Page 46 of Lyrical

“I don’t trust her,” I said. “Something’s not right, even if I don’t know exactly what that is yet.”

Chase pulled me in for a kiss, and I tasted hot spice. “My whole point in telling you about Cassie was to show you that maybe she’s different now. Maybe she really wanted to connect with Daniel again, and maybe she’s not as bad for him as you think.”

“Or maybe she’s worse,” Perry said.

“Stop fucking encouraging her.” Stephen reached over and took back his basket after she’d already managed to eat most of them.

“Well, I guess it’s just up to us now, Jills.”

“Dammit, Perry—” She put her arm across Stephen’s mouth.

“No, she’s the drama teacher, right?” Chase nodded. “And what do drama teachers do? They act. And if they’re good at their job, they act well. She knows how to play a role, and she could be fooling you right now, Chase. She could even be fooling the entire school.”

Chase didn’t say anything, just chuckled and then drained his glass. Stephen probably gave him one of those man codes, empathizing with him.

“Don’t even bother, man. Haven’t won one yet when she’s like this.”

“Yep, keeping my mouth shut.”

“Well, I do know she was behaving differently around Daniel, but I’m not sure why. I wouldn’t think he’d go for the blonde bimbo type.”

But then, how the hell did I know what my son liked? I didn’t even want to think of him as having a type.

“Hmm….” Perry tapped her fingers on her chin. “Yeah, I agree. Daniel’s laces are stick-straight. He doesn’t drink, never even heard him swear. How the hell did he get into this family?”

I laughed. Well, my mom would definitely appreciate the nonswearing trait. There was no one else besides her. Even Frank let out the occasional F-bomb once in a great while.

“But he did get your workaholic tendencies, Jills.”

“Hey, I’ve toned it down quite a bit.”

“Thanks to Chase.” He squeezed my thigh, and I smiled. “All right, you two. No groping under the table.” Stephen shook his head and waved the waitress over. “But I meant Daniel’s driven like you. He’d have to be to graduate early with honors, plus complete an internship. And hasn’t he gone on three interviews already?”

“Yes, the last one was just today.” I hadn’t had a chance to ask him about that one yet. Crossing my fingers since it was right downtown.

“Right. And he’s only been home barely a week. I’m exhausted just talking about him.”

He seemed like such the typical twenty-one-year old to me sometimes, but yet he didn’t. I knew that I had it together at his age, but that was because of him. It’s impossible to say how I would’ve been otherwise.

Our waitress set down another pitcher and a lime-colored drink for Perry.

“So, the question remains,” Perry said. “How does Cassie fit into all of this? Yes, he’s a guy, and she’s a slut, but—”

“Fucking tone it down, okay?” Stephen glared at her.

“Oh, I can’t say ‘slut,’ but you can say ‘fucking’?”

“You don’t even know her. Do you think Daniel would want to hear you say that shit?”

“Yeah, if he’s hoping she’s a slut, he’d very much want to hear it.”

“All right, enough,” I said.

To anyone else listening, they’d think Perry and Stephen should run far, far away from each other and never look back. Not even close; they couldn’t be more suited for one another. I was positive their bickering was a form of foreplay, but I didn’t want to think about that too hard. But there was something infinitely worse I didn’t want floating around in my head.

“Can you please not forget we’re talking about my son here? I don’t want to think of him having a sex life, much less hear about it, okay? He’s not out trolling for easy women, and that can’t be the only reason he’s interested in Cassie.”

I fucking hoped not. Perry wasn’t saying anything I hadn’t thought before, but it sounded so much more awful out loud.

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