“You wouldn’t be dumping your problems,” Raven said, expression troubled. “If you’re having difficulty at school—”
“I’m not.”
“You can talk to me if you are, though.” She frowned. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to handle everything on your own.” What she didn’t say, but which was clear from the way she tapped her fork against the edge of her plate, was that even if she loved Ian, she was hurt that Cass would go to him instead of her.
Cass forced a smile. “I know that. Next time, I’ll come to you first.”
She didn’t miss Toly’s sideways, assessing look, nor Shep’s accusing one. She put her head down over her plate, grateful when Raven started talking about her new swimsuit line.
~*~
Raven was yawning too frequently to talk by the time they started clearing plates, and that was before Natalia let out a piercing wail that traveled down the hall and through the baby monitor perched on the edge of the counter.
Toly stood and pressed a hand to Raven’s shoulder on his way past. “I’ll get her.”
“Thank you, darling.” She put her face in her hands. “God.”
“Go sit down.” Cass gestured to the sofa, and the TV quietly playing the evening news in front of it. “I’ll handle the dishes.”
Raven went without argument, and flopped down onto the sofa with the grace of a swooning dancer.
Cass assumed Shep would throw out a “see ya” and leave now that the food was gone.
Instead, he sidled up to her at the sink while she was filling one side of it with suds and pushed up his sleeves. With a glance at Raven, he lowered his voice and said, “That was your opportunity.”
Cass tested the water and cranked the handle all the way to hot. “Opportunity to do what?”
“Don’t play stupid. It’s a bad look on you.”
“Okay. Ouch.”
He snatched the sponge out of her hand with an impatient sound and pointed to the towel waiting on the counter. “I’ll wash, you dry. You don’t ever scrub hard enough.”
“I don’t have to stand here and take this kind of abuse.”
“What youhaveto do is tell Raven you might be called to testify at a rape trial before she finds out about it on the news.”
She sighed. “I already told you—”
“And Raven just told you that she wants you to come to her. Did you see her face when she was talking about Ian? She wanted to claw his damn eyes out.”
“God, you’re dramatic. She doesn’t want that. They’re best friends.”
He made an obnoxious and realistic buzzer sound. “Wrong.You’reher best friend. Why else do you think she was all butthurt that you went to him instead?”
“Do you even hear yourself? The idea ofRavenbeingbutthurt…”
Raven called sleepily form the adjoining room, “Is everything alright, you two?”
“Fine,” Cass and Shep called in unison.
They shared a look. Shep’s expression was set in those stubborn I-know-better-than-you lines that managed to be infuriating, and fond, and cute all at once. She knew she could wheedle and manipulate him, but only up to a point. When he put his foot down, he really put it down. He wasn’t going to rat her out to Raven, but he wasn’t going to back off his insistence that she clue her sister in to what was going on.
“I’ll tell her,” she conceded, turning back to the sink.
Shep nodded, and resumed scrubbing the pot. “How’s your friend holding up?” he asked, quietly.
“She went home to Brooklyn to stay with her parents.”
