Page 162
“Syd sends her regrets,” Emberleigh is saying to Cass while they arrange the boxes on the last food table. “She’s feeling under the weather.”
“I hope she’s okay,” Cass says. “I’ll bring her some soup later this week.”
I walk over to Cass, unable to keep my distance. “Always thinking of others,” I say. “Forever the caretaker of the community.”
“I love this town,” she says.
“Me too,” I say, kissing her cheek and stepping back to look down into her brown eyes. “Love. So much love.”
“Are we both still talking about the town?” she asks.
“I’m just a man in love—with this town … and certain real estate office managers.”
“Sweet talker,” she says, smiling a smile that’s just for me.
“You two are adorable,” Emberleigh says.
“Sorry, we’re probably too sweet at this point,” Cass says.
“No,” Emberleigh says. “It gives me hope for Syd. She’s sworn off men since Evan.”
“Give her time,” Cass says. “She’ll meet someone when the time is right.”
“Or completely wrong,” I tease. “The wrong man is often the right one.”
“Utterly wrong,” Cass adds, nudging me playfully. “And maybe he’ll even be actually horrible.”
“No more annoying than she is.”
Emberleigh’s eyes bounce between us. “Are we still talking about Syd?”
“No,” I say, realizing how my last taunt of Cass sounded. “Syd is not annoying. Not at all.”
Cass laughs at me being caught.
More people arrive, asking where to set Crock-Pots or side dishes. Cass directs everyone, seamlessly pulling together all the details.
The musical talent arrives. Dustin, one of our local firefighters, and a group of guys he plays with, set up on the makeshift stage we set up off to the side of the back porch. A rented dance floor sits on the lawn in front of them, ready to be put to use after the meal.
Cass and I greet guests, and after everyone’s here, she rings the dinner bell she asked me to install shortly after she moved in. It’s her vision to host events like this regularly.
She reminds me all the time, saying, This house was never meant to be home to a single woman. I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes we talk in vague terms about our future, even though we haven’t made anything official.
I could have rushed things, proposing and squeezing a ceremony in before our season started, but I figured we needed the time to actually date—willingly—to get to know one another better, and to let her settle into her new home. She sold the house she and Winona lived in a few months after moving to Cherry Hill. And then she took all her friends on a spring vacation to the island where Dustin grew up on a girl trip with part of the proceeds from that sale.
Cass rings the bell and everyone gathers around the food tables to fill their plates. The tables around the yard fill with our guests. Cass and I sit with Declan and Winona, Trey, Emberleigh and Dustin, Patrick and Daisy, and Lincoln and his wife.
After dinner, the band starts playing and we all dance two-step and slow dances, and then we gather in groups when the band plays a party song.
My guys stick around to help with cleanup, and by the time the sun has dropped far below the horizon, the yard is back to normal, the tables are stored in the back shed, and the trash is all in the cans to the side of the house.
I do one more round of the yard to make sure there’s nothing major to clean up and then I come inside where Cass and one of the staff I insisted on hiring are finishing up washing dishes.
“I could have hired a few extra people,” I tell Cass.
“I’m old-school,” she says. “I like to wash dishes after a party. I spend the time thinking about all the people and the moments shared. It’s my own private game film.”
“I love when you use football analogies,” I tell her.
