Chapter
Twenty-One
As I’m driving to pick up Cass, I realize I don’t have his phone number.
Well, I have that number he texted from anonymously, but when I tried it earlier, I got no reply.
I tried texting him on Snapchat but he never responded. Once I get to his house, I park in front of the garage just like I did earlier this afternoon and check my Snapchat. No reply from Cass. So I sit there and wait for a few minutes, hoping he will see my car lights and come out to meet me, but he doesn’t.
Crap.
Reluctantly, I turn off the car’s engine, climb out, and go to the front door, nearly tripping on a cracked part of the sidewalk. There’s a fog bank hanging over the ocean tonight, so I can’t see it. Instead there’s an eerie white glow that has settled over the water, the moonlight casting it in a silvery sheen.
A single porch light is on, but it’s dim. Up close, I can tell the house needs a new coat of paint. And the ivy covers almost all the exterior walls, giving it a cool, hushed feel. I hit the doorbell but nothing happens, so I knock on the door instead.
“Coming!” shouts a little voice from inside.
I’m guessing that’s his grandma.
The door swings open and I glance down to see a white-haired woman barely five feet tall. She’s wearing a black velour Juicy Couture tracksuit, something my mom ran around town in ten years ago, looking very casual chic.
But that was ten years ago, so…
“Hi!” the woman greets me brightly. “Well, aren’t you a pretty thing.”
“Um, hi. Is, uh, Cass home?”
She smiles and opens the door wider. “Why, um, yes. He, uh, is. Would you like to come in?”
She is totally making fun of me, but not in a mean-spirited way.
I hope.
“Sure, thanks.” I walk inside and she shuts and locks the door behind me. We’re in the living room, which is dark and cluttered with all sorts of books and knickknacks. The TV is on, a giant flat screen that takes up almost the entire wall, and it casts everything in an artificial blue glow.
“What’s your name, pumpkin?”
“Penelope.” So I guess he hasn’t talked about me to his grandma. Huh.
“Lovely name.” She beams. “I’m Sue.”
“Nice to meet you, Sue.” I take a step and almost fall over a stack of books sitting next to a recliner. I dodge left, stumbling a little before I right myself and stand up straight.
“You okay there, sweetie?”
I nod, brush my hair out of my face. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Have a seat.” She waves at the recliner and I sit down, shocked when a longhaired white cat jumps up on my lap, its claws digging into my legs. “Oh, that’s Millie. She’s a real sweetheart.”
The cat looks at me and meows in reply. I smile and nod, trying not to freak out over the fact that I now have a ton of white cat fur all over my black sweater.
Where the hell is Cass?
“Cass will be out in just a minute,” she tells me, like she can read my mind. “He only just hopped in the shower a few minutes ago.”
Now she’s put images in my head. Of Cass in the shower, which is…not good. It’s sort of uncomfortable, considering I’m sitting here in front of his grandma while thinking of him naked.
Yeah. So not cool.
“You go to school with Cass?” she asks as she settles into the recliner next to mine. A black cat jumps into her lap and I wish it was in mine instead of this white one, who’s settled right in and started cleaning her hind quarters. Gross.
“I do. We have physics together,” I tell her, smiling politely before I glance around the room. It’s very homey and cozy, though it also looks like it hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned in about fifteen years. Not that the room is dirty, it’s just so cluttered. There’s stuff everywhere. My mom would lose her shit in here. And then she’d immediately start cleaning everything out like she was on an episode of Hoarders.
“Tough class,” Sue says with a nod. She reaches out and pets the black cat so hard, it meows in protest. “You going on to college after high school?”
“Definitely. Though I’m not sure where yet.”
“Do you have an idea where you want to go?”
“UC Santa Cruz maybe. That’s where my brother goes. Or Cal Poly.” I’d rather go to Cal Poly. I love San Luis Obispo. “Or maybe even UC Berkeley.”
“You should stay on the coast. It’s nicer by the ocean.” She smiles, still aggressively petting the cat. There are sparkly rings on every one of her fingers, and they catch the light as her hand moves up and down that cat’s back. “Cass is going into the military.”
“Really?” I’m shocked. I can’t imagine him being the type.
“Well, he doesn’t really want to, but I think it would be a good idea, and he always wants to please his grandma. If he joins the military, then he won’t end up like his daddy.” She shakes her head and I lean in closer, disturbing the cat on my lap so that she looks right at me with her bright blue eyes and meows in irritation.
“What do you mean?” I ask casually.
“Oh, that’s another story for another time.” She waves her ring-covered hand. “Bless his poor soul. If he hadn’t met my daughter, then maybe he’d still be alive and able to take care of his son.”
Wow, she’s throwing it all out there, and I’ve barely been here five minutes. “Does Cass have any brothers or sisters?”
“Yes, he has a younger sister who has a different mama. They live in Iowa. He never sees her.” Sue shoves the cat off her lap, who yowls at her as he scurries out of the room. “Damn cats are a pain in my ass.”
I look at the cat on my lap, who’s now cleaning her face by licking her paws. It’s kind of cute. “We don’t have cats at my house. We just have a dog.” Roy, who’s a total dork and only loves my dad.
“Oh? That’s a shame. Cats are such lovely creatures.”
And this woman is a total contradiction.
“So you mentioned a brother. Is it just the two of you?” she asks.
“I have an older brother and sister,” I tell her, and she nods enthusiastically.
“A nice big happy family then? Your mama and daddy are still together?” she asks.
“Yes, they are.” This entire conversation is just weird. I remember when Robby and I first started dating and he brought me to his house. His dad checked me out in a vaguely perverted way and his mother acted like I was stealing her precious baby boy. She treated me like the enemy the entire time we were together, and I bet she still blames me for the breakup.
“That’s so nice,” Sue says with a big smile. “I wish Cass could’ve had that. I did the best I could, what with my Don gone after all these years. I had to raise my grandson on my own, all by myself.” She lowers her voice, like she’s about to share a big secret. “His mama is never getting out of prison. It’s me and him against the world.”
I open my mouth, just about to ask about his “mama,” when Cass enters the room, his face full of alarm and his hair still damp from the shower.
“Pen,” he breathes, looking completely freaked out that I’m sitting in his living room with a cat on my lap and chatting up his grandma. “You’re early.”
“Not really.” I shake my head. “I got here just a little after nine.”
He yanks his phone out of the front pocket of his jeans and checks it. “Shit,” he mutters before he looks up at me. “Sorry. Guess I’m the one who’s running late.”
“I tried to Snapchat you, since I don’t have your number,” I remind him sweetly.
“Aw, Cass, why aren’t you giving this darling girl your number? Shame on you,” his grandma tells him good-naturedly.
“Sorry.” I swear he’s blushing, but it’s hard to tell with how dark it is in the room. “Give me a minute and I’ll be ready to go.”
“You should show her your room!” She stands and plucks the cat right off my lap. “Go on, check it out. Cass has the nicest room in the house.”
“Gram…”
“Go, go. Just don’t get into any funny business,” she says, then bursts into laughter.
Okay. Now I’m the one blushing. We’re both blushing. Cass tilts his head toward a hallway and I follow after him, the both of us silent until we walk into his room.
“I’m sorry,” he says after he halfway closes the door. “My grandma doesn’t leave the house much, so when she meets someone for the first time, she tends to get a little out there.”
“Oh, is she homebound?” She seemed to move around just fine, but you never know.
“Nah, she’s just antisocial. Claims she hates people.” He chuckles and goes to his closet. “Let me grab a sweatshirt and then we’ll go.”
I glance around his room, not noticing anything unusual or particularly special. It’s your average teenage boy’s room, though a little on the larger size, with a giant king size bed dominating the space. The furniture is dark oak and looks old, but it works. There are Japanese anime posters all over the walls and I study them, then look over at Cass.
He’s got a sheepish expression on his face. “I used to be really into anime.”
“Used to be?” I take in all the posters yet again.
“I still sort of am, but I don’t have time to watch them anymore, or to discover any new ones. When I was thirteen, fourteen, I was obsessed.”
“Clearly.” I’m smiling, and he smiles, too.
“I wanted to go to Japan. Still do.”
“Is that why you plan to join the military?”
His smile fades. “Who told you that?”
“Your grandma.” When he stares at me blankly, I continue. “You know, the woman you live with.”
“I haven’t mentioned the military to her in a long time. In years,” he finally says with a slow shake of his head.
“Well, she thinks that’s what you plan on doing once you graduate high school.”
“Not even close.” He hesitates. “What else did she say?” he asks with a wince, like he’s afraid to find out.
“Um, she mentioned that you have a half sister you never see and that your mama is never going to get out of prison,” I tell him, a little embarrassed on his behalf.
He covers his face for a brief moment before dropping his hands and staring up at the ceiling. “She really said that?”
“She did.”
“So humiliating,” he mutters before he lowers his head, his gaze on mine. “You know about my mom.”
“Only rumors.”
“Right. You know the standard ‘his mom murdered his dad’ rumor, then.”
I nod. “Yeah.” This is incredibly awkward, talking about the rumors that involve him, with him.
“Someday I’ll tell you the full story.” He grabs a black—surprise, surprise—sweatshirt off a hanger from his closet and slips it over his head, tugging down until it fully covers him. “Ready to go?”
“Why does your grandma say your room is the best one in the house?” I ask.
“Oh. Because of this.” He goes to the window and pulls back the curtains, revealing the fog-shrouded ocean view. “Tonight’s not so great though, what with the fog.”
“So you have the best view right out your bedroom window.” I walk over to the window and stare outside. I see my car, the moonlight gleaming off the white paint. See the houses, the city lights below, and the fog that’s slowly creeping into town. The fog seems lit from within, almost like it’s glowing, and an ominous shiver moves through me.
I’m suddenly scared to go to Courtney’s house. I’d rather stay here with Cass. Or maybe I could take him back to my house and we could watch movies with my sister and mom. That would be risky because they’d both probably interrogate him and I’d have to make up some lie about why Dani and I aren’t at the movies after all, but I’d rather face their questions than go to Court’s stupid party.
“I definitely have the best view.” He stops right beside me and I turn to look at him. His gaze drops to the front of my sweater and he frowns. “You have cat hair all over you.” He reaches out and starts wiping at my chest, his fingers brushing against my breasts, and I freeze.
He freezes, too, his fingers hovering for the briefest moment before he drops his hand. “Sorry,” he mutters. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay,” I reassure him. “Really. No big deal.”
His cheeks are flushed. “You want a lint brush? I have one in my bathroom. Always gotta have it if you live here, what with all the cats my grandma has.”
“How many are there?”
“Eight.”
Yikes.
He grabs me a lint brush and I attack my sweater, taking off as much white cat hair as I can. Once that’s done, he guides me back out to the living room with a hand resting lightly on my lower back.
It’s like I can feel his fingers pressing into my skin, making me hyperaware that he’s touching me. Which is strangely exciting, because he’s Cass Vincenti and he’s kind of weird. So is his grandma, what with their jumble of a house and all the cats.
But every time he looks at me with those dark, mysterious eyes, my heart speeds up. And I can’t help but appreciate how different he is—because he is so different. The complete opposite of Robby and every other boy I’ve dated in the past.
“Grams, we gotta go,” he announces.
“Penelope.” She pops out of the recliner and rises to her feet, the white cat falling off her lap with a snotty meow. She approaches me and rests her jeweled hands on my cheeks, making me suck in a breath. Her palms are ice cold. “It was so lovely to meet you. You’re a treat. Cass, be a gentleman with this young lady tonight, okay?”
“Okay, Grams,” he says, amusement tingeing his voice.
She drops her hands and pulls me into a hug. All I can smell is her overpowering perfume, and I try my best not to cough. “Have fun, you two. Be safe!”
He leads me outside and toward my car, holding out his hand when he stops by the driver’s side. “Keys?”
I’m reluctant to hand them over. “You really want to drive my car?”
“I definitely want to drive.” He runs a hand along the top, his long fingers seeming to caress the car. Now I’m actually feeling jealous, which is so stupid. “Let me drive, okay? I don’t know what sort of situation we’re going into.”
“You don’t trust my driving abilities?” I’m teasing him, but I’m also sort of offended. Because seriously, he doesn’t trust my driving abilities?
“I’d rather be in control tonight,” he says, his expression, his gaze serious. “Like I said earlier, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Why me?” I ask, like I can’t help myself. “I really—I don’t get it.”
He takes a step closer to me, his gaze dropping to my lips for a lingering moment. Like he might want to kiss them. And I sort of want him to, which is crazy. Totally crazy. “I told you,” he says, his voice low. “I’ve liked you for a while now. I never thought you noticed me.”
I don’t want to tell him I didn’t, so I say nothing. The crazy thing is, Gretchen’s murder has brought us closer together. And I’m starting to realize he’s a nice guy. An interesting guy. “You’re very sweet,” I tell him.
Cass smiles. “No one’s called me sweet before.”
I’m sure. “So you’re not going to let me drive?”
“No.” He slowly shakes his head. “I want to be in control of tonight. In case something crazy goes down. That way I can keep you safe.”
How can I protest that? He’s being protective. I kind of like it. I’m all about being an independent woman, but sometimes, a girl needs a partner. Someone to help her.
And I’m thinking tonight, Cass can be my partner.
I hand over the keys and drop them in his open palm. “Here you go.”
He grips them tight and smiles at me. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I say as I heave out a big sigh.
“You look pretty,” he murmurs as his gaze sweeps over me. “Sorry about the cat fur, though.”
I start to laugh. “Your grandma’s cute.”
“My grandma’s crazy.”
He leads me over to the passenger side of my car and opens the door for me. I climb inside and let him shut the door.
Nerves bubble in my stomach, but I try to ignore them. We’re going to be just fine tonight. It’s no big deal.
As long as we stick together.