“Hey, Dad?” Laura whispered.
“Yeah?”
“I told Cassie.”
Their father frowned. “Told her wha—” His eyes got wide. “I thought you weren’t going to say anything.”
“She has a right to know Mom’s sick.”
“I agree.” He leaned forward. “But your mother is still going to kill me.”
Cassie’s mouth went dry. “Time to say your goodbyes, then.”
Cassie’s eyes met her mother’s the moment she entered the room. A little gasp escaped Judy’s mouth, and Cassie saw confusion, excitement and apprehension cross her face in quick succession.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hi.” She looked from Laura to her husband and back to Cassie, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “It’s nice to see you.”
“It’s nice to see you, too.” Cassie stepped forward and hugged her mom, breathing in the scent of cherry blossoms and hairspray. Judy Quinn looked exactly the same as she had ten years ago, short and round, with bright red hair, deep green eyes and a smattering of freckles across her nose.
“Hope you don’t mind us dropping in on you,” Cassie continued.
Judy hugged Laura and then turned to her husband. “Did you know about this?”
“Not at all. It seems like they conspired against us.”
“Oh?” Judy turned to Laura. She couldn’t quite look Cassie in the eye. “What’s the occasion?”
“No occasion.” Laura led the group into the kitchen and started rummaging through the refrigerator. “We just thought it was a good time to catch up.”
Judy’s face turned red, and she smacked her husband’s arm. “You told them, didn’t you?”
He had the wherewithal to look abashed. “Technically, I only told Laura. Then Laura told Cassie.”
“Thanks for throwing me under the bus, Dad.”
“Hey, if I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.”
Judy threw her hands up and walked over to the cabinet with the wine glasses. She pulled two down as Laura retrieved a bottle from the fridge. As an afterthought, she grabbed one more for Cassie.
“I didn’t want you to worry,” she said.
“So, what was the plan?” For the first time, Laura sounded more hurt than exasperated. “Tell us after you had it removed?”
“In an ideal world, yes.”
“And what if something had gone wrong?” Cassie’s voice shook, and she hated the sound of it. “Then you would’ve taken away any chance of us being able to say goodbye.”
The room fell dead silent. Cassie could feel the hypocrisy crawling across her skin. She’d pushed them away for ten years. She’d never given them room to work through what had happened right alongside her. And her last run-in with Novak? She’d waved it off like it was nothing, despite the fact she’d almost died. Again.
“That was never my intention.” Her mom’s voice was quiet. Angry. Barely controlled. “I just didn’t want you to worry, that’s all.”
Laura placed a hand on top of their mother’s. “We know. And we’re not staging an intervention here. We just wanted to visit. Have a little family bonding time.”
“Which I think is an excellent idea,” Walter said. When Judy shot him a look, he grabbed his keys from the hook. “I also think picking up some more wine is an excellent idea.”
“And cheese. And orange juice. Eggs. We’ll need two more steaks,” Judy added.
“I’ll be back soon.” Walter leaned over and kissed Cassie on the forehead. “I’m really glad you came.”
Laura scoffed. “What am I, chopped liver?”
“No one deserves to be liver.” Their father scratched his chin. “More like moldy cheese. Or watery sour cream.”
“Soggy pizza,” Cassie offered.
Walter winked. “You could do worse than soggy pizza.”
Judy tried not to laugh. “Go to the store, Walter.”
“Yes, dear.”
“Get me chocolate.”
“Yes, dear.”
The momentary easiness that came with their usual banter left the house as soon as Walter closed the door behind him. Cassie was too nervous to sip her wine, so she left it on the countertop to gather beads of condensation.
“Well, you girls look tired. Let me get your room ready so you can take a nap before dinner.”
“The drive wasn’t bad—”
“I slept on the way here—”
Judy waved them off. “It has to be done sooner or later. Might as well do it now.”
Cassie trudged up the stairs after them. The house was familiar enough, but the details were foreign. She remembered the banister being an ugly pine color. Now it was a dark mahogany. The downstairs bathroom was pale green instead of a faded mauve. She also could’ve sworn there hadn’t been French doors leading out to the back porch.
They had done a lot of renovating over the past ten years.
Judy led them to one of the guest bedrooms and pushed open the door. She fluffed the pillows and slid back the closet door. “Laura, last time you were here, you left one of your sweatshirts. I washed it for you.”
Laura pulled out a gray hoodie with the words San Francisco embroidered across the chest. “Sweet. I was looking for this.”
Judy turned to Cassie. “Your room might take a little longer.”
“That’s okay.” Cassie blushed. “I can help.”
The second guest bedroom was piled high with yarn and empty boxes and a portable wardrobe. “I turned it into my sewing room. I don’t remember it being this messy.”
“That’s fine. I can…sleep on the couch?”
“You’re not sleeping on the couch. I’ll get the blowup mattress. You can sleep on the floor in Laura’s room for tonight. Then we’ll figure something else out.” Judy walked back down the hall and pulled the mattress bag out of the closet. “How long will you be staying?”
“Oh, um—”
“We never actually discussed that.” Laura chuckled. “At least a few days, if that’s all right?”
“Of course.” Her tone didn’t betray her thoughts. “You can stay as long as you want. You both are always welcome.”
The words sounded nice to Cassie’s ears, but she couldn’t help noticing something beneath the surface. Was she overthinking the whole thing, or was her mom apprehensive about Cassie staying?
Cassie didn’t blame her. All four of them knew there was a tough conversation ahead of them, but for right now, it felt nice to pretend everything was normal.
It’d only be a matter of time before
