Page 21 of Moonshine Kiss
Cassidy
Ishoved the restroom door open with enough force to have it rebounding back at me. So I gave it another bad-tempered push on my way in. It was one of those bathrooms that was decked out to be soothing and spa-like with caramel colored tiles all the way up the wall and a fancy sink that looked like a trough.
Peering in the mirror, I wondered how in the hell I’d sunk to this level. I was a good person. A law-abiding citizen, a squeaky-clean deputy sworn to uphold the law, an excellent daughter, a good friend…despite whatsomemight say. I’d gone to college. I donated to food drives and fire station roof funds. I paid my taxes.
So what bad karma led me to this mirror in this restaurant on this shitty date where Bowie Bodine of all people got to witness my humiliation?
Something needed to change.
I’d name my cats Smokey and Bandit, I decided. I’d figure out how to cook and host elaborate dinners for friends. I’d learn Italian. I’d have strings-free sex with handsome, sexy, STD-free gentlemen. I would be the cool aunt. If June ever got over her disinterest in people. Gosh darn it, I would have a rich, full life all by myself and never again subject myself to the Baxters of the world. Or the Bowies.
The restroom door opened and closed quietly.
“Cassidy, right?” Bowie’s perky, adorable date asked. She barely came to my shoulder in her cute wedge boots.
“Yeah,” I said warily. Usually when female strangers approached you in the bathroom it wasn’t good.
She joined me at the mirror, opening her small clutch and pulling out lipstick. “He mentioned you on our first date.”
First date? They’d gone on more than one date?I hated the icy wave of pain that ran through me. He wasn’t mine anymore. He had never been mine.
“I grew up with his little sister,” I mumbled, making a show of washing my hands.
“Yeah, that’s what he said. But here’s the thing.” She reapplied her already perfect lipstick and slipped it back in her bag. “It was thewayhe said it.”
“What way?”
“Like you were special. Important. Who brings up a little sister’s friend on a first date? Girl to girl, that man out there has some big, scary feelings for you.”
“I don’t understand.” I dropped all pretense of washing my hands for a third time. “He told me in no uncertain terms years ago that I was nothing but another little sister to him.”
Shut the fuck up, Cassidy! Mayday! Mayday!
I turned back to the mirror. “I’m sorry. You’re his date. I shouldn’t be saying any of this.”
Erin sighed. “Look, no matter what he said, the way he looks at you says something entirely different. He looks at you like you’re the center of everything.”
I looked down at the soap suds in the sink. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t play second fiddle. No matter how cute the conductor is.”
“Are you warning me off? Because we’re next-door neighbors. It’s hard to avoid each other. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
She smiled. Damn it. She had a dimple in her right cheek. “I’m not warning you off. I’m letting you know that my date has some powerful feelings for you, and I’m going to go back out there, make an excuse, and leave you two to what should have been your date.”
“I’m here on a date,” I reminded her. A date from hell.
“The way Bowie was laying into Mr. Shithead when I left the table, I doubt he’ll be much of an obstacle.”
She started for the door, then paused. “Good luck out there.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
She gave me another smile, and I immediately pictured her at the top of a pyramid at a football game. “Maybe I’m a romantic at heart. Or maybe I’m just annoyed it wasn’t me he was looking at that way. Either way, there’s a tall, sexy drink of water at the bar I might let buy me a drink,” she mused.
“I spent most of my life thinkin’ I’d marry him,” I confessed as she turned.
“Maybe it’s time y’all get started on that.” With those parting words, Erin floated out of the restroom.
