Page 35 of Lyrical

“Cassie?”

“Yes, Chase. Cassie. The one you work with. What the hell is she doing with my son?”

The more I thought about her coming intomyhome, the more insane it was. And she was also inmycar? She was aftermyman, and now she’s withmyson? I should’ve been calling the cops. It definitely sounded like a stalker situation.

“Jillian, calm down.” Chase held me, with a soothing voice like I needed to be talked down off a ledge. “I don’t know what she’s doing here, okay? I have no idea, but they obviously know each other from somewhere.”

“Yeah, from her stalking him,” Perry said.

I nodded.See, she gets it.

Chase smiled. “Let’s just go back out. You’ll regret it if you spend the whole day in here. You’ve been looking forward to this party, and Daniel’s probably wondering where you are right now.”

He was right. I knew that, but did that mean I wanted that woman around? Hell no. I had a hard enough time dealing with her when it came to Chase. I wasn’t a jealous-by-nature person, but she’d challenged me. She wanted Chase, but once it became clear she couldn’t have him, I’d assumed she’d slumped off. It was bad enough they worked together in that tiny school. Thank fuck that I trusted him a million times over.

But none of that explainswhy the fuck she’s here with my son.

“He’s right, Jills. I’m never going to be able to interrogate her skanky ass if we stay in your office.”

Chase sighed. “That’s not what I meant.” She headed for the door, trying to take my arm with her. “Perry, I think you need to relax, or it’s going to end up backfiring.”

“I don’t want her here, Chase,” I said.

“But Daniel does,” he replied.

“And that’s why I’m handling it, so Jills doesn’t have to be the bad guy. She can be mature and gracious on the outside and fantasizing about her slow, agonizing death on the inside. Besides, I’m more subtle. Win-win all around.”

I clasped my hand in Chase’s as she tugged us out the door. “So, she never once mentioned to you that she knows Daniel?” I asked him.

“Unless we’re discussing a student, I rarely talk to her, Jillian.”

Perry turned her head back and gave a thumbs-up. “Good answer, Chase.”

The three of us tumbled out of the room and into the kitchen, running into Stephen talking with Sal from down the street.

“Hi, Sal. Glad you could stop by.” I pulled two beers out of the cooler, handing one to Chase. “This is my boyfriend, Chase. Chase—Sal. He used to be Daniel’s Cub Scout leader.” They’d probably seen each other at some point but hadn’t been officially introduced. What I’d just done would’ve given me a panic attack six months ago, and now it barely fazed me.

They shook hands, and I took a long, loooong sip. Stephen eyed Perry and me suspiciously. What, now we weretoocalm for him?

“Everything good now?” he asked.

“Yep. Seen Daniel?”

Stephen moved his eyes from me and over to Chase for a quick second. I wondered if there was some secret man code going on here.

“Is it safe to have them out in public?”

“Yeah, but I’ll call if I need backup.”

Stephen looked back to me. “Downstairs.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

Perry grabbed the bottle of chocolate milkshake and a couple glasses. “It worked the first time.” Before I could say “He doesn’t drink,” she was already down the stairs.

Fuck, here it goes.

“What does she mean?” Chase asked.

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