She frowned. “If there were any roses to be thrown around, they’d be coming your way.”
“So chivalrous.” Cassie gave an exaggerated sigh and accompanied it with a flutter of her eyelashes. “My hero.”
Taryn pouted. “I’m feeling attacked. I didn’t call you so you could make fun of me.”
“No? Are you sure?” Cassie held up her hand. “I better go then.”
“You could wish me luck before you do.”
Cassie tilted her head slightly and winked. “You don’t need luck, superstar.”
Taryn smiled widely, loving Cassie’s faith in her ability.
“But, good luck, and don’t break anything.” Cassie’s smile was strangely thin and tight. She offered her wrist to the phone screen. “I have to go. Let’s talk tomorrow.”
Cassie ended the call without a response from Taryn, who hesitated a moment too long. In deliberating how to sign off, she’d missed the opportunity altogether. She slipped her phone into the thigh pocket of her pants and pushed through the door to the Venus bar. Andi was seated inside one of the many booths enclosed by an amber-colored glass globe.
The door slid closed behind Taryn, and she sat down. “No soundproofing today?” she asked, still able to hear the ambient noise of the bar and its other occupants.
Andi hovered her finger over the sound station controls in the center of the table. “I can turn it on if you like, but you’re not usually one for complete quiet.”
“You can leave it off, thanks. I have no desire to pretend we’re superspies having a ‘let’s save the world’ conversation.” Taryn pulled her glass of Coke closer and took a long drink. “Thanks for this.”
Andi tapped the bottle of mineral water. “You need to drink this too.” She poured it into a large glass and shoved it toward Taryn.
“I love how you look after me,Dad.”
“Don’t be a smartass.”
Taryn emptied the water and refilled it. She was thirstier than she’d thought. “I like it.” She liked it more than she cared to admit. Her parents had looked after her, of course, but they always wanted something in return and were never happy with anything less than perfection. She didn’t envy Ralph and Jessica’s inevitable battle with them over their baby. Jessica was a good-looking woman, but she didn’t have the symmetry her parents considered the gold standard of beauty. Taryn believed their child would be beautiful but not beautifulenoughfor her parents. Thank God she’d never had a single maternal longing in her life.
“If you like me looking after you, this conversation is going to go nice and easy.” Andi tapped the tablet set into the table. “Let’s get some food. I hate heavy discussions on an empty stomach.”
“Go ahead. You know what I like.” Taryn watched Andi prod out their order for a few seconds then asked, “Is this about you and Bernice? Have you had ‘the talk’ yet?”
The smile that spread across Andi’s face answered Taryn’s question and the one she hadn’t asked: how had it gone?
“It’s partly about that, yeah.” Her smile grew even wider. “This love thing kinda crept up on both of us.”
Taryn nodded slowly. It felt like it was creeping up on her too, but she wasn’t ready to give it the power of that label just yet. “She loves you too?”
“Can you believe it?”
Taryn wrinkled her nose. “Of course I can believe it. Why wouldn’t she have fallen in love with you?” Again, the reflection of her own feelings for Cassie thrummed for her attention. Why wouldn’tshefall in love with Cassie? Beautiful, intelligent, funny, and talented Cassie. The perfect woman Taryn hadn’t thought possible and certainly hadn’t been looking for.
Andi shrugged and took a long pull on her beer. They were silent for a while, and Taryn made no attempt to talk. This had always been how they’d communicated—long periods of silence punctuated by short and blunt sentences—and it worked for them.
Taryn saw the waiter approach with trays loaded with food. “Is all this heart stuff making you hungry?” She pressed the button for the door to slide open, and they emptied the platters onto their table. Taryn dropped ten dollars on one of the trays and thanked them. The door closed automatically behind them, and she and Andi dug in. “Bernice really did get the best chefs and waitstaff available,” she said after she’d munched on a taste explosion of a Thai fish cake. “Everything we’ve eaten here has been amazing.”
“There are two parts to what I want to talk to you about.” Andi twirled her chopsticks in a plate of pad Thai. “And I don’t want you to say a word or react inanyway until I stop talking.”
Taryn frowned. “Sounds ominous.”
Andi shook her head. “Not ominous at all, but I need you to have an open mind and take the time to process what I’m saying before you respond.” She wagged her chopsticks at Taryn. “I know that’s hard for you. You’re a gut-feeling, spontaneous person, but for the first time, I need you not to be quite soyou.”
Taryn downed another full glass of water. Being herself was something Andi had cultivated in Taryn from day one. “Okay.” She thought about the meditation section of the BodyBalance she’d done with Cassie. Maybe this would be a good test of its efficacy. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I took the advice you and Gwen gave me, and I laid my heart on the line.” Andi flicked her glance to her plate and chased a piece of chicken with her chopsticks. “Lady Luck helped me out, and it turns out Bernice feels the same way. She wants to be my pillion passenger.”
