Page 47 of Drawn To You (Paloma's Edge 1)

“Hey Cassidy! Wait up.”

“Beth.” She addressed me with a smirk.

“I’ve been trying to meet up with you, but you haven’t replied to most of my messages. Can you spare me a few minutes?” I asked.

“Sure. You must be eager to talk to me since you’d decided not to go on that date with Andrew.”

I rolled my eyes at her and she pretended not to notice as she went into my guestroom. I got to the point. “I asked to talk to you because I feel like your story about you and Chase and his account of what took place don’t jibe.”

She remained by the door. “And you believe Chase?” she asked in a mocking tone that only surprised me because I thought she’d try to act offended by my accusation.

“When I reflected on it, I recalled that Chase could only take you in small doses.”

“If that’s what you need to tell yourself so you don’t have to remember that I’ve had him first, so be it.” She pursed her lips and spun around. “Oh, and next time tell Brianna that big girls can handle their alcohol, and little girls should stay home and watch Golden Girls.”

Seeing Cassidy for who she really was engendered strong dislike and a feeling of loss in me. The only thing I couldn’t change about our relationship was that we were related. I decided that I couldn’t tell Brianna about Cassidy’s comments. Cassidy liked to bring out the worst in people, so that she could appear to all that she was beautiful and harmless, while Brianna would be viewed as uncivilized. Directly or indirectly, Cassidy was not going to harm my friend if I could prevent it. And she’d definitely checked out my Facebook profile to learn that I absolutely love The Golden Girls. I still stand by that show having one of the funniest casts of women on television.

“And big girls should learn that it’s a punk-ass tactic to try to shift the topic by bringing up someone into a conversation who can’t speak up for herself. It’s hard for me to take that you, my own cousin, doesn’t care that Chase isn’t here anymore and not working at the Paloma. What if he had nowhere else to go? Your skewed thinking is a definite cry for help.”

Cassidy blew out a breath and her face screwed up in a sneer. “You need your head examined. You’re only here for the summer. Watch yourself, or you won’t only be motherless.”

I straightened my hands by my sides because I really wanted to just punch her in the face for bringing up Cindy’s departure. There was some validity to what she was saying. I wouldn’t deny to Uncle Anton or Aunt Deborah what I thought about Cassidy if they asked me, and how I pitied her. I wanted nothing to do with her. At least, not until she was honest with herself and with others.

And so I let her think that she’d had a small victory by having the last words. Joel’s words came to my mind; Chase didn’t do or say anything that he didn’t mean.

***

Chase

“Look who I found while I was at the market,” Bri said with a smile, and gently pulled Beth beside her.

“Hey, guys.” Beth waved at everyone. Yesterday she and Beth had gone to the exclusive Tainted Virtue performance at the Double Dulce. Pierce got up to kiss her on the forehead and he raked his fingers through her hair, messing up the pretty style she had it in. Beth ran after him and we heard a high-pitched cry from the kitchen.

“Is that Pierce crying like a little bitch in there?” Gavin laughed and folded his arms. “Let me find out!”

When we were all in the kitchen, Pierce was on a chair by the dinner table, coughing with a reddened face. His blond hair was in all different directions. Beth and him were laughing, looking at each other with no more energy in left in them. She was on the floor, wearing the light denim skirt that had been imprinted in my memory since her first day at Paloma’s Edge. Her legs lay straight ahead of her, unblemished. As my eyes roamed farther up, her thighs looked like they were ready to be feasted on. They were toned, muscular, and supple, just how I’d imagined they’d be when I’d studied them days ago. I knew because I’d grasped those thighs with my own hands. I’d almost held those perfect little tits in my hand too, but her nipples had been calling out for some attention.

“Quit messing with my hair,” Beth told Pierce with a little laugh. Bri helped Beth get up.

Pierce sent her a gesture of surrender, but she didn’t look convinced. Everyone was in the small kitchen now, but it didn’t have that crowded feeling that I’d encountered in small places with a ton of people.

“Pierce will think twice before he messes with your hair again,” Joel said as he took a seat beside Pierce at the table. With a snicker, he nodded to Beth, who acknowledged his gesture with a smile.

“For real, ’cause that sounded eerily similar to my dad’s girl when she squeals.” Rylan made a face.

Pierce gave a laugh. “Damn, Rylan. Ain’t no way I want you associating me with her.”

I pulled a chair out so Beth could sit next to me and she accepted it. “So, I am free of you?” she teased Pierce.

Pierce cocked an eyebrow at her and inhaled the smell of the pot roast along with the rest of us.

After we were all seated, we devoured the pot roast in under ten minutes. With a proud glint in his emerald eyes, Gavin got up to serve seconds and thirds. No matter how many lessons I’d taken from Nancy, my food could not possibly taste as palatable, or be as pleasing to the eye as Gavin’s dishes. Even Bri made a point of making her desserts look pretty.

Beth took her napkin from her lap and wiped the corners of her mouth. “Delicious, Gavin.”

Joel eyed the stove. “Your slices of herb chicken and pesto pasta were on point, but you knocked it out of the park this time.”

All of us made noises in agreement with Joel’s assessment and Gavin tried to smother a smile.

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