Mistakes Were Made(105)
“Cassie!” Acacia called from upstairs. “Come put your suit on! We’re going swimming!”
“Duty calls,” Cassie told Erin.
They stepped back from each other, Erin trailing her hand down Cassie’s arm to catch her fingers.
“You gonna swim with us?”
Erin shook her head. “You don’t think it’s weird enough without me around?”
“I do,” Cassie said, “but it’d definitely be better if you were.”
“I think I can give you three a day without me,” Erin said. “I’ve got some work to do anyway.”
Parker and Acacia came barreling down the stairs. Cassie immediately dropped Erin’s hand, then felt bad about it, but Erin waved her off.
“C’mon, slowpoke,” Acacia said.
“We’re not waiting for you,” Parker said, and they didn’t, heading straight outside and to the pool.
“Go,” Erin said. “I’ll be here if you need me.”
It was a pretty normal Saturday, all things considered. Having Acacia splash in the pool with them was so great, most of the time Cassie forgot things were supposed to be weird. Caleb showed up, said Lila and Madison would be by after they picked up Haylee from the train station.
About a half an hour later, Erin came out to say hi to Caleb. Cassie didn’t hear any part of their conversation, because Erin had on white cutoffs, and her legs went on forever. It wasn’t fair. Cassie kept staring after her even though she’d disappeared inside.
“Um, Cassie?”
Cassie snapped her head around to look at Caleb. “Yeah?” she said, sounding breathless instead of nonchalant.
Caleb waved a deck of cards at her, then started to shuffle them. “I asked you three times if you wanted to play continental rummy?”
“Cut her some slack,” Parker said. “She’s easily distracted by her girlfriend.”
Cassie didn’t mean to squeak, but she definitely did. Caleb stared at Parker, and then at her, and then toward the house. Back to Parker.
“What?”
“She’s dating my mom.”
The cards shot out of Caleb’s hands. Acacia had been about to get into the pool, but she took a step toward Cassie, like she was going to need to run interference. Cassie backed up.
“Right,” she said. “Well. I’m—uh—is anyone else thirsty? I’m going to get a drink. Anyone need anything?”
“‘Thirsty’ is definitely the word I’d use,” Parker said, not looking up from her magazine.
Cassie fled instead of waiting for the others’ answers.
She found Erin in the kitchen. Before Erin could say hello, Cassie wrapped her arms around her middle and dropped her forehead onto Erin’s shoulder. “Caleb knows we’re dating.”
Erin sighed. “Of course he does.” She held Cassie gently. “Are you okay with that?”
“I mean, yeah,” Cassie said, her voice muffled against Erin. “It’s obviously part of this whole dating thing. It would’ve just been nice for Parker not to drop that into conversation without warning me.”
Cassie’s head moved with Erin’s shoulder as she shrugged. “That’s Parker, babe,” Erin said. “Besides the fact that she tells Caleb everything, she’s going to make us suffer a bit for lying to her.”
“How do you know she doesn’t hate us?”
One of Erin’s hands found Cassie’s face to tilt her head up, make her look at her.
“If she hated us, she wouldn’t be here,” Erin said. “Her dad lives ten minutes away. She wouldn’t have picked you up this morning if she hated you. She would do a lot worse than make you uncomfortable if she hated you.”
Cassie remembered last semester, remembered weeks going by without ever seeing Parker, and knew Erin was right.
“It still sucks.”
“It does,” Erin agreed. “But … I can do this without worrying about who’s around.”
She kissed Cassie, softly, sweetly, and neither of them looked over their shoulder to see if they’d been caught.
“Okay,” Cassie said. “I guess it’s worth it.”
“You guess?”
Cassie grinned. “Maybe you should do it again to convince me.”
Erin was very convincing.
That night, after Erin barred her from helping clean the kitchen anymore and Acacia disappeared to call Donovan, Cassie knocked on Parker’s bedroom door.
“Come in.”
Cassie opened the door and took a couple steps into the room. Parker was fiddling with things on her dresser, not paying Cassie any attention.
“Parker…”
“Mm-hmm?” She was completely nonchalant.
“Can we like—talk?”
“Sure, bud. What’s up?” Parker sat cross-legged on her bed and looked at Cassie.
Cassie flapped her hands awkwardly. “I’m serious.”
Parker sighed. “I know. So talk.”
Parker had been nice to her, really, all day. Parker had been good. But Cassie had been a mess. Any time she’d actually thought about things, she’d been confused and awkward and distant and there was no way she was going to get past that until she did this.