Cassidy Lane Read online

  “Yes, of course. How are you, Kevin?” Cassidy tried to mask the shock she felt upon laying eyes on him. Back in the day, Kevin Tyson had been the captain of the Palo Alto High School baseball team, tall and ruggedly good-looking, with an athletic build and a thick head of wavy dark hair, the kind of guy who could probably go camping in the woods for a week and be even more handsome on the way home. Nearly every girl Cassidy knew—including herself and Patti—had secretly been in love with him at one point or another. He still had a nice face, but now he wore glasses and was balding, and he appeared noticeably soft despite his tall frame.

  He shrugged. “I’m hanging in. I was just telling Patti about my arthritic knees. Very painful.”

  “I’m so sorry to hear that.” Arthritis? Already? Cassidy buried her face in her wineglass and tried not to stare at his bulging midsection. First Crystal, now Kevin? Only five minutes into the reunion and she was already getting a bit depressed. At least Eliza still looked gorgeous, though she was still sort of mean. Why were the bitches always so pretty?

  He frowned. “It’s not fun. Makes it hard to work in my greenhouse. I was also telling Patti about that.”

  “Kevin’s really into horticulture,” Patti said.

  “Is that so?” Cassidy tried her best to sound interested but wasn’t sure how successful she was. The guy’s not even forty and he’s talking about arthritis and gardening? In a repeat of her encounter with Crystal, she smiled and hoped he couldn’t read her mind. She already felt mean enough. This reunion was clearly bringing out not only her insecurities but also her most judgmental side, and she willed both to make a quick retreat.

  “Yep,” he said with a resigned sigh. “Definitely hard with the arthritis, though.”

  “I can imagine,” Patti said.

  “That’s too bad.” Cassidy glanced at Patti, whose eyes sent an urgent we’ve got to escape!

  “It was nice seeing you again, Kevin, but I just spotted Krista Nelson.” Patti smiled politely and pointed across the room. “We’re going to make our way over there to say hi. Good luck with your knees. And your plants.”

  Before Kevin could even reply, Patti grabbed Cassidy’s arm and pulled her into the crowd. When they were a safe distance away, she spoke under her breath. “Holy sweet mother of Jesus. I like Kevin, I really do, but I was going to light myself on fire if I had to talk to him for one minute longer.”

  Cassidy stole a peek back at the bar. “What happened to him? I had such a crush on him at Paly. I remember him as being much more fun than that, not to mention way cuter.”

  “Apparently he grew up and became boring. I know it’s mean to say, but I think I almost fell asleep for the last part of that conversation.” She tapped the side of her head, pretending to wake herself up.

  Cassidy pressed a palm against her forehead. “How did he get so old and depressing? Are we that old and depressing?”

  Patti squeezed her arm. “Stop it. We’re not old or depressing. We are youthful and lively. Or so I choose to believe. My children might tell you otherwise.”

  As they walked through the crowd, Cassidy scanned the faces around them, a blend of familiar and unfamiliar, together creating a literal memory lane. Some faces looked fresh and vibrant, others faded and weary, and she wondered how much of the difference was due to genetics and how much to life itself.

  Marriage.

  Kids.

  Homeownership.

  Divorce.

  Arthritic knees.

  She hadn’t experienced any of those things yet, but she imagined that collectively they could add a lot of city miles to one’s appearance. She furrowed her brow in thought. A twentieth high-school reunion? Maybe that could spark an idea for her next book. She was a tad more than halfway through a novel right now, but she’d been dragging her proverbial feet a bit, and her editor was pressuring her to finish it.

  They were en route to Krista when Patti whispered under her breath. “Abort! Abort!”

  Cassidy turned her head. “What are you talking about?”

  “Curses, too late,” Patti whispered.

  “Hello again,” a male voice said.

  A tall, skinny man wearing a sport coat and an equally skinny tie approached them. His blond hair was pulled into a ponytail.

  Cassidy had no idea who he was.

  “Hi again, Trent.” Patti turned to Cassidy. “Do you remember Cassidy Lane?”

  Trent gave Cassidy a quick once-over, then squinted at Patti. “I can’t say that I do, but I would love some weed. Do you got any?”

  Patti held her free palm up. “Sorry, Trent, fresh out.”

  He looked at Cassidy. “You got any, Cathy?”

  “Cassidy,” Patti said.

  “Yep.” He turned and wandered away. “See ya.”

  “What was that?” Cassidy whispered to Patti when he was out of earshot.

  “I told you, witness protection,” Patti whispered back. “My money’s on informant for some huge drug bust.”

  “Ladies!” Krista suddenly emerged from the crowd and gave them each a hug, standing on her tiptoes to do so. “How are you? You both look amazing! You always did, though. Two of the cutest girls in school.”

  Patti waved a hand in front of her. “Stop it. We look our age and you damn well know it. You, on the other hand, still don’t have a line on your face. What’s your secret?”

  Krista patted her tiny cheeks. “What can I say? Black don’t crack.”

  Cassidy laughed and glanced around the room. “Did Andre come too?” Krista and Andre had been together since ninth grade and had been voted cutest couple their senior year. They’d gone to different colleges but dated long-distance all four years and married shortly after graduation. Now they had three adorable daughters, all spitting images of their mother. If Krista weren’t so darned nice, Cassidy would probably be jealous of how her life had worked out. But it was simply impossible not to like her.

  Krista pointed toward the far corner of the bar. “He’s getting me a drink.” She lowered her voice and leaned closer to them. “Did you hear about Eliza Wood?”

  Cassidy and Patti both shook their heads.

  “Apparently her husband left her…for their twenty-five-year-old nanny.”

  “No!” Patti covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Yes,” Krista said. “Some young hottie from Sweden. Huge scandal.”

  “Hotter than Eliza?” Patti raised an eyebrow.

  “I think younger is the operative word,” Krista said.

  Cassidy frowned. “I can’t believe we’re old enough to be having this conversation.”

  Krista shrugged. “Forty is just around the corner. We might as well face it.”

  Cassidy tapped her chest. “Eliza ran into me when I first got here, as in literally ran into me. She spilled her drink all over my new dress.”

  Krista lowered her voice. “She’s schnockered off her firm little butt and is in oversharing mode. Sounds like it was a pretty messy divorce, although my sources tell me her drinking like a fish had as much to do with the split as the hottie nanny.”

  “This is truly like being in high school again,” Cassidy said. “You still have the best gossip.”

  Krista snapped her fingers. “It’s a gift, what can I say?” She leaned toward them again. “Speaking of gossip, have you seen Kim Harvey yet?”

  Cassidy and Patti again shook their heads.

  “She looks a…ma…zing. Lost a hundred pounds.”

  “Wow, that’s incredible!” Patti said. “I can’t even lose five pounds without them immediately reappearing somewhere else on my body.”

  Cassidy glanced in the direction of Kevin Tyson and lowered her voice. “I prefer more uplifting reunion stories. Not to sound like a teenager, but finding out that people are getting divorced and going downhill physically is bumming me out.
”

  Krista laughed. “I hate to break it to you, but while not all of us will end up divorced, we’re all going downhill—sooner or later. That said, if you want to talk about those who have managed to avoid that slope so far, have you seen Brandon Forrester?”

  Cassidy shook her head.

  “Well, girl, have a good long look when you get a chance. I don’t know where he was hiding in high school, but that man is fine. Babe with a capital B.”

  Cassidy laughed. “Krista! You’re a married woman—to a man in this room, I might add.”

  “So? No one said I can’t look.” She touched Patti’s arm. “You look, right? I know you do.

  Patti nodded. “I promised to be faithful, but I didn’t promise to go blind. Roy’s on board with that.”

  Krista looked at Cassidy. “There you go.”

  Patti scanned the crowd. “I didn’t see Brandon come in. Is he here with his wife? I think she and I might have done a tequila shot together at the last reunion. It’s all kind of a blur.”

  Krista put her hands on her waist and slowly shook her head. “Di…vorced.”

  “Was there a nanny involved?” Cassidy asked.

  Patti covered her eyes with her free hand. “Please tell me there wasn’t. That would make me afraid to hire one, even though I’d love to escape from my kids when they shift into their bratty mode, which is basically all the time these days.”

  “I don’t know the details of what went down, but I don’t think it was anything scandalous,” Krista said.

  Cassidy glanced around the room. “I never really knew Brandon at Paly. Do they have kids?”

  Krista nodded. “Twin boys.”

  Patti took a sip of her drink. “I’m sad to hear that. He was such a nice guy. For some reason we always had math together.” She looked at Krista. “He and I and your husband too. What was up with that? We were like the Three Mathketeers.”

  Cassidy pretended to wince. “Did you learn that joke from your kids?”

  Krista gave Cassidy a suggestive smile. “So, my dear…Brandon Forrester is divorced and looking yummy. I just thought you might find that information interesting.”

  Cassidy shielded her face with her hand. “Please, don’t go there.”

  Patti pushed her shoulder. “Why not? Weren’t you just complaining about being single?”

  “I was, but I wasn’t looking to find a boyfriend tonight. I live in New York, remember? That’s a long way from California.”

  Krista held up a palm. “So? Andre and I live in Seattle, and yet here we are. Have you ever heard of this thing called an airplane?”

  Cassidy smirked. “Very funny. But I didn’t come here for a round table on the state of my dating life. Can we please talk about something else?”

  “Well, hello there, Brandon,” Patti said over Cassidy’s shoulder.

  Cassidy felt her face flush and hoped Patti was joking. She slowly turned around and saw Brandon approaching them, followed by Andre.

  She hadn’t been joking.

  And Krista hadn’t been exaggerating.

  He was gorgeous.

  Wow.

  He was tall and broad-shouldered, with salt-and-pepper hair and piercing gray eyes. Had he been such an Adonis in high school? She reached into the deepest corners of her memory but came up with nothing. Had they ever had a class together? She didn’t think so. From what she could recall, they’d never even met, at least officially. Funny how high school is like that, she thought. Everyone knows who everyone else is, yet so many of us go the entire four years without ever speaking a word to one another.

  “Hi, Krista. Hi, Patti, Cassidy.” He made eye contact with each woman as he spoke her name. “It’s nice to see you all.”

  “Hi, Brandon,” Cassidy eked out the words, suddenly shy. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Patti and Krista watching her reaction and trying not to laugh.

  Andre handed Krista her drink, then turned to face the others. “Well, if it isn’t the one and only Patti Bramble, looking as beautiful as ever,” he said to Patti.

  Patti did a little curtsy. “It’s Patti Baker now, but thank you, my friend.”

  “And the lovely Cassidy Lane. I’m surprised you made it, what with being a famous author and all.”

  Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Give me a break, Andre. I bet you couldn’t even name one of my books.”

  “I know they’re chick books. Does that count?”

  Krista elbowed him. “No.”

  Brandon cleared his throat. “I’m not technically a chick, but I’ve read them.”

  Cassidy looked at him, truly surprised. “You’ve read my books?”

  Patti eyed him with suspicion more than surprise. “You enjoy women’s fiction, do you now? Or are you just saying that because Cassidy’s rocking that dress?”

  “Patti!” Cassidy felt her cheeks flush.

  Brandon chuckled. “I guess I do enjoy women’s fiction. I’ll read anything, though. I’ve always got a stack of books on my nightstand.”

  The thought of Brandon Forrester reading her novels in his bed flustered Cassidy even more, and she quickly buried her face in her wineglass so he wouldn’t notice. She glanced at Krista, who winked and gave her a triumphant I-told-you-so look.

  “Hey, there’s Angela Green,” Patti announced. “Let’s go say hi.” She interlocked her arm with Krista’s, then turned to Brandon and Cassidy. “Brandon, it was nice seeing you. Cassidy, we’ll catch up with you later.” They quickly disappeared into the crowd. Andre wandered off too, leaving Brandon and Cassidy alone.

  Cassidy nibbled on her thumbnail and tried to think of something interesting to say to keep him from moving on as well. She cleared her throat. “So, do you still live around here? I’m in New York now.”

  “Yep, not too far from the house I grew up in, actually. My boys just started kindergarten at Walter Hays this year.” He looked around the restaurant. “It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that they go to school there now, especially when I think that I met a lot of the people in this room when I was at Walter Hays.”

  “It’s horrifying, isn’t it? We’re getting so old.”

  He smiled. “I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I agree it’s been a while since we were kids.”

  “No really, Brandon, it’s horrifying. We’re closer to fifty than we are to twenty, do you realize that? That means we’re closer to wearing dentures than to wearing braces.”

  “Wow, you’re right. Maybe horrifying is the appropriate word choice.”

  “Oh, believe me, it is. I’m quite particular about my adjectives.” She sipped her wine.

  He laughed. “Were you this funny in high school?”

  She shrugged. “Ask the librarian. That’s where I spent most of high school.”

  He gestured to his beer. “Sometimes I wish I’d done more of that and less of this.”

  She gestured to her glass. “Sometimes I wish I’d done more of this and less of that. I probably would have had a lot more fun.”

  “Life in New York must be fun, especially as a writer. Sounds exciting. How many martinis do you average when you ‘do lunch’ with your editor?” He made an air quote with his free hand.

  She answered with a straight face. “At least three, but never more than four.”

  He laughed again. “You’re quick. I like that. I like that dress too. Patti was right.”

  The compliment surprised her, and her self-assuredness immediately disappeared. She visualized herself in her New York apartment, alone at her laptop, no makeup on, her hair pulled up into a messy bun, and felt decidedly unexciting.

  But he didn’t have to know that.

  She swallowed.

  If you only knew what my life was really like.

  She decided to change the topic of the conversation, hoping to r
ecapture her wit along the way. “Enough about me. What about you? What did you grow up to be?”

  “I’m an attorney. I run a small firm downtown.”

  “What kind of law?”

  “If I told you in detail, you’d fall asleep standing up. But in ten words or less: we specialize in patent disputes for technology companies. I bought the practice from my dad when he retired and moved to Carmel a couple of years ago.” He took a sip from his glass, and she found herself wondering what kind of beer he was drinking. Why was she wondering that? Or was it his lips she was interested in?

  Mmm.

  She blinked and tried to stay focused on the conversation. “Do you like being a lawyer?”

  “I do. I guess I enjoy arguing with people.”

  “I’m terrible at arguing. If they made running from conflict an Olympic sport, I might win the gold.” There it was! Wit, welcome back.

  Brandon chuckled, but before he could say anything, Cassidy felt a tug on her arm.

  “Cassidy Lane! How are you?”

  She turned and saw Connie Thatcher standing here.

  The ever-inappropriate Connie Thatcher.

  Oh no.

  Cassidy forced a smile. “Hi, Connie.” Please don’t embarrass me. Not now. Not in front of Brandon Forrester.

  “Hi, Cassidy! It’s great to see you. Are you going to write a book about our reunion? Wouldn’t that be fun?”

  Cassidy tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Maybe. I never know where an idea will come from.”

  Connie poked her shoulder. “I always wonder what parts of your books are from your real life, especially if there’s a racy scene.” She grinned at Brandon. “Anytime it gets a little hot and heavy, I’m like, Did Cassidy do this? Go, Cassidy!” She held up her hand for a high five, clearly proud of her profound insights.

  Cassidy winced and lightly tapped Connie’s palm to oblige her, then glanced over at Brandon. He had an amused look on his face but let the comment pass. Instead he pointed toward the back of the room.

  “I think I’m going to say hi to a couple of guys I used to play tennis with back in the day. I’ll let you two catch up. Cassidy, it was really nice chatting with you, and congratulations on the success of your books. Have a safe trip back to New York. Connie, take care.”