Serendipity

When Harry Met Sally

The night that Sam and Nick Radford officially moved to Middleton was normal.

Uneventful.

Completely and totally unremarkable.

Just a man and his son, moving to small-town America for a fresh start.

It changed everything.

{{*}}

Cassie Nightingale sighed as she closed the door behind her. She and her boyfriend Ryan Elliot had just celebrated one month of dating with a quiet dinner at Grey House and she was . . . drained. She shouldn't have been and somewhere beyond the exhaustion, she knew she should be concerned about that.

After all, an intimate meal with the man she was dating shouldn't leave her feeling relieved that he was gone, much less grateful.

Especially when, less than thirty minutes after he'd finally left, a rather good-looking man and his son required her assistance in getting into their new home (and blaming Ryan for giving them the wrong combination, which . . . would not have gone over well had he been there, for more reasons than the obvious). She hadn't gotten much from the doctor, other than a sense of general unhappiness, heavily overlaid with pain . . . and a bone-deep fatigue, which had piqued her interest; it was rare for a person to be so closed off to her abilities. From his son, there was nothing but an all-encompassing anger and bitter, seething resentment, something that also roused her curiosity, if for no other reason than to see how his proximity to Grace was going to play out.

Naturally, they were both wondering about her.

It hadn't been a particularly auspicious end to her evening.

With another sigh, one that spoke volumes about her current state of mind, she poured a cup of tea and went to the living room, curling up on the sofa and just soaking in the peace and quiet of being alone.

She still wasn't sure how she felt about dating Ryan, even after four weeks. So many people had been encouraging her to accept his advances, citing how much he liked her and how perfectly matched they were because they had bonded so strongly over Jake's death and the breaking of not just Ryan's engagement, but also what he'd thought was a deep, strong friendship. On top of that, she had been bombarded with 'it's been three years since Jake, Cassie, and Ryan is such a sweet guy, so why not? He is really, really into you and you should be into him, what do you have to lose?' from virtually everyone they both knew.

And of course, there was also Ryan's obvious hope that she felt the same way.

The thing was, she adored Ryan as a friend. She did. She honestly think didn't she would have survived those first weeks after Jake's death without him and his support.

But.

She wasn't sure if she felt more for him. They didn't have a lot of common interests, so they didn't really go out much (he hated art and museums, while she would never understand the male infatuation with sports). Consequently, they also didn't tend to do things together (they both enjoyed playing pool, but he wasn't very good at it, which made things a little awkward every time she won), meaning that most of their dates consisted of a meal, always at a restaurant, and some light kissing and cuddling, usually at Ryan's home because she wasn't comfortable doing that with Grace in the house.

Which, she supposed, said something.

Then again, Jake had been her only serious romantic partner, so it did make sense that she was nervous about embarking on something new with a man who wasn't him. And Ryan seemed to understand, though she did get a sense of frustration from him at times. But he never pushed for more than she was able to give him and he loved holding her, so she was slowly getting more comfortable with that.

However, there was a reason (well, several) that she had been firm about not letting people know yet that they were dating. Ryan hadn't been happy about it, though he had readily conceded that neither of them particularly wanted to deal with Stephanie's well-meaning but intrusive 'and how are the lovebirds today?' every time they saw her. And it would be every time they saw her; God love her, Stephanie Borden could take subtlety lessons from a sledgehammer. They would also get the joy of increasingly suggestive (albeit creative) remarks from Will Patterson, the owner of Tabletop — which would be bad enough, except that with Will, one got either a brain-to-mouth filter or volume control. But one never, ever, got them at the same time.

And then there was, um, Martha.

So yeah, keeping it to themselves really was showing a strong sense of self-preservation, though the fact that it also helped her brush aside those niggling doubts about what she — they — were doing was . . . not something she was prepared to acknowledge, not even to herself.

She knew she would eventually have to move on from Jake, and Ryan truly did care about her. The whole town knew that.

And possibly the tri-state area. See: Martha.

But Cassie also wanted to keep any . . . additional . . . awkwardness at bay if this didn't work out.

Small town life was wonderful, truly, until it came to gossip, and then it became a royal pain. And it didn't matter which side of the fence you were on; the entire town knew about the situation, had an opinion, resoundingly disagreed with any and all dissenting thoughts, and had placed a bet in the book that Martin Campbell ran on how on-the-mark their opinion was. So no, Cassie didn't want anyone (especially her daughter) to know that she and Ryan were dating unless and until it became something solid and lasting. She hadn't laid those thoughts out so directly to Ryan, but he wasn't stupid and strongly resented the implication, even though he understood perfectly, having grown up in Middleton himself. He had, however, after an extremely lengthy conversation, agreed to follow her lead.

But his patience was waning.

And maybe that was the problem, she realized. Maybe she just needed to let him in more, instead of holding him at arm's length for everything; after all, they'd both already seen the other at their absolute worst, so there really wasn't anywhere for them to go but 'up.' Any maybe letting him in would help her find herself on more equal emotional footing and be able to trust him with more of her heart. Keeping him at bay was exhausting and if she really wanted to see if this could work for them, she had to actually try to make it work.

So, with that new resolution in mind, Cassie smiled softly, finished her tea, and went to bed.

{**}

The night that Sam and Nick Radford officially moved to Middleton was normal.

Uneventful.

Completely and totally unremarkable.

Just a man and his son, moving to small-town America for a fresh start.

It changed everything.

{**}

Only . . .

It didn't change anything.