Heaven Beside You

by Christa Maurice

  “Well, the whole town is here, aren’t they? If this was Election Day, I’d be dancing on my toes.”

  In a clearer mind, Cass would have snorted in response. Betsy made sure everyone in town voted, if she had to send her three sons out to get them and bring them to the polls. She’d even sent Donny up with the snowplow one March for Cass when she’d gotten snowed in.

  “It’ll be two dollars for each of you.”

  Jason handed her a ten. “Keep the change.”

  “Oh, well thank you, Mr. Callisto, and may I tell you, we’re all tickled you decided to vacation here. I hope you’re having a good time.”

  “I am having a wonderful time,” he answered, smiling.

  “I see you brought your guitar, are you going to play for us tonight?”

  “Cass’s father is going to teach me some old songs.”

  “Are my parents here?” Cass broke in before something unfortunate popped out.

  “They certainly are. Everyone is. Even Kady Stern and Cori Gwynn, and the way those girls are dressed is just shameful. You would think they were in a disco, instead of a church.”

  Cass smiled through gritted teeth and glanced up at Jason. He seemed amused by the prospect of facing the girls again.

  “Finn’s here, too,” Betsy said. “He was asking if you’d gotten here yet. I think he wants to talk to you about that pasture of Bill Wernick’s.”

  If only the universe would stop throwing bricks at her. All her business seemed to be public record and her one dirty little secret was standing right next to her. When had coming to this dance seemed like a good idea? “I guess we should all go inside then, shouldn’t we?” She pushed open the door and walked down the stairs with weak knees.

  The hall did appear to be filled to capacity, and everyone in their Sunday best, with the possible exceptions of Cori Gwynn and Kady Stern. Cori wore a skirt so short and slung so low around her waist Cass thought she had tied a wide flocked ribbon around her hips until she realized the skirt, if it could be called that, was suede. Kady had gone for a pair of black bell-bottoms so tight, how she managed to walk in them, let alone move as fast as she was closing in on them—or rather, Jason—was a mystery.

  “Cass.” Finn appeared at her side like a genie. “I need to talk to you.”

  Cass stopped and Jason copied her. She wondered if he’d caught sight of Kady and Cori yet. In fact, she wondered if their mothers had caught sight of them. “What is it?”

  Finn glared over Cass’s shoulder at Jason. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to Cass privately. It’s about business.”

  Wild laughter rose in her throat. What private business? Half the town probably knew her underwear size. “If this is about that pasture, he already knows, and if I’m getting audited, everybody’s going to know soon enough.”

  “I’d prefer to talk to you alone.” The tips of Finn’s ears had begun to turn red.

  “Oh, Mr. Callisto, I heard you were going to be here.” Kady pulled up short of falling on Jason and tottered back on her high heels. Her top looked like it came from a bondage catalog. “Is this your guitar? Can I see it?”

  “Mr. Callisto, I hope you’re going to play something tonight,” Cori purred, stepping between Jason and Cass and slipping her arm through his. “You’ve got to save us from this boring old people music.”

  “Listen, Cass,” Finn said, “I’ve talked to Bill and told him his price is absurd. I think we can bring him down.”

  “We’re going to have to bring him down a lot. I don’t have that kind of money.” Jason was being drawn away by Cori and Kady, but when Cass looked over her shoulder the whole group had been intercepted by the minister. The minister might be able to control things.

  “Let’s go talk to him. I’ll get you a good deal.” Finn put an arm around her shoulders.

  His possessiveness hemmed her in, and she turned as if she wanted to look around the room, letting Finn’s arm fall away. “Where is he?”

  Within minutes, the crowd had swallowed up Jason. Cass gritted her teeth for negotiations. She ended up hardly having to say a word. Finn negotiated and Bill played hardball. Cass found herself sitting at a table with a cup of punch, watching the tennis match over her money. She spotted Jason dancing a few times, mostly with town matriarchs who looked elated, but once with Kady, who spent most of the waltz trying to grind her hips against his. Jason spent his time trying to keep daylight between them.

  “Hi, swee’pea, Bill, Finn,” her dad greeted them as he sat down in the chair beside her. He nodded to the men, but focused on her. “The minister says your boy is here, but I haven’t seen him yet.”

  Finn wore a dark scowl, obviously because of the reference to Jason as her boy, but she didn’t let it bother her. “Oh, he’s here. Last time I noticed, he was dancing.”

  “When did you kids get here?”

  She looked at her watch. “Almost an hour ago. You know how famous people like to be late.”

  All three men stared at her. What had she let slip? “Where’s Mom?”

  “She’s in the kitchen, piping filling into lady fingers. Paul must have made a thousand cookies.”

  “Is he in the kitchen, too? I should go say hi,” she said, rising.

  “What about the negotiations?” Finn almost wailed.

  “You’re doing fine. Let me know how it turns out.” Two steps toward the kitchen, and someone blocked her way. Jason, grinning slyly. The room contracted to nothing but him. The music and chatter faded to the distance. She found herself grinning up at him. His breathing sounded a little short, probably from the series of fast dances they’d played and evading Cori for four minutes twenty seconds. Or was it Kady? They were beginning to blur together, along with the rest of the townspeople.

  “Hello there, Ms. Camp Director,” Jason said.

  The person he’d led off the floor had been Angela. The perfect antidote to Kady or Cori. Angela blushed bright red, beaming up at Jason.

  Turning away from Cass, he brought Angela’s hand to his lips. “Cherie, you are as light on your feet as you are beautiful.”

  Angela blushed so hard, Cass checked to see if her feet touched the floor anymore. A familiar feeling. When he turned on the full wattage of his charm, you could be hit by a train and not notice.

  She glanced back at Finn. He looked like Lord Thunder himself. “Finn, weren’t you going to ask Angela to dance?” she asked.

  “Yes. I was.” Finn stood so fast his chair fell over, but didn’t seem to notice it as he came around the table. Cass couldn’t tell whether he was angry about her, Angela, or Jason.

  “What about the negotiations?” Bill protested.

  “It’s a dance. Let the kids have fun,” Cass’s father chided him.

  “Dance?” Jason murmured. He didn’t wait for an answer before he took Cass’s hand and led her to the floor. Someone had found the church’s only Beausoleil CD and landed on a rare slow song. He rested his hand on her waist and took her other hand in his, looking down at her with a faint smile.

  “Are you having fun?” she asked. She wondered if everyone saw the way their bodies moved in concert so well, as if they’d had practice. Lots and lots of practice.

  “A blast. Between the giggling old ladies and the groupie twins, I can’t remember ever having so much fun. In public anyway.” He smiled.

  Cass wished she didn’t blush so much. It was an easy signal for everyone to see. But the way Angela had been blushing when he led her off the floor, everyone would comment if she didn’t, she supposed. “I should have known Cori and Kady would go full out tonight. I meant to warn you, but I forgot.”

  “It’s okay. Kind of cute really. In a baby piranha way.”

  “Baby piranha will still eat you alive.”

  Jason raised an eyebrow. “Did you overhear what Cori whispered in my ear?”

  A groan escaped her. “I’m so embarrassed.”

  “Don’t worry abo
ut it. I’ve been promised worse. Besides,” he said, voice dropped to a murmur, “you deliver better.”

  Doing her best to quell the delicious shiver that elicited, she tried to glance around casually. Nobody paid any more attention to them than they had been all night, and Finn, even less. He spun Angela in a tight circle, studying her face as if he’d never seen her before. He probably hadn’t. Even across the room, Cass could see a new light to Angela’s face. She looked prettier and brighter, still bathed in the glow of Jason’s charm. “Thank you for dancing with Angela.”

  “Who?” Jason followed her gaze. “Oh, her. She’s nice. Pretty girl and a good dancer. I thought Kady was going to break my toes in those stilettos.”

  “Probably because she was trying to climb up you.”

  Jason shrugged. “That might have been part of the problem.” He spun her around and dipped her. Cass giggled. She had no choice but to trust him. He’d taken her too much by surprise to get a good grip. As he held her suspended above the floor, his gaze seemed to bore into hers. This time, she allowed herself to shiver. Then the notes signaling the end of the song played, and he lifted her upright and set her on her feet.

  “I think Paul is waiting for his dance,” she said.

  Jason bowed. “At your service.”

  “He’s hiding in the kitchen.” Cass wanted to take his hand and lead him off the dance floor. It would show everyone he belonged to her.

  But he didn’t.

  Her chest tightened. Why had she reminded herself? She’d wanted to pretend as long as possible, but she was far too much of a realist to let herself go for long. If she took his hand, announcing to the whole town they were a couple, she’d have to endure a lifetime of smirks and pitying stares when he left. So, brilliant smile dimmed by her thoughts, she went into the church’s kitchen.

  “Good Lord, Paul, is there a single pound of sugar left in West Virginia?” she demanded, surveying the room. Every surface seemed to be covered with cookie sheets piled with cookies. “Oooh, kolachi.” She reached for one.

  Ida, standing guard over the cash box, slapped her hand. “Fifty cents.”

  Cass was fishing in her pockets for money, when Jason handed Ida a five. At that moment she caught sight of Paul’s terrified expression.

  “Five gets you a dozen.” Ida informed Jason, who made an appreciative noise looking over the selection.

  “What?” Cass asked Paul, and wove around a prep table.

  “Cass, I’m so sorry,” he said, grabbing her hands, which coated them with powdered sugar. “I should have kept my big stupid mouth shut.”

  She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” Last week, the most striking period of her life had been her marriage and desertion by Michael, but the moment Jason walked through her door, everything had changed. Her highs had gone higher and she suspected her lows were going to challenge the Mariana Trench. “Look, I brought Jason to dance with you.”

  Paul brightened. “Dance?”

  “So, Paul,” Jason asked from across the table. “Would you like to dance?” He had cookie crumbs on his lip, and though she longed to reach up and brush them off, she glanced away. Her mother, holding a pastry bag, watched her as if she were reading her mind.

  Paul fluttered a hand to his throat. “I would love to.”

  “You have to let me lead,” Jason warned.

  “Anytime.” Paul pulled his apron over his head, wiped his hands on it and crammed it in Cass’s direction. Then he offered a newly clean hand to Jason, and to the accompaniment of Ida’s cackling laughter, allowed himself to be led out of the kitchen.

  “Cassie, you have eight cookies on account,” Ida told her before turning to a new customer.

  “Hi, Mom.” Cass kissed her mother’s floured cheek. “The mission is doing well tonight.”

  “The mission?”

  “You know, that place that gets all the proceeds from the dance.” More for the opportunity to get her soul out of her eyes than to peruse the heaps of cookies again, she looked pointedly around the kitchen.

  “Oh, the mission. Yes, very well. Paul’s baking fit hit before the right dance. There’s more in the freezers. How are things going on the mountain?”

  The tone was light, but her mother knew. In high school, everyone said you could tell when a girl lost her virginity by looking at the whites of her eyes. They were supposed to get brighter or yellower. She should have checked the whites of her eyes before she left home tonight. “Fine. He didn’t seem at all bothered by getting snowed in. He’s building snow sculptures.” Great, now she had a burr in her throat...or was it the half-truth getting stuck?

  “That’s good. He’s going to be here for what? Another week?”

  “Something like that. He has to go back in time for the Grammys.”

  “And when is that?”

  Though she didn’t want to admit she knew to the hour when he was leaving and would be on the Grammys, she doubted she could keep that fact from her mother. “I don’t know. I think it’s the first weekend in February. You should ask Paul, he’ll know.”

  Mom returned to piping cream into the ladyfingers. “I might have to watch them this year. Now that I’ll know someone.”

  “Well, I’m gonna go out there, on the floor. I don’t want to miss all of the big dance.” Before her mother could learn more through osmosis, Cass hurried out of the kitchen.

  The townspeople had cleared a space on the floor for Paul and Jason. Paul looked ecstatic, Jason amused. Everyone else seemed to think it was funny, but then most of the town thought Paul was funny.

  Angela sidled up beside her. “Hi,” she said. “Thanks for what you did.”

  The girl’s face still glowed with shy excitement. “What did I do?”

  “When you got Finn to dance with me. It was nice of you.”

  Oh that. It seemed to have happened on another plane of existence. “You seemed to be holding your own.”

  “Oh.” Angela looked at the floor. “I don’t know. I tried. Mr. Callisto told me I was pretty, and I tried to remember that when I danced with Finn. You know, if Mr. Callisto says you’re pretty then you must be, right? I mean, he’s seen lots of girls, hasn’t he?”

  Angela was going to hesitate herself right out the door. “You are pretty and very sweet. I don’t know why Finn doesn’t wake up.”

  The other girl sighed and stared across the room at the object of her affection. Finn didn’t appear particularly amused by Paul and Jason dancing, but he couldn’t be too happy with either man at the moment. “I just don’t know what to do to get his attention.”

  Finn’s expression was so dour. Too funny. It would serve him right to get it smack between the eyes. “You know what I think you should do?”

  “What?” Angela asked.

  “Do you work Monday?”

  She shook her head.

  “Monday, go into Ida’s and pick up his lunch and then take it to his office in your coat.”

  “In my coat?”

  Cass leaned forward and whispered, “With nothing on underneath.”

  Angela gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. “I couldn’t do that.”

  “Yes, you could. Just pretend you’re Kady.”

  Angela’s giggle sounded every bit like a little girl planning mischief. Her dark eyes sparkled. “Do you think it would work?”

  “He noticed you tonight. If you show up in his office in the nude, he’ll really notice you. Be brave and grab the chance while you have it. Remember, Jason Callisto thinks you’re pretty.”

  “Yeah. Grab the chance.” Bottom lip between her teeth, she looked over the dance floor.

  “And you better take a condom. I doubt Finn will have any on hand in the office.”

  Her mouth curled upward in a wide smile. “He will when I get done with him.”

  Cass almost laughed out loud. She might have inspired Angela to a life-changing prank. If only she could come up with a sim
ple answer for herself.

  “He really seems to like you,” Angela said.

  “Who? Finn?” His crush on her was hardly a secret, had been common knowledge since high school.

  The slow song had ended and a new song began. Her father had collared Jason and Paul was floating back to the kitchen.

  “No, not Finn, Mr. Callisto. He seemed annoyed you were sitting with Finn and asked me if you guys had ever gone out. He asked me a lot of questions that night I had dinner with him, too.” Glancing around, she said low, “I haven’t told anybody about that.”

  “Good. I don’t want Kady or Cori showing up unannounced.” Especially now. She prayed Jason wasn’t asking everybody questions. That would blow their cover as quickly as having Kady arrive while they were having sex on the living room floor. “Why don’t you go ask Finn to dance?”

  “Good idea.” Angela set off around the hall.

  Would she go to hell for encouraging adultery in a church? She shook her head. The way the week had been going, she was going to hell anyway. What did a couple extra millennia matter?

  Chapter 14

  Across the room from him, Cass had been talking to Angela. A second ago, Cass had been looking at him and he’d wondered what he was doing wrong now. “So, Paul, have you known Cass long?”

  “Oh, not really. Not the way they count time in Potterville. We were neighbors in New York.”

  “So you’re not from Potterville?” A little smokescreen was necessary or Cass would have reason to worry.

  “Oh, no. I was born in Indianapolis.”

  “What brought you here?”

  “Cassie. She’s just the best friend a girl could have.” Paul had gone into this weird Southern belle routine, but he was a much better dancer than either Kady or Cori. “I couldn’t imagine staying in New York without her. If I were straight, she wouldn’t be single.”

  Thank God Paul was gay.

  Andy met them at the edge of the dance floor.

  “Told a few people you wanted to learn some old songs,” he announced. “Everybody’s gone up to the chapel so we can play without interrupting the dance. You brought your guitar?”