Cassidy turned back around as if to say something, then—after a quick smile—left her in peace. Laura tried not to be nosy, but she was. The garage door opened and Cassidy drove inside. The trunk popped open and two large bags were retrieved. Was the bleached-blond model planning to stay for a week or what? Then the garage door closed, slowly enough for her to see the blonde laugh flirtingly, then lean closer to Cassidy, presumably to kiss her. Thankfully, the door closed before she had to witness that.

“God, where does she find these women?” She shook her head. She’d bet a hundred bucks this one was as straight as an arrow. Disgusting.

* * *

Cassidy sat at the edge of the pool, dangling her feet in. Ashly was on a float. Ashly was young and strikingly gorgeous. Ashly was naked. Ashly bored her to tears.

She lifted her head, flicking her gaze to the house next door. She’d heard Laura start the truck up not more than twenty minutes after they’d gotten there. She’d given Ashley a tour of the house, listening to her “oohs and ahhs” indifferently. She absolutely “loved” Cassidy’s bedroom. The disappointment was evident on her face when Cassidy took her two bags and deposited them in one of the downstairs guestrooms instead.

Ashly was a friend of a friend. She’d gone out with her once, a couple of months ago. Then this week, Macie had invited Cassidy to dinner at their house and Ashly was there. As was her habit, Cassidy invited all three of them to stay the weekend with her. Macie and Karon couldn’t come up until Saturday. Ashly, on the other hand, said she was free all day Friday and would love to ride up with her.

And here she was, entertaining a woman who apparently had preconceived notions of how the weekend would unfold. Granted, their first date had ended with a rather heated kiss, one that Ashly had initiated and one that Cassidy hadn’t pulled away from. However, there was nothing about Ashly—other than her looks—that attracted Cassidy so there had been no second date. Dinner the other night had been fun, but Cassidy had given no indication to Ashly that she thought of her as anything other than a friend.

“So what was your neighbor doing over here?”

Cassidy looked over at her, for the first time noting her all-over tan, the result of too much time spent in a tanning bed. “She’s putting in some flowerbeds for me. Takes care of the yard.”

“Why?”

“I asked her to.”

“Do you pay her?”

“Of course.”

“She must be hard up for money. That looked like a filthy job.”