Last One Home (30 page)

“Mom?” Amiee’s voice seemed to be coming from a long distance away.

Cassie had to pull herself back into the present, and it seemed to be a long, treacherous journey through the years. “Yes?” she asked.

“Tell me what you and Nichole talked about.”

“Oh, we had a nice chat.” Cassie had been thrilled to hear from Nichole. She suspected Karen put her up to it—not that it mattered. The conversation had gone well after a strained start. Cassie understood her sisters’ hesitation to let her back into the circle—she didn’t blame them.

Amiee interrupted her musings with a loud yawn. “You’re tired,” Cassie said. She checked her watch and was surprised to find it was after eight.

Amiee yawned a second time. “Camping was a lot of fun, but sleeping on the ground wasn’t all that comfortable.”

“I thought Claudia said there were air mattresses.”

“There were, but it wasn’t like sleeping in a real bed.” She stifled yet another yawn. “I’m going to bed.”

After the busy day she’d had, Cassie was more than ready to turn in herself, but she had a few more things to do around the house first.

It was around nine-thirty when the phone rang. She was just getting ready to crawl into bed with her book. It was her friend Rosie from Goldie Locks. “I called to see if Steve made it to the Hoedown.”

“He was there.” Although she tried, Cassie hadn’t been able to hide from her friends how badly she’d missed Steve while he was away.

“So? Did you have a good time?” Rosie asked.

She remembered the way he’d looked at her from the other
side of the dance floor. He’d started walking toward her and it was as if an invisible thread had pulled them together. “We had a fabulous time,” she admitted, and then added, “The best ever.” No matter what happened between her and Steve in the future, she would always have the romantic memory of that night.

“Tell her about you and Steve,” Amiee insisted, shouting from her bedroom, not asleep yet herself.

Cassie walked to the doorway of her room and glared at her daughter.

“What did Amiee say?” Rosie asked.

Cassie sighed and shot her daughter a warning look. “Nothing much. Steve was by earlier and very kindly asked me out to dinner next week.”

“You’re going on a date?” Rosie sounded as excited as Amiee had.

“He wants to start officially dating Mom,” Amiee shouted.

“
Officially
dating Steve?” Rosie asked. “What does that mean?”

“According to my daughter, it’s the step right before getting engaged, which is ridiculous.”

Rosie laughed with what sounded like glee. “So when’s your first date?”

“Next Saturday.”

“Wonderful.” Rosie reeked excitement. “I’ll set up an appointment for you with Shirley late Saturday afternoon.”

“Shirley hasn’t got time—”

“Shush, if you’re
officially
dating Steve, it’s our duty to make sure he wants a second date, got it?”

“Uh …” Cassie wasn’t sure that involving her friends in this dinner date was such a good idea.

“You’ll need an appointment with Alice, too. She’ll do your nails.”

“I just painted them this morning,” Cassie protested.

Rosie sighed expressively. “Apparently, you weren’t listening. Hair and nails we can do at the shop. What we need to think about next is your outfit. What you wear is ultra-important.”

“She hasn’t got anything decent to wear,” Amiee said loudly.

The kid had radar a bat would envy.

“Let me check with Elaina,” Rosie continued. “You’re about the same size, aren’t you? She has that pink dress …”

“Not the dress she wore for her wedding,” Cassie protested.

“Yes, that dress. It isn’t like she’s planning on getting married again, so it’s just hanging in her closet. Someone else might as well make good use of it. It was a lucky dress for her. Come to think of it, though, that dress is a little demure. Scratch Elaina’s pink wedding dress.”

“Thank goodness.”

“We’ll go shopping,” Rosie insisted.

“I can’t afford—”

“Stop. There are places where we can find the right dress at a bargain price. What do you have in the way of jewelry?”

“Ah …”

“Don’t worry about it. Maureen has lots of beautiful pieces. She’ll donate to the cause.”

The same feeling she’d experienced earlier when Steve had initiated his little chat with Amiee returned. “Look, Rosie … I know you mean well, and I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but—”

“Don’t say another word,” Rosie barked. “Put Amiee on the phone.”

“Amiee? Why do you want to talk to my daughter?”

Rosie exhaled loudly. “Just do as I ask.”

“When did you get so bossy?”

“Me, bossy? You haven’t seen anything yet. Now let me talk to Amiee.”

Dazed, Cassie stretched out her arm to hand the phone to her
daughter. Amiee leaped up as if Cassie was extending her the Holy Grail. She grabbed it and took it over to the sofa, where she knelt on the cushion.

“What’s the plan?” Amiee asked, smiling as her eyes followed Cassie, who’d taken to pacing in the small apartment.

Cassie’s hearing wasn’t nearly as good as her daughter’s. She was able to make out only a few words here and there of the conversation. What she did hear gave her just enough to get the gist of what they were discussing, and it didn’t sound good.

Amiee approved because she mumbled words like:
Great. Perfect. That’ll work
.

At one point Amiee laughed out loud.

“What?” Cassie demanded. She had no inkling of what the two were plotting.

Amiee waved her off like she was swatting a pesky mosquito.

The two continued deep in conversation when Amiee abruptly pulled the phone away from her ear. She glanced at the face of the cell phone, pushed a button, and then continued her conversation with Rosie. It must have been fifteen minutes later when Amiee ended the call and handed Cassie back her phone.

“You don’t have a thing to worry about,” her daughter assured her. “Rosie and I’ve got it all figured out.”

“That’s nice to know.” Cassie was being sarcastic, but Amiee took her seriously.

“Rosie said you’re gonna knock Steve’s socks off.”

“Really? Do I have a say in any of this?”

Amiee considered the question, tapping her index finger against her cheek as she mulled it over. “Not really.”

Cassie was afraid of that.

“Oh, and Mom.”

“Yes?”

“A call came in while I was talking to Rosie. It was Steve. You might want to call him back.”

Karen Goodwin sat at her desk at Spokane Title, going over the closing documents for a retired couple who were due in that afternoon. When the phone at her desk rang, she automatically reached for it and was surprised to hear Nichole’s voice on the other end of the line.

“Why didn’t you call my cell?”

“Oh sorry,” Nichole said. “You have so many numbers I sometimes forget which is which.”

“Did you talk to Cassie?” Karen asked.

“I did.”

“How’d it go?”

“It went great. You were so right … I should have called her long ago … I don’t know why I didn’t.” She hesitated and then added in a hushed voice, “That’s not exactly true. I do know why I delayed.”

“It’s awkward for us all—”

Nichole cut her off and blurted out, “Back when everything happened with Duke? I read Cassie’s journal … I knew she was pregnant and she knew what I’d done. She was afraid I’d tell Mom and Dad, and that’s why she left.”

“Nichole, what? That isn’t why.”

“Yes, it is,” she insisted.

“Did Cassie tell you that?”

She paused for a moment before she answered. “No … we didn’t talk about anything from back then.”

It sounded as if her sister was close to tears. Karen carried her own guilt—they all did, but it was time to put the past behind them and become a family again.

“I have a business meeting in a few minutes. Listen, we’ll talk more about this later, but before we hang up, tell me how your weekend went,” Karen said. She wanted to end their conversation on a positive note.

“The spa was fabulous,” Nichole admitted. “And really, how could it not be? I was pampered and catered to for three entire days, and also managed to drop a couple pounds.”

“That’s great.” Karen couldn’t help being envious. It’d been three years since their last family vacation.

“I came home refreshed and deeply in love with my husband. Unfortunately, Owen didn’t do well without me. By the time I got back to Portland Sunday afternoon, Jake and his mother were worn to a frazzle.”

“It’s nice to be needed, isn’t it?” It was easy to remember what it’d been like when her own two children were toddlers. There didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. It was a blessing they’d had Garth’s parents and her own close at hand, and as first-time grandparents, both sets had been eager to help.

“Needed and wanted,” Nichole said, lowering her voice. “You’d think I’d been away for a month the way Jake reacted.”

Nichole was still enough of a newlywed to appreciate romance. Karen did, too, but after several years of marriage, her love life with Garth had become predictable and low-key, though very good.

“I’m buying Jake that fancy BMW he wants so badly,” Nichole
announced. “He’d never ask for it, but I saw the brochure and it’s his birthday next month, so as a surprise, I called the dealership and bought it for him.”

Karen knew what that meant. Her sister had now spent the majority of their parents’ inheritance on a fancy car for her husband. Of course, that was her choice—Karen wouldn’t fault her for loving her husband and wanting to give him a special birthday gift.

“You aren’t going to talk me out of it, are you?” Nichole asked.

“Not at all. It’s none of my business what you do with the money we got from Mom and Dad.”

“I know … it’s just that Jake has been so wonderful lately. He’s always so thoughtful and kind, especially since I’ve had Owen.”

“Nichole, you don’t need to justify it to me.”

“I know, it’s just that—”

“Stop,” Karen said, cutting her off. She didn’t know why her sister felt like she needed permission. Everyone seemed to want approval in one form or another. They said good-bye and hung up.

Ten minutes before the Anson couple were due to arrive to sign the closing papers, her desk phone rang again. Karen reached for it.

“Karen Goodwin. How may I help you?”

“This is the nurse at Thomas Jefferson Elementary,” the voice on the other end of the line said.

“Is everything all right?”

“It’s Buddy. He’s come down with the flu and is sick and vomiting. Can you come for him?”

“Oh boy. Okay—I’m just about to go into a meeting.” The timing was the worst. “I’ll call my husband to see if he can pick up Buddy.”

Poor Buddy. More than anything, her young son hated throwing
up. He must really be sick. Karen tried Garth’s cell, but it went straight to voice mail. Garth sometimes turned it off, especially when he was working hard on a project, so she tried the direct line to his office.

“Mark Holmes’s office.”

“Hi, Michelle,” Karen said, sitting up straight. “Mark Holmes’s office?” she repeated. Garth hadn’t said anything about his number changing.

“Mrs. Goodwin?” Michelle asked. “Karen?”

“Yes. I need to talk to Garth.” Looking out the glass door of her office, Karen saw that the Ansons had arrived and were seated in the waiting area. “It’s kind of an emergency. Buddy needs to be picked up at the school.”

Her words were met with silence.

“Michelle, did you hear me?”

“Yes. Karen, listen … um … Garth hasn’t worked here since the first week of April. I guess maybe you forgot and dialed this number from habit?”

Karen laughed softly. Surely there was some mistake. “Very funny, but this isn’t a joke. I want to talk to Garth.”

“This isn’t a joke,” Michelle insisted. “I’d never joke about something like this. Garth was laid off weeks ago … Are you saying he didn’t tell you?”

Karen was stunned.

“Karen? Mrs. Goodwin?”

Karen ended the call. Clearly something was drastically wrong. True, she’d noticed Garth hadn’t been himself for the last few weeks, but she had no clue he’d lost his job. Now that she thought about it, he had seemed depressed lately. When she’d asked him about it, he’d claimed it wasn’t anything serious. He might have mentioned problems at work, but certainly not that he’d been laid off.

If Garth was going without a paycheck she would know, and
they’d be bouncing checks left and right. In fact, Garth had been paid regularly according to the bank statements, right down to the penny. This was crazy. Nuts. Of course Garth had a job.

Not knowing what else to do, Karen phoned his cell a second time. As before, the call went directly to voice mail. “Garth, if you’re there, then please answer. This is important. Buddy is sick and needs someone to collect him at the school. I have a signing and the people are here. Send me a text in the next five minutes if you get this message—otherwise, I’ll need to leave the office.”

Shuddering a sigh, her head swimming and her heart pounding, Karen stood to greet Mr. and Mrs. Anson. By the time she returned to her desk she heard her cell ping. The message was from Garth and read:
On my way to get Buddy
.