Though Alice’s eyes gleamed, she nodded her head. “That’s a big first step, Cass. Makes me think you might pull this off.”
“Because I’m not doing it for Burke?”
“Because you should never change for anyone else.”
Cass’s smile came easier this time.
Alice gestured for them to continue walking when Reva’s mad rocking of the stroller finally got her attention. “I still think you should set your sights on someone. Like target practice. It might help.”
She imagined walking into a roomful of men with her father’s old rifle. “Oh sure, that’ll work. What am I supposed to do if I catch him?”
Alice’s mischievous eyebrow wiggling set them both off on a rail of giggling.
“I’m serious! The last thing I need is another man in my life. I’ve got plenty, thanks.”
“No one said you have to keep them. You walk into a room like you own every single man you see. Even the married ones.” Alice stopped walking, putting a hand on Cass’s sleeve to make her look. “Lift your chin. Roll your shoulders back. Look down at them. Never let them think you’re happy to see any of them. Look at a man once, never look back unless
he
comes to
you
.”
Cass stared, wide-eyed. Right in front of her, Alice had gone from mini-van mom to runway model. Her eyes had gone smoky and half-lidded, a blank expression of disinterest smoothing her features. Without so much as a flip of her ponytail or a fluff of her a-line kerchief blouse, she’d changed into someone Cass wouldn’t have recognized. A blink later it was gone and Alice’s impish grin was back. “See?”
“How did you do that?”
“Easy. I believed there wasn’t a man in this mall who wouldn’t think I’m sexy.” She patted her belly. “You’d be surprised how many guys think pregnancy is hot. You can do it. Just believe in yourself a little.”
“Believe.” Cass tried to picture it as she walked. When she walked into rooms, no one noticed but Burke and usually only because he was waiting for her. The thought of trying to get everyone’s attention the way Alice recommended made her face start itching again. When Luke’s friends hit on her at Shaky Jakes, she’d tried to be excited and thrilled to have so much attention, but in truth, the men had frightened her. Too many eyes lingered on her breasts, too many hands trying to pull on hers. The things they’d said, some trying to be alluring, a few straight out crude. No, remembering that, she didn’t want to be in a room full of men
without
her father’s old rifle.
The only man she could imagine targeting and still being safe with was Burke. She’d be safe with Burke in any situation. But could she really try to seduce him? She tried to see herself tempting her friend. It didn’t work. She kept imagining him either laughing or getting mad at her. Mostly the latter. Like she’d told him before, until he saw her as a woman instead of a friend, he was no good to her and Burke would never look at her any different.
Except…
She remembered the look on his face the night before in the bar, his fingertip moving over the edge of her bottom lip. Nothing clinical existed in that burning touch. She shivered anew, her lip tingling under the remembered caress. His eyes simmered. He stared at her lip like some kind of tasty treat. Heat billowed low in her belly, drowning automatic denial. He’d forgotten for a moment what she was to him. For one suspended second, she was a woman and he was a man. If he could forget once…couldn’t he forget again?
“Thatta girl,” Alice murmured. “I almost feel bad for Burke.”
Cass blinked out of the reverie. “What? Why?”
“Poor man won’t know what truck hit him.” Alice shushed Cass’s worry away with a wave of her hand. “That’s a good thing, trust me. Now, have you decided what make-up is best for you yet?”
Cass cringed, all ideas of seduction melting to a puddle at her feet. “Um, May Belle helped me already; I’m all set.”
Alice inspected her face. “Why aren’t you wearing any?”
She considered lying, but it wouldn’t work. Alice knew all her tells. “If I put any of it on, I look like the last survivor of a bee cult’s sacrificial offering.”
Alice laughed, covering her mouth. “I’m sorry. I should have warned you about May’s homemade make-up. Come on, one more stop. My treat.”
“But—”
“No buts. Call it a gift or don’t, but there’s no way I’m letting May Belle get another crack at those eyes.”
Helplessly, Cass followed Alice’s lead. She had no choice. She had the feeling, pregnant to bursting or not, Alice would hunt her down and rope her in if she refused.
“What do you mean you haven’t seen her all day? Where is she?” Burke demanded into his phone, slamming his office door at the screeching sound of the metal cutter in the workshop beyond. He listened to Hayne explain Cass was out and he didn’t know where she went. “Did she say when she’d be back?”
The screeching sounded behind him again as his shift manager, Rafael Abogada, opened the door with his lunch in hand. He closed it, rushed over to the television and flicked the switch. Immediately, the soothing tones of Oprah’s theme song began. ‘Fael settled into the chair on the other side of Burke’s desk and pulled out his sandwich to eat.
“Is that…
Oprah
?” Hayne asked, making it sound as if he had caught Burke
inflagrante delecti
or something.
“No…yes, it’s a commercial.” He shrugged at ‘Fael’s admonishing stare, waving a hand at him to go back to his show. The older man laughed quietly and did as he was gestured. Burke eyed the sandwich half waiting inside the open mini-cooler across the desk. ‘Fael’s wife had it in her head that her husband’s hoagies required three whole farm animals to construct. Meat fluttered out of the French bread slabs, waving at him until he either asked ‘Fael for a bite or went stomping to the deli for a pale version of his own. “When you see her, tell her I called. Make sure she knows I’ll be waiting for her at my house after work.”
He nearly hung up, but he heard Hayne making noises as if he wanted to say something. The sandwich called louder, since ‘Fael was making speedy progress into the one in his hands.
“Spit it out, Hayne, I’m busy.” He tapped his fingers on the calendar ink blotter atop his desk to prove it.
“Did you…nah, never mind.”
“Did I what?” He’d just ask for a bite. One and he’d be fine. Otherwise, he’d have to figure a way to turn his tongue into a meal because he wasn’t going to get to the deli any time soon.
“Have you ever slept with Cass?”
Well, look at that. He
could
swallow his own tongue.
“No,” he finally said after a few seconds of trying not to choke, sandwich forgotten. He ran his finger over a smudge of oil in the middle of the fifteenth. “But if I had—and I’m not saying I ever did—why would it be any business of yours? Cassie’s no kid anymore.” Burke congratulated himself for not sounding defensive. Or interested.
“No, she’s not,” Hayne agreed peaceably enough. “But she’s still my sister and you’re still my friend, even if you do spend more time with
her
these days.” He just had to get that in, didn’t he? Burke couldn’t dredge up any interest in explaining how he didn’t like picking up women every weekend, least of all the sobby, heartbroken ones Hayne found like bad pennies. “It’s just something she said.”
Burke took his hand off the paper.
She said something about sleeping with me?
“What did she say? Exactly?”
“She was mad, I guess, about this Luke thing.”
“You know about that?”
“I’m about the only person in town who didn’t, it turns out.” Hayne chuckled, sounding proud. “Damn, but she flattened his face, didn’t she?”
“Why don’t you get back to what she said about me?”
“What? Oh, she claimed she was having a wild, rampaging affair with you or something. I figured she was pulling my leg, but thought I’d ask anyway. Just in case.”
Uh-oh.
“Just in case what?”
“You know, in case I have to pull out your intestines through your nose or something.” He laughed, good and hearty, not noticing Burke was swallowing carefully instead of joining him. “I have to go,” Hayne said, abruptly cutting short his own good time. “You wouldn’t believe the hot little number who walked in here—”
Burke looked down at the receiver, which started emitting a loud dial tone. He hung up and shook his head at his friend’s lack of goodbye. Enough of a reminder for him. Hayne would shoot him if he found out the way Burke had noticed Cass’s rounder attributes, so he’d better stop noticing them. The sooner this bet was over with, the sooner they could all go back to the way things used to be.
“It’s Tuesday. Relationship Day,” ‘Fael pointed at the TV above Burke’s head with the remnants of his massive sandwich. “You hungry? Chavella made too much again. She says I have to watch my weight but then she gets mad when I don’t eat all this food. The
bruja’s
crazy, man.”
Burke spun in his chair as the psychologist who made the show bearable strolled on stage. Ah, what the hell? ‘Fael handed him the cooler and Burke rolled his chair to the other side of his desk. The sandwich wasn’t as satisfying as Cass would be, but he could do a lot worse than a good meal and a balding buddy to share it with, couldn’t he?
It didn’t matter if he couldn’t. Cassandra Bishop was officially off-limits. Anything and anyone else was going to feel disappointing. Which should be a relief. He couldn’t ruin their relationship with sex if he knew it wasn’t going to happen. Besides, ‘Fael had the distinct advantage of being a quiet date, something Cass couldn’t promise on her best day. That right there put him in Burke’s top five.
He bit into the sandwich, determined not to rate Cass at all.
Cass was extra careful as she walked up Burke’s porch steps later that night. While the shoes didn’t have a stiletto heel like last night’s nightmare in black velvet, they were still a good three inches high. Alice called them “platform sandals”. Certainly felt like a platform. A damn high one.
Standing in front of the door, she wiggled her toes, pleased at the soft coral color shining back from her pedicured nails. The shade didn’t match the periwinkle blue of her dress, but neither did her red goose bumps so she made herself push the doorbell so Burke would let her in. Precious heartbeats went by before she heard the doorknob turn. Warm, gold light arrowed out of the doorway to pool around her. It would have shared some of its heat, but Burke’s big shadow stepped in the way.
“Where the hell have you been?”
Cass motioned to enter the house and Burke grumbled something before pushing the door open wider, allowing her to pass. She continued her careful steps to the living room, holding on to her wicker basket as if it alone could do what she came here for.
I can do this, I can do this, I can do this…
“Stop scrunching up your face, you look like a three-year-old.”
“Stop scolding me like I’m a three-year-old.” He was ruining this whole thing.
“You’re late.”
“We never set a time.”
“You’re dressed wrong.”
“I’m dressed fine. I even had help.” She put her hands on her hips. From the way his inky hair seemed to stand on end, his mouth carved into a grim line, his hands in fists beneath the rolled up shirtsleeves, the man was absolutely livid. “What are you so mad about?”
“You wanted me to show you how to…do whatever it is you’re doing and you keep going off and doing stuff to yourself without asking me first.”
“I’m getting the easy stuff out of the way!” She tossed her basket on the couch, getting upset herself. “The things we need.”
“You don’t
need
a dress that short!”
Cass looked down. Was that what he was yelling about? She thought it was cute. So did Alice. Soft blue, with lace at the neckline and blue ribbon winding just under her breasts, the little outfit made the most of what she had to show off. Her favorite part was the flippy hem, the way it jumped this way and that made her want to wiggle just to see it go. “It’s a summer dress. They’re supposed to be short.”
“I can see your thighs!”
She raised an eyebrow and he stopped trying to argue. Instead, he pulled the white dishtowel off his shoulder and turned on his heel.
“I’ve got dishes to put away.”
“I’ll help—”
“No, you won’t. You’ll stay right there and you won’t say a single word. I’ll be back when I’m done and we’ll get to work.”
“Yes, master,” she grumbled.
“Better.”
Cass let him leave, flounced into the soft pillows of the couch and didn’t care in the slightest where the skirt folds landed. The man was as dumb as a rock. Of course it was short! It was a typical girly dress, like all the ones she hadn’t gotten to wear growing up. The stockings were silk, like whispers instead of fabric, and they were the most delicate things she’d ever touched. Alice showed her to wear special white gloves when she handled them so she wouldn’t snag them with the calluses on her hands.
Together, they spent hours finding make-up that didn’t set her on fire and Alice taught her how to put it on. She didn’t even need foundation, according to the woman she was voting into sainthood. Alice also showed her how to make her eyes look darker, more striking, and oddly enough, it worked.