“What is it, buddy, what’s wrong?” As she talked to Fred, trying to calm him, she heard a noise. She was quiet for a few moments, and then she heard it again, this time more distinctly. It was Kate, and she was screaming.
Within seconds, Jay was down the hall and pushing her friend’s door open further. The light in the hallway that spilled into the room combined with the bright moonlight filtering in through the skylight to allow her to see clearly. Kate was thrashing around, screaming and crying in her sleep.
Jay experienced a moment of uncertainty; before when she had tried to awaken her from a nightmare, Kate had pushed her away, growing cold and distant. That was the last thing Jay wanted to have happen, but she couldn’t stand by and watch her friend suffer.
She moved to the bed, gently grasping the struggling woman by the shoulder and shaking her. “Kate, please wake up. Kate, honey, you’re having a bad dream. Please, sweetheart, wake up.”
As the dark-haired woman moved toward consciousness and her eyes began to flicker open, Jay backed away from the bed. Not wanting to risk the reaction she had gotten previously in this situation, she started to move toward the door, apologizing as she went. “I’m sorry, Kate, Fred came to get me. You were having a nightmare; I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Even in her confused state, Kate could sense Jay’s discomfort. “It’s okay, Jay.” Looking into the fearful green eyes before her, it took her another few seconds to understand her companion’s reaction. She hated that her behavior had put that look there. This time, she vowed, she would handle her embarrassment differently. “Come here, please,” she motioned for Jay to sit on the bed. More softly she added, “I could use a friend right now.”
No more invitation was required, the writer moving to join Kate and sitting on the side of the bed close to where the blue-eyed woman was just propping herself up against some pillows. Tentatively, Jay reached out and took hold of her friend’s hands, which were shaking. “What was it about, do you want to talk about it?”
Kate shrugged, “I just can’t seem to get the images out of my head,”
she began. Looking into the concerned emerald depths facing her, she 122
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said, “It was the same thing I saw in my dreams last week, right after the bombing; something I saw while I was in the building. I had been crawling through the remains of the first floor, helping some of the kids who had been in the lobby when the explosion happened. In fact, I had just finished freeing Joey, and had moved maybe another ten feet or so when I stumbled across something. I looked down, and there was this young boy, he was probably a classmate of Joey’s. His eyes were fixed and staring unseeing at the ceiling, as if in a silent plea. Part of the first-floor roof had collapsed on him.” Tears began to stream down her face.
“I haven’t been able to get his face out of my mind, and I wonder if I ever will.”
“Shh. Oh, Kate, it’s okay, sweetheart.” Jay moved closer and took the anchorwoman into her arms. “It’s going to be all right.” Rocking and comforting her friend until all her tears were spent, she reached to the bedside table and handed Kate the box of tissues that had been sitting there.
Pulling back a little, Jay used her thumbs to wipe the tears from the face in front of her. Impulsively, she leaned forward, replacing her thumbs with her lips, placing light kisses on the softness of Kate’s cheeks and eyelids. The combination of the feel of the silky smooth skin and the scent of Shalimar that had been etched in her memory for so long was almost too much for Jay.
Slowly, she reached up and ran her fingers through the raven hair, pulling Kate to her. Their mouths met in a kiss that was at first gentle and undemanding. As their lips became better acquainted, it was Jay who deepened the contact, wanting to express with her kiss the feelings she had never spoken.
Kate moaned at the sensation of the extraordinary woman’s tongue mingling with hers, united in a dance of welcome and desire. She ran her hands up and down the smaller woman’s back, reveling in the delicious texture of the sheer satin nightgown as it brushed against her palms.
When she felt the aroused state of Jay’s nipples where they pressed against her, it was all she could do to hold herself back.
Breathing raggedly, she pulled away from the kiss. Looking into deep green eyes darkened with passion, she teased, “Aren’t you afraid you’ll compromise your professional objectivity?”
Jay growled, “I don’t care anymore, I’ll make it work. Professional detachment is driving me crazy.”
Kate laughed, “Glad to hear it’s not just me, but you’d better be getting back to your room or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
Reluctantly, Jay agreed. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I am now.”
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Jay leaned over one last time as she stood, bestowing another passionate kiss on the perfect lips below her. Then, with a small smirk and the raising of an eyebrow, she turned and made her way across the room to the door. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She winked at Kate, who was still reclining on the bed with a wondering look on her face.
“I can’t wait,” came the husky reply.
Both women fell asleep dreaming about what the next day would bring.
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ay continued her pacing in the kitchen, back and forth, back and J forth. Running her hands through her hair, she worked hard to stay calm, but it had been over an hour since she had first gone to check on Kate and found no sign of her. She had searched everywhere she could think to look. What if something had happened to her? Where could she possibly be at that hour? For the fourth time in as many minutes, she checked the clock on the wall: 7:32 a.m. From his vantage point on the floor in the doorway, Fred watched his new buddy with interest.
At 7:45 a.m. Kate let herself into the house quietly from the garage.
As soon as she stepped into the kitchen and saw Jay, she froze. The younger woman wore a look of such abject fear and despair on her face that it broke her heart. She barely had time to open her arms as the blonde threw herself into them, burying her head in Kate’s chest.
Not knowing what else to do, Kate held on and tightened her grip, rubbing Jay’s back and kissing the top of her golden head. She couldn’t begin to fathom what had prompted such a reaction. At length, she pulled back enough to see Jay’s face. “What’s wrong, are you okay? Did something happen while I was gone?”
Jay shook her head no and fought for her composure. What was wrong with her, anyway? “I was worried about you after your nightmare, and I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I would just check on you to make sure you were okay. That was at a little after 6:00 this morning, and when I didn’t find you in bed, I began to wonder where you might have gone. I searched the whole house and then, when I realized you weren’t here, my imagination started running away with me and I was afraid something bad had happened to you. It sounds so stupid now when I say it out loud,” she finished meekly.
Kate smiled down into the shimmering emerald eyes. “It doesn’t sound silly to me at all, Jay; it sounds as if you care, which is a foreign concept to me. No one has ever worried about me that way before, and 125
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I’m deeply touched. I’m sorry I gave you such a fright, I didn’t mean to. I just wasn’t thinking; I should have left a note. Forgive me?”
Looking up into those pools of blue, Jay knew she would have forgiven this woman almost anything. She nodded her head.
Kate said, “Now, can we start the day off properly?” Putting her hands on either side of Jay’s face, she looked deeply into eyes that reminded her of a beautiful summer day. Just as she was about to lower her mouth to Jay’s, she knew a moment of uncertainty. She asked, “May I?”
“Please,” the writer breathed.
The long, slow, thorough kiss that followed wiped all thought from both women’s brains, leaving only sensation in its wake. Every nerve synapse in Kate’s body was standing at attention, begging for more, but she was in no rush. She would not push Jay too far, too fast. She wanted to be sure of her friend’s feelings for her rather than make assumptions; Heaven knew she knew what she felt. She sighed, “Now that was the way a day like today should start.”
“I’ll say,” Jay seconded dreamily, her senses reeling from the taste of the softest lips imaginable.
Ooh, I’ll take some more of that, thank you
very much.
Out loud she said, “So where were you, anyway?” She caught a flicker of something in the other woman’s eyes, but then, just as quickly, it was gone.
Kate wanted to be completely honest, at least as far as she was willing to go. “I stopped by to see Barbara before her day got too busy so she could take my stitches out. See?” She held out her hand and arm for her companion to examine. Indeed, the tiny rows of X’s were gone, leaving only healing pink scars in their wake.
Jay ran her fingers over the thin lines that bisected Kate’s palm and the other marks that marred her perfect forearms.
God, her skin is like
velvet.
Not content simply to let her fingers explore, Jay lifted one of the injured hands and kissed the palm gently.
Kate tried hard to contain the involuntary shiver of pleasure the contact evoked, knowing that if she were to pursue her impulses, they would never get out of the house that day. Still, her eyes revealed the desire that was building in her, and the emerald orbs that held her gaze sparkled with the knowledge.
Finally, the magic of the moment was broken when Fred pushed between them, unceremoniously depositing his ball at their feet. Both women laughed and shook their heads. Kate moved off to entertain her canine while Jay took a shower. Within an hour, both women were clean, dressed, and sitting at the kitchen table over coffee and Raisin Bran.
“Ready to go?” Kate asked as she cleared the bowls and glasses from the table. She was anxious to show Jay the beauty of the Catskill 126
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Mountains and it was the perfect day for it: sunny with just a sprinkling of clouds and 72 degrees.
“You bet. Where are we going, by the way? And what, pray tell, is in that huge backpack?”
“In keeping with your love of American Literature, I thought I’d take you to one of the most oft described vistas of the romantic era. Is it safe to assume that you’ve read James Fenimore Cooper’s
The Pioneers
?”
Intrigued, Jay said, “Of course; 1823. Natty Bumppo and all that.”
“Right, well, if you go back and look at the book, you’ll find that Natty gives a wonderful description of the view from one of the spots we’re going to hike to today.”
“Really? Now I’m going to have to dig out my old copy and reread it.”
“No need,” Kate smiled indulgently. “I’ve taken the liberty of marking the passage and bringing along my copy, which is one of the things in that backpack.” She motioned with her head to the large framed pack that sat in the corner of the kitchen by the mudroom. At Jay’s raised eyebrow, she added, “Hey, I’ve got all the essentials. Lunch, water for humans and Fred, binoculars, and James Fenimore Cooper.”
Jay laughed, “Who could ask for anything more?” Then, after a minute, she added with a note of suspicion, “You read
The Pioneers
?”
Kate gave her companion one of her full-fledged intimidating-arched-eyebrow looks. “Just because I’m a television news anchor doesn’t mean I’m illiterate, ya know. You’d better be nice to me or I’ll start spewing Shakespearean soliloquies from Macbeth.”
“Ooh, we wouldn’t want that, now would we, Fred?” The canine wisely chose to remain silent, and followed his mistress, who had shouldered the pack and was heading out the door.
The drive was a relatively conversation-free affair, since, with the top down, it was virtually impossible to hear. Fred happily occupied the back seat with the backpack and left the driving and navigating to the humans.
Almost an hour into the drive, Kate was startled out of her reverie by the feel of a warm hand covering hers where it rested on the gearshift.
Tentatively, slowly, smaller fingers wrapped around her larger ones and she glanced over to see Jay looking at her, a question in her deep green eyes. Smiling broadly into that beautiful gaze, she picked up their joined hands, placing a delicate kiss on the back of the smaller one and bringing them both to rest on her thigh. Both women sighed happily.
A little more than half an hour later, as they neared their destination, Jay reluctantly released her hold on Kate’s hand so that she could downshift and guide them to a stop. “Where exactly are we?”
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“North Lake, to be specific. The hike we’re going to take is a five-mile loop encompassing Kaaterskill Falls and the Cliff Walk. I really wanted to share this with you because it’s one of the most scenic, peaceful, least populated trails around here, and a personal favorite of mine. I hope you’ll like it as much as I do; the views are sensational, especially on a clear day like today.”
Kate hoisted the heavy pack onto her back as if it weighed nothing, cinching the chest and waist straps and shifting the weight until it was balanced perfectly. Fred, waiting impatiently for his mistress to give him the signal that he could begin blazing the trail, leapt with glee when her hand gesture finally indicated that he was free to go. She checked her watch and turned to Jay. “How hungry are you?”
“Is that a trick question?”
Kate laughed, “No, in this case it’s not. We can either hike to the falls first, in which case lunch will be in half an hour, or we can hike the Cliff Walk first, in which case lunch will be in two and a half or three hours.
The choice is yours.”
“Hmm, decisions, decisions. Do I want to eat first and then walk it off, or do I want to work up an appetite first and feel as if I’ve earned my meal? That’s a tough call, Stretch.”
“I have faith in your ability to figure it out and come up with the perfect solution, Scoop.”
“Oh you do, do you? In that case, I say we go to the falls and eat first, since I want to make sure I have an appetite for dinner tonight.”