Liz Flaherty - Nice To Come Home To

Her friends from the wreck had stood by her since she’d come back. All the ones who were local had met at Gianna Gallagher’s on Tuesday night. “Not to ask questions,” Gianna had said, “but to welcome you home.”

Cass had cried when she’d talked about it at breakfast. Not the boo-hoo kind that Rachel had made into an art form when she was in high school, but silent, heartfelt weeping that she apologized for.

He knew all the other survivors of the wreck, what they’d been through and how they’d come out on the other side. Having her come back only to leave again would be like a slap in the face to them as much as it was to Zoey.

And to him. Daggone it. He didn’t want to take her likely desertion personally, but he did. They were getting to be friends, weren’t they? And he liked her. He thought she was pretty hot, too, but that was incidental and not to be acted on—she had way too much baggage going on and he just wasn’t going there. Not with her. Not with anyone.

“There’s nothing we can do either way,” he told Zoey. “You’re reestablishing a relationship with her and she’s not going to let that slide any more than you are.” I hope. “She has to consider Royce, too. Don’t forget, I’ve got that running back out there with me for the whole freakin’ school year because of a consideration like that.” He didn’t feel like defending her, not at all, but he owed her that one as one custodial sibling to another.

“I know, but it would be so nice for Royce to go here this year while her mother’s gone. It was great for Cass regardless of how things ended up. I believe that with all my heart.”

It was Zoey’s heart he was worried about. As far as he knew, she was healthy, but that heart was big and pretty wide open—he hated to see it get broken.

“Well, come on into the store. I’ll buy you some coffee and a dumpling.” He stepped away from the sorter and waited for her to join him.

They were at the open doors of the barn when Cass’s red SUV pulled into the parking lot, spitting some gravel when she stopped a little more suddenly than she maybe should have. That was explained when Royce got out of the driver’s side and took off running toward the trees where Seth and the others were picking. She had papers flapping in her hand, and she didn’t bother closing the door.

Cass got out of the other side, moving more slowly but with a certain buoyancy in her step that made Luke’s heartbeat go skippy for a couple of beats. She walked around to close the other door, then approached where Luke and Zoey waited. “Sorry to miss this morning.” She hugged Zoey and smiled at Luke. He couldn’t see her eyes behind the sunglasses she wore, but he’d have bet they were smiling, too.

They didn’t ask her the circumstances of her absence. She was a grown-up and he knew Zoey didn’t want to push her away. Luke didn’t, either, but he was still in the stage of maybe they’d be friends and maybe not; trying to bring her closer might scare her off completely.

She spoke before he could. “I have had no coffee. Can we get some?”

They went into the store, waving at the woman behind the counter, and back to the self-serve coffee station. Cass had replaced the foam cups with promotional cups from all over Miniagua and Sawyer. He didn’t know how she’d found time to collect them, but they were nice for customers and the environment, and the coffee sure tasted better out of them.

“Royce and I talked a lot last night,” she said when they’d gone back outside and taken seats at one of the patio tables on the wide porch. “I said we needed to leave by Wednesday of next week in order to get her into school for the second week. Not being there the first week is fine, not so much another one. She misses her friends, misses the shopping and looks forward to the advanced placement curriculum and getting into Berkeley. She has mentioned a minimum of seven hundred times that there’s nothing to do here. I thought, other than her no longer seeing your ‘seriously hot’ younger brother and my ‘seriously cool’ aunt every day, that Royce was ready to go home.” She cleared her throat and took a long drink of coffee. “I was wrong.”

“Oh.” Zoey clasped her hands in anticipation, and Luke almost did. What was wrong with him anyway? Any minute now, he’d be telling her he thought the coffee shop was a fine idea. And it wasn’t. For heaven’s sake, it just so was not.

“Yes.” Cass sounded gleeful, and Luke caught a glimpse and a sound-bite of the girl she must have been when she’d spent her junior year here. “Even though she wants to return to California when her mother comes home, she’d really like to try school here and she’d like to spend quality time—yes, she actually used that term—with Aunt Zoey and...yeah, she wouldn’t mind seeing Seth occasionally, too.” Cass bounced—literally—in her seat. “Where is that boy? I need to find him and kiss his face.”

“So, you’re staying.” He couldn’t be wrong if he stated the obvious, could he? And he wasn’t going to think about her kissing Seth’s face. Or anyone else’s.

“Yes. At least until Royce’s mother gets home, and longer if I can find a place to live and settle in. We enrolled Royce in school this morning and have spent the last thirty minutes discussing the fact that she doesn’t have a single thing to wear, which means spending a whole day and a bunch of money in Kokomo.” Her brows knit into a slight frown. “It shouldn’t be a problem finding a house to rent, with the lake season ending, should it?”

“No.” Zoey sounded frantic. “No.” She pointed in the vague direction of the farmhouse. “Twelve rooms, Cass, and four of them are upstairs bedrooms. You and Royce wouldn’t even have to share a bath because there are two of them up there. It’ll be yours someday anyway, so move in now. Make it your home.”

“Aunt Zoey.” Cass pinned her gaze to her aunt. “How long has it been since you’ve lived with a sixteen-year-old? It’s not for the faint of heart.”

Zoey laughed, that big, full sound that delighted everyone within hearing. “I shared a room and a bathroom with your mother and lived to tell the story. Any more questions?”

“Are you sure?”

“More than sure.”

It was already a sunny day, but Luke thought it had gotten brighter within the last few minutes. “I’ve been thinking,” he said. “Maybe a coffee shop would be a good idea.”

* * *

IT HAD BEEN a busy, busy day. When they’d gotten home from the orchard, accompanied by a pizza and two milkshakes, Cass had to convince Royce they couldn’t move into the farmhouse that very minute. After supper, she spent an hour trying to decide what to do with her apartment in Sacramento.

When Royce Skyped with her mother that evening, Lieutenant Colonel Gentry asked to talk to Cass.

“Is it okay,” asked Cass, “that we’re staying here?”

“More than okay.” Damaris bit her lip, and Cass thought she looked tired. “Your dad probably won’t come there. I think that’s a good thing for both of you.”

“I think so, too.” Cass hesitated, frowning at her favorite stepmother’s flickering image. “Damaris? You doing all right?”

“Yeah.” The other woman’s face cleared. “Not a good place or a good time. I’m so grateful to you for keeping Royce. It’s still okay...you know, if anything happens—you’ll still keep her?”

Alarm shivered up Cass’s spine. “I’ll always keep her,” she said, her tone as level as she could make it, “but nothing’s going to happen to you. You survived life with Major Gentry, sir , remember?”

They all joked about it, even the two stepmothers Cass hadn’t bonded with, that they’d escaped unscathed from life with her father. They used to say that when he’d read Pat Conroy’s The Great Santini , he’d thought it was an instruction manual.