“Good for him. I don’t blame him one bit.”
Okay, he totally looked at her ass that time.
Kasey let her face go plain, sipped her champagne. Whether other people thought Trey was charming or not didn’t matter. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find anything special about him. He acted like a lot of guys she’d known and been bored by. She tried to imagine how Caroline could have become enraptured by him, as he took his water with extra ice from the caterer when she returned. He didn’t thank her. Trey watched Kasey’s face for a moment and then took his time surveying the people in the backyard. She made her move to walk away, but Caroline was coming toward them with an older woman.
“Kase, this is my amazing mother-in-law, Paula Foxberry. Paula, this is one of my best friends and sisters, Kasey Fritz,” Caro said. Kasey said hi to Paula.
“Oh, of course I remember little Kasey Fritz from the grocery store. You and your poor mother,” Paula said. “Bless her heart, but Caroline thinks I’m old and senile. Well, she wishes. I may not have been as young as your mother was when she had you, but I was young when I had my children too. I’m not dead yet,” Paula said to Caro with enough nastiness on her tongue to let Kasey know that maybe everyone in the Foxberry family was trash.
“Well, Paula, Caro and I have been friends since we were babies. I love you, Caroppenheimer,” Kasey said, taking her hand. “Foxberry,” she said quickly, correcting herself. “Caroline,” she added for good measure. Leo’s guitar strums blinked the summer air as she and Caro hugged each other tight.
“Kasey Josephine Fritz, come here to me, right now,” Mimi said when she appeared. Kasey’s eyes filled with tears even though she’d seen Mimi earlier and more than once since she’d been back in Goldie. She and Caro had gone to the trailer park to drink sweet tea with her and sit out front and gossip. But hearing Grandma Mimi say her whole name like that? Kasey was overcome with nostalgia and emotion. She hugged her around her neck and stood back to hold her hands and admire her dress—coral vintage and beaded, like something right out of Old Hollywood. She wore a yellow rose pinned to it, the yellow matching the flowers on Caro’s long sleeves.
Rosemarie’s delicate voice met Leo’s in harmony in the atmosphere, and it gave Kasey chills, the magic of it—the starry dome of night, the math of music.
“Look at you, so beautiful,” Mimi said, kissing both of her cheeks.
“You are,” Kasey said to her.
“Caro, come out here and dance with us. We’re not going to waste one minute standing around tonight,” Mimi said, reaching for Caroline’s hand.
When they moved away from Trey and his mother, Mimi’s lip rose in a curl.
“I know they’re your family now, Ladybug, but they can be the sourest mess of people on God’s green. All that money and no sweetness. Where is the sweetness, honey?” Mimi said to Caro.
“The sweetness is right here,” Kasey said, pointing to Caro’s heart.
Mimi’s seventy-year-old self spun Caroline right around as Rosemarie stood on stage singing her heart out. When it was Caro’s turn to spin Mimi, she added a slow, careful dip.
“I love both of you more than you’ll ever know,” Caro said.
“We’re all a little too tender tonight,” Kasey said, gently bumping hips with Mimi.
“Lotta love and feelings are in the air! Blame it on the wedding!” Mimi was snapping her fingers to the music.
Over her shoulder, Ada was on her tiptoes, talking in Grayson’s ear. Silas was next to them; Kasey watched a woman slip her arm around his waist.
Kasey walked across the yard closer to the tent when the song ended; she clapped and whooped and Rosemarie found her in the crowd. Kasey blew her a kiss through the air. Pretty buzzed from the champagne, she walked up to the stage and told Rosemarie how lovely she sounded.
“You too, Leo Bell,” Kasey said to him.
“Thank you, Miss Fritz,” Leo said in the old-timey style that had always endeared him to Kasey. Leo Bell was a good one, through and through. There wasn’t one thing she didn’t like about him. His sisters opened Bell Books a few years ago and ran it together. Yesterday, Kasey stopped in to browse, and Leo lit up when he saw her face. This was who he was—a complete and total weirdo in the fact that he seemed like one of the last few decent men on earth.
Leo strummed his guitar again, playing the opening chords to “Cowboy Take Me Away” by The Chicks, and Kasey’s heart beat faster. Her face got hot as a lot of couples who were sitting and eating and chatting stood to gather on the dance floor.
“Dance with me, Fritz? Please? Don’t make me stand here by my lonesome,” Silas’s voice said from behind her. She was warmer than she wanted to be. She took Silas’s hand and led him out of the tent so they could get some more air. She put her arms around his neck as they swayed in the cool grass.
“Look at us dancing to our song,” she said. The first song they kissed to. The song that played again on prom night. The song that would forever remind Kasey of Silas and everything they were together. Devon was her fiancé and she adored him; Silas was the cowboy from her past, the cowboy she dreamt of taking her away, only he hadn’t. He couldn’t. Here they were now, fifteen years later, holding each other. The smoke of memory and their unfinished business so thick Kasey had to focus on her breathing so she wouldn’t choke.
“Wasn’t going to let the chance pass me by. Just don’t tell your fiancé if he’s the jealous type.”
“He’s not,” Kasey said, thinking of Devon in New York, wondering what he was doing. “What about Miss Green Dress over there? Y’all were looking mighty cozy a few minutes ago.” Kasey tilted her head toward where Ada and Grayson were standing. Miss Green Dress had a little girl on her hip now, and all four of Ada’s boys were leading a short line of kids holding glow sticks and running quick through the tables until Grayson reminded them to slow it down.
Silas turned to look when he heard his brother’s voice.
“That’s my little girl she’s holding,” Silas said.
Kasey’s stomach sank like a capsized boat. She opened her mouth to say something, anything.
“I’m messing with you, Fritz! Wow, you look mad. I made you mad. You don’t like me teasing you too much, I remember,” Silas said, smiling down at her.
“She’s pretty. The little girl’s pretty too,” Kasey said after scrunching up her nose at him. Rosemarie’s voice lifted and met the stars. Kasey looked up at them and felt so small again. Invisible. Thinking about her mom. Are You There God? It’s Me, Angie. Thinking about her dad. Are You There God? It’s Me, Isaiah.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Kasey.
“I don’t know her very well. She works at the courthouse,” Silas said.
Kasey closed her eyes and put her head on his chest, only looking up at him again when the song was almost over.
“Thanks again for the other day at the farmhouse,” she said.
“Stop thanking me for that. I’ve missed you,” Silas said softly. “Devon’s living the dream right now.”