Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Cassie hesitated on Lyra’s doorstep, grocery bag full of corn in hand. The meeting with Lyra had gone well. But what were the odds that Andromeda would be similarly receptive to the news that she had a surprise half sister?
She knocked, then brushed a hand nervously over her sundress. The day had been a dream—soaking up the sun at the harbor, walking the same streets her biological mother must have. Aster Hollow was a gem. It had even succeeded in distracting her from the disastrous meeting with Noah and his mom.
The door swung open.
“You’re here!” Lyra dragged her inside.
Cassie scanned the surroundings as they moved toward the back of the house. It was small, cozy, and full of cute knickknacks.
A scrappy little bark came from somewhere, and a pug scampered around the corner.
“Give her space, Julian,” Lyra said sternly.
Julian pawed at the bag of corn and greeted her with another yap. Cassie dropped to her knees and let him sniff her hand before petting him. She instinctively checked his ears and paws before remembering that he wasn’t a client.
“He’s beautiful.”
“Thank you. His breath smells like a dumpster full of rotten mothballs, but he’s the best boy. I got him from the SPCA almost three years ago, after…well, never mind.” She bent down and scooped him up. “I have a cat, too. Mochi. He’s hiding.”
“I know how that goes,” Cassie muttered. She straightened up. When she found her own place, she could get a dog. No one could stop her. Finally.
“Is it just the two of us tonight?” she asked.
“Oh, no. I just wanted you to come early so I could show you a few things without everyone else around. Plus shucking corn sucks and takes forever.”
Cassie nodded. “What did you want to show me?”
“Come into the dining room. Bathroom’s down the hall, by the way. You’ll need it when Andi makes her famous Old Bay Bloody Marys. If you drink, I mean.”
“How else does one mute the horrors?” Cassie said with a smile.
Tomato juice in the evening? She’d definitely need to make a run for Tums on the way back to the Inn. Hopefully the town pharmacy would still be open.
Lyra settled into a chair at the scrubby oak table. Her expression changed as she laid a hand on a thick red photo album.
“I put this together after mom died. There’s some pictures of her growing up and from when we were little. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to see them or not.”
“Of course,” Cassie said. For some reason, she was nervous. She had only seen one picture of her mother in the file from the private investigator, and an internet search had only revealed an obituary. Whoever Elizabeth Martin had been, she had lived her life offline.
Lyra cracked the cover and revealed a picture of a smiling toddler, wearing a pinafore dress and standing knee-deep in a river. A mop of red curls blew in the wind, and her smile was infectious
“Oh,” Cassie said softly. She reached out to touch the photo, but pulled her hand back. She didn’t need to smudge her half sister’s priceless memories of her mom.
“She spent her whole life in this town. Well, except for a brief period of time where she said she went to a boarding school in Baltimore. That must have been you.”
Cassie bit the inside of her cheek. So her mother had left town and covered up her birth. Whose idea had that been? Did her father even know she existed? Who was he?
There was a bark at her side, and Cassie jumped. Julian was sitting on the floor, staring at her.
“He wants to sit with you,” Lyra explained. “He must really like you.”
Cassie scooped Julian up and held him close while Lyra flipped the page.
“This is the farm she grew up on. It’s Andi’s now.”
Cassie stared at the hay field and the big red barn in the background of her mother’s picture. So this was the place where she had grown up. She itched to see it in person, to see if there were some remnants of her mother still lingering.
“And your grandparents are gone as well?”
“Yes,” Lyra said. Cassie glanced at her. She didn’t have the same wistfulness for their passing.
“Don’t get me wrong. We had a lot of fun visiting the farm while we were growing up—swimming in the pond, jumping on haybales—but Grandma and Grandpa were kind of strange.
They were obsessed with work and acted like we were useless if we weren’t doing chores.
Grandpa was still working the farm and feeding the animals the day he had his heart attack.
He could barely walk at the end. He should’ve been in assisted living, but he refused. ”
Cassie nodded. Her adoptive father was similarly obsessed with work.
“Mom shielded us from them as much as she could though. Things were always a little weird between them. Of course now we know why. Are you doing okay? Is this too much?” Lyra’s eyebrows were knit together.
Cassie shook her head. “I’m fine. I just wish I’d had the chance to know her.”
“Is that why you’re here? To see where she grew up?”
“Yes. And to meet you, of course. You’re a living, breathing piece of her.”
Lyra reached over and gripped her hand. “I’m really glad you came here.”
“Will you tell me more about her? Was she obsessed with stars? I wondered when I saw your and Andi’s names.”
“Oh my god,” Lyra said. “You have no idea. We spent so many nights out in the middle of a cornfield with a telescope. Winter, summer, it didn’t matter. She swore they made music if you just listened hard enough. She knew all their stories. I see you didn’t escape the constellation name, either.”
Cassie nodded. “That was the only thing my parents ever told me about where I came from. They let my birth mother give me my middle name, Cassiopeia. My first name’s Alexandra.”
Lyra nodded knowingly. “They probably thought it was best not to send you to elementary school with a name with ‘pee’ in it. But you go by Cassie now?”
“As of very recently.”
The doorbell rang, and Julian blasted off of Cassie’s lap like it had triggered some kind of emergency eject. He scrambled for the front door, leaving a cloud of fur in his wake.
Lyra rose and pushed the photo album toward Cassie. “Why don’t you take this back to the Inn with you tonight? You can drop it off at the café in the morning before you leave. Assuming you’re still leaving.”
Cassie nodded. “I’m going to check in on Huckleberry one more time in the morning, but I have to go. It’s time for me to start rebuilding my life. But I’m really happy I came here.”
“You’ll always be welcome in Aster Hollow. If you change your mind.”
Cassie smiled sadly. Strangely enough, she could see a life here.
It couldn’t be more different than San Diego.
Seafood instead of Mexican food, squirrels instead of the aggressive colonies of ants that infiltrated her house every summer.
The cost of living was astronomically cheaper.
And the town was concentrated—a tiny, walkable microcosm, not the sprawling beast of the city.
But she wasn’t going to find a job working in zoo medicine in the middle of nowhere. In fact, thanks to her ex, she may never work with exotics again.
But she wasn’t thinking about that douchebag today. Or ever again. May he fester in hell.
The door opened, and a trio of people walked in.
She held her breath, but none of them were Andi.
Lyra introduced Cassie without naming their relationship, and all of the friends greeted her warmly.
Two of them were a couple, Bentley and Amelia.
Bentley had been one of the rifle-toting rednecks from the Huckleberry incident.
He popped open the lid of a massive cooler, and Lyra squealed over the crabs inside.
Oh, and the last one was definitely the backward ball cap guy who had driven her U-Haul.
“Nice to see you again,” he said with a firm handshake. He was cute with a scruffy beard, chestnut-colored hair down to his shoulders, and long eyelashes framing dark eyes. A red flannel clung to his broad shoulders. The lumberjack aesthetic clearly had a chokehold on rural Maryland.
“We weren’t properly introduced yesterday. I’m Cassie. Thanks for taking my U-Haul to the Inn, by the way.”
“I’m Will. I have to tell you, what you did was one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen. And the way you yelled at Noah? I love him, but man, that guy’s had it coming for a long time. Is he joining us?” Will turned to look over his shoulder at Lyra.
“Nah. He made an excuse.”
“Probably a good thing. As much as I would’ve liked to see you go toe to toe with him again,” he said, finally releasing Cassie’s hand. “He’s been extra miserable lately.”
“It’s this time of year,” Lyra said firmly.
Cassie frowned. Who hated May? Maybe he just wasn’t a fan of the start of tourist season.
A realization seemed to dawn on Will, and he nodded. “Right. Okay, who has the corn? Let’s get this party started.”
Half an hour later, the crabs were steaming, the corn had been shucked, and Andi still hadn’t arrived.
“I’m sorry. I swear she does this on purpose just to annoy me,” Lyra said.
“It’s okay.”
Andi was a mystery. Her presence on social media was minimal and heavily locked down. The only real detail Cassie knew was that she lived on a farm.
“So, Cassie,” Will began, tossing a kitchen towel over his shoulder. At least he’d pulled his hair back before starting the crabs. “What’s the worst dog breed?”
“Come on, she’s not going to answer that,” Amelia said as she cracked the top on a Natty Boh and handed it to Cassie. “She’s a professional.”
“All dog breeds are great in their own way.” Cassie took a long sip of the beer.
She hadn’t had one since the last time she was on the East Coast. It felt like summer.
“However, the biggest assholes by far are chihuahuas. I worked at a private practice in San Diego for the last year. We had to wear bite-proof gloves when they came in.”
Everyone laughed.
“I knew it,” Bentley muttered.
“You worked with pets?” Lyra asked. “I thought you worked at the zoo.”
“Yeah. It was an unexpected career pivot.”
The door swung open without a preceding knock, and Cassie’s heart leapt into her throat.
A slender woman with dark hair pulled back in a messy bun strode into the dining room with a shopping bag.
She wore a white T-shirt and blue jeans.
It was hard to tell at this distance, but she didn’t look much like Lyra.
“Sorry I’m late. I was arguing with a supplier.”
Lyra strolled over, gave her sister a hug, and whispered something in her ear. Andi pulled back, looking puzzled. Lyra turned toward Cassie, and Andi followed her gaze. The color drained out of Andi’s face.
The shopping bag hit the floor with a clank.
“Andi, this is—”
“No.” Andi’s hands shook at her sides. She backed away like Cassie was a bear and not an innocent human being in a sundress.
Quiet fell over the room. Will looked between Cassie and Andi like he was watching a tennis match.
Lyra bit her lip. “Maybe we can go outside and chat, just the three of—”
“No,” Andi repeated. “Don’t follow me,” she said with a finger pointed at Lyra. She turned around and was out the door in a flash.
Cassie’s heart plummeted. Lyra turned to her with sadness in her eyes.
“Well, at least she left the fixings,” Will said after an awkward silence. “Who wants a Bloody Mary?”