Betting Hearts by Dee Tenorio Page B

?”
    Hayne didn’t bother to turn away from his giant pot. “What do you mean, what do I mean? I mean safe. You were at Burke’s, for Pete’s sake. What could have happened to you there?”
    Cass wrinkled her nose. Geez, how dumb were they? “You heard yourself, I was three sheets to the wind the other night. Anything could have happened.”
    “Yeah,” Hayne laughed, his annoying older-brother, I-know-everything laugh. “Like what?”
    “I don’t know. Something!” She thought about Luke’s assumption. “I…I could have slept with him. We could be having a wild, rampaging affair!”
    Eddie turned up the volume on the television. Cass spared him a look while he positioned his glasses on the end of his nose so he could see Vanna a little clearer.
    “I could be wickedly having my way with him. I could have done a lot of things, you know.”
    “Yeah,” Hayne said, stirring his sauce and all but ignoring her. “But you aren’t.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Because you’re talking about Burke and we’re also talking about you . ‘Nuff said.”
    Stomping into the kitchen, Cass poked him in his ticklish rib. And not lightly. “No, not enough said. I could seduce him. I could seduce anyone in this town if I wanted to. In fact, how do you know I haven’t?”
    Her brother squirmed away from her invading index finger, guarding his weakness with one of his too big biceps, frowning at her like she’d lost her mind. “I know because Burke wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot sewer pipe. As for you screwing around with anyone else, I know because all you’ve ever done is come home and fall in your bed with your boots on. In this town, we’d have heard about it before your undies were done twisting. Face it, you’re too tired for men.”
    “I wasn’t too tired for Luke.”
    “Look where that got you.” Hayne raised a superior dark eyebrow while gesturing with his stirring spoon. “Living with a guy who didn’t know which end was up. I told you he was no good. Burke told you a thousand times. Even Dad told you and when was the last time he noticed who we were dating?”
    Cass rolled her eyes. “Who you were dating, you mean.” Hayne barely knew half the time.
    “Either way,” he continued, “we all know you haven’t been with anyone since Luke. You might as well go upstairs and get out of that outfit. You look funny that way.”
    “You better get used to it, because I’m staying this way.”
    Hayne scoffed. “Yeah, right. I bet you didn’t even know how to put that dress on without May Belle to figure it out for you.”
    “Well, I’m learning, okay? And while we’re having this little conversation, it’s about time you stopped calling me CB. My name is Cassandra. Or call me Cass. I’m not responding to CB anymore.”
    Hayne shrugged, seeing to his food. “Sure, whatever, CB.”
    She slugged his arm, nearly bumping him off balance. “I mean it. I’m going to be treated like a girl around here, do you understand, you over-muscled schmuck?”
    He laughed. “Well, you hit like a girl.”
    “At least I don’t scream like one.” She turned on her heel and went out to the living room for her bags of movies. As she stomped up the steps, determined to make enough noise to annoy even her father, she heard Hayne’s voice call after her.
    “If you’re the resident girl, does that mean you’re doing all the cooking and cleaning from now on?”
    Rather than dignify that with an answer, she slammed her door to show her irritation. Twice.
     
     
    It was official. Burke was off his rocker. And he had a bad thing for blondes. Real bad.
    Three in the morning and Cass was staring one-eyed at the small television on her five-drawer dresser. The other eye was sleeping, along with her cold feet and the hand she was laying her face on. She wanted to sleep so badly. No, she wanted to put on a pair of sweats and eat some food—whose smell permeated her bedroom hours ago.
    She had refused to change her