Cassidy Lane (3 page)

Krista laughed. “I
hate to break it to you, but while not all of us will end up divorced, we’re
all
going downhill—sooner or later. That said, if you want to talk about those who have managed to avoid that slope so far, have you seen Brandon Forrester?”

Cassidy shook her
head.

“Well, girl, have
a good long look when you get a chance. I don’t know where he was hiding in high school, but that man is
fine
. Babe with a capital
B
.”

Cassidy laughed. “Krista!
You’re a married woman—to a man in this room, I might add.”

“So? No one
said I can’t look.” She touched Patti’s arm. “You look, right? I know you do.

Patti nodded. “I
promised to be faithful, but I didn’t promise to go blind. Roy’s on board with that.”

Krista looked at
Cassidy. “There you go.”

Patti scanned the
crowd. “I didn’t see Brandon come in. Is he here with his wife? I think she and I might have done a tequila shot together at the last reunion. It’s all kind of a blur.”

Krista put her
hands on her waist and slowly shook her head. “
Di…vorced
.”

“Was there a
nanny involved?” Cassidy asked.

Patti covered her
eyes with her free hand. “Please tell me there wasn’t. That would make me afraid to hire one, even though I’d love to escape from my kids when they shift into their bratty mode, which is basically all the time these days.”

“I don’t know
the details of what went down, but I don’t think it was anything scandalous,” Krista said.

Cassidy glanced around
the room. “I never really knew Brandon at Paly. Do they have kids?”

Krista nodded. “Twin
boys.”

Patti took a
sip of her drink. “I’m sad to hear that. He was such a nice guy. For some reason we always had math together.” She looked at Krista. “He and I and your husband too. What was up with that? We were like the Three Mathketeers.”

Cassidy pretended to
wince. “Did you learn that joke from your kids?”

Krista gave Cassidy
a suggestive smile. “So, my dear…Brandon Forrester is divorced
and
looking yummy. I just thought you might find that information interesting.”

Cassidy shielded her
face with her hand. “Please, don’t go there.”

Patti pushed her
shoulder. “Why not? Weren’t you just complaining about being single?”

“I was, but
I wasn’t looking to find a boyfriend
tonight
. I live in New York, remember? That’s a long way from California.”

Krista held up
a palm. “So? Andre and I live in Seattle, and yet here we are. Have you ever heard of this thing called an airplane?”

Cassidy smirked. “Very
funny. But I didn’t come here for a round table on the state of my dating life. Can we please talk about something else?”

“Well, hello there,
Brandon
,” Patti said over Cassidy’s shoulder.

Cassidy felt her
face flush and hoped Patti was joking. She slowly turned around and saw Brandon approaching them, followed by Andre.

She hadn’t been
joking.

And Krista hadn’t
been exaggerating.

He was gorgeous.

Wow
.

He was tall
and broad-shouldered, with salt-and-pepper hair and piercing gray eyes. Had he been such an Adonis in high school? She reached into the deepest corners of her memory but came up with nothing. Had they ever had a class together? She didn’t think so. From what she could recall, they’d never even met, at least officially.
Funny how high school is like that,
she thought
. Everyone knows who everyone else is, yet so many of us go the entire four years without ever speaking a word to one another.

“Hi, Krista. Hi,
Patti, Cassidy.” He made eye contact with each woman as he spoke her name. “It’s nice to see you all.”

“Hi, Brandon,” Cassidy
eked out the words, suddenly shy. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Patti and Krista watching her reaction and trying not to laugh.

Andre handed Krista
her drink, then turned to face the others. “Well, if it isn’t the one and only Patti Bramble, looking as beautiful as ever,” he said to Patti.

Patti did a
little curtsy. “It’s Patti Baker now, but thank you, my friend.”

“And the lovely
Cassidy Lane. I’m surprised you made it, what with being a famous author and all.”

Cassidy rolled her
eyes. “Give me a break, Andre. I bet you couldn’t even name one of my books.”

“I know they’re
chick books. Does that count?”

Krista elbowed him.
“No.”

Brandon cleared his
throat. “I’m not technically a chick, but I’ve read them.”

Cassidy looked at
him, truly surprised. “You’ve read my books?”

Patti eyed him
with suspicion more than surprise. “You enjoy women’s fiction, do you now? Or are you just saying that because Cassidy’s rocking that dress?”

“Patti!” Cassidy felt
her cheeks flush.

Brandon chuckled. “I
guess I do enjoy women’s fiction. I’ll read anything, though. I’ve always got a stack of books on my nightstand.”

The thought of
Brandon Forrester reading
her
novels in
his
bed flustered Cassidy even more, and she quickly buried her face in her wineglass so he wouldn’t notice. She glanced at Krista, who winked and gave her a triumphant I-told-you-so look.

“Hey, there’s Angela
Green,” Patti announced. “Let’s go say hi.” She interlocked her arm with Krista’s, then turned to Brandon and Cassidy. “Brandon, it was nice seeing you. Cassidy, we’ll catch up with you later.” They quickly disappeared into the crowd. Andre wandered off too, leaving Brandon and Cassidy alone.

Cassidy nibbled on
her thumbnail and tried to think of something interesting to say to keep him from moving on as well. She cleared her throat. “So, do you still live around here? I’m in New York now.”

“Yep, not too
far from the house I grew up in, actually. My boys just started kindergarten at Walter Hays this year.” He looked around the restaurant. “It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that they go to school there now, especially when I think that I met a lot of the people in this room when
I
was at Walter Hays.”

“It’s horrifying, isn’t
it? We’re getting so old.”

He smiled. “I
don’t know if I’d go
that
far, but I agree it’s been a while since we were kids.”

“No really, Brandon,
it’s
horrifying
. We’re closer to fifty than we are to twenty, do you realize that? That means we’re closer to wearing dentures than to wearing braces.”

“Wow, you’re right.
Maybe horrifying
is
the appropriate word choice.”

“Oh, believe me,
it is. I’m quite particular about my adjectives.” She sipped her wine.

He laughed. “Were
you this funny in high school?”

She shrugged. “Ask
the librarian. That’s where I spent most of high school.”

He gestured to
his beer. “Sometimes I wish I’d done more of
that
and less of
this.
”

She gestured to
her glass. “Sometimes I wish I’d done more of
this
and less of
that
. I probably would have had a lot more fun.”

“Life in New
York must be fun, especially as a writer. Sounds exciting. How many martinis do you average when you ‘do lunch’ with your editor?” He made an air quote with his free hand.

She answered with
a straight face. “At least three, but never more than four.”

He laughed again.
“You’re quick. I like that. I like that dress too. Patti was right.”

The compliment surprised
her, and her self-assuredness immediately disappeared. She visualized herself in her New York apartment, alone at her laptop, no makeup on, her hair pulled up into a messy bun, and felt decidedly
un
exciting.

But he didn’t
have to know that.

She swallowed.

If you only
knew what my life was really like.

She decided to
change the topic of the conversation, hoping to recapture her wit along the way. “Enough about me. What about you? What did you grow up to be?”

“I’m an attorney.
I run a small firm downtown.”

“What kind of
law?”

“If I told
you in detail, you’d fall asleep standing up. But in ten words or less: we specialize in patent disputes for technology companies. I bought the practice from my dad when he retired and moved to Carmel a couple of years ago.” He took a sip from his glass, and she found herself wondering what kind of beer he was drinking. Why was she wondering that? Or was it his lips she was interested in?

Mmm.

She blinked and
tried to stay focused on the conversation. “Do you like being a lawyer?”

“I do. I
guess I enjoy arguing with people.”

“I’m terrible at
arguing. If they made running from conflict an Olympic sport, I might win the gold.” There it was!
Wit, welcome back.

Brandon chuckled, but
before he could say anything, Cassidy felt a tug on her arm.

“Cassidy Lane! How
are you?”

She turned and
saw Connie Thatcher standing here.

The ever-inappropriate Connie
Thatcher.

Oh no.

Cassidy forced a
smile. “Hi, Connie.”
Please don’t embarrass me. Not now. Not in front of Brandon Forrester.

“Hi, Cassidy! It’s
great to see you. Are you going to write a book about our reunion? Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Cassidy tucked a
loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Maybe. I never know where an idea will come from.”

Connie poked her
shoulder. “I always wonder what parts of your books are from your real life, especially if there’s a racy scene.” She grinned at Brandon. “Anytime it gets a little hot and heavy, I’m like,
Did Cassidy do this? Go, Cassidy!
”
She held up her hand for a high five, clearly proud of her profound insights.

Cassidy winced and
lightly tapped Connie’s palm to oblige her, then glanced over at Brandon. He had an amused look on his face but let the comment pass. Instead he pointed toward the back of the room.

“I think I’m
going to say hi to a couple of guys I used to play tennis with back in the day. I’ll let you two catch up. Cassidy, it was really nice chatting with you, and congratulations on the success of your books. Have a safe trip back to New York. Connie, take care.”

“It was nice
chatting with you too, Brandon.” He was really leaving? She wondered if the disappointment she felt was stamped all across her face.

As he blended
into the crowd, Connie squeezed Cassidy’s arm again. “So tell me, can you totally see the top of my Spanx through my dress?”

“Oh my God,
these are even better than I remember them.
De…li…cious
.” Krista spooned out a big lump of chocolate milk shake and downed it. “Want a taste, doll?” She scooped out another spoonful from the silver canister in front of her and held it up to Andre, who sat next to her, across from Cassidy and Patti. The four of them were tucked into a red vinyl booth at the Creamery, a Palo Alto institution.

Patti looked around.
“This place has barely changed since high school. Remember how we used to come here after dances?”

Cassidy snapped her
neck toward Patti. “Oh my God! Remember when you dressed up like Madonna for every dance sophomore year?”

Patti squeezed her
eyes shut. “We must never speak of that again. Do you hear me?”

Cassidy looked at
her. “You already said that about the shoulder pads.”

Patti shrugged. “I
have three children. I’m used to repeating myself.”

Andre picked up
a curly fry. “I remember your Madonna phase. It was rad.”

Cassidy squinted at
him. “Did you just say
rad
?”

“I did, man.
We
are
at a high-school reunion, after all. And Patti’s Madonna phase was most excellent.”

Krista scooped another
spoonful of milk shake from the canister. “I don’t know whether it’s this conversation or this restaurant, but I feel like we’re in a time warp.”