Dahlia inhaled a deep breath for courage before saying, “I sincerely want to apologize for my behavior and everything that happened. After a lot of reflection, I’ve decided to pass the project on to a small company that will do it right. They’ll know the right questions to ask and how best to integrate themselves into this community. They’re from one like it, after all.”
Karen popped one of her eyebrows up her forehead before crossing her arms with a smirk. “That’s some great politician speak there.”
“I also hope your daughter didn’t get into too much trouble. She was only trying to help.”
“Eh, she’s already having a boring summer. Isn’t much more I could do to ruin it for her. Besides, we had a long talk about going behind Mommy’s back to do things like go on TV.”
“I swear, I wasn’t gonna…”
Karen sighed, her regal, mayor-like façade slowly slipping away. “I should apologize as well. I injected myself way too much into your project. I really love this town, you know? I feel like it’s my duty to protect it and the people who make their homes here. If I see someone misrepresenting them, I want to…”
“I understand,” Dahlia interrupted. “I’ll be out of your hair after today. Only wanted to make sure Rachel’s crew got here and was properly introduced. It’s happening quite suddenly for them. No lead up like my crew had, but they’re super excited to be here.”
They stared at each other for a few more seconds. Then, Karen said, “I’m also sorry about all the things I said about you. That was beyond unreasonable. Especially that part about you being attracted to me…”
Dahlia cleared her throat and looked away.
“Hm?” Of course Karen caught on to that. “Sorry, did I strike a nerve?”
Was she being coy? Or was the mayor a natural at making women like Dahlia more uncomfortable than it was ever worth? Come on, you’re only uncomfortable because this is all new to you. Also, you fear rejection. Your mother rejected you, so now you fear rejection from women, period. Somewhere, a guy named Freud furiously wrote notes.
“I may be… kinda… attracted to… certain women… cough.”
Karen did her best to contain a self-satisfied smile. It only made her more brazen to say, “Too bad you’re not going be around much anymore. We could’ve explored some options. Start a committee to investigate these attractions of yours.”
Dahlia’s inclination was to snarkily say, “Never mind, then!” Yet she had to reel those reactions in if she wanted to get anywhere with anyone, let alone someone like Karen Rath. “Pink Dew is open to me collaborating with them, which means I could be around more often. You know. For committees and investigations.”
Did Karen see how much Dahlia was blushing? Or was that from the sunlight hitting her right on the face? “Let’s hope things go well, then.”
Relief flooded from Dahlia’s lungs. The only explanation she had was the reassurance that Karen didn’t totally hate her.
Things could only improve from there.
Chapter 17
KAREN
“Where are you two going?” Karen sat up on the couch the moment her children burst from the kitchen, jackets on and bags hanging from their hands. “I thought we were going to watch the spot on TV?”
Christina went on ahead to the front door. Xander hung back, the smarmy look on his face inspiring little to no confidence in his mother. “They’re watching it down at Heaven’s. She says it’s the first show she’s gonna have on the new TV she got for the café. We were invited, so, ah…”
Karen kicked the light blanket laying across her lap. “You’re trying to tell me that you and your teenaged sister were invited to Heaven’s Café to watch the news spot? Tell me you were going to sneak into one of the bars, Xander.”
“I wasn’t! I mean, we weren’t! Promise! His awkward chuckles only made his argument worse. He wouldn’t last two days in an election. Was he really her son? “Come on, Mom, do you really want us around for this?” He covertly gestured to the fourth person in the room. The one neither of them acknowledged since this little tiff began. “You’ve got like… a date.”
Karen was about to verbally kick her son’s butt when Dahlia, who had been sitting on the other end of the couch, cut in. “Let the kids go to the café to watch the spot. We don’t need them giggling while we’re here watching it, anyway.”
“Yeah, Mom, you don’t need us here gigglin’.”
Someone honked the horn of the car out in the driveway. Christina waved her hand out the passenger side window, a warning that her brother could get his butt out there now or risk her taking the car instead. Xander took that as his signal to leave. The only wave he offered his mom on the way out the door was an afterthought.
Chuckles sounded from the other end of the couch.
“What?” Karen asked. “Trust me, if you had kids…”
“Thank God I don’t,” Dahlia replied. The blanket they shared was soon pulled back up into their laps. They kept a respectful distance from one another, but the blanket was a universal symbol of how far they had come since Dahlia returned to town. They had gone from awkward dinners – both in restaurants and in this house – to drives out in the countryside. The craziest they got was getting giddy over wine and admitting their awkward first times, both with men. Dahlia admitted that having Karen to talk to made it easier to talk about other things. It helped that Karen was an open book about the gross side of motherhood and the obnoxious side of being a mayor. I speak my truths so women like Dahlia can feel a little better about admitting they might like to kiss girls.
Perfect.
“Is it seven yet?”
Karen flipped the channel back to the news station they picked up out of LA. Already there was an anchor announcing they had a special spot that lovely Monday night about a “regional community that might be every lesbian’s dream.”
Pink Dew Films had bought the rights to the documentary, helping Dahlia break even. Yet Rachel Gibson had given her permission to release a fifteen minute spot to create buzz for the main event coming out later that year. When Dahlia wasn’t busy editing, taking phone calls, and following Pink Dew around for a paycheck, she spent her precious time with Karen. They weren’t always talking business. Sometimes, they were personal.
Karen supposed that’s how they ended up here, on her couch, under the same blanket. It was barely holding hands and exchanging tentative kisses that made her blush, but she knew from the beginning that anything coming out of this would take a while. She was used to that, though. Everything took precious time when you were a single mom running a whole damn town. Right now, Karen appreciated the slowdowns that happened in her hectic schedule. With the days long and warm, she was more than happy to cuddle up next to another woman and wait for something more to happen.
“Isn’t this exciting?” she whispered, as the spot began at seven. “Does it ever get old seeing your stuff on TV?”
“I’d think you’re more excited. It’s your face about to be on TV.”
“You didn’t…”
“Welcome to Paradise Valley, Oregon,” the anchor on TV said, “where the women have no desire for husbands.”
“That wasn’t my doing, I swear,” Dahlia said.
Karen squealed to see her interview about her divorce and what it was like adjusting her children to small town life. Her face burrowed in the depths of Dahlia’s T-shirt, which was a tad ripe from some work out in the sun earlier. I’ll take it, if it saves me from this embarrassment!
It might have been a “smooth move,” too.
“Excuse you!” Dahlia fell onto the couch, Karen slouching over her as if she had the strength to bowl over the strongest of women. “Can I help you? Just a tad ticklish there!”
The giggles didn’t stop. That’s what Dahlia got for implying that Xander and Christina would be the ones with a case of laughter. More like we’re the ones acting like children in here. What kid wanted to see their mom acting that way? Flirting, laughing… enj
oying life the way it was meant to be experienced with another person.
They barely saw any of the spot since they were too busy play-wrestling on the couch and making a big enough commotion to get a call from the neighbors, asking if Karen was all right. Did it matter, though? The spot would be up for streaming, anyway. Why watch something that was always there, when Karen could enjoy what happened now, in the moment?
Surely, that was a much better use of her precious personal time.
THE END
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AUGUST HEAT
(A Year In Paradise #8)
Firefighter Krys Madison is used to the single life. Although she’s known as a womanizer, the truth is she’s been going through a bit of a dry spell for the past… year.
By choice. Kinda.
She doesn’t realize what’s missing until she happens upon a litter of newborn kittens after a barn fire. The only one around who can help her save their lives is rural veterinarian Siobhan O’Connor. The reclusive woman prefers a life of solitude, and doesn’t need someone like Krys causing trouble in her life.
Too bad Krys is instantly smitten with the redheaded beauty. Too bad Siobhan doesn’t think she’s too bad either!
But it will take a lot of healing for Siobhan to finally move on from the breakup that still haunts her heart. Someone like Krys? Her heat may start fires Siobhan never asked to have extinguished.
AUGUST 10th
Hildred Billings is a Japanese and Religious Studies graduate who has spent her entire life knowing she would write for a living someday. She has lived in Japan a total of four times in four different locations, from the heights of the Japanese alps to the hectic Tokyo suburbs, with a life in Shikoku somewhere in there too. When she’s not writing, however, she spends most of her time talking about Asian pop music, cats, and bad 80’s fantasy movies with anyone who will listen…or not.
Her writing centers around themes of redemption, sexuality, and death, sometimes all at once. Although she enjoys writing in the genre of fantasy the most, she strives to show as much reality as possible through her characters and situations, since she’s a furious realist herself.
Currently, Hildred lives in Oregon with her girlfriend and dreams of a cat.
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July Skies Page 13