"What…" Nina felt dizzy and she thought for a moment that her knees would give out. "What was that for?"
A flash of white teeth in the moonlight, and Jacie gave her a hopeful, lopsided grin. "That was just in case you're still deciding about the whether or not you could like women thing." She shrugged sheepishly. "I'm willing to work to convince you." But the fact that Nina hadn't socked her in the nose was a pretty good sign.
Audrey rounded the corner of the wooded path and stopped abruptly when she nearly collided with Jacie, who was intently watching Nina. For her part, Nina's fingers were barely grazing her own lips in wonder.
"There you guys are." Audrey put her hands on her hips. Everyone had been looking for them for hours. "Where have you been?"
"Nina?" Jacie looked at her in question. Her heart felt like it was going to pound right out of her chest. Even her toes were crossed. "You didn't answer."
Her eyebrows lifting, Katherine's gaze traveled back and forth between Nina and Jacie. "What's going on? Jesus, we thought you both had skipped out on us. Gwen's breaking out champagne before dinner and you're going to miss it." She rocked back on her heels. "We've been talking and she's more like I remember her from before school. Not such a… well…"
"A bitch?" Audrey supplied.
"Yeah," Katherine agreed grimly. "She seems more like one of us again. More like a lesser bitch."
Only vaguely aware that the cousins were speaking, Nina took a step closer to Jacie. She trailed her fingertips down Jacie's arm. "The answer is yes, Jace." Her voice had an impish, seductive quality that turned Jacie's knees to water. "But feel free to continue convincing me later tonight, if ya want."
Jacie landed back on the bench with a loud thump. She turned her face towards the heavens and let out a soft sigh that signaled a nearly dizzying level of relief. One that Nina instantly echoed.
Then Jacie suddenly shouted a jubilant, "Yes!"
"Wahh!" Katherine stumbled backwards until she hit a tree. The action sent down onto her head a shower of the cold water droplets that had collected on the young tree's leaves and branches. "What the hell was that?" she spluttered, her eyes scanning the woods for a bear or mountain lion or some other fanged creature. She shook her head like a wet dog, her spiky blond hair remaining utterly stiff throughout the vigorous movement.
"I–" Jacie let out a breath that was equal parts pure bliss and disbelief. She looked at Nina and grinned, her smile widening when it was instantly mirrored. "I'm just happy to be here with you guys."
"Aww," Audrey murmured. "We love you, too, Jacie. Now let's go drink Gwen's champagne. We've got something to tell you, and we need to do it before we get back to the house."
They began slowly walking back toward Charlotte's Web.
Katherine hated to bring it up, but she knew if she didn't, Audrey would. "I uh… just happened to be in Gwen's closet earlier today when I found something."
Nina's eyebrows jumped. "You just happened to be there, huh?"
"Of course," Katherine insisted, completely nonplussed. "I was in her closet… and in her suitcase… when I found something."
Jacie wrapped one arm around Katherine's shoulders and the other around Nina's, the way she'd often done in the fourth grade when they were walking home from school. The motion was so natural she barely realized what had happened before it was done. "Why do I think I'm not going to like what you found?" she murmured, her feet lightly splashing along the path.
"Because you're not." Audrey frowned, already knowing what Katherine was going to say. However, the gesture wavered when Nina grasped her hand, connecting them all together in a chain as they walked.
* * *
"To the Mayflower Club," Gwen said, lifting her champagne glass. The room was wreathed with nostalgic smiles, and the women drank a toast. Whatever happened later, the seemingly unbreakable bonds of their youth were still worth toasting today.
They'd decided to wait until after dinner to drink their champagne and now their bellies were full and they were lounging on chairs and loveseats in the beautifully furnished parlor. The fireplace crackled peacefully, casting the room in a golden glow and sending the light scent of hickory into the air. And Katherine had out the photo albums that she'd brought.
"Oh my God, Audrey," Nina laughed delightedly as she glanced at a photo, "I didn't remember you having big 80s hair."
"Look," smiling, Gwen pointed at the picture, "you were awesome, Audrey, you had your collar up and a banana clip in your hair! Plastic shoes, too?"
"Pink ones."
"Very boss," Gwen commented sincerely, pouring herself another glass of bubbly. She was starting to feel its effects and she relaxed deeper into her chair, sinking into the soft leather. She was still no closer to catching her blackmailer. Over the course of the evening, she'd changed her mind about the most likely suspect three times, finally settling on Nina.
When Jacie had come back from her endless walk with Nina, Gwen knew that Nina had told her everything by the way Jacie's dark gaze bore a hole through her during dinner. Just thinking about the venom in that look still made her blood run cold. Jacie was clearly the angriest with her, but because of that, she wondered if Jacie wouldn't rather rub her nose in what she was doing rather than remaining anonymous. No, being deliberate and patient was more Nina's style than any of the others.
Audrey primped her curls, her voice pulling Gwen from her thoughts. "I borrowed that banana clip from you, Gwen. But I still rocked."
Katherine snickered. "Yeah, how could we have forgotten how like… how like totally tubular you were."
Katherine's Valley Girl accent, one none of them had ever had as teenagers, caused Gwen and Jacie to burst out laughing.
"Be quiet, Katy," Audrey shot back. "At least I didn't have a tail."
Katherine gasped, her hand unconsciously moving to the back of her head. "That was a low blow, cuz."
"Katy might have had a tail," Jacie grimaced, remembering, "But you had the most bodacious ta tas of us all." She could hardly finish what she was saying before she was laughing, too.
Audrey's face turned beet red.
Jacie bumped shoulders with Audrey, trying hard to control her laughter. "They're to the max, Audrey," she chimed in, surprised at what a good time she was having. Dinner had been… hard. But Nina had taken her aside and reminded her that the past couldn't be changed, but what happened in the future was up to them. It was a nice way of saying that it was time to "get over it." And she was forced to admit, knowing that she had the chance to start again with Nina was making it easier to forgive Gwen. When she wasn't fantasizing about stuffing her into the lit fireplace with a sharp metal poker. Now she was merely dreaming of wedging her in there by hand.
Gwen had peppered them all with poorly veiled and mostly bizarre personal questions at dinner, most of them having to do with their finances. But despite the game of 20 questions, the evening had been pure fun. Audrey and Katy were as fun and as feisty as ever. And Gwen had traveled the world and told them charming and surprisingly unpretentious stories about why some of those trips were important to her. They all gushed over their children and Katy was adorably ga-ga over her boyfriend. And then there was Nina. Jacie looked at her watch. Wasn't it time to kiss Nina again?
Audrey turned to Jacie with a wide smile on her face. "I can't wait to tell Ricky that a hot lesbian who used to be my roommate thinks my boobs are bodacious." She looked about ready to burst. "He'll love it!"
Nina and Jacie shared amused smiles. Then Nina cleared her throat. "Guys, I have something I want to tell you."
Jacie raised her eyebrows in question, and Nina answered by giving her a tiny nod. She wanted her friends to know.
Nina drew in a deep breath, a little surprised that she wasn't more nervous. She would love for them to be supportive and happy that she felt comfortable enough to share this part of herself with them. Her lips curled into a genuine smile. But if they weren't cool with it, life would go on. Damn, she was glad she wasn't 18 anymore. "Jacie isn't the only lesbian in the room."
Katherine and Audrey shot to their feet and, at the same instant, pointed accusing fingers at each other. "I knew it!" they shouted in unison. "It's you!"
"Oh, God." Gwen just shook her head.
Nina rolled her eyes. "It's neither one of you."
But Audrey and Katherine continued giving each other a very skeptical once over, just to be sure.
Nina lifted her chin. "It's–"
"It's Gwen," Jacie inserted smoothly, leaning back in her love seat and raising her glass to toast the tall redhead. She blew her a kiss.
"I knew it!" both Audrey and Katherine shouted again, this time pointing directly at Gwen.
Gwen gasped so violently that she began to choke on her own saliva.
Jacie gave Gwen a slow, seductive wink. "Why don't you pull out your membership card and show Katy and Audrey? I know they'd like to see it."
"There's not really a membership card," Audrey said, trying to gauge Jacie's sincerity. Then she leaned over and whispered to Katherine, "Right?"
"How would I know?"
Once again they traded skeptical looks.
"Jacie!" Nina reprimanded, trying not to smile and sounding very much like the mom that she was. "Not nice."
Jacie grinned unrepentantly and happily ignored Gwen's glare.
"Gwen's not gay," Nina started, then paused and scratched her jaw. "At least I don't think so."
"Of course I'm not," Gwen wailed, throwing her hands in the air. "I'm married, for God's sake."
Both Jacie and Nina just shrugged, making it clear that they considered that a pitiful offering of proof.
"Anyway," Nina swallowed. "I'm the one who's a lesbian. There." She nodded a little and blew out a long breath. "Wow. That felt really good. Why I didn't say it that way to begin with, I'll never know," she said wryly, waggling her fingers at the cold champagne bottle, which Jacie lifted from her swollen cheek and discolored eye and dutifully passed her way.
"You are not!" Katherine blurted out. "No way, I'm not buying that."
Audrey snorted. "What she said, Nina. No way."
Nina couldn't believe her ears. "I am, too!"
"Yeah," Katherine scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Right."
"I'm gay, guys."
Katherine gave Nina a direct look. "You are not."
"What do you mean, I'm not? I would know if I'm gay. And I'm gay. Way, way gay!" Nina insisted, stamping her foot in frustration.
Audrey and Katherine actually laughed.
Nina's eyes turned to slits. Without warning, she sprang to her feet and stepped directly in front of Jacie. "Hi, Jacie."
Baffled as to what Nina was doing, Jacie dutifully replied with a "Hi–", but before she could finish Nina gave her a sweet smile and straddled her lap. Everyone in the room heard Jacie's dry swallow. "Wha- What are you doing?"
Nina ignored the question and raised her hands to tenderly run them through Jacie's hair. "So soft," she murmured to herself. Then she smiled warmly at her friend. "May I kiss you?"
Audrey and Katherine's jaws hit the floor while Gwen silently cheered.
Nina's thighs were tightly bracketing Jacie's and Jacie could feel the warmth of Nina's body through the denim that covered their legs. Automatically, she raised her hands and let them rest on Nina's hips. "You... um… you want to kiss me?" Her voice cracked a little at the end.
"Very much so," Nina said softly. She buried her hands further into Jacie's hair and let her fingers lightly scratch Jacie's scalp, her belly clenching with desire as she looked deeply into her friend's earnest, rapidly darkening eyes.
Jacie licked her lips, her gaze momentarily darting sideways to her friends, who looked like two deer waiting to be smashed by an oncoming truck. "For them?"
Nina thought about the question carefully. She'd started this to prove a point, trusting that Jacie wouldn't mind. But now… of its own accord, one hand left Jacie's hair and traveled lightly down the delicate soft skin of her throat, feeling Jacie's thundering heartbeat. Then her fingers moved again, dancing across Jacie's collarbone. She let herself feel the nearness of her friend and the heat of her body, and she moaned softly. She allowed the scent of Jacie's skin and perfume to sink into her blood and overwhelm her senses, willingly losing herself in the loving brown eyes that were riveted on her own. And in the tiny space between that heartbeat and next, the answer became crystal clear. "For me."
Jacie gave her a dazzling grin and leaned forward just a hair. But it was all the invitation that Nina needed. They wrapped their arms tightly around one another and when their lips and tongues came together in an explosion of affection and unconcealed hunger, the glass dropped from Katherine's suddenly limp hand.
With their mouths still hanging open at the sensual display, the cousins looked at each other as if to say "duh!"
Gwen closed her eyes, saying a small prayer to whoever might be listening. As far as she was concerned, second chances were rarer than miracles and more precious than diamonds. And she hoped with her entire heart that these four women would give her one of her own.
* * *
By nine-thirty that evening, the effects of the champagne had Audrey's head spinning and Gwen fighting to avoid an all out bout of depression. She'd gone upstairs and made the mistake of checking her email for messages from Malcolm. Instead, she'd found another blackmail demand. She sat alone, facing the fire, running the words over and over in her head.
The newest demand was more urgent and nastier than the others. And for the first time, her blackmailer had given her a firm deadline. Before it was always just soon or something equally vague. And she'd always complied, transferring the funds from her own checking account to a PayPal address, afraid to death that her world would be irrevocably turned upside down. And now, as if to cap off her failure thus far this weekend, she suddenly had only until Monday to produce the cash or be exposed.