Just Breathe Page 5

  “Why?” Cassie said. “You have somewhere to be?”

  “Your brother said your father had a rule for when he’s not here.”

  “Yeah,” Cassie said. “But I’m in college now. He needs to let go of that.”

  Noah shrugged. “That’s a discussion between you and your father.”

  Cassie was starting to get annoyed, but she decided that it was probably her. He should want to stay, not running off because her kid brother said so. She was so out of practice— maybe she just didn’t know how to flirt.

  She figured she needed to be a bit more obvious.

  “Thanks for today,” she said. She placed her hand on his arm. Smiled. If she could figure out a way to make it look natural, she’d flip her hair. “It was nice spending time with you. I really owe you for last night. I want you to know that.”

  She leaned in closer, put her hand on his chest and leaned up to give him a kiss. Before she knew what was happening, she found herself presented with his cheek.

  Noah started to back up. “It was nothing. I’m glad you’re doing better today. I’ve got to go, but call me if you need anything. And maybe we can drive to school together?”

  Noah headed toward his car.

  Now what the hell was that? she thought, stunned as he drove away.

  Chapter 5

  Coretta finally stopped by after she got off work that night. She came in just as Cassie began doing dinner dishes. Checking to make sure her dad or brother weren’t within earshot, Cassie explained everything that had happened with Noah that day, including his sudden retreat.

  Drying the dishes while they talked, Coretta listened attentively and patiently, offering little comment or question. However, once the dishes were done and they were safely secured in Cassie’s room, Cassie became more and more self-critical, and that was something Coretta wouldn’t accept.

  “I’m telling you,” Cassie said, “he couldn’t wait to get out of here. God, I’m such an idiot.”

  “No,” Coretta said. “You’re not. Now, knock that shit off and hand me your cell phone.”

  Coretta took the cell phone and scanned the texts from the night before. She tossed the phone back when she was done.

  “Notebooks and stuff?” Coretta asked. “Does the boy not know how to Google? He didn’t need you to show him where Walmart is. He wanted to see you.”

  Cassie collapsed on the bed. “That’s what I thought last night, but he didn’t respond to my flirting, and he looked scared when I leaned in to kiss him. I mean, I wasn’t going to try and shove my tongue down his throat or anything, but geeze.”

  “Maybe he’s just shy.”

  Cassie shook her head. “He’s not shy. He’s not bashful. I’ll tell you what he is: he’s a really sweet guy who saved my ass and then wanted the chance to apologize because he called the cops and pissed me off. But the last thing he wanted to do was get involved with such damaged goods.”

  “Girl,” Coretta said, “you want me to knock you on your ass? You do, you keep referring to yourself as damaged goods.”

  “It’s true,” Cassie insisted. “Look, I didn’t tell you the whole thing. The night of the attack… When Noah saved me… It happened again. I started to have another panic attack. He saw it. Hell, he held my hand and talked me through it.”

  Coretta rolled her eyes. “Some drunk asshole pinned you down and nearly raped you. I would have had a panic attack. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  Cassie shook her head as she recalled that night. “He knew it wasn’t my first one. He recognized the signs. He was so perfect. Knew exactly what to say and do.” Cassie closed her eyes and sighed.

  Coretta began to say something, but stopped herself.

  “He recognized the signs?” she asked instead. Cassie nodded. “And he knew exactly what to do?”

  “All he was missing was a suit of shining armor,” Cassie said.

  Coretta considered that.

  “Could be that’s his problem,” Coretta said. “Maybe he’s good at the come to the rescue part, but not the rest of it. Or maybe he had someone in his life that did have panic attacks and it did worry him? Or maybe, if he still had his big white hat on, he was worried that you were moving too fast and you were too vulnerable.”

  Cassie was half listening, half replaying the afternoon in her head and coming up with new ways to blame herself.

  “Or,” Coretta said, “maybe he’s gay. It could fit. Maybe he’s not ready to face it. He panicked when you tried to make a move on him.”

  Cassie sat up quick enough that her head began to spin.

  “That would actually make me feel better,” she said. “It would suck, but at least it wouldn’t be my fault. How can we be sure?”

  Coretta thought about that for a moment, smiled and then pulled out her cell phone. “Leave it to me.”

  * * * *

  Cassie had to hand it to Coretta; she seemed to have thought of everything. First thing she did was make Cassie wait two days before texting Noah again to put their plan in motion. It wasn’t easy when Noah had texted Cassie that night to ask how she was doing.

  Coretta instructed her to respond that she was fine and had company. Cassie, of course, started to wonder what he would think.

  “Boy shouldn’t think anything,” Coretta explained. “You made a move. Now, maybe he’s just shy…”

  “He’s not shy,” Cassie insisted. “You didn’t see the way he went after that putz.”

  “Don’t go there,” Coretta warned. “Besides, there are all kinds of shy. Take my brother Drew. He’ll make a damn fool of himself joking around with his friends. He doesn’t act shy at all, unless you’re a pretty girl he likes. Then he’s like a bashful puppy that piddles on the rug. Maybe your boy is better at taking care of you than anything else. That might not be something you want to latch onto. A knight in shining armor sounds romantic, but it can get tiresome being the damsel in distress after a while.”

  Cassie agreed. So much so that she started to worry that was all anyone saw in her. A victim.

  “Girl, don’t make me hit you,” Coretta said. “Let’s just take this one day at a time.”

  Cassie kept herself from initiating any texts with Noah. If he texted her, she agreed she would respond to whatever he said in very short texts, not too quickly. He texted her the next afternoon and asked her basically the same thing. How was she doing? She forced herself to wait an hour, then texted back that she was just getting things ready to start school and hanging with Tyler (who was locked in his room battling trolls or zombies, or whatever it was that was grunting).

  Off course, Coretta had agreed that if Noah came to his senses and actually asked her out, she should accept. But he didn’t. Still, he hovered around the edges of her life.

  Cassie went to see Susan on Wednesday, and she laid out everything she and Coretta had planned. She hadn’t been quite sure how Susan would react, but to Cassie’s surprise, Susan approved. She told Cassie that spending her time thinking about a boy other than Adam and trying to get his attention was a positive step. Susan confessed she was anxious to hear how things went, for both professional and personal reasons.

  The next time Noah texted and asked how she was, she responded with a bit more detail. She told him her friends all wanted to get together and asked if he’d like to join them.

  “But if you’re all going,” Cassie said, “can’t one of you just take me?”

  “Of course we can,” Coretta replied. “And if the boy isn’t interested in spending time with you but feels bad, he’ll point that out. Then we’ll know, and screw him. But if he likes you, he won’t think that hard.”

  Cassie worried which category Noah would fall into, so much so that she was driving everyone nuts as she waited. When Noah finally did text, Cassie did her best to reply casually. His response came quickly.

  Sounds great. I’ll pick u up.

  Cassie let out a little squeal, jumped up and down, and spun in a circle before she texted back
.

  Cool. C U 2morrow

  * * * *

  “You didn’t have to come in,” Cassie said as they pulled into the parking lot.

  “Why wouldn’t I,” Noah said as he carefully parked. “I’m sure your father appreciated my coming in to talk since we were leaving together. It seemed like the polite thing to do.”

  “Are you always polite?”

  Noah considered for a moment. “No, but I like to have a good reason to be impolite. And since your dad has a gun and a badge, it would have to be a pretty damn good reason.”

  Cassie laughed as they got out and headed in.

  As planned, everyone was in place. Coretta was with Malcolm at the head of the table. At the other end of the table, Ben sat with the young man he met the other night at the party. Ben introduced him as Brady.

  When they had talked to Ben about their plan, Ben made his rules clear. “I’m happy to help you out, Cassie, but I’m not flirting with him. First off, I’m just getting started with Brady. And besides, I’m not going to fake flirt. This isn’t high school.”

  Next to Ben was Megan, who had no qualms about flirting with Noah. Megan had come alone, dressed in a top that showed off an ample amount of cleavage. So much so that Cassie watched the water boy take his sweet time filling up everyone’s glass, his eyes darting expertly from task to tit as he did so. Cassie felt confident that with Megan in that top, they wouldn’t have any trouble getting refills.

  Cassie tried to watch Noah’s reaction. She prayed he wouldn’t have one, but since she herself couldn’t stop looking toward Megan’s cleavage and wondering if one of her boobs might pop out, she figured she’d cut Noah a little slack if he did notice.

  “So Noah,” Megan said. “Tell us about yourself. Where have you been that we haven’t seen you around before?”

  “I lived up past Syracuse,” Noah said. “Closer to the Adirondack Mountains, just past several small towns. It was really boring.”

  “Don’t you miss your friends?” Megan asked. “Did you leave a girlfriend behind?”

  Noah shook his head. “There were barely any people around where I lived, let alone anyone my age. So no. No girlfriend. Tell me about you. What are you studying?”

  Megan sent a quick sympathetic look toward Cassie as she turned on the charm and began to talk about how she was into graphic design. She rambled on for some time as Noah listened politely, asking open ended questions every now and again.

  When Megan seemed to be nearly done, Ben chimed in.

  “Cassie tells us that you want to become a police officer,” Ben said. “How did you come to that decision?”

  Noah considered the question a moment before answering. “I really like doughnuts.” That earned a round of laughter from the table. “What about you?”

  “Going into law,” Ben answered. “But I haven’t decided if I want to be defense or prosecution, so I might be the one grilling you.”

  Noah laughed. “I could never do that. I understand it’s important work, but I couldn’t defend someone when I believed they were guilty. How’d you decide to become a lawyer?”

  Ben shrugged. “Runs in the family, I guess. Dad’s a lawyer. Not that I’m close with him. My mom’s a lawyer. My aunt, my older brothers. It’s the family business.”

  Cassie listened intently as Noah asked Ben about his plans for becoming a lawyer and his family.

  When Noah began to talk to Malcolm, Cassie tuned out. She’d heard most of Malcolm’s stories before. Malcolm could be fun to listen to, he was such an animated speaker and had great comedic timing. She took that moment to excuse herself to use the bathroom. Coretta and Megan followed.

  “So what do you think?” Cassie asked Coretta.

  “Not sure yet, but I bet Malcolm’s still yammering on when we get back.”

  Sure enough, Malcolm was just finishing his story about winning the big foot game in his senior year of high school as they returned. She grinned at Noah when he looked to her.

  “So Brady,” Noah said. “I understand that you’re new in town as well. You’re just starting college in a few days?”

  “Yeah.” Brady nodded. “My roommate brought me to that party where I met Ben.”

  Brady shyly put his hand on Ben’s. Noah listened as Brady talked about his family from Long Island.

  “It’s weird being away from home, but kind of exciting. I feel freer.”

  Noah’s phone vibrated. Cassie leaned in to see a picture of a beautiful woman with dark hair and the name ‘Diana’ display on the screen.

  “I’m sorry,” Noah said. “I should take this. I’ll be back.”

  Noah answered the phone quietly and stepped away.

  “Well,” Cassie asked when Noah was safely out of ear shot, “I was right, wasn’t I? He’s not into me, is he?”

  Megan tried to look sympathetic. “I think he’s more into me. He talked to me for quite a while.”

  “No, he didn’t,” Ben said. “And, no, he’s not.”

  Megan looked almost offended, while Cassie looked hopeful.

  “Sorry,” Ben said. “But he asked you questions and let you talk. He did the same thing with Brady. And me for that matter. Malcolm, he just let talk. Part of it is that he’s being polite, but the other part is that he’s also deflecting. When we asked questions about him, he gave short answers and then got us talking. He doesn’t really want to talk about himself much.”

  Everyone considered that a moment and nodded.

  “Well,” Coretta said. “I can handle that.”

  “Wait,” Cassie said. “I don’t want to scare him off. I don’t even know if he likes me.”

  “He likes you,” Ben insisted. “Cassie, he watches you. He watches your reaction. He smiles whenever you laugh. When all of you ladies got up to use the bathroom earlier, his eyes were on you. Not Megan and her guns.”

  Megan hugged her breasts as if to console them.

  “He likes you,” Ben said. “But my guess is that you’re going to have to take things slow and be patient. Think about what little we know about him. He said he came from some small town, I don’t remember the name of it…”

  “I don’t think he said it,” Cassie offered.

  “Figures,” Ben continued. “But it’s small and it sounds like there weren’t many kids his age where he grew up. Maybe he didn’t have a girlfriend before now? I know it’s hard to believe since he’s so hot, but he can’t help geography.”

  Again, they all considered that.

  “What about those women he keeps getting calls from?” Cassie asked. “First was someone named Pamela, then Paige and now a Diana?”

  “That’s not all,” Brady added. “He got a text while you were in the bathroom. I was able to see the name because he had his phone on the table. Her name was Heather.”

  Ben shrugged. “That I don’t know. They could all be aunts or something. We don’t… Here he comes.”

  Sure enough, Noah returned to the table.

  “Sorry,” he said. His eyes darted around the table as he noticed the lack of conversation upon his return. “What’s up?”

  “So Noah,” Coretta said. “Do you need to get out of here early to make a booty call with the woman who called?”

  Cassie had to admire the way Coretta asked that in such a businesslike manner. She gazed around the table to take in everyone’s reaction. Malcolm was grinning with pride. Megan was leaning forward, resting her chin on her hand in anticipation of his answer. Ben had buried his face in his hands, while Brady was taking small sips of water to try and control his laughter.

  Cassie was beet-red, but rapt with attention.

  “That was Diana,” Noah said. “A family friend and a lawyer who needed to speak to me about a legal issue. So, the answer is no.”

  “Good to know,” Coretta said. “And since we’re on the subject of booty calls, who are you more likely to try and make a move on? My girl Cassie, or Brady?”

  Brady spit out water as Cassie’s cell went o
ff.

  “Oh thank God,” she said as she answered. “Hello? Dad? Yeah I can…” Her eyes darted toward Noah for a moment. “He’s right here, yes. Sure. Hold on.” She held the phone out to Noah. “He’d like to speak to you.”

  Noah looked surprised, but he accepted the phone. “Hello, Detective. What can I do for you?” Noah listened. “Of course. We can leave right away. No sir, no apology needed. We’ll see you soon. Goodbye.”

  Noah ended the call and handed the phone back to Cassie, who looked angry.

  “Did he just order you to bring me home?” she asked.

  “He asked me to,” Noah corrected. “He needs to go in. He asked that I bring you home right away.”

  “I barely go out,” Cassie complained. “He’s always telling me I should. He tells me he’s got at least three people that can stay with Tyler if needed. Not that Tyler needs anyone to stay with him. He’s smarter than I am, but still the one time that I do go out...”

  “You want us all to go with you?” Coretta asked. “Maybe just the girls?”

  “No,” Cassie said. “Tyler starts school tomorrow. He’s just being paranoid because of the other night.”

  Noah pulled out his wallet and tossed enough money to cover himself and Cassie’s part of the check. “I’m sorry, but I promised your father I’d get you home right away.”

  Cassie rolled her eyes. She quickly said goodbye to her friends and left. As they got into his car, she crossed her arms and pouted.

  “He needs to treat me like an adult,” she said. “I know he still thinks of me as a child, but I’m not. I’m not fragile. You probably think I am after what happened the other night.”

  “Why would I think that?” Noah said. “Cassie, you have no reason to be ashamed or feel weak. I mean, look at you. You’re out with your friends. You’re not letting what happened control your life.”

  Cassie sighed as they drove a few blocks in silence.

  “I’m sorry about Coretta,” she said finally. “She can be direct.”