“So…Laura Sue, your mother tells me you play the piano.”

Laura whipped her head around. “I do not play the piano. I hated piano lessons.” She pointed at her mother. “She tortured me with them for seven years. And she wonders why I try to drown her.”

Her mother and Cassidy both laughed. “She was quite good,” her mother continued.

“I was not. I embarrassed you at recitals.”

“I think you did that on purpose so that I’d let you quit the lessons.”

She put three plates on the table and opened the box, revealing the large, loaded pizza. “What about you?” she asked Cassidy. “Did your mother torture you with anything?”

“Believe it or not, she tortured me with dance lessons…ballet, the whole works.”

“Oh my God. How long did that last?”

“Two long years.”

She turned to her mother. “See? Only two years. Why did I get seven?”

“You played lovely, Laura Sue. I hate that you gave it up.”

She glanced at Cassidy. “I think I would have rather taken dance lessons than piano.”

Cassidy smiled as she bit into her pizza. “You’d probably look cute in a tutu.”

Her mother nearly snorted. “I couldn’t keep her in a dress to save my life! I can only imagine the fit she would have thrown if I’d put her in dance classes.”

“Too much tomboy, huh?”

“The worst,” her mother said.

Laura shook her head. “I wasn’t that much of a tomboy.”

“You still are,” her mother corrected. “But it’s you. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

She stared at her mother, feeling a lump forming in her throat. Not that she needed reassurance, but her mother did indeed love her.

“My mother faced the same issues,” Cassidy admitted. “I think she got tired of me showing up for dance class with skinned knees.”

“Do you have brothers or did you tag after your father like Laura did?”

“One older brother. I drove him nuts chasing after him and his friends.”

Her mother seemed genuinely interested in Cassidy and Cassidy didn’t seem to mind the many questions directed her way. Laura didn’t mind either, as she was learning a few things about Cassidy—she hated Brussels sprouts but loved broccoli and cauliflower. However, Laura nearly spit her pizza out when her mother asked Cassidy about being gay.

“Mother!”

“What? Too personal?”

“You think?”

Cassidy laughed. “It’s okay. I knew I was gay probably before I was even in high school. I came out to my family when I was in the tenth grade. But I didn’t…well, I didn’t act on it until college.”

“You didn’t have sex until college?”

“Mother!”

Her mother turned to her. “What about you?”

“No. No, no, no,” Laura said firmly. “Next topic.”

“I was just—”

Laura held her hand up. “No.”

Cassidy was still grinning. “I don’t mind personal questions.”