Chapter 16
Casey thanked Stephanie for a great night as they reached the cottages. The walk had unfolded between them without effort, the final block of sidewalk quiet under the streetlights.
“Thanks for taking me out,” Stephanie said. Then she stepped in and pulled Casey into a hug.
The contact came quickly. Stephanie’s arms wrapped around her shoulders, her body warm against Casey’s. The green blouse was smooth under her hands.
Casey went still for half a second, hands hovering before she let them settle lightly at Stephanie’s back.
The hug felt deliberate. Stephanie pressed close, and Casey’s pulse jumped. She blamed the rum. People got affectionate when they drank. That was probably all this was.
They pulled apart. Stephanie’s hands trailed a beat longer than necessary before she stepped back.
“Goodnight,” Stephanie said, voice quieter now.
Casey echoed it and watched her cross the short distance to the rental. The door closed with a soft click. Casey stood there a moment longer than she needed to. Then she turned toward her own porch.
Inside, the kitchen light felt too bright against her eyes. She poured a glass of water from the tap and drank it standing at the sink, the cool edge of the counter pressing into her palms. She rinsed the glass, set it down, and walked out the back door to the pool courtyard.
The lounger creaked under her weight as she stretched out on her back.
She stared at the dark slice of sky visible above the courtyard wall.
The pool filter hummed its steady rhythm.
Her body would not settle. Every time she closed her eyes, she was reminded of the evening: the way Stephanie had looked at dinner, the flush that climbed her throat when Casey had admitted she was her type, the easy press of their knees at the bar.
The whole night had felt like a date even though Casey had known it wasn’t.
She pressed the heels of her hands over her eyes.
What the hell was she doing?
She couldn’t afford this. This was so much worse than what happened with Melissa and Ash.
Stephanie was straight. That fact sat like a hard, bright line Casey kept tripping over.
The woman had been married for twenty years.
She had spent the evening looking quietly stunned at the idea that anyone might think they were together.
Even if the moment at the gate had felt charged, even if Stephanie’s hug had lingered, none of it changed the core truth.
Casey had no shot here. Chasing any flicker would only end with her being disappointed.
She needed to shut this down. Now.
She lay there a long time. The stars shifted slowly overhead. At some point she must have dozed, because the soft creak of the gate latch pulled her back to full awareness. The pool lights had switched to their overnight cycle, casting everything in cooler, softer blues.
Casey sat up and raked a hand through her hair, fingers catching on salt-stiff strands. The motion pulled at her shoulders. She let her arm drop and heard the rustle of leaves at the gate. Her head turned.
Stephanie stood there in the opening, one hand still on the latch. She wore soft gray shorts and a black tank top that looked like pajamas. Her face was bare of the light makeup she had worn earlier.
Casey’s chest tightened. “Hey. You okay?” The words came out low, careful. Had she fallen? Locked herself out? Nothing else made sense for her to be here at nearly two in the morning.
Stephanie crossed the courtyard and sat on the lounger beside Casey’s, knees angled so they nearly touched.
“What’s wrong?” she asked when Stephanie stayed quiet.
Stephanie met her eyes. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, bright in the low light.
Her voice came out uneven. “I don’t know what I’m doing.
” She closed her eyes for a second. “I think I might be having a midlife crisis. But I don’t know.
I don’t think so. I just… I’m questioning everything I thought I knew about myself. ”
Casey’s stomach dropped. The thought arrived anyway: maybe this was about the way Stephanie had looked at her tonight, the way her body had leaned in at the bar. Casey shut it down hard.
Even if some small part of Stephanie felt the same pull, she was curious at best. Casey refused to be someone’s experiment again. She wanted someone who wasn’t afraid to be seen with her.
Stephanie kept talking, her voice fraying at the edges. “I don’t know. I know I’ve been drinking, but it’s not that. I’m not…” The words trailed off.
Casey leaned forward slightly, elbows on her knees. “Stephanie, what’s going on?” Concern sat heavier than any selfish spark. Whatever this was, it had Stephanie shaking.
Stephanie held her gaze. Then she looked away fast and pushed to her feet. “I should go.”
“Wait.” Casey reached without thinking, fingers closing around Stephanie’s wrist. The skin there felt warm, pulse jumping under her thumb.
She stood at the same time. The motion brought them close, inches separating shoulder from shoulder, breath from breath.
Her free hand came up on instinct and settled at Stephanie’s hip to steady them both.
The air between them thickened. Casey felt it press against her skin, the faint citrus scent of Stephanie’s lotion still clinging to her.
Heat slid through Casey’s chest and lower, a rush she could not stop.
Stephanie’s tank top brushed the backs of her fingers.
The contact grounded nothing. Casey’s heart beat too loud in her own ears.
She knew she should let go, step back, say something light that would break the moment. Instead her fingers stayed where they were, the thin fabric warm under her palm. Stephanie’s wrist stayed caught in her other hand.
Neither of them moved.
Casey held still, every nerve alive under the weight of Stephanie’s words and the warm press of her body.
She had spent the entire walk home battling the same pull, reminding herself that Stephanie was straight, newly single, and leaving in a few weeks.
Every brush of contact tonight had tested that line.
Now the line felt blurred and dangerous, and Casey’s hand still rested on Stephanie’s hip as if it belonged there.
She caught the shift in Stephanie’s gaze, a flicker of heat that darkened her hazel eyes and landed straight in Casey’s chest. Desire. Real and unguarded.
Casey wanted to step back, to break the contact before it swallowed her whole, but she stayed frozen instead, fingers flexing once against the thin tank top. The fabric was soft. Stephanie’s skin was warmer beneath it.
Casey swallowed hard. She needed to be sure. One wrong move and she would be right back in the mess she had sworn off after Ash, after Melissa, after every half-hidden night that left her picking up the pieces alone.
“Hey, talk to me,” she said, voice low and rougher than she meant. “What’s going on?”
Stephanie’s eyes dropped away. “I don’t want to hurt you.” The words scraped out tight. “It’s the last thing I want.”
Casey’s throat tightened. The admission landed like a fresh blow to a bruise that had never quite healed.
She had heard it before from women who hid what they wanted and disappeared when things got real.
She kept her hand where it was, thumb tracing one slow circle along the curve of Stephanie’s hip before she caught herself and stilled the motion.
She wanted to believe the words. She also knew better.
“How could you hurt me?” she asked, the question slipping free before she could swallow it.
Stephanie lifted her gaze again, meeting Casey’s fully this time.
“Because I can’t know for sure what I want, what this is…
” She paused, then pushed on. “All I know right now is that when I tried to go to sleep, all I could think about was how I felt with you tonight. How much fun I had. How natural it all felt. And this strange rush I got when you told Ash that we were together.”
The words landed heavy. Casey’s breath caught. The rush Stephanie described echoed the one that had flared in her own chest at the bar, the protectiveness mixed with something hotter when her arm had settled around Stephanie’s waist. She felt it now, the echo tightening low in her stomach.
Her fingers moved again without permission, a gentle caress along the hip bone, skin and fabric warm under her touch.
She shouldn’t. She knew she shouldn’t. Stephanie was tipsy and uncertain—everything Casey had sworn to avoid.
Still the contact lingered, sending warmth straight through her palm and into her ribs.
Casey leaned in half an inch. Her heart beat too fast against her own ribs, the old rule screaming in her head. She said it anyway, the words slipping free before she could lock them down.
“You’re not going to hurt me.”