Page 139 of Dust Storm

“Mhmm. But there’s no one here my age.”

“Sorry about it. Maybe when we start having grand openings you can invite some friends.”

“What about a boy?” she asked.

My answer was immediate and definite. “No.”

“But what if?—”

“No.”

“I’m gonna ask Miss Cass.”

“Still no.”

As the band faded out, Cassandra stepped up on stage and thanked everyone for coming. I felt Bree squeeze a little closer as she listened to Cassandra’s speech about the project and the good it would do in the community.

“I like her,” she said thoughtfully.

My heart tightened. “Yeah?”

Bree nodded. “I mean, I know we have Grandma and Aunt Becks, but Miss Cass is—like—ours.”

I fixed my eyes on Cassandra as she called up each member of the Griffith family to take one of the ornate gold shovels while she spoke animatedly about the future of the ranch.

And as I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her, my parents, brothers, Becks, and the next generation as we dug into the soil, all I could think wasyes.

“Thought you might like these,”I said as I came up behind Cassandra and offered the slippers I had snagged from her things when I took Bree and Gracie back up to the house to go to bed.

She was supervising the flurry of activity as the last of the rentals were packed, loaded, and hauled off.

Cassandra groaned as she slipped out of her heels and wiggled her toes in the grass. “Thank you. You’re a godsend.”

I knelt in front of her and slipped them on her feet. “Least I could do after you made us look civilized and successful.”

Her laugh was tired. “I think it went well. Only time will tell, but I have high expectations.”

“Not high hopes?”

She shook her head. “Hope is simply hanging onto threads of abstract desire. Expectations are the application of hope. I expect excellence, and I will work for it. ”

I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Poetic.”

“I learned from you.”

I waited until the tent was down, the vendors were tipped, and the last box truck disappeared down the lane before I spoke up again. “You make it sound like you’ll stay.”

Cassandra slipped her hand in mine. “What if I did?”

Our steps were quiet as we walked back to the house. Although no one was out to hear us, it still felt a little like sneaking around. My parents had retired shortly after the party ended. Ray left early to head back to Houston before the championship tomorrow. Nate and Becks pulled the baby card and went back to their house—not that I blamed them in the least.

“You know what I want,” I said.

She let out a breath. “Then maybe you should know I called Mike earlier today.”

I stroked my beard for dramatic effect. “Really.”

“We caught up on the project a little bit. I sent in my final projections so he could add it to the never-ending metric of success. He told me Tripp had been put on administrative leave because of yet another Lillian Monroe headline that should have never made the news.”

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