"I don't know what's going on, but nothing's changed between us, so whatever you're thinking, get it out of your head."
She closed her eyes, breathed in the scent of him on his shirt, took comfort in his embrace and his body, so solid and confident.
"I don't know what to think," she said in a small voice. "This is so out of my comfort zone. I can't handle it."
Tilting her chin up so she could meet his eyes, she saw the dark look he gave her. "The Natalie I know would never say she couldn't handle something. So cut it out."
She swallowed, knowing he was right. Damning herself for even having the thought, and so thankful he didn't let her get away with it.
Reaching up on tiptoe, she gave him a kiss full on the mouth. "I'm so glad you came."
"Me, too."
With that, Natalie reentered the house, the buzzer on the oven going off, but before she could take the rolls out, the doorbell rang.
"Again?" Sarah said, glancing toward the door, then at Natalie. "Who else did you invite and not tell me about?"
Natalie shrugged, her shoulders slumping. "Nobody else. Who in the world could it be now?"
Natalie went to answer the door and stood back as Cassie and her carry-on luggage filled the threshold.
"Cassie?" Natalie gasped.
The steady notes of the oven timer kept sounding and the smell of burning dinner rolls filtered through the house in a waft of acrid smoke. But Natalie didn't notice.
"Mom." Just that tiny utterance of her name, and Natalie knew that something had happened.
Cassie flung her arms around her mother, holding tightly just as the smoke detector triggered and ear-piercing beeps resonated through the house.
With brief instructions to Sarah and Tony to start dinner without them, Natalie ushered Cassie upstairs. While the guests pitched in getting the windows and doors open to air the house out, and laying out the Easter dinner, Cassie began to cry and cry in her mother's bedroom.
Just then the smoke detector finally stopped screeching.
Natalie couldn't get much of anything out of Cassie except for the news that Austin had done something upsetting.
On hearing that, Natalie tensed to the breaking point. Cassie's explanation could very well be every parents' worst nightmare.
Natalie felt as if she were being sucked into a current of floodwaters. Suffocating. Drowning. The weight was a sinking feeling the likes of which she had never before felt in her life.
"Cassie, you need to calm down and tell me what happened."
In between gulps, Cassie said, "Her name is Candi and I hate her."
Taken aback, Natalie held Cassie's hands as they sat on her bed and faced one another. "Who's Candi?"
"She's the girl Austin cheated on me with. I hate him, too." Cassie's mascara was dark smudges beneath her eyes, her lashes spiked with tears. "She works at Chicago Carryout and he was flirting with her right in front of me, and then I went to his dorm room last night—and he was with her. In bed. I caught them doing it."
The way Cassie said "doing it" with a negative ring and connotation gave Natalie a thread of hope that her daughter had not "done it" with Austin.
Compassion filled her response. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that." Natalie moved to hug her daughter, but Cassie straightened, angry. The tears subsided and she sniffed.
In a vengeful tone, Cassie blurted, "I hate Austin Mably. I wish I'd never met him."
"You're upset with good reason."
"I'm not upset. I'm so mad, I want to kill him." With that, Cassie broke down and cried again. She'd been hurt, her voice bitter. "How could he do that to me, Mom? We were supposed to be going to his house for spring break and then he does something like this to me. Why?"
Natalie wished she had a viable answer. She hated to be real honest about it: Austin Mably was a jerk. She'd sensed it when she'd met him and she'd had a feeling something like this was going to happen. But how deep the damage was, was yet to be determined.
Downstairs, the guests were forgotten, as well as Greg's look of concern as Natalie had ushered their daughter upstairs.
"Cassie…did anything happen between you and
Austin other than what you found out? I mean—" Natalie selected her words carefully "—did you and him…"
"God, Mom. Just ask me." Cassie's eyes swam with tears. "I'm still a virgin. I held out. That's why he went to someone else. If I'd've let him, we'd still be together."
Relief came out in a whoosh of words. "No, Cassie. He would not have stayed with you. I suspect he's the player type. He would have liked you for the short term, but he would have moved on."
"I'll never know, will I?" Cassie got up, went to the bathroom and yanked a line of toilet paper off the dispenser to blow her nose. She gazed at her reflection. "I feel like crap and I look like crap, and it cost you big bucks to change the airline ticket again. You can yell at me if you want. I think I deserve it."
"Oh, Cassie, no…" Natalie patted the bed beside her so Cassie would come back. "I'm not mad."
Cassie sat down, wiped the underside of her nose, the corners of her eyes. "You should be. If I was my mom, I'd be royally pissed at me."
Natalie reached out and hugged her daughter, loving the soft feel of her, breathing in the smell of her hair. "At a time like this, I am so incredibly proud of you."
Muttering in Natalie's ear, she asked, "What for?"
"For being true to yourself. For coming home when you needed a friend, and for considering me your friend and your mom."
"I always thought you were my best friend, Mom. I've never stopped thinking it. I'm sorry if I forgot to tell you lately."
A tear slipped
