She blew out a deep breath. She was a grown woman. Forty-four years old, for God’s sake. And here she sat, afraid to go, afraid to see Laura. What exactly was she afraid of?

“It’s just Laura,” she murmured.

With that, she spun around and closed her laptop. She couldn’t possibly sit around here until six…thinking. She’d rather fight five o’clock traffic.

* * *

Laura sat on the patio sipping iced tea. Friday night and she was drinking sweet iced tea. She had beer, but she wasn’t in the mood for it. She had bourbon, but that too wasn’t appealing.

Where was she? Was she even coming this weekend? Since Laura had moved there—what was it? Over two months now?—Cassidy always came early on Fridays, even a few times on Thursday. But today? No. Here it was, nearly nine and there had been no sign of her. Laura knew why, of course.

“I’m attracted to you.”

Yeah…that was it. That was still it. She’d almost called her this week, just to clear the air a bit between them. She didn’t want there to be awkwardness. She didn’t want Cassidy to feel uncomfortable around her. But in the end, she didn’t. And now Friday had rolled around again and the weekend was here. Was she even coming? Didn’t she say she was having a Saturday barbeque? Had that been canceled? Was Laura even still invited?

She saw lights flash across the trees, and she turned, listening. Sure enough, she heard Cassidy’s gate opening. She was surprised by the nervousness she felt, surprised that her heart rate kicked up a notch or two…surprised by how thankful she was that Cassidy had come home after all.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Cassidy leaned against the island, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand. It was barely daybreak. Was she out there on her patio? Was she already sitting, having coffee, watching the birds?

She walked to the double doors and stared out at the pool, her gaze drawn to the fence as if she could see through it. Yes. Laura was out there. She could almost feel her.

Damn.

She’d busied herself in the kitchen last night, seasoning the ribs and chicken. She wanted to get the ribs on the smoker about nine this morning. She’d busied herself with unpacking, with tidying the house for company. She’d busied herself, yes, but that didn’t mean that Laura wasn’t on her mind. She had been, just as she’d been on the drive home. Just as she was now.

Well, she was being ridiculous, she told herself. She couldn’t avoid her forever. Best to get it over with now than to wait until Tanya and Derrick were here. Get it over with, talk about it if they needed to, then get back to normal. Because normal was what she wanted.