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  Okay, she admitted, she might not be able to forget. That didn’t mean she couldn’t steer clear of any more stolen kisses, minimize the risk, prevent disaster from striking again. It would just take some fancy footwork and plenty of polite excuses for never spending a single second with him alone.

  “You okay?” Karen asked, studying her worriedly. “You look a little flushed.”

  “It’s hot out here,” she said with an unmistakable trace of defensiveness.

  “It’s cloudy and barely seventy,” Karen pointed out.

  “Do you always have to take everything so literally?” she grumbled.

  Karen grinned. “Ah, this is about Cole, then. I should have known.”

  “Oh, go suck an egg.”

  “Can’t. I’m next up to bat. If you want to get in the lineup, see Emma. She’s managing the team.”

  Despite herself, Cassie chuckled. “Why am I not surprised?” Despite the rough time they had given her, Emma had always taken charge. Now that she was a big-shot attorney, no doubt she was more of a control freak than ever.

  Cassie glanced at the field and reacted with amazement when she saw that Lauren was on second base. “Lauren got a hit?”

  “No,” Karen said, chuckling. “The pitcher got so flustered when she started moving her hips up at the plate, he walked her. She stole second when the catcher got distracted by her moves down at first. I think she’s going to be our secret weapon to win this game.”

  “Men are so predictable,” Cassie noted.

  “Even Cole? I thought he’d always kept you guessing.”

  “Unfortunately, he’s the exception.” She sighed. “I could really do without an exception in my life right now.”

  “My advice? Go with the flow. Let the man make up for lost time if he wants to.”

  “And then what? Wait for the fireworks when he discovers I’ve spent the past nine years keeping him from his son? I don’t think so. Besides, he’s offered to help with my mother’s medical expenses. She’ll probably pitch a fit, but I don’t see that we have any other choice. I can’t risk having him change his mind.”

  “He would never renege on that commitment, and you know it.”

  Cassie glanced across the field and spotted Cole. He’d taken his place at second base, but he was actually ignoring the Hollywood superstar who was standing on it.

  “He’s really oblivious to Lauren, isn’t he?” she said to Karen, feeling ridiculously pleased.

  “Because there’s only one of us he’s ever had eyes for. That’s you, honey. Don’t be so quick to dismiss the possibility of getting back together with him.” Her gaze narrowed. “Unless you don’t love him anymore. Is that it? Have you stopped loving Cole?”

  “Honestly?”

  “Of course.”

  She did a little soul-searching, then thought of the kiss they’d just shared and almost touched a finger to her lips. “I don’t know what I feel anymore.”

  “Then keep an open mind and find out.”

  “Hey, Karen, do you intend to bat anytime today?” Emma called out impatiently. She tapped a pen against the hastily scrawled lineup on her legal pad.

  “She brought a legal pad with her to a picnic?” Cassie murmured.

  “Oh, yes,” Karen replied. “And her cell phone. And her day planner. I think there’s an entire set of law books in the trunk of her car.”

  Cassie gazed at Emma with dismay. “Sweet heaven, the woman’s going to have a heart attack before she hits thirty.”

  “I’ve mentioned that. I’ve also reminded her that she has a little girl to think about.” Karen shrugged. “She stares at me as if I’m speaking Swahili.”

  “Karen!” Emma’s tone was sharp.

  “Coming!” She winked at Cassie. “If I don’t get a hit, I’m dead meat.”

  “Yes, I can see that. I think I’ll go find myself a nice shady spot and rest. All this fun you’re supposedly having sounds a little too stressful for me. I can’t be around Emma when she gets that manic, winner-take-all glint in her eyes.”

  She cast a last, lingering look at Cole, but he was busy taunting Karen, trying to distract her just as the pitcher threw the ball. Cassie laughed when Karen slammed the ball in a little blooper that sailed right past him and dropped into center field. Karen reached first base, turned to Cole and stuck out her tongue.

  “Way to go,” Cassie shouted, then wandered off in search of shade and a little peace and quiet to recover from the traumatic news she’d received the night before. She doubted she would actually sleep, but even a few minutes alone sounded good.

  Unfortunately, it seemed as if she’d barely closed her eyes and taken a deep, relaxing breath, when noise erupted from the ball field and everyone began trailing back in search of drinks and food.

  “Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” Cole said, dropping down beside her.

  “I wasn’t asleep.”

  “Oh, really?” he said, his expression amused. “How many innings of ball have we played since you took off?”

  Cassie glanced toward Karen, but there was no help there. She was feeding plump strawberries to her husband. “I wasn’t paying attention,” she finally conceded.

  “Five,” he said. “And you slept through every one of them. You missed my home run and Emma’s tantrum when Mimi Frances failed to touch third base and was declared out.”

  If she had slept, it hadn’t done any good. She certainly didn’t feel rested. “Who won?”

  “The women, of course,” Lauren said haughtily, sitting down beside Cole.

  “Only because you used that body of yours shamelessly to distract us,” Caleb accused.

  “You’re married. You’re not supposed to be looking at Lauren’s body,” Karen chided, but there was amusement dancing in her eyes.

  “A man would have to be dead not to notice the way she was wiggling around,” he retorted.

  Lauren feigned innocence. “I did nothing of the kind. I just took my turn at bat like everyone else.”

  “I haven’t seen hips move that much since Marilyn Monroe strutted across a screen,” one of the other men said.

  “Are you complaining?” Gina inquired. “Seemed to me like you were all but drooling.”

  “I was not,” he protested.

  Cole leaned down and whispered in Cassie’s ear, “I have no idea what all the fuss was about.”

  She risked meeting his gaze and saw the twinkle in his eyes that was at odds with his pious expression. “Oh, really?”

  “I only have eyes for one woman here,” he insisted.

  “Oh? And who would that be?”

  “You.”

  A shiver washed over her, despite herself. “Cole, don’t.”

  “I just want you to know where I’m coming from.” His expression sobered. “There’s unfinished business between us, Cassie. You know there is. I think it’s about time we dealt with it.”

  “I can’t think about that now. I can’t think about you,” she said fiercely, scrambling to her feet.

  “Where are you going?”

  “For a walk.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “No,” she said, her scowl keeping him in place.

  “I’ll still be here when you get back,” he reminded her mildly. “And nothing will have changed.”

  Cassie didn’t care. She needed space now. She needed time to figure out why Cole could still get to her, even when she desperately wanted him not to matter at all.

  “You do whatever you want to do,” she told him. “You always have.”

  That said, she fled, but though Cole didn’t follow, he stayed right smack in the middle of her thoughts. That was okay, though, she finally concluded. Thinking about the man couldn’t get her into that much trouble.

  Being with him could be disastrous.

  Chapter Seven

  “Mom, Grandma says there are going to be fireworks tomorrow night for the Fourth of July,” Jake said eagerly over breakfast two days later.

  Th
e class reunion had bumped smack into the town’s annual holiday festivities, so people had lingered after the weekend. Unfortunately, the one person Cassie wanted most to avoid lived right here in town. Cole wouldn’t be going anywhere, not anytime soon. And unless times had changed, he would be at the fireworks. His father, always a benefactor of the event, would no doubt be grand marshal of the parade. Avoiding the two of them would be next to impossible.

  “Can we go, please?” Jake pleaded. “And there’s a parade, too. There will be hot dogs and all sorts of neat stuff. Grandma told me all about it.”

  Cassie cast a startled look at her mother, who shrugged.

  “He asked if anything special was going on for the Fourth,” she explained. “I guess I got carried away.”

  “Mom, can we go?” Jake begged. “The Fourth of July is my very favorite holiday.”

  Cassie chuckled at that. “And right before Thanksgiving you always say that’s your favorite because you love turkey and pumpkin pie. And then there’s Christmas with the tree and Santa and all the presents.”

  “But they’re not for months and months. This is my very favorite because it happens now. We’ve gotta go. Maybe I’ll meet some other kids. If we’re gonna be here even for a little while, I’ve gotta have friends.”

  Cassie hated the thought of denying him, but what about Cole? How could she manage to keep them apart? Or was it simply time to get used to the idea that she couldn’t, not and stay here in Winding River?

  “Give me a little time to think about it,” she said, praying she could come up with a reasonable solution that would balance Jake’s needs and her fears.

  Jake’s face fell. “You’re going to say no, aren’t you? You never want me to have any fun. You’re still mad about what happened before we left home. You said when we came here I wouldn’t be grounded anymore, but I might as well be if I can’t do anything and I don’t have one single friend to play with.”

  “Sweetie, it’s not that,” Cassie told him. “I swear it. I would love to take you. And I do want you to get to know the other kids in town.” She thought desperately, trying to come up with a believable excuse for her hesitation. She could hardly tell him the truth—that she didn’t want him anywhere near his father.

  “It’s just that your mother knows I haven’t been feeling all that well,” Edna broke in, throwing Cassie a lifeline. “It might have to be a last-minute decision.”

  Worry immediately creased Jake’s brow. “You’re sick?” he asked, wide-eyed.

  “Nothing serious,” Edna insisted, keeping to her agreement with Cassie to keep the truth from Jake for as long as possible. She fell back on the incident he had seen for himself. “But the heat bothers me some. You saw that in town the other day.”

  He scrambled off his chair and snuggled close to her side. “I’m sorry. We don’t have to go,” he said bravely, though his chin quivered ever so slightly as he made the concession.

  His grandmother gave him a fierce hug. “You are such a thoughtful child. Thank you. Now why don’t you go on out to the garage and see if you can get that old bike in shape to ride. Once you’ve got some wheels, you’ll be able to get around and meet those kids.” She gave him one last squeeze. “Now, go on.”

  Jake gave her one last worried look, then left.

  “Thank you for bailing me out,” Cassie said, breathing a sigh of relief when he’d gone.

  “It was my fault he got his heart set on it in the first place. I just remembered how you used to love the parade and the hot dogs and the fireworks, and the next thing I knew I was feeling nostalgic and telling him all about it.”

  “I wish I could take him,” Cassie said wistfully.

  “Then do it,” her mother said staunchly. “Maybe we’ve been going about this all wrong, keeping him from Cole. If you’re determined to stay here, you can’t keep Jake locked up in this house. He shouldn’t be punished because of something that’s not his fault.”

  Cassie had been thinking the same thing herself just moments earlier, but the fear the idea stirred was tough to conquer. “You know all hell will break loose if Cole adds two and two together and figures everything out.”

  “It might,” her mother conceded. “But that child needs a father. He could do worse than Cole.” Her mother seemed to be oblivious to the fact that her attitude was a major turnaround.

  “That’s quite a change of heart,” Cassie noted.

  “Not really,” her mother denied, looking guilty.

  “Oh? You’ll have to explain that to me.”

  “I always thought he was a fine young man. What you told me after he left the other night, that he’s willing to pay my medical expenses is proof of that. Back then I just thought things got a little out of hand between the two of you, especially with you being so young. Then when he left and you turned out to be pregnant, naturally I blamed him.”

  “There were two of us to blame,” Cassie said, finding herself taking Cole’s side as well.

  “Well, of course, but he was older. I thought he took advantage of you. And, then…” She shrugged and fell silent.

  “Then what?”

  “Nothing. It’s water under the bridge now.”

  Before Cassie could press her, she heard a masculine voice outside. “Oh, my God,” she said, leaping up. “What if that’s Cole?”

  “Then you go out there and act perfectly natural,” her mother advised. “Anything else will make him suspicious. Until you decide you’re going to admit the truth to him, you have to keep those two apart, but you have to do it as subtly as possible. He won’t see what you and I see when we look at Jake, because he won’t be expecting it.”

  Cassie knew she was right, but that didn’t stop the panic from clawing at her as she stepped outside and saw Cole bending down to help Jake tighten a bolt on the bicycle he’d retrieved from the garage. Her heart slammed to a stop at the sight, then resumed beating at a more frantic pace.

  Jake looked up at her with shining eyes. “Mom, Mr. Davis is helping me fix the bike.”

  “I see that. Does Mr. Davis actually have any idea what he’s doing?”

  Cole frowned up at her with feigned indignation. “Hey, lady, are you questioning my mechanical skills?”

  She forced a grin. “You bet. I seem to recall an electric coffeepot that blew up after you’d tinkered with it.”

  Cole tapped the wrench against the bike. “No electricity involved here, just nuts and bolts and chains.”

  “True, but I’m sure you didn’t stop by to do bike repair,” she said. “I’ll help Jake later.”

  “But, Mom,” Jake wailed.

  “I said I’d help later. Cole, why don’t you come on inside? I know Mother is anxious to thank you for what you’re doing for her.”

  “Is she really?” Cole asked, his expression skeptical.

  Cassie did grin at that. “Well, she will thank you right after she tells you how she can’t accept, that Edna Collins doesn’t accept anyone’s charity, et cetera, et cetera.”

  Cole got to his feet. “Now that sounds more like it. I guess I’ll just have to dust off my charm.”

  That ought to do it, Cassie thought as he held out his hand to her son for a grown-up handshake. Certainly one member of the Collins family was under his spell. Okay, two, she conceded reluctantly. She might not hold out any hope for their future, but that didn’t stop her from indulging in the occasional fantasy, the one in which she, Jake and Cole somehow put aside all the lies and deceit of the past and became a happy family.

  As soon as Cole left and she could get away, Cassie invited her mother to come into town with her and Jake to have lunch at Stella’s. Eager for an outing of any kind, Jake had already raced ahead to the car.

  “I need to talk to Stella about that job,” she explained to her mother. “This is as good a time as any. And maybe it will pacify Jake. He’s still smarting over the fact that I didn’t let Cole spend the whole morning helping him with that bike.”

  “Then you�
��re determined to stay?” her mother asked. “Even with Cole showing up here earlier and sending you into a tizzy?”

  Cassie couldn’t deny that she’d been thrown, but a promise was a promise. “I told you I would. Besides, there is nowhere else I could be right now. You need me.”

  Her mother nodded, and what might have been relief passed across her face. “That’s that, then,” she said giving Cassie’s hand a squeeze. “It’ll be good to have the two of you here. The house gets awfully quiet sometimes.”

  “I thought you’d be grateful for that after all the ruckus I raised as a kid.”

  Her mother smiled. “I was for a time, but no more. Having Jake running in and out, having you to talk to now that you’re a grown-up woman yourself, it’s a real blessing, Cassie. I’m grateful.”

  “I don’t need your gratitude, Mom. I belong here, especially now. Go on and get your purse. I’m going to buy you the biggest sundae Stella can make.”

  “Oh, my, I couldn’t possibly,” her mother said, but she looked tempted as she followed Cassie to the car.

  “Of course you can,” Cassie said as she checked to make sure everyone had fastened their seat belts. Then she grinned at her mother. “And you can have it before lunch.”

  Her mother looked horrified. “Heavens, no. It will ruin my appetite.”

  “So what?” Cassie said as they made the quick trip to Main Street. “Why can’t we have dessert first every now and again on a special occasion?”

  “And what occasion would that be?” her mother asked as Cassie pulled into a parking spot in front of the diner.

  “My homecoming, of course.”

  A rare and full-fledged smile spread across her mother’s too-pale face. “Now that really is worth celebrating.”

  She said it with such genuine emotion that Cassie had to blink back tears. Maybe she’d had it wrong all these years. Maybe her mother really had missed her.

  “Can I celebrate, too?” Jake asked from the back.

  “Absolutely,” Cassie agreed.