Page 51 of The Forever Christmas Tree

She held the phone away from her ear for a moment.

“How did you get there?”

“In a cab.”

She heard him mutter something under his breath that she was pretty sure were swear words.

“Why? Were you invited?”

“Not exactly. Dad, don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad, princess, but I was worried when you weren’t at the church when I got there. And you know better than to barge in on people.”

“They don’t mind. In fact, me and Wendy are about to have a tea party with ginger tie tea and cookies, and there are three dogs here named Duke, Prince, and Earline. And a bunch of people are making a gazillion cookies for the church bazaar. And did you know that old folks can dance to Beyoncé?” She stopped to catch her breath and added, “And Wendy wears her mother’s red coat to remind her of her mother, just like I wear pink to remind me of my mother, but maybe I could get a blue sweater sometime, just for a change.”

She thought she heard her father sigh. Then he said, “I’ll be right over to pick you up.”

“Okay, but . . .” She paused. “. . . could you maybe wait a little while before coming?”

When she clicked off the phone, Wendy came back and sat down next to her. “Is everything all right?”

She nodded.

“Cassie, I think I know why you came here to see me today.”

“You do?”

“Uh-huh! Your dad told me what your mother said about a ‘Wendy kind of love,’ or some such thing. I just wanted you to know that it meant nothing, except—”

Cassie waved a hand dismissively. “That’s not why I came.”

“It isn’t?”

“Nope.” She leaned down and unzipped her backpack, pulling out a book with “The Pelican” embossed on its cover. It was her father’s high school yearbook.

She could see that Wendy recognized the book, too, which only made her frown more with confusion. Cassie flipped the pages until she got to the photograph she wanted to show her. It was a half-page picture of a girl wearing a black one-piece bathing suit and a white bathing cap, caught in the midst of a perfect swan dive. The caption read: Wendy Patterson, First Place, State Diving Championship, third consecutive year.

“Can you teach me to do that?”

Chapter 13

Shagging down memory lane . . .

It killed Ethan but he waited before rushing over, as Cassie had pleaded. So, it was forty-five minutes before he pulled up in front of the Patterson house. Only the father of an almost-twelve-year-old girl would understand his terror when he’d arrived at the church to find his daughter missing.

At least, it had stopped him thinking about, you know, screwing for closure. That is, until the object of his waking wet dreams stood before him.

Wendy was already opening the front door when he bounded up the sidewalk. Wearing white socks, gray, calf-length tights, and a Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt, she looked about sixteen years old. And sexy as hell!

Putting a fingertip to her lips, she motioned for him to follow her into the hallway and toward the open door on the left, leading into what used to be her father’s reception room for patients. He probably would have followed her into a closet at that point, that’s how pathetic he was becoming, but then he remembered the reason for this visit . . . his daughter. Wendy wasn’t beckoning him off for a little afternoon delight. More like an afternoon rude awakening, in the form of his daughter.

Speaking of whom . . .

He stood frozen in place for a moment, looking through the archway on the right, seeing Cassie at the other end of the living room. Because of the loud music, he remained unnoticed, so far. And he hadn’t rung the doorbell.

Four couples—Cassie and a short, bald guy with red suspenders, Aunt Mildred and her Latin Lothario, Wendy’s WEALS girlfriend from California and Gloria Solomon, the longtime town librarian, paired with two of the Navy SEALs—were all doing the Carolina Shag to that old Temptations song “My Girl.” And they were good! All of them, including Cassie, who was laughing as she did the intricate steps. A half-dozen other seniors and guests sat about clapping and offering advice.

Was it like this all the time? Maybe the rumormongers were right about the goings-on here. Crazy town, for sure!