Cassidy's Courtship - Cassidy's Courtship Part 20
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Cassidy's Courtship Part 20

Frank laughed. "Have you been sailing with him yet?"

Brenna nodded. "Sure have. And, he promised to take me to Lake Dillon the next time we go out." She gave Frank another once-over. "Next thing you know, he'll want to teach me to play golf."

Cole gave her a puzzled glance. Never once had he indicated a liking for golf-in fact, he hated the game.

Frank chuckled. "If you want a good teacher, forget this guy. I'm your man." And he launched into a long dissertation about his favorite "impossible" shots.

Cole's puzzlement gave way to admiration as his understanding dawned. Brenna had accurately gauged Frank's likes and dislikes. In the process, she steered the conversation away from herself.

Cole watched Brenna as the conversation drifted back to sailing and how they each were spending their spare time during the summer. Brenna continued to turn the conversation away from herself, deftly picking up on things Frank or Sandra told her, getting them to expand on their comments.

Cole had to admit to himself that Brenna was far better at the social small talk than he would ever be. She was warm, witty, and Frank and Sandra would walk away knowing nothing about Brenna James. Cole listened, really listened, to her. She sounded as well educated as Sandra, and her diction and grammar were better than Frank's.

The lobby lights flickered, indicating intermission was over. Cole squeezed her hand. "Ready to go sit back down?"

"It was a pleasure meeting you," Frank said. He and Sandra disappeared in the throng of people returning to the theater.

"Are they good friends?" Brenna asked.

Cole shook his head. "Acquaintances. And I never realized before tonight just how nosy Sandra is."

"Unusual couple."

"She's a prosecutor in the district attorney's office, and he's making tons of royalty money off a group of computer programs he developed a few years ago."

Brenna glanced at Cole. "That tells me what they do, but not who they are."

Cole followed Brenna into their aisle where they sat back down. "I don't understand."

"Aren't you more than the sum of your job?" she asked.

"Of course."

"Is what you do for a living the most important part of who you are?"

"It's a big piece," he said.

"I know. But, is it the most important piece?"

He shook his head. "I hope not."

She smiled. "Which is my point. What is Sandra Wilson's most important piece? I bet it's not her job."

Cole grinned. "In her case, I wouldn't bet on it." He took Brenna's hand in his. "But if you're trying to tell me there's a lot more to you than your education or the jobs you've had, I know that, fair lady. And I like all the parts of you."

"Intuitive, too, aren't you?" She slid her arm under his, threading her fingers with his.

He lifted their joined hands to his mouth and kissed the back of hers. "No. But I can add two plus two and get the right answer if I'm pressed."

The curtain rising for the second act kept Brenna from replying. As the play unfolded, she watched Cole from the corner of her eye. Tonight she had been the worst kind of fraud. Pretending she was just like him. Telling him about things she had seen and done while she lived overseas. She loved his approval, and she enjoyed his company. He'd given her the opportunity to tell him she couldn't read when he told her the story about his grandmother. And she couldn't face shattering his attraction to her with the unadorned truth of her life.

When the play ended, Cole held her hand while they walked to his car and stole a kiss when he helped her into the seat.

"It doesn't seem possible Independence Day is this weekend," Cole said.

"Summer always feels like it's half over by then. Even though it's just started."

"What I'd like to do over the Fourth of July, is go to the ranch." Cole took her hand. "You and me."

"You're asking me..."

"To go to Nebraska with me." He smiled at her. "About once a year, I get homesick. And I go to the ranch for a few days, get my perspective back, and things are good again. You know?"

"Yeah."

"So, it's agreed then. You'll come with me."

Brenna sensed the tension radiating from him despite the casual tone of his voice. She wanted to say yes, but she owed it to herself-to him-to think about this a little. Meeting his parents ... she wasn't ready for that.

"I'd like you to meet my folks. And you'd love my grandmother," he said, as if reading her thoughts.

Cole didn't know whether he had expected an immediate "Yes, I'd love to come" from her. But he hadn't expected her to watch him with dark eyes as though she was trying to fathom some hidden message.

He pulled into an empty parking space in front of the apartment.

"You'd love my grandmother," he repeated. "She's the most amazing person, feisty as ever. She's over eighty now, and she ignores us all when we tell her she ought to slow down a little. Did I tell you that she came to Nebraska on a horse-drawn wagon?"

Brenna shook her head. "She's seen a lot, then." Accepting Brenna's comment as an invitation for more, Cole told her about his grandmother's trip from Kentucky to Nebraska when she was a girl, then told her how she'd met his grandfather.

Brenna listened with her usual fascination for oral histories passed from one generation to another. Easily, she imagined what it must have been like traveling across the wide prairie to a new and unknown home.

Cole's grandmother came alive to Brenna, and she admitted wanting to meet the woman who had been such an influence on him. Even so, the idea of being important enough to him to meet his family scared her.

"We'll have a great time," he said, finishing his story by repeating his invitation to visit the ranch.

"Do you ask every girl you take to dinner?" she teased. On one hand, she would have a lot less pressure if he took women there all the time. On the other hand, she didn't want to be one of many.

"Only one other," Cole answered seriously. "And that was a long time ago."

Brenna's smile fell away. This was no casual thing for him either. She should tell him no, but instead, she asked, "When would we go?"

"Probably Wednesday. I'd like to spend the weekend there and come back on Sunday night or Monday." Cole's finger touched a tendril that lay against her nape. "It would give us some time together without all the distractions we find around here."

Brenna smiled. "No Teddy."

"If you want a chaperon, my grandmother would do better than Teddy any day."

"She takes longer naps?"

Cole laughed. "Ahh,Brenna ." He slid closer and touched her temple with his lips. "I know a few places on the ranch where I can have you all to myself."

"What kind of invitation is this?" she whispered.

"Completely honorable." He kissed her cheek, then her hairline below her ear where wisps had escaped the confinement of her chignon. "I want to touch, and look at, and cherish-"

"Oh, Cole," she sighed, putting her arms around him. "Yes." He hauled her across his lap. "I want you."

"I know."

"I think a change of scenery would do us both good."

"I agree," she whispered against his neck.

"So you'll come?"

She nodded. "I'll have to rearrange the schedule for a couple of my cleaning customers. And I have to make sure I don't leave Jane in the lurch. Maybe one of the neighbors can help watch Teddy for a couple of days."

"Good," Cole whispered a scant second before claiming her mouth as completely as he wanted to claim her body. He wanted to take her back to his house, and conversely, he wanted this tension to increase until she was as consumed by it as he was. Reluctantly, he forced himself to lighten the pressure of his kisses, to tease them both.

When they made love for the first time, he wanted time to play, to enjoy, and to have thoughts of work far behind them. The perfect place would be at the lake, he thought. They would make love beneath the shady cottonwoods, then go skinny-dipping, and play very adult games in the water. He'd never taken a woman there. In fact, he had never made love with a woman out-of-doors.

The idea of making love with Brenna like that tested his resolve to tease them rather than escalate the passion. A few more days, he promised himself. Finally, Cole forced himself to let her go and he walked her to the door of the apartment. "I'll come by tomorrow night," he said. "What would you like to do?"

"I don't know. I can't," she blurted out, her color very high. "I'm ... Nancy and I are-"

"Going to the movies, I bet," Cole said. "Who is she dragging you off to see this time? Tom Cruise? The latest Spielberg film?"

"Jealous?" she asked, wrapping her arms around him, a smile lighting her face.

"Only if you think about kissing any one else like this," Cole answered, lowering his mouth to hers.

"Just Tom," Brenna whispered long seconds later, as she hugged Cole more tightly.

"Just Tom," he muttered. "I don't even want to know." He set her firmly away from him. "You two have a good time. I'll call you from work tomorrow."

"Okay."

He playfully swatted at her fanny as she turned to go through the door. "And be good."

She turned and winked at him. "Of course, you won't be around."

Chapter 14.

"Hi," Nancy said the following evening when she met Brenna outside the library.

"Hi," Brenna responded.Now that the moment was upon her, she almost wished she hadn't agreed to this. Fear, the flip side of elation, surfaced. She knew just what failure tasted like. She had dined at that plate for years.

Everyone knew kids learned things more easily than adults. The last time she had tried, the experience had been awful. She had felt stupid, and she had hated the teacher. Alarm curled through her stomach and she cast Nancy a quick glance. They were friends. God, what if she ended up hating her friend?

"I just figured out something," Nancy whispered as they crossed the library, headed toward the meeting rooms.

"What's that?"

"I'm scared to death."

Brenna stopped dead in her tracks, her heart pounding, and watched Nancy walk ahead of her. Of all the things she could have said, this was one Brenna had not expected. Nancy opened the door into a small room and turned around to wait for Brenna.

She slowly approached the door. "Why are you afraid?"

Awful things poured through Brenna's head. Maybe she was too stupid to learn, and Nancy knew it. Or maybe she had changed her mind. Or maybe this was going to be just too, too hard.

Nancy closed the door behind Brenna. "Because I've never done this before. When I volunteered, I thought it would be easy. Then, when I went through my training ... whew." She rolled her eyes. "They had some exercises to show us what it would be like for someone who doesn't read, and all of the sudden, I figured out this wasn't some lark to feed my ego. This was hard. And important."

"But you volunteered anyway," she interjected. "So why are you scared?"

Nancy looked away from a moment, and when she looked up, her eyes were bright. "I never really thought about who might be my student. And it's you-my friend. And what if I'm not good enough-"

"No 'what-ifs,'" Brenna interrupted, the constriction around her chest easing as she realized Nancy feared her own inadequacies. Brenna understood that. "We can do this. If I can, you certainly can." She was almost relieved to find that Nancy felt as uncertain as she did. Brenna hadn't imagined this from Nancy's point of view. She knew Nancy would do her best, which was all either one of them could ask for. Brenna would do her best, and that too, was all they could ask for.

"We'll give it our best shot," she added. "If this doesn't work I won't blame you."

"It will work," Nancy responded. "I've seen it work."

"You teach me to read, and I'll coach your running. Okay?"

"Okay." Nancy smiled and sat down in a chair at the table. She opened a folder and pulled out several

sheets of paper. "When Brian tested you on Saturday, all he did was determine the level you read at. Our next step is to make sure you have all the basics you need."

Brenna sat down. "What kind of basics?"

"That you know all the letters and their sounds. As we go along, we'll figure out how much you already know. Some of this stuff we may have to spend some time on and some of it we may be able to zip through."

"Okay,"Brenna agreed. "What else?"

Nancy met Brenna's gaze. "Everything we use, we'll gear toward things that interest you. So, I have a bunch of questions to ask you." She read from the top sheet of paper. "Have you read the newspaper in