“That you made out with my brother? Yeah, we remember.”
Cassie regretted what she said next before it was even out of her mouth. “And now that everyone in this car knows why I made out with your brother over Family Weekend, maybe we could stop giving me shit for it?”
Acacia’s mouth dropped open, but Parker burst out laughing.
“Nah, I’m definitely going to keep doing it,” she said.
Cassie buried her head in her hands. Acacia leaned over to pat her thigh. It wasn’t even that bad, actually. If being teased about making out with Emerson to avoid thinking about Erin was the worst thing that came out of this, Cassie could handle it.
Cassie had spent most of her free time this summer sharing the same air as Parker and Erin at the same time. But when they got back, after Erin hugged Acacia hello, the four of them just stood there, awkward as hell. Cassie wanted to smile at Erin, she always wanted to smile at Erin, but she was stuck with something more like a wince on her face, watching Parker out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t know what was allowed.
“I’m gonna take Acacia’s stuff to Cassie’s room for now,” Parker said. “We can figure out sleeping arrangements later.”
Cassie wanted to die. Did Parker know about all the nights Cassie had snuck down the hallway to sleep in Erin’s bed?
“I’ll come with you,” Acacia said. “You can give me the tour.”
It was a transparent excuse to let Cassie and Erin have a moment, but Cassie seized it, let Parker and Acacia disappear up the staircase.
“How was it?” Erin asked.
Cassie took a step toward her, would’ve liked to collapse against her but held back. “Normal? Shit, I don’t know. It was normal, which was fucking weird.”
Erin closed the space Cassie had left between them and wrapped her arms around her. Cassie wished the feeling of being held didn’t make her sag in relief, but it definitely did.
“You okay, babe?”
Cassie shrugged.
“It’s a lot to get used to,” Erin said.
“Yeah,” Cassie said. “But I mean. She might actually be okay with it? It seems like it, anyway? Or she’s plotting ways to kill us.”
Erin smiled. “There’s always that option. But I don’t think she’d leave us alone if that were the case.”
“Yeah.”
“And she’s done it a lot this summer,” Erin said, rubbing Cassie’s back. “All while apparently knowing about us.”
It was true. There had been so many times when Parker had left them alone, and always for longer than she’d needed to. Coming back from Adam’s late or taking too long at the store or in the shower. And she’d known the whole time.
It was weird, but it made Cassie’s heart jump.
“So maybe she doesn’t want to kill us after all.”
Erin chuckled and brushed a kiss against Cassie’s cheek.
“Cassie!” Acacia called from upstairs. “Come put your suit on! We’re going swimming!”
“Duty calls,” Cassie told Erin.
They stepped back from each other, Erin trailing her hand down Cassie’s arm to catch her fingers.
“You gonna swim with us?”
Erin shook her head. “You don’t think it’s weird enough without me around?”
“I do,” Cassie said, “but it’d definitely be better if you were.”
“I think I can give you three a day without me,” Erin said. “I’ve got some work to do anyway.”
Parker and Acacia came barreling down the stairs. Cassie immediately dropped Erin’s hand, then felt bad about it, but Erin waved her off.
“C’mon, slowpoke,” Acacia said.
“We’re not waiting for you,” Parker said, and they didn’t, heading straight outside and to the pool.
“Go,” Erin said. “I’ll be here if you need me.”
It was a pretty normal Saturday, all things considered. Having Acacia splash in the pool with them was so great, most of the time Cassie forgot things were supposed to be weird. Caleb showed up, said Lila and Madison would be by after they picked up Haylee from the train station.
About a half an hour later, Erin came out to say hi to Caleb. Cassie didn’t hear any part of their conversation, because Erin had on white cutoffs, and her legs went on forever. It wasn’t fair. Cassie kept staring after her even though she’d disappeared inside.
“Um, Cassie?”
Cassie snapped her head around to look at Caleb. “Yeah?” she said, sounding breathless instead of nonchalant.
Caleb waved a deck of cards at her, then started to shuffle them. “I asked you three times if you wanted to play continental rummy?”
“Cut her some slack,” Parker said. “She’s easily distracted by her girlfriend.”
Cassie didn’t mean to squeak, but she definitely did. Caleb stared at Parker, and then at her, and then toward the house. Back to Parker.
“What?”
“She’s dating my mom.”
The cards shot out of Caleb’s hands. Acacia had been about to get into the pool, but she took a step toward Cassie, like she was going to need to run interference. Cassie backed up.
“Right,” she said. “Well. I’m—uh—is anyone else thirsty? I’m going to get a drink. Anyone need anything?”
“‘Thirsty’ is definitely the word I’d use,” Parker said, not looking up from her magazine.
Cassie fled instead of waiting for the others’ answers.
She found Erin in the kitchen. Before Erin could say hello, Cassie wrapped her arms around her middle and dropped her forehead onto Erin’s shoulder. “Caleb knows we’re dating.”
Erin sighed. “Of course he does.” She held Cassie gently. “Are you okay with that?”
“I mean, yeah,” Cassie said, her voice muffled against Erin. “It’s obviously part of this whole dating thing. It would’ve just been nice for Parker not to drop that into conversation without warning me.”
Cassie’s head moved with Erin’s shoulder as she shrugged. “That’s Parker, babe,” Erin said. “Besides the fact that she tells Caleb everything, she’s going to make us suffer a bit for lying to her.”
“How do you know she doesn’t hate us?”
One of Erin’s hands found Cassie’s face to tilt her head up, make her look at her.
“If she hated us, she wouldn’t be here,” Erin said. “Her dad lives ten minutes away. She wouldn’t have picked you up this morning if she hated you. She would do a lot worse than make you uncomfortable if she hated you.”
Cassie remembered last semester, remembered weeks going by without ever seeing Parker, and knew Erin was right.
“It still sucks.”
“It does,” Erin agreed. “But … I can do this without worrying about who’s around.”
She kissed Cassie, softly, sweetly, and neither of them looked over their shoulder to see if they’d been caught.
“Okay,” Cassie said. “I guess it’s worth it.”
“You guess?”
Cassie grinned. “Maybe you should do it again to convince me.”
Erin was very convincing.
That night, after Erin barred her from helping clean the kitchen anymore and Acacia disappeared to call Donovan, Cassie knocked on Parker’s bedroom door.
“Come in.”
Cassie opened the door and took a couple steps into the room. Parker was fiddling with things on her dresser, not paying Cassie any attention.
“Parker…”
“Mm-hmm?” She was completely nonchalant.