Page 24 of Moonshine Kiss
“Why did Baxter leave?” I asked again. Softly this time.
“Because he wasn’t good enough for you. When are you gonna stop wasting your time on these assholes and find someone who deserves you, Cass?”
12
Bowie
Ishouldn’t have said half of the things I said to Cassidy tonight, I thought to myself as I steered in the direction of Bootleg Springs. I was already kicking myself for it. Those feelings were locked down long ago and had no business being voiced.
She shifted in the seat next to me, and I tried not to think about how right all this felt. Dinner had felt like a date. But not just any date. The kind with a whole history behind it, behind us. The kind with a cozy future in front of it.
I was walking a fine line right now. I could reach out and take the hand she rested on the console between us. And that would be crossing the line. The line Cassidy didn’t know about. The line I spent more time than I cared to admit wondering if it still existed.
I’d worked so damn hard trying to erase the stain of my upbringing. I was the son of an alcoholic and an emotionally unavailable mother. We’d been poor. Once in a while we’d been hungry. And that’s still what some people saw when they looked at me.
Not the master’s degree-earning high school vice principal. Not the community volunteer. The town council member. Or the shoveler of sidewalks, the carrier of groceries.
Cassidy had never seen me that way. But others had.
“Mighty big sigh you got there,” she commented, still looking out her window.
“I thought you fell asleep.”
“Nope, just running through my shopping list,” she said.
“Whatcha buyin’?”
“Cat supplies.”
“Cat supplies?”
“I’m adopting a cat.” Her tone implied that she was daring me to have a problem with it.
We lapsed back into silence, and I found myself once again wishing that I was holding her hand.
“Sorry about Erin,” she said, breaking the silence again.
“Not your fault.”
“She seemed nice.”
“I think she left with a guy at the bar,” I told her.
I could see the corner of Cass’s mouth lift. “Did she now?”
“And what’s so amusing about that?” I wanted to know.
“Nothin’ at all. Not a damn thing. Were you two serious?”
I shrugged and turned the radio on low. “Nah. Just a couple of dates.”
“You ever been in love?” she asked, turning to look at me.
“Nope,” I lied.
“Mmm.” She made that skeptical-like noise she tended to when she wasn’t believing the line she was being fed.
“You?” I asked.
