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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


A  week and a half later, on the afternoon of July Fourth, Luke and Cassie met for lunch at a small restaurant on Broadway, which was not too far from where their tour was to start. After lunch, they walked to the gated entrance of City Hall Park where they waited for the tour guide. They were early, which was exactly how Cassie planned it. Cassie did not want to risk being late.

Cassie and Luke sat on a bench as they waited. They watched as more people seemed to converge on the area. Luke looked at Cassie. She was watching two pigeons fighting over a piece of food. 

“Have you done one of these tours before?” Luke asked.

Cassie turned to Luke, “no I haven’t. When I moved up here after college, I was too busy looking for a job and then working the job to really be a tourist. Then I got into writing music and I was traveling a lot, meeting musicians and what not. I guess it’s only now that I’ve really slowed down you know?” Cassie explained.

“Yeah. Sounds like you’re a bit of a workaholic too.” Luke laughed.

Cassie threw her head back. “Ohh no. Nowhere near as bad as you, Mr. I’ve Got Work To Do On Sunday. It was hard to stay afloat when I first got here. I didn’t have the best paying job.”

“Then why’d you move?” Luke asked. “I’m sure you could have found a better paying job in North Carolina, or anywhere really.”

“I guess, but it’s the city—a real city. It’s not like Charlotte or Atlanta. It’s New York. And I wanted a change. I grew up in the South; I needed something new. Besides, I don’t think I would have become a songwriter had I stayed in North Carolina.”

“So fate brought you to New York.” Luke said.

“We’re not going back to this are we?” Cassie laughed. “I thought we were over this.”

“It was just an observation.”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “Observation my ass.” She muttered. 

A man wearing a vest and holding a clipboard walked up. People began to coalesce around him. Cassie took notice and stood.

 “I think this is us. Come on, Luke.” Cassie said. She grabbed his hands, leaned back, and pulled him up.

After the tour, Cassie and Luke had just enough time to catch their bus to East Hampton. They sent their overnight bags with Carmen, who did not want to join them on the tour and took an earlier bus out. For most of the three hour ride, Cassie slept and Luke reviewed case files from work. The bus arrived only a few minutes later than scheduled. When Cassie and Luke got off, they spotted Dani. She was leaning on a car holding her one-year-old son AJ.

“Cassie, there’s Dani.” Luke said walking toward the car. Cassie followed closely behind. 

“So you got here on time. I credit Cassie with that achievement.” Dani called as the pair made their way over to her vehicle.

“Why, thank you.” Cassie laughed. 

Luke smiled. “Yeah, yeah. Aren’t you supposed to be grilling?”

As they approached Dani, Cassie could see AJ bouncing in Dani’s arm and clapping his hands. When Luke was close enough, AJ reached for the familiar figure. Luke took AJ with ease and Dani smiled. 

“Carmen is watching things while I’m gone. Alex was putting the finishing  touches on his side dishes.” Dani explained. “I’m surprised he recognizes you.” She pointed to Luke. “You haven’t been around much lately.” 

“You’ll always remember me won’t you buddy?” Luke said. AJ Giggled and placed his hand on either side of Luke’s face.

Cassie smiled and walked around to the passenger’s seat, “I’ll sit up front so the two of you can bond.” She opened the door and put her purse on the floor.

“That sounds like a good idea. You can strap AJ in his carseat as well.” Dani said opening her own door. 

Luke looked at the two ladies and laughed. “Oh, I see how it is.” Luke used his free hand to open the door to the backseat. After easily buckling AJ into his carseat, Luke situated himself in the backseat as well. Dani pulled off into the Fourth of July traffic and drove the group to the beach house where they were staying. 

The car came to a stop in the driveway of a large house. Cassie got out and surveyed the area. She could smell the ocean air and hear the waves crashing on the beach. It was a beautiful day. And they were staying at a beautiful house. When Luke first invited Cassie along for the holiday, he told her the house had four bedrooms and could sleep eight. But that was all he said. Luke never mentioned that the house where they were staying was reminiscent of a European Chateau. 

“It’s a nice house isn’t it.” Dani said.

“Yeah it’s gorgeous. You guys spend the Fourth of July out here every year?” Cassie asked.

“Almost. Corbin, Alex’s business partner, owns a number of other restaurants as well. It also doesn’t hurt that his family is considered Old Money.” Dani explained. “This year he and his wife decided to spend the summer in Europe. It’s their fifth anniversary, so he wanted to do something special.”

“Must be nice to have friends in high places.” Cassie said as she  walked with Dani up the stairs of the house. Luke followed with AJ in tow. 

“This coming from the woman whose best friend is a five-time Grammy award winner.” Dani laughed.

“Jade may be rich and famous, but she’s still really down to earth. I don’t know if you’ve got that vibe from her. She travels all the time for work, but for the most part she tries to live a fairly simple lifestyle, at least simple for a musical superstar.” Cassie said.

Dani opened the door and held it open for Luke and Cassie. 

“I see.” Dani said.

As the trio and AJ walked into the living area, Alex came out of the kitchen. 

“Glad to see you were able to make it, and that you didn’t miss your bus.” Alex said.

“We were pushing it kind of close after the tour, I told Luke we could just take the next bus when we were planning this all out, but he insisted on the 3:30.” Cassie said sitting down in one of the wood-framed chairs. 

Luke sat down in the chair next to Cassie and placed AJ, feet first, on the ground. The toddler began to waddle toward a pile of toys in the corner of the room. 

“What can I say, I like to live dangerously.” Luke joked. 

“U-huh.” Cassie said.

“I’m going to check on Carmen, make sure she didn’t burn my meat.” Dani said exiting through the glass sliding doors directly opposite the main entrance.

Alex joined Cassie and Luke sitting down. “How was the tour? I’ve really wanted to do one, but I haven’t been able to find the time.”

“It was interesting.” Cassie said.

“It was long.” Luke supplied.

“Oh, come on. You know you enjoyed the tour as much as I did. You should have seen him Alex. His eyes would light up every time the guide mentioned something he found interesting. He was like a big kid.” Cassie teased.

“My eyes did not ‘light up.’” Luke said.

“It’s so cute that you think that.” Cassie laughed. “I don’t know why you can’t admit you enjoyed yourself.”

“We walked around for two hours, two hours.” Luke said holding up two of his fingers to further emphasize the point.

Alex laughed at Cassie and Luke’s banter. To him, it felt right, watching his new friend and one of his oldest friends interact with each other. 

Before their conversation could go any further, the sliding doors opened. Carmen walked in with an empty beer bottle in one hand and one bottle that was half full. 

“Hey.” Luke said. “I heard you were on grill duty. How’d that go?” Luke asked with a knowing smile. Luke stood in for Dani at the grill once before and he decided then to never do it again.

Carmen glared at the group before storming off into the kitchen. When she came back, she had a fresh beer in hand. “That woman…now I see why you concede the grilling to your wife Alex.” Carmen said plopping down on the couch next to Alex. AJ looked up at the new occupant before going back to his toys. 

“What happened?” Cassie asked.

“I thought I was doing a decent job. And his wife,” Carmen said pointing to Alex, “came out and said I was doing it wrong. The thing is she gave me detailed instructions before she left, which I followed to the letter, and she comes back and says I’m doing it wrong. How hard is it to flip a freaking piece of chicken and slather some sauce on it? Why didn’t I volunteer to pick you guys up instead?”

“Wow. I didn’t know grilling was so intense.” Cassie said.

“It’s not. Dani just is really obsessed about it.” Luke said.

“A little too obsessed.” Carmen said taking a swig  of her beer.

“What are the plans for the evening?” Luke asked changing the subject.

“Dinner, and then hanging out on the beach to watch the fireworks. Not much planned after that.” Alex said. He stood up and walked over to where his son was playing on the floor. “I’m going to see if this guy needs to be changed.” Alex picked up AJ and walked to one of the rooms toward the back of the house.

“So what’s Jade doing today?” Luke asked. “You should have invited her out.”

Carmen perked up slightly at the mention of Jade’s name.

“She got invited to a private Yacht party on the Hudson. She tried to get me to go.”

“Why didn’t you? It sounds like fun.” Carmen asked.

Cassie shrugged her shoulders, “I already had plans.”

“To do a walking tour of New York and then to come out here and watch fireworks from the beach. The party sounds more entertaining to me.” Carmen said.

“I’ve been wanting to do one of those tours for a while now. Also, I hate canceling plans at the last minute.” Cassie said. “Besides, I’m sure Luke would have been devastated if he didn’t get a chance to go on the tour.” Cassie said sarcastically.

“You think you’re funny don’t you.” Luke said.

“I’m a riot.” Cassie smiled.

“I’m going to get something to drink. Would you ladies like anything?” Luke said standing.

“Just water.” Cassie said.

“Same.” Carmen replied.

Luke nodded and went into the kitchen.

“Oh, before I forget, I put your bag in the room across from mine.” Carmen said. “It’s just up the stairs.”

“Thanks for bringing my stuff.” Cassie said.

“It wasn’t a problem. It just made sense. Especially since the two of you were getting on a bus as soon as you finished the tour.” Carmen said. “How is the foundation stuff going?”

“Pretty well. I almost have everything planned. The venue is booked, Alex is catering, and Jade and Sean are working on music. It’s going to be a formal halloween event, but we are also going to have a couple of artists perform as well.” Cassie explained. “What about you? How’s work going?”

“It’s going good. I have my last review next month as a junior associate. I’m fairly confident I’ll be promoted to a full associate at that point. We’ve been pretty busy too. I’ve been working on a pretty big case with Luke. If things go well with this, he’ll make partner for sure.”

“That sounds pretty exciting.”

“It is.” Carmen said. There was a slight lapse in conversation. Cassie stared out one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows while Carmen scratched at the etchings on her close-to-empty beer bottle.

“Can I ask you a question?” Carmen said.

Cassie looked to Carmen. “Go for it.” She said.

“The other week, at Jade’s birthday party, she was kind of staring me down.” 

“Really?” Cassie asked, feigning  incredulousness. 

“You didn’t notice? I thought it was kind of obvious.” Carmen said slightly defeated. She shook her head. “Maybe it was just all in my head. I’ve been a huge fan for years.” Carmen explained. “It probably sounds really stupid, but she’s my celebrity crush. And now that I know her…I don’t know. I guess I’m just projecting.” Carmen said.

Cassie nodded her head not sure exactly how to respond to Carmen’s confession. So instead of addressing the situation with Jade, Cassie asked about the bartender instead. “I’m curious, what happened with the bartender?”

Carmen smiled. “It was a really, really good night. Her name was Mila and I’ve actually hung out with her a couple of times since then. But I really don’t think that’s going anywhere. She’s good for a good time.”

“I see.” 

Before Cassie could say anything more, Luke returned from the kitchen with a bowl of chips and three bottles of water. “Here you are ladies.” He placed the bowl on the coffee table and then handed each of his friends a bottle of water.

Shortly after that, Dani came inside. “Where are my boys?” Dani asked looking around.

Alex walked into the room carrying AJ. “Here we are. Is the food ready?” 

“Yeah. I put the food from the grill on the table outside. Why don’t you guys grab the sides from the kitchen.” Dani suggested.

Carmen and Cassie stood and retrieved the aforementioned food, while Luke brought the bowl of chips he was eating outside onto the back deck. Dani and Alex, who was still holding AJ, followed Luke outside.

The back of the house had a view of the ocean and an access point to a private beach. Alex sat down at the table and placed AJ in his lap. Dani sat in a chair next to them. She grabbed a paper plate from the center of the table and began to add meat from the platter. Luke sat down in one of the chairs across from the family. He watched as Dani made a plate and Alex tried to hold AJ back from climbing onto the table. Alex said something and Dani laughed. The sliding door opened and the other members of their little group emerged holding bowls of food.

“You could have helped.” Cassie said to Luke.

“I brought the chips out, see.” Luke said pointing to the bowl.

Carmen shook her head. “Yes that was so helpful.” She said sarcastically. Carmen and Cassie placed the food on the tables and joined Alex, Dani and Luke at the table. 

After dinner, they went down to the beach and watched the fireworks explode over the water. An overly rambunctious AJ ran between the adults. He finally settled down on Luke’s lap, where he eventually fell asleep leaning against Luke’s chest. Cassie glanced at her friends. Dani was resting her head on Alex’s shoulder while Carmen was splayed out on the beach. Luke sat next to Cassie gently holding onto the sleeping toddler. 












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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.