Page 41 of Whispers of Redemption

CHAPTER 16

Angel tugged at her leash as Cassie walked barefoot toward the beachside pavilion with a towel, blanket, bag of tortilla chips, and jar of salsa cradled in her arms. She stopped at the picnic table, already crammed with food, and made space, setting down the bag of chips.

“Don’t even think about it,” Cassie warned as Angel looked poised to jump up on the bench seat to investigate the delicious smells wafting down.

Angel met her eyes and hesitated for a moment, then apparently decided to obey and sat down on her little haunches. She was such a well-trained dog, Cassie found it hard to believe that as of yet, nobody had responded to claim her.

Cassie looked around as she unscrewed the salsa lid. It was just as she’d suspected, Ani’s beach party was basically comprised of teens from her school.

“Hey, Cassie!” a voice called out from across the expanse of green lawn behind the pavilion. She turned to see Patricio waving at her with one hand while he continued flipping burgers on the grill with the other.

She waved back. “Where’s Ani?”

He pointed the spatula toward the beach. She looked and saw Ani against the backdrop of Lake Michigan’s cobalt waves, playing beach volleyball with a group of kids in one of the sand courts. She smiled to see Ani laughing with her friends.

As she opened the chip bag and placed the salsa jar beside it, she heard the sound of a familiar voice from behind.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

She turned in surprise to see Hugo and Wade approaching.

Her mind instantly flashed to that moment in the police department hallway with Wade. She was sure he’d been about to kiss her. And to her shock, she’d been about to let him. But she tamped the thought down and said in a casual tone, “You guys were invited, too?”

Hugo nodded with a grin and dropped his own bag of chips and salsa on the table. “Great minds think alike, eh?” he said, indicating their matching contributions to the spread of food. He wore a pair of bright floral swim trunks along with a mismatched Hawaiian print shirt.

“Yeah, well, I don’t really cook,” Cassie said with a shrug.

“Lucky for everyone we have Wade,” Hugo said, his grin growing even wider.

Wade was carefully opening up two large plastic containers on the seat of the picnic table. “I couldn’t decide between bringing something sweet or savory,” he said. “So, I brought both. These recipes are from The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking,” he said with obvious pride.

Angel got up and edged closer, sniffing with interest, while Wade eyed the dog with suspicion.

“Uh...is that supposed to mean something to me?” Cassie asked.

Wade shifted his gaze to her, giving her a look that didn’t even attempt to hide how disappointed he was in her lack of baking knowledge. Then he pointed to the container on his left. It held intricately woven pastries baked golden brown and sprinkled with sesame seeds. “These are Paul’s Mini Sausage Plaits. They’re made with a puff pastry and the filling is a mixture of sausage with chestnut mushrooms and fresh thyme leaves. And over here,” he pointed to the container on his right, “we have raspberry-and-lemon cream horns.” Cassie looked at the flaky horn-shaped confections oozing a whipped cream-colored filling that was sprinkled with fresh raspberries. Despite herself, her mouth began to water.

“Those look delicious,” she said.

“Help yourself,” Wade said.

She reached for one of the horns, took a bite, and closed her eyes, chewing slowly as the delicate crust gave way to flavors of lemon curd and sweet cream mingled with the tart bite of raspberry. She swallowed. “Oh. My. Gosh. That was incredible!” she said. And while he tried to keep his expression noncommittal, she could tell Wade was pleased with the compliment.

Angel, aware that treats were clearly being dispersed, began pawing at Cassie’s bare leg. So, she broke off a small piece for the dog and watched her gobble it up.

---