“How…how was he treating them?”
Logan flushed.
“Did you really not know about this?”
She shook her head, trying to process the thought of her father doing … something to the women at his office. And being so horrible as to fire someone for complaining? He wasn’t like that. Maybe he was a little hard on his daughters sometimes, but he was their dad. He was supposed to be making sure they were prepared for life.
“Jokes and making them uncomfortable and…touching them,” Logan said as he shifted in the seat again, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. “No one said anything, except my mom. She thought maybe the men just didn’t realize what they were doing, but when she talked to them, they told her to keep her mouth shut or she’d never get another job.”
It was suddenly hard to breathe. Cassie fumbled to open the door, and leaned her head out, taking in big gulps of cool morning air. The salty tang of the lake bit her tongue. She replayed the words in her head. Uncomfortable…touching…bile rose in her throat and she choked it back.
She heard the passenger door click open and Logan’s quick step as he made his way around the car to her.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, pulling her out of the car and upright into his arms. “I thought you knew. My mom said you probably did.”
Tears had sprung up in her eyes and she tried to blink them away, grateful he couldn’t see her as she buried her face in his chest. He smelled just the same as he had the night before, all ginger and citrus.
“So your mom doesn’t want you to be with me because of the lawsuit?” Her voice was muffled but she was afraid to look up at him, to see even more pity in his eyes she did not deserve. “Or because my dad is an asshole and she thinks I am too?”
“I guess…I mean, I don’t know. She said other stuff about your family.”
That didn’t surprise her. She thought of the nice cozy house Logan’s aunt and uncle had and what a normal family they were. No pressure to be some perfect family with a perfect daughter hosting perfect parties. No lying about what they did, all the time. Logan could just be himself. And with him she’d started to feel like herself, too. A better version of herself. But now that was all slipping away.
The tears finally started to fall in between gasping breaths.
“I’m j-just like h-him,” she sobbed.
“No, you’re not,” He pulled her tight and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t care what my mom says. I know you’re different. You’re different than all of them.”
Her heart swelled at this. He had no idea how big a compliment that was.
And that it was completely untrue.
Chapter Twenty
Logan couldn’t stand liars. His dad was one. Had his mom lied about Cassie knowing?
No, she’d just said Cassie probably knew. And Cassie hadn’t lied about her dad—she honestly hadn’t known. He’d felt relief and guilt at the same time. She wasn’t with him because of some secret plan of her dad. But Logan hated that he’d made her cry. It wasn’t how he’d wanted the morning to go.
He was leaning against the car with Cassie buried in his arms as she cried, looking out over the lake. It was so peaceful here. What if they’d gone off to school without knowing? Would it have been worse to deal with this from a distance? Or better? Either way, the choice had been made and they knew now and would just have to work through it. Together.
Slowly, Cassie’s sobs calmed and she started sniffing.
“Hey, it’ll be okay,” Logan said softly as he squeezed her tight. Her soft body molded to him perfectly. Her hair was a mess, her eyes ringed in red, but she’d never looked more beautiful. His chest tightened. “I’m not going to stay away from you just because my mom tells me to.”
After all, his mom hadn’t outright asked him to break up with Cassie. She’d just made it clear that was what she wanted. But he’d made up his mind the second he’d seen Cassie’s reaction to the news. It wasn’t fair to punish her for something her father had done.
“You’re not going to listen to your mom?” Cassie’s eyes were wide and disbelieving.
Logan shrugged.
“Do you always do what your parents want?”
She didn’t say anything, so he had his answer.
“It’s not like I’ll parade you around or anything.” He flushed. “Not that I would do that anyway! I mean, I want to. I mean, I’m not—”
She put a hand to his mouth to stop him and giggled a little. The sound flooded him with warmth.
“Let’s just forget it. It’s their issue, not ours. We’ll be in New York in, like, eight weeks. Far away from this.”
“Maybe I don’t want to leave anymore,” Logan said, suddenly realizing what going away to school would mean. “I don’t want to leave my mom dealing with all of this on her own.”
Cassie looked at him with wide and angry eyes.
“Logan, don’t be ridiculous. You can’t give up a full ride to Columbia. This is your shot.”
“My shot at what? Another four years of high school working my ass off while the rich kids party?”
Cassie jerked back, and Logan felt like an idiot.
“That’s not what I meant—”
“No, it’s fine, you’re right.” Cassie sniffed and stepped back, out of his arms. “New York will be really different than it is here. It’s normal to be nervous about it.”
“That’s why they did the match thing though, right?” Logan said. “Do you think that’s why your dad asked you to do it instead? Because of the thing with my mom?”
She looked down at the ground, kicking at a loose stone. The sun had started to make its way up in the sky, and she was bathed in the early morning light, her hair shimmering.
“I don’t know,” she said softly. She looked up at him and shook her head, her eyes red. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”
Neither did Logan.
“Do you want to go get breakfast?” Logan swallowed hard. He shouldn’t be nervous asking her out on a date after all that had happened in the past 12 hours. But he still was.
“I’d like that,” she said, and gave him her little half-smile. His breath caught in his throat.
“I don’t need to be at the restaurant until later tonight,” he said. He’d planned on just spending the day with Hideki playing video games, but there were suddenly much more interesting possibilities. “So we could spend the day doing…whatever you want. Not talking about any of this.”
“I’d like that,” she said again, and placed her hand gently in his. Her other hand slid up to his shoulder. “How are you feeling? It must be sore after last night. We should take it easy today.”
He let out a chuckle.
“It’s fine. Don’t get all bossy Cassie on me.”
She raised an eyebrow. He cleared his throat.
“So, where to for breakfast?”
Through the brilliant storytelling of his cousin, Logan’s mother thought he’d been out with Hideki all day. A few texts over breakfast had gotten the details straight so that by the time he walked in the house to change for his shift at the restaurant, his mom was already on her way back to Helena. He’d told her all about his morning run and a day at the lake with Hideki when she’d called before leaving.
He felt guilty lying to her, but he’d never promised his mom he’d stay away from Cassie. She’d just said he couldn’t be with her. Logan had already decided he wanted to be. What difference did it make if it was now or in two months once they were New York?
Cassie and Logan had talked all day about what they’d do once they were there. All the places she wanted to show him, all the things they’d do together. Central Park in the fall and Rockefeller Center at Christmas and Times Square on New Year’s Eve…
He knew it was a long shot that once they were there she’d even still want him. They’d gone from strangers to inseparable in less than a month. And yet, he couldn’t help but picture it along with her. New York would give them freedom from
their parents and from the worry this sudden legal drama was bringing them both.
But then he also thought of his mom, alone and dealing with everything. He told himself after his call with her that it would be the last time he lied to her. She’d been honest with him, so he had to do the same.
Exhausted from the day and his long shift at the restaurant, Logan was not in the mood for Hideki’s teasing on the ride home, but he knew it was his payment for all his cousin had done for him that day.
“Time to spill, lover boy,” Hideki snickered as Logan got into his truck.
Logan groaned and covered his face.
“I can’t have, like, one private thing in my life?”
“Of course not. Especially not when I had to lie to your mom about it.”
“You’ve lied to her plenty of times about stupid stuff we did.”
“Yeah, but she looked super upset today.”
Logan’s stomach flipped. Definitely no more lying to his mom. He hated feeling this way.
“Do you know what’s up?” Hideki asked him.
Logan shook his head without any guilt this time. His mom hadn’t asked him to keep the lawsuit a secret, but he knew she wouldn’t want her sister and family to know. Not until it was all over one way or another. They’d just want to step in and help and they already did more than enough.
“What did you guys get up to today?” Hideki waggled his eyebrows. “Checking a few things off the BSE list?”
Logan rolled his eyes. The only entries about girls had been pretty vague: “do stuff with girls” and “do more stuff with girls.”
“Just hanging out by the lake,” he said. “Use your imagination.”
“Hanging out by the lake…talking?” Hideki raised an eyebrow.
“Sure,” Logan said with a smile. “Talking about the best summer ever.”
Hideki rolled his eyes and left it at that, satisfied for the moment to make up whatever he wanted about the day Logan had spent with Cassie.
Meanwhile, Logan leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes, reliving every second of it in the privacy of his own mind.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Di, did you know?”
Cassie burst into her sister’s room, not bothering to knock. Di put down her book and sighed.
“I assume you mean about Mom and Dad?”
“Yes! No wait, what?” Cassie stopped short, thrown off of her laser focus on finding out the truth about this lawsuit. Di was in law school; he might have talked to her about it.
Di looked at her, frowning.
“What are you talking about?” she asked Cassie.
“No, what are you talking about? Are Mom and Dad getting a divorce?”
Di sighed again.
“I don’t know. But after what’s been happening, they’re seeing a marriage counselor.”
“What exactly has been happening?” Cassie’s voice was on edge now. She’d been thinking about it ever since she left Logan on his front porch, a lingering kiss cut short by the ever-present Hideki. She could have spent all night with Logan, and wanted to wait for him outside the restaurant until he finished his shift. Maybe she should have, instead of hearing whatever Di was about to tell her. Cassie’s heart was pounding in her chest so loudly, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to actually hear what her sister was about to say.
“There’s a situation,” said Di, her brow furrowed and mouth turned down. “With a former employee.”
Cassie bit her lip. She wanted to ask about what Logan had told her, but held off. Hearing this side of things could be helpful.
“A former employee? One of the contractors?”
Di shook her head.
“A woman. It’s raising a lot of issues between Mom and Dad.”
Cassie wasn’t surprised. If what Logan had told her was true—and she had no reason to think he was lying—then it couldn’t have been easy for her picture-perfect mom to accept.
“Is that why she wasn’t here at the beginning of the summer?”
Di nodded. Cassie sank down into the bed next to her. The room was pretty bare, since Di was almost never at the lake, but there were still touches of her big sister sprinkled around: a teddy bear from when they were kids, a framed picture of the four of them.
“Honestly, I’m surprised they lasted this long,” said Di, putting her arm around Cassie’s shoulder. “But they’re both so involved in everything in Helena, they can’t risk something like this.”
“Risk? He’s not the mayor or anything.” She leaned into her big sister, breathing in her familiar perfume. The same one as their mom. Cassie had gotten her own bottle of it on graduation day, but hadn’t taken it out of the box yet. It still seemed too much of a grown up thing to do, and this was her last summer as a kid. Sort of.
“Yeah, but Dad’s business depends a lot on people liking him, and his family. They’ve been bugging me a lot about moving back. The internship this summer in Helena got them way too excited.”
Cassie wrinkled her nose.
“Why would you do that? California is awesome!”
Di laughed.
“Still time to change your mind. Stanford would be right down the road from me.”
Cassie sighed and pulled away. This wasn’t the time to rehash her decision about college and she hadn’t even gotten the answers she wanted. But she wasn’t going to get them from her sister, apparently.
“I’ll think about it,” she said with a smile. With a final hug from her sister, Cassie went in search of the one person who would have the answers—her dad.
Cassie walked around the house, her dad nowhere to be found and his fishing pole missing from the hall closet. Going out on the lake in the early evening was not really the best time to catch anything, but maybe he needed the quiet after the party last night. She wandered into her parents’ room, looking for her mom instead and was surprised to find her packing a bag.
“I thought you were staying all week,” Cassie said, sitting on the bed like she used to when she was little.
“There are some things I need to take care of in Helena.”
Cassie looked at her closely, trying to see the emotion behind her eyes. Everything she’d learned about dealing with people had been from her mom. Every movement was calculated to make others feel a certain way. It had been helpful in high school when Cassie needed to get the other cheerleaders to agree, or to convince a teacher to extend a deadline for her.
But now it just felt fake. She was surrounded by lies. Her parents had both been lying to her all summer. Diana had only told her the half of it. Logan was the only one who cared about her feelings and had been willing to share everything he knew.
And Cassie still shouldn’t be totally honest with him. Because that’s not how they did it in her family.
“What kind of things?” Cassie swung her feet against the side of the bed and let them fall against the solid oak bed frame.
Thunk, thunk. Thunk, thunk.
“Just business things,” her mom said, folding a red cardigan in careful thirds before placing it on top of an identically folded blue one in her open suitcase.
“Your business or Dad’s business?”
Her mom glanced up with a look that might have even been panic, before smoothing her face into a smile.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about. Just focus on Columbia. I’m so happy you finally decided. I told everyone at the party.”
Despite everything, Cassie’s chest swelled at the pride in her mom’s voice.
“I started talking to someone who might know about an apartment you could rent, but when I turned around, you’d disappeared.”
And just as quickly, the pride was replaced with a sinking dread as her mom shot her a pointed glare.
“Sorry about that,” Cassie said. “I just couldn’t handle seeing Spencer there with Marissa.”
Her mom closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“These things happen, sweetheart,” she said, opening h
er eyes. She went to her nightstand and picked up a few trinkets to add to her bag. “You have to learn to just put on a brave face and deal with people who have disappointed you.”
“You mean lie?” Cassie kept her voice even, just as she’d been taught.
Her mother clicked her tongue in annoyance.
“It’s not lying to learn to live civilly with others,” she said, with a glance at Cassie’s feet hanging over the edge of the bed. “You can’t go around yelling and crying whenever you feel like it.”
“I know,” Cassie mumbled, her feet banging again. Thunk, thunk. “That’s why I left. So I didn’t cry.”
Her mom stopped her packing and pursued her lips.
“I know we expect a lot of you, Cassie. But it’s only because we know you’re capable of it. We’ve set everything up so that you and your sister can have the best life possible. I don’t think it’s asking too much when there are certain expectations for your behavior that go along with that life.”
Thunk, thunk, went her feet against the bed.
“Cassie,” her mom shot her a warning glance at her feet. She stopped, her foot held high, ready to fall again.
She knew what her mom expected of her. What everyone expected of her.
But what about her expectations of them? Everyone had been lying to her all summer, and now she was in an awful position. She believed Logan, but what was she supposed to do about it? Yell at her parents? Demand her dad pay his mom?
Cassie sighed and lowered her foot slowly, and silently. Her mom smiled and nodded then turned her attention back to packing her bag.
Cassie waited to see if there was anything else, but knew that was all she would be getting out of her mom. At least until her next visit, whenever that would be.
Chapter Twenty-Two
As the hot July days slowly slid into August, Logan was with Cassie every second he wasn’t working. In her car, at the lake, in the restaurant parking lot after work. It was like he was trying to make up for years of no kissing in a matter of weeks.
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