over.”
“That’s cool. Thanks for coming so quick, Jason.”
Jason gave a little nod without taking his attention from Juliet’s foot. “Glad I was close by.”
Dillon pulled a small metal object from his pocket and tossed it to her. “Looks like a fence staple. Guess we better ride the fence line today and make sure we don’t have any holes.”
Cassie groaned. “Better to ride the fence line than to chase goats once they escape.”
Dillon nodded. “I was coming in to move furniture. I swear I was.”
“Sure you were, but don’t think you got out of it because I have Shelley on the job.”
Dillon groaned, causing Jason to laugh.
“I’ll be in as soon as we finish here. No need to put it off ’cause she will find me.”
“Yep, even if she has to ride a horse to do it,” Cassie teased.
Glancing up from his work, Jason smiled. “That must be a story I need to hear.”
Cassie looked at Dillon.
“Go ahead. Jason will hound me until I tell him anyway. You can have the pleasure of telling him.”
Cassie leaned against the side of the barn. “Apparently Dillon had forgotten his radio and Shelley panicked when she couldn’t reach him. She chased him across the pasture and must have really let him have it because I don’t think he’s forgotten his radio since that day.”
“I wasn’t gone that long and no one would have ever known about it if you wouldn’t have seen Shelley coming back on the horse.”
Even in the bright sun, Cassie could see the faint blush on his neck. “Shelley would have told me eventually. She was really pissed at you.”
Jason laughed. “Married life. And people ask me why I haven’t taken the leap yet.” He placed Juliet’s foot on the ground and looked at Cassie. “She looks good.”
“Any follow up?” Dillon asked.
“Check it for the next day or so, but I don’t think you’ll need the vet. I was able to clip and file where the staple went in.”
“Want to grab a cup of coffee while I write you a check?” Cassie asked as she turned toward the office.
“Be right there,” Jason said, holding the gate closed without latching it, waiting for Dillon to catch up.
“So we have two guys to help now,” Shelley said as the guys walked into the office.
“Oh no, Jason, you’ve been roped into moving furniture.” Dillon gave him a push back toward the door. “Get out while you still can.”
Jason blushed and scuffed his boots on the floor. “I’m on my lunch break anyway, so I can help for a while.”
“Geez, man, you didn’t even put up a fight.” Dillon shook his head.
Cassie handed Jason a check and nodded to the Keurig. “Grab a cup and then we’ll put you to work.”
* * *
Jason and Shelley grabbed the first dresser and headed down the hall to the guest bedroom. Dillon and Cassie took the other one and headed down the stairs.
“How did we end up with the stairs?” Dillon whined.
“Didn’t you see how fast they jumped on moving the other one down the hall? They knew what they were doing all the time.”
Before they had made it halfway down the stairs, Shelley came running down the hall and squeezed around them. “I hear a car.”
“No, don’t let us get in your way,” Dillon yelled at her back as she bolted through the door connecting to the office.
They maneuvered the dresser around the corner at the bottom of the stairs and headed down the hall toward the downstairs guest bedroom.
Dillon shifted his grip, almost dropping his end. “Where the hell is Jason?” he whined again.
Cassie laughed. “When did you become such a whiner? You used to be such a big tough guy.”
Dillon picked up his pace, forcing Cassie to stumble backward. “Having trouble with your end there, Cass?”
“No trouble, if you’d stop pushing me.” She gave a little shove on the dresser, pushing it into Dillon’s stomach.
“You aren’t whining, are you?”
“I am not whin…oomph.” Cassie exhaled as Dillon and the dresser slammed her back against the wall at the end of the hall.
“I think we missed our turn,” Dillon crooned sweetly.
They both collapsed across the top of the dresser laughing. The door from the office slammed.
“About damn time we get some assistance,” Dillon yelled to Shelley with laughter in his voice.
“How about some manners, mister? We have company,” Shelley chastised him, her professional tone causing Cassie to stop laughing and lean around Dillon to look at her.
With a sharp intake of breath, Cassie caught a glimpse of the woman standing behind Shelley.
“What are…I mean, how or…uh…why…?” Cassie stuttered.
“Well, I guess I don’t have to ask who this is.” Dillon stepped around Shelley and reached out his hand to Kathleen. “I’m Dillon.”
“Kathleen Masters.”
Cassie struggled to catch her breath while she watched Kathleen chat comfortably with Dillon and Shelley. Shiny clips held her hair away from her face, displaying the openness Cassie had experienced the first time she met her. She was dressed in soft tan chinos and a dark blue button-down dress shirt. Her delicate low-heeled shoes definitely were not made for a farm. Kathleen was there on business.
Crap. A home visit. This was not a good start. Cassie started to walk toward her and realized that she was still pinned between the dresser and the wall. She tried to catch Dillon’s eye to get his assistance, but his attention was on Kathleen and Shelley was watching him with an approving look as she listened to the conversation.
“Uh, Dill…” Cassie started to say as a loud crash came from upstairs.
“Jason,” Shelley and Dillon said together as they raced up the stairs.
Kathleen looked toward the stairs and then back at Cassie. As their eyes made contact, Kathleen grinned, realizing Cassie was trapped.
“Do you need a hand?” Kathleen stepped forward and pulled the end of the dresser back far enough to allow Cassie to slide out.
Cassie stuck out her hand. “It’s good to see you again.” Kathleen’s hand was soft. She wondered if hers felt rough to Kathleen. Feeling self-conscious, she attempted to withdraw her hand, but when Kathleen didn’t let go, Cassie’s eyes searched her face.
“I’m sorry to drop in on you like this,” Kathleen said as she dropped Cassie’s hand and casually leaned against the wall.
“Are you?”
“Okay, no, I’m not. I volunteered.”
Cassie raised one eyebrow but made no comment.
Kathleen nodded toward the dresser. “Were you headed somewhere with this? Or did you plan to leave it in the hallway?”
“Actually, we’re clearing space for
new furniture in the kids’ rooms upstairs.” Cassie nodded toward the doorway on the right. “The bedroom down here has more room for this big dresser.”
“Well, let’s move it.” Kathleen squeezed down the hall, positioning herself at the other end of the dresser.
The dresser was more bulky than heavy, but Cassie wasn’t sure Kathleen would be able to carry it as far as she needed. She looked very stylish in her professional attire. Cassie bit her tongue to keep from commenting on her genteel appearance. She moved to the other end of the dresser. “Ready, on three.”
“Is that lift on three or one, two, three and then lift?” Kathleen gave her a wink.
Cassie’s stomach dropped, and she struggled to recover quickly from her surprise at Kathleen’s flirting. “Really? Just lift the dang thing.”
“Wow, here for more than five minutes and all pleasantries go out the window.” Kathleen held her end off the floor, waiting for Cassie to lift hers.
“Now you’re family.” Cassie lifted her end and together they walked into the bedroom, placing the dresser under the window.
Cassie glanced around the room as Kathleen studied it. This was the one room in the house she hadn’t really decorated. There was a wooden desk with a chair on one side and a filing cabinet on the other. A small bookshelf sat near the door.
“This was your office?” Kathleen asked.
“Yes, but I didn’t use it much.”
“Are you going to put a bed in here?”
“I thought the supervisor would prefer the privacy and their own bathroom.” Cassie took a step toward the door and then turned to find Kathleen only inches from her. She was captivated by the fleeting look of desire that crossed Kathleen’s face. Quickly taking a step back and stuffing her hands in her pockets, she was surprised to hear the gravelly tone in her own voice. “Do you have anywhere else you need to be?”
“There’s nowhere else I would rather be.” Kathleen’s voice was soft and Cassie’s heart skipped a beat.