Jacie's smile faltered and the temperature of the yard dropped several degrees. "Gwen," she acknowledged calmly, pinning her with an indifferent gaze before effectively dismissing her by focusing on the only Mayflower Club member who had yet to greet her.
Nina's pulse raced and was visible against her pale neck.
For the first time that Jacie could recall, Nina's expression was totally unreadable to her. And that hurt.
Frozen, the women silently looked at each other for so long that Katherine, Audrey and Gwen shared nervous looks and began fidgeting in the wake of the palpable tension. Then something behind Nina's eyes seemed to spark, and she closed the space between her and Jacie with surprising speed. Invading her personal space in a way the other women hadn't dared do, Nina grabbed hold of Jacie's thin, cable knit sweater with both hands, pulled her close, and gave her a soft, chaste kiss on the mouth. It lasted only a second and when she pulled away, she looked directly into Jacie's eyes. Seeing the confusion there, she bared a tiny piece of her soul. "That's because I love you, Jacie."
Four mouths dropped open and Jacie began to stammer. "Nina, I– I–"
Smack!
The sharp crack of Nina's open hand striking Jacie on the cheek made everyone flinch, and it sounded unnaturally loud against the whispering breeze. Glistening tears pooled in her soft, blue-green eyes, before several spilled down wind-chilled cheeks. "And that's for letting me wonder for the past 20 years whether you were alive or dead!"
Jesus! I can't believe I did that!
Nina's hands were shaking. Without another word, she spun on her heels, tucked her hands under her armpits, and marched back towards the house, leaving a stunned silence behind her.
"Holy shit!" Katherine finally sputtered. "I thought if anyone was gonna get clocked this weekend," she jerked her thumb sideways, "it would be Gwen."
"Hey!" Gwen protested, but was instantly appeased by Katherine's mostly-teasing smile and Audrey's muffled chuckles.
Jacie's temper flared and for a few charged seconds she was on the verge of racing after Nina, wrestling her to the ground… and kissing her senseless? "Oh, Christ." Jacie's eyes fluttered closed and she reached up to her lips. They were tingling, but she wasn't sure whether it was from the kiss or having the snot slapped out of her.
She kissed me!
A large red handprint had already blossomed on her cheek, and she winced as she rubbed the abused flesh. A black eye would likely follow. Furious with Nina and herself, she stalked back to her truck, trying to decide whether to simply drive away from this entire mess. Her life was complicated enough as it was without borrowing trouble. But when she reached the cab, she couldn't help but glance over her shoulder at the compact form fleeing the yard and kicking the leaves and twigs out of her way as she moved.
Then Jacie's heart overruled her head with such startling ease that she was forced to roll her eyes at herself for even thinking she might have the wherewithal to leave. What she wanted was clearly right here. Making her decision, she grabbed her carryon from the passenger seat and rejoined her friends, who were murmuring among themselves and casting worried glances in Jacie's direction.
Katherine rocked back on her heels. "I guess you're not taking off then?"
Gwen mentally crossed every extremity she had and prayed that she hadn't misinterpreted what Jacie was doing. If her number one suspect fled before they'd gotten a chance to talk, her plan would be ruined.
"I'm staying," Jacie confirmed and began to walk back towards the house, her pride and her cheek still stinging. "So long as you guys protect me from the dishwater blonde tornado in there." She lifted her chin towards the B&B. "Deal?"
Gwen suddenly paled.
Jacie saw it happen and took an abrupt step closer, putting her nearly nose to nose with the taller woman. "What?"
Gwen licked her lips and took a step backwards. "Now Jacie, I thought you'd both like it." She lifted her arms to forestall Jacie, gulping at the look on Jacie's face. "I swear!"
"What. Did. You. Do?" Jacie ground out harshly, her hands clenched in half fists.
The words spilled out of Gwen like water rushing through a broken dam. "They're renovating, honest! There were only three rooms and Katy and Audrey took one and I took the other."
Jacie's eyes turned to slits.
"Mine only has a twin bed!" Gwen protested. "The king-sized is having its frame stripped and the mattress has been removed to be replaced. I didn't think we'd need it."
Katherine scratched her jaw. She didn't particularly want to give up her spot in a room with Audrey, and there was no way she was sleeping on the floor in the same room as Gwen, the snorer from hell. "Looks like you're bunking with slugger, Jacie."
Jacie's stomach fluttered, and she looked skyward in appeal. There would, however, be no mercy for her this weekend. She could just tell. Trying not to be too hopeful, she squared her shoulders and set her sights on the blue house, wondering if she was the one going to be caught in Charlotte's Web this weekend.
From the window and the warmth of the parlor, Nina's gaze softened as she watched her childhood hero determinedly walk back into her life… and her heart.
Present Day
Rural Missouri
T
HE CHARLOTTE'S WEB Bed & Breakfast smelled like chicken soup and fresh cut vegetables as the Mayflower Club sat eating their late lunch. The mood of the meal was, to say the least, subdued. And Frances Artiste had to be reassured several times that it wasn't the cuisine that had soured everyone's mood.
Nina sighed and set her spoon down. She kicked herself for the way she'd behaved with Jacie. She'd always had issues controlling her anger when it came to things she was passionate about, but there had only been one other time in her life that her actions had devolved into violence. And the recipient of that particular act just so happened to be this weekend's host.
Nina's gaze strayed across the table to Jacie, who was industrially digging into her salad. She winced. Her hand hurt and she could only imagine how Jacie's cheek felt. In truth, however, there wasn't much left to the imagination. Her old friend had a lurid red handprint on her face and the skin below one of those beautiful brown eyes had grown puffy and turned a disgusting shade of purple.
Fuck.
Audrey and Katherine had spent most of the meal wondering to themselves why Gwen might be investigating them. Katherine had worked herself into a private tizzy and Audrey sat and stewed. Worst of all, the silence in the cheerfully decorated room was so loud that every clank of a spoon against a bowl was deafening, and Audrey swore she could hear the steam rising from her soup.
As the X-Files wisely advised, Gwen trusted no one. Ignoring the soup, whose thick evil noodles were undoubtedly packed with calories and carbohydrates, she restlessly picked at her salad.
Jacie, who didn't give a damn about calories, finished her soup in record time and then pulled the bread bowl squarely in front of her plate. She was a big fan of easy access. "Pass the butter, please," she asked Gwen, who shot her an envious look as she handed over the round dish.
"So."
Everyone stopped mid-bite and glanced up at Gwen.
"I was the only one married when we all…." awkwardly, she paused. "Err… So, are any of you married?" She knew the answer of course, but it was going to be hell to figure out what was going on if she couldn't get everyone talking.
Nina gave Gwen a grateful look for getting the ball rolling. "I'm single. But as I mentioned before, I have a son."
"Never married?" Katherine asked curiously, her appetite returning along with the conversation. "C'mon," she smiled, "you have to had a crack at plenty of Mr. Rights over the years. You're a great catch."
An enigmatic smile twitched at the corner of Nina's mouth, and she gave her head a tiny shake. "No, no Mr. Right for me. In fact, I gave up looking for him a long time ago."
Audrey bumped shoulders with her. "Don't worry, it'll happen. I'm married." Her cheeks began to heat, and she nearly lost her nerve. But in a rush she added, "In fact, I married Enrique Diaz."
Katherine just kept eating. Her mother had mentioned Audrey running off with some guy named Diaz.
Everyone else gave her Audrey blank looks.
Audrey groaned inwardly, and with a deep breath she clarified, "Our Mr. Diaz."
Jacie leaned back in her chair and set her napkin on the table. "Our Mr. Diaz who?"
Katherine's head suddenly lifted. "No Goddamned way!" she shrieked.
Everyone jumped.
"Not that Mr. Diaz!"
"What are you talking about?" Nina asked, totally adrift. "I don't remember anyone named Diaz. Well," her brow furrowed as something occurred to her. "I guess except for Vice Principal Diaz. And Audrey couldn't have married him. She–" Then she got a good look at Audrey's face, she stopped cold. "Oh my God." A laugh bubbled to the surface. "When you said he had a cute butt in the eleventh grade, you really meant it!"
"Rick the Prick?" Katherine scrubbed eyes as though to wash away the mental image. "You married ‘Rick the Prick?' You actually have sex with Vice Principal Diaz?" Marrying their former vice principal, the one who used to gleefully assign them detention when they ditched homeroom seemed… well, it seemed… "That is so totally gross!"
"It is not!" Audrey defended hotly. "He's wonderful!"
"I thought it was ‘Rick the Dick,' not ‘Rick the Prick,'" Jacie commented conversationally as she reached for her coffee mug.
Audrey gasped, looking appropriately outraged and just a little amused. "No one called him that."
Katherine snorted. "Oh, yes they did, Audrey."
"They did not."
"I'm quite sure I never said either of those horrible things," Gwen protested haughtily, all the while searching her memory to find out if what she'd just said was actually true.
"I did," Nina admitted with a rueful smile. "Rick the Prick sounded so mean, I could never bring myself to use it. Somehow ‘Dick' had a much nicer ring to it."
Katherine burst out laughing. "Thinking of you two together is like envisioning my parents having sex." She affected a full body shiver. "Bah!"
"Feel free not to envision it then," Audrey ground out. "It's not gross. He's only ten years older than we are."
Katherine suddenly stopped. "It's not the age thing at all. Trust me. It's the principal thing." She waggled her eyebrows. "Does he punish you at home?"
"Is he a psychotic, heartless shrew, hell-bent on destroying your life and the lives of those around you?" Jacie asked interestedly.
Audrey's blinked slowly. "Buh… Of course not!"
Jacie grinned. "Then you beat me as far as finding a mate goes. Way to go."
The smile Nina had been wearing slid from her face, and she felt a familiar gnawing in her guts that had always signaled her worry for Jacie's happiness and well-being. Who had Jacie partnered with?
"I think it's great that you're still together, Audrey," Gwen said seriously. "I'm so happy for you."
Audrey's gaze bore into Gwen's, and for once she didn't see a self-serving motive lurking beneath the surface. "You really mean that, don't you?" she asked, hearing a note of surprise in her own voice.
Gwen's gaze softened. "With all my heart."
Audrey's face relaxed into a smile. "Thanks. I really am happy. We have two beautiful kids. Well, a teenaged son and my daughter, Tina, is a young woman now–18."
"I have a daughter, too," Jacie said, watching in amusement as Audrey tried to cover her shock.
The chubby woman squirmed in her chair as she tried to recover. "But I thought–"
"I'm still a lesbian, Audrey," Jacie quipped, but not unkindly. "I adopted my former partner's birth daughter right after she was born. She's 7 and we share custody now."
"Former partner?" Nina asked, her eyes on her soup.
Jacie nodded and her voice took on a deeper timbre. "Very former. For years now."
"Mmm." Nina thought about that. Years was much too long to go without love. She would know. She glanced up and caught Jacie's gaze, trying not to linger on the vivid discoloring around Jacie's eye. "Do you ever miss her?"
"All the time," came the immediate answer.
Nina's stomach dropped.
Then Jacie winked her good eye. "But my aim is bound to improve eventually."
Gwen shook her head and smiled. "Well, you all know about Tucker. I never had any more children and I'm still with Malcolm." She cocked her head to the side. "How about you, Katy? Thank you," she murmured to Frances as the older woman quietly entered the room and set a plate of pumpkin bars on the table along with a fresh pot of coffee.
"How about me what?" Katherine had been dreading this moment.
"You know what she's asking," Audrey said, dark eyes dancing. "Tell everyone how many times you've been married. Go on."
Katherine's eyes turned to slits. Clearly Audrey had stayed tuned in to family gossip over the years, while she herself had remained in the dark. "How many do you know about?"
Jacie laughed and let out a low whistle. "This has gotta be good."
Nina smiled. This was more the way she remembered things being between them.
"C'mon, Katy," Audrey crooned, trying to pretend she didn't see the appetizing plate of frosted pumpkin bars sitting squarely in the middle of the table.
Jacie elbowed Katherine. "Spill it."
Katherine hung her head, and her friend caught the mumbled remnants of some curse words.
"We're wait-ing," Audrey said in a sing-song voice.
Katherine gritted her teeth. "A couple of times," she mumbled, her cheeks heating without her permission.
Audrey shook her head. After "Rick the Prick," Katherine wasn't going to get off the hook so easily. "What was that, Katy?" she said innocently. "A couple?"
"Fine," Katherine snapped, though it was clear she was more embarrassed than angry. "Three times. There. Three." Somewhat childishly, she crossed her arms over the chest. "I said it. Happy?"