Catching Cassidy by Melissa Foster Read Free Book Online Page A

feeling sick. I glance at Delilah and she’s smiling, looking out at the water. If her smile is any indication, I made the right decision by coming here. She’ll do better now, but I know that if she’s got any hope of getting through this, I need to suck it up and appear better now, too.
    “I’m glad we’re here,” she says, kind of to herself.
    I bury the memories threatening to pull me under, reach for her hand, and give it a gentle squeeze. “Me too.”
    Uncle Tim and Aunt Lara told Delilah and me about our parents’ will, but we haven’t talked about it yet. I’m waiting for her to bring it up so that I don’t push any invisible buttons and upset her again.
     “I wonder if everyone’s here.” Delilah glances out at the bar.
     “Brandon said everyone’s around. Jesse’s managing the bar, and Tristan is bartending. Charley’s working part-time this summer. She’s also working part-time for the Brave Foundation, and Brandon said there are a handful of college kids working for the summer.” When I spoke to Brandon the other night, it sounded as if not much had changed since last summer, which is good. Stability is probably the best thing for us right now.
    As I park, another memory forces its way in, and I try not to linger on the sound of my father’s long sigh, which always accompanied our first trip to the pier each summer. He’d stretch his long arm across the back of the seat and stroke my mom’s neck. She’d turn and smile at my father, and then she’d look at me and Dee in the backseat and say, Who’s ready for sand between their toes?
    “What about Brooke? Is she around?”
    Dee’s voice breaks me free from the memory, and I cut the engine, hoping to distract myself.
    Brooke Baker is a few years older than us and owns Brooke’s Bytes, a café on the boardwalk. Like our other friends here in Harborside, we’ve known her for several years. I wonder if Delilah’s thinking about all the mornings she and my mom used to walk down to the café and have breakfast with Brooke.
    “Yeah. He said everyone’s still around.” Brandon told me that they’re all really shaken up over our parents dying, but I don’t want to tell Delilah that. I asked him to tell the others to keep it light when they see Delilah. Too much stewing over our parents might send her hiding in her room again, like she was doing in Connecticut. At some point she’ll need to move forward and function normally. Although she’s hidden her sexual identity from everyone for so long, I’m not sure what normal would be to her. Hiding who she is, is definitely not what normal should be. I feel myself getting angry at my parents again and swallow back the anger as I park the car.
    Cassidy jumps out, grabs her camera, and then runs around to Delilah’s door and tugs it open. “Come on.” She pulls Delilah out of the car and takes a picture of the ocean. Then she turns to me and flashes a wide smile. “Just one picture? Please?”
    I groan and stand next to Delilah. I don’t mind Cassidy taking my picture, but I’m sure Dee isn’t into it. Her eyes look flat, and I’m not sure if Cassidy thinks this will cheer her up or if she wants to add today to her collection of scrapbooks. In any case, as Cass takes the picture, she looks like she’s just found a fountain of chocolate and clicks away. She’s always happy when she’s looking through the lens of a camera.
    “Okay, thank you. I promise not to torture you anymore.” She puts her camera back in the car and reminds me to lock it before grabbing Delilah and walking toward the beach.
    I follow them, and when their feet hit the sand, Cassidy bends to pick up her flip-flops. I realize I’m staring at her ass in her sexy little cutoffs. There’s a flowery patch right across her pocket, and when she stands up again, her tight gray T-shirt hitches on the waist of her shorts. Her legs are long and lean, and as she swings her arm over Delilah’s shoulder, several silver