"B, I'm sorry. I didn't think y'all would be..." Neil said from the other side of the kitchen wall.
Blue stuck her head around the corner and dragged him closer by the sleeve. "You still could have knocked. You saw his truck out there. You're not an idiot. What was happening was exactly what all of you were hoping would happen. Only sex didn't solve or resolve anything."
He screwed up his face in a look of pitiful disgust. "Not as good as you remembered it being, huh?"
Blue sighed and walked around him to clear the table. She dropped the empty beer bottles in the recycle bin that was built under one of the corners of the counter, then proceeded to wash the coffee mugs and French press. A smile crossed her lips as she remembered how awful that coffee had been.
"It was better than I remembered it being," she said softly.
The rain had stopped some time ago, and Cort's cum was drying on her belly. She had a brief thought that she should clean it off, but something kept her from doing so. And she didn't want him to leave because she wasn't sure he would come back. At least not for her. He'd come back to the job, to work on the house, but more than that, she wanted him to come back for her, to see her, to be with her.
He was in her room getting dressed, getting his bag. He'd be gone until Monday. She was fairly certain she wouldn't see him for the rest of the weekend, and it sucked. The whole situation, from the second Neil walked in, sucked. She didn't know how to fix it either. Did she beg Cort to stay? Let him leave?
Cort cleared his throat from the kitchen doorway, and she turned. Sure enough, he was dressed. The low on the hip, threadbare, ripped in the right knee jeans, the faded, dark blue T-shirt, the scuffed boots... God, he was her wet dream.
He held his bag over the back of his left shoulder. Now was when she needed to know what to say or do, and she didn't have the foggiest idea, so she stood mute. She tried to convey with her eyes what she wanted, essentially him to stay, but she didn't know if he got the message because all he did was nod and walk away.
But not before he dropped a shirt on the back of a chair and shot her a pointed look.
"Go get him, B."
What was that about? A shirt? "Neil, he doesn't want to stay," she said absently. And then it dawned on her what the shirt was for, what it meant. “Fuck.”
"The hell he doesn't. I saw that look. I might be gay, honey, but I know what that look means, and it means he wants you. Go get him."
"I--"
Neil walked across the kitchen, took her by the arm, and ushered her to the front door. He even opened it for her just as Cort started the engine of his truck. Blue stepped out onto the porch, the shirt in her hand. Her gaze locked with him again. Reining in her temper, she tried to focus on the more important matter at hand. "Please don't go. Not yet."
The silence but for the engine was long, filled with unspoken words, unrelieved tensions, unresolved issues. Cort finally shook his head and put his truck in gear. From the tips of her toes to the top of her head, his regard was steady.
"Put some clothes on, Blue."
Blue stood on her porch, dumbfounded that the only thing the man had to say to her before pulling out and driving down the long drive to the road was to put some clothes on. Aside from that, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to feel.
Disappointed, yes.
Sad, yes.
Frustrated, most definitely.
Hurt, a little.
Pissed, a little more.
"Put some clothes on, my ass," she groused as she stomped back inside her house and slammed the door behind her. Of course, it was her ass he wanted her to cover. Along with her boobs and her pussy and her everything else. She wanted to giggle at the statement, but found she couldn't.
"I'm sorry, B."
"Don't be. If he'd wanted to stay, he'd have stayed. We all know this."
"Doesn't make it any easier."
No, it didn't. Neil was right about that. "So, what would you like to do this afternoon?" she asked as she pulled the shirt on over her head. She wasn't doing it because Cort told her to do it.
She was a little chilly and she'd defend that statement to the death if need be.
"Well," he said indulgently, pulling her close for a hug, "we could snuggle on the couch and watch movies. It's supposed to rain the rest of the day and most of the night from what Rosie said was on the news this morning."
She sank into his arms and into the familiar lines of his body. They were so close now, in a different way than they'd been years before. Nakedness with Neil wasn't an unnatural state given the pictures and their history, but she could see how it might have bothered Cort. And it was possible, she should have followed him out of the kitchen and into her bedroom to beg and plead for him to stay. All this emotional stuff was more than she was capable of dealing with without guidance. She loved him but didn't have the faintest idea how to get that across to him.
Yet again, she'd screwed things up. "How about you help me work upstairs in the mansion for a little bit; then we can cuddle in my big bed and watch movies."
"Work? Really? Oh B, c'mon. No working. I hate working. Well, at anything other than taking pictures."
"Tough. I have some beautiful new bed linens for two of the bedrooms and some small end tables and a few lamps I'd like to get moved upstairs. It won't take long."
"You really are going to turn it into a bed and breakfast, aren't you? You're going to do exactly what Aunt V wanted for this place."
"You sound surprised. So much work has been done on it, and Cort is one of the final pieces. A major piece, though. I need the wiring updated; then I'll hire someone to come and clean the mess and patch any holes. I have a painting company in mind from Atlanta. They specialize in period homes, especially antebellum homes."
"Did V really leave you enough money for all this work?"
Blue nodded and headed to the bedroom, certain Neil would follow. "There's money in a trust for the house. Always has been. It's old, old money that's been invested and re-invested over the years."
"Damn, girl. How much did your great-great-great grandma make selling those drunk cakes?"
Blue laughed. She'd missed her friend, and until that very moment, she hadn't realized just how much. "Let me get dressed."
"Why? I don't care that you're naked. Can I get naked too? We can play in the rain and the mud. Or rather, you could play in the rain and the mud. Would make a gorgeous addition to my portfolio." He waggled his eyebrows at her from the doorway of her room.
"As if you need any more pictures of me. People are going to think I'm your only subject."
"Not my only, darling. But most definitely my favorite."
She loved the boost her ego got when Neil and his camera were around, but pictures wouldn't be in the best interest of winning Cort to her side at the moment. She was better off trying to play it straight, even if that meant walking a little more narrow than her free spirit liked.
*
Twenty minutes later, she and Neil were sorting through bed linens. "You're going to do the rooms in different colors?" Neil asked from the front bedroom.
"Yes," Blue answered from the room next to it. She picked out the items from the box in the corner that she wanted and wandered into the front room with Neil. "I'm going to do this one in orange I think. The sun sets on this side of the house, and I thought it would be really pretty."
"It will. You'd be pretty in here too wearing a vanilla cream corset. We could do a series and call it Orange Crush."
She had to admit the idea did appeal. She could see his line of thinking, see where his vision came from. She often thought in the same vein when she chose decoration and color and corsets.
"I think if I want Cort in my life, I won't be posing in any more series of nude or lingerie photos.
At least not anytime soon."
"Corn cob up his ass still? Damn. Kinda thought after a night with you again, he might have loosened up some, realized you weren't quite so evil, and not without your reasons for doing what you did. Obviously not." Neil shrugged. "Well, he could always be in them too."
Blue stuck her tongue out at him and flipped open a beautiful, striped orange and pink and creamy white fitted sheet but smiled when Neil whistled low in appreciation.
"That is so gorgeous."
"Yes, it is. I love these. They're so soft, so luxurious." She held the sheet out toward him, and he rubbed it between his fingers, his smile matching her own. "Take a corner and help me put it on."
"You'll have to wash all these when the painters and Cort and all are done making a mess in the house," he said, stretching the fabric over the corner of the mattress.
"I know, but I just want to see them on, see the finished look, and with you here, you can snap a few pictures. Before and after."
"Well now. See, I do come in handy."
Blue smoothed out the soft as sin Egyptian cotton sheet before shaking out the top sheet to cover it. The stripe was the same, in color at least but the pattern was vertical instead of horizontal. She liked the contrast. It was so simple but really so effective, and she wanted to wrap herself in it and sleep. As it was, she tucked in the corners, box pleats. "The duvet is in the other room along with all the throw pillows."
"Do you want them?"
"No, I don't think so. I really just couldn't wait to see what these looked like on the bed. I love the warm invitation they give."
"They're also very summery."
Blue grinned. "I know. In the summer I want a certain palette on the bed. Same for spring and fall. Winter will be, well, winter scenes and Christmas." She turned and sat on the end of the mattress. "I think I'll just give them color names like, the orange room, the green room, you know? Rather than theme rooms."
"Colors can be their own theme," Neil added, sitting beside her. He rubbed the palm of his hand over the sheet and moaned softly before laying back. "God, this is delicious, B. I can only imagine what they'll feel like against naked skin."
"I know." And she did. She couldn't help but imagine the same thing the first time she felt them. She laid back next to Neil, and their hands automatically found each other, fingers entwined.
There was comfort between them. They were ex-lovers but maintained the closeness as though they still were. They were at ease together, clothed or naked. It was why she hadn't freaked earlier when he'd walked in. Well, not freaked about that. She could understand why it made Cort uncomfortable. He didn't know Neil. Didn't trust him either. Hell, she wasn't sure she trusted any of them at the moment.
"Y'all shouldn't have tried that whole setting us up thing."
"Why not? Okay, well, aside from the fact that none of us knew you two had a past or history or sexual interlude, whatever you want to call it, why shouldn't we have? He seems uptight, and you seemed the perfect one to help him with that."
"Which I don't understand at all."
"Because, B," Neil said, exasperation lacing his voice. "You know nothing about being uptight. You're his complete opposite."
"As if you'd know anything about him. You just met him yesterday. Rosie just met him, for Pete's sake."
"True. But we do know you."
"That's what y'all keep telling me."
"He is the right one for you, and I do think, given the way the two of you look at each other, you're the right one for him. He might not know it or he might. I don't know. Rosie doesn't know.
There's something there, though, something that sparks between the two of you when you're near one another. It's worth exploring, B."
She couldn't argue. She'd had this same conversation with herself at least twice in the last twenty-four hours. "I know, and I think we were making some real progress before you walked in on us."
Neil turned his head toward her. "I'm sorry. If I'd realized that y'all might be otherwise engaged, I wouldn't have come back. I'd have waited until you called, but Rosie thought I should, just to check on you."
"You're going to pin this on Rosie?"
He had the good grace to look affronted before employing that grace to sliding off the bed.
He stood, smoothed out his khaki shorts and polo. "As if I need anyone to take the blame for my actions. However, in this case, it is totally her fault." He held out his hand. "Now, show me what rooms are going to be which color and then you owe me rum cake."
Blue took his hand and let him pull her up. "There is no more rum cake," she said as she led him into the bedroom next door. It had become the catch-all room for new bed linens. She hadn't bought a bed for the room yet either, so it was perfect for interim storage. "This is going to be in a muted yellow hue, I think. Because there's only the two windows, and it's more an interior room, I thought it would need a bit of brightening up."
Neil stood against the doorjamb and nodded. "I agree. But not some gaudy yellow."
"No, not that. I'm considering the yellow that's in my living room."
"Oh yes, B. That would be perfect. With sheers on the windows?"
"Yes. Sheers with lace eyelets. It'll be a very feminine room. I rather think my mom would like it, the ideas I have in mind. Aunt V always said my mom was a true lady, feminine but strong."
"I can see that. Show me more."
They walked down the hall to a corner room at the back of the house. The floors had been redone and gleamed in the muted light of the sconces. The smell of rain filtered through the upper floor thanks to the open windows. Luckily only a slight breeze was blowing outside or she'd had to have closed them. She didn't want rain blowing in, but she loved the smell and the sound of it.