She dove into the water and swam out, and Sam tossed the loose rope to her.
“Do you know how to tie a carrick bend knot?”
“Sam,” Sara called out, “You do remember I’m a chef, right?”
“How about a bowline hitch?”
“…And that I’m treading water?”
Sam stripped to her bikini and dove into the water. She reached Sara and pulled the rope toward her, demonstrating how to wrap and knot it then use the ends to create a second safety knot.
“Good God,” Sara said, “No wonder the list to take the test is so long. Everyone has to retake it.”
“It is a bit tricky.” Sam smiled, running her hand through her hair. “Are you getting tired?”
She looked at Sam over the dark water. “If I say yes, will you rescue me?”
Sam tossed the rope bundle into the boat. Her voice was low and soft. “I’ll do anything you want me to do.”
Sara ducked under the water for a second, then reemerged. “Let’s see if you mean it.” She paused. “How about tossing this into the boat for me?”
Sam tossed Sara’s bra and underwear in the boat, then wrapped her arm around Sara’s waist and pulled her closer.
“What do you want?” She whispered into the space between them.
Sara hesitated. “I don’t know,” she said, eyes tracing the strong lines of her face in the moonlight. “But I need you to give it to me.”
Sam pulled herself up onto the teak platform then lifted Sara out of the water. She laid down in the back of the boat and pulled Sara on top of her.
“Sara,” she whispered, her hands sliding up the back of Sara’s wet thighs, “If I start this, I won’t stop.”
Sara kissed down the side of her neck, sliding her warm tongue over Sam’s ear. “I don’t want you to stop.”
Sam flipped Sara underneath her body and slowly pulled her nipple into her mouth, circling it with her tongue, until Sara arched her back and pulled her closer. Sam paused to pull off her own bikini top and then lowered herself back down onto Sara’s naked body. She ran her tongue down her body then slowly across the inside of her thigh. She stopped just as Sara felt the heat of Sam’s breath on her clit.
“Fuck,” Sam said, sitting back in the back seat of the boat and dropping her face into her hands.
Sara sat up and slipped her shirt on. “What’s wrong?”
Sam looked up, brushing a stray wave of damp hair off Sara’s face. “I can’t do this. Not yet.”
“Sam, it’s okay,” Sara said, looking up at her in the moonlight. “I’m perfectly happy to go back to you stalking me from a distance.”
Sam held her face with both hands and kissed her. Softly this time, as if she was trying to memorize her face.
****
Once they were back at the dock, Sam walked Sara up to the back door of the cabin. The lights were on in the kitchen, so Sara opened the door, calling to Jennifer that they were home.
Sam could see Jennifer through the window, sitting at the kitchen table. She didn’t answer, just stared down into her plate.
“Are you okay?” Sara said, stepping in and shutting the door behind them.
“I’m fine,” Jennifer said.
The plate of food Sara had left for her was on the table in front of her, but Jen had divided it up into multiple identical sections, placed around the perimeter of her plate. Jennifer finally looked up and leaned back in her chair.
“Really,” she said, “I’m fine. I’m just tired.”
She looked drawn and pale, and Sara noticed that her eyebrows crinkled together like they had since she was a kid, when she was nervous or worried.
“When did you get home?” Sara said, looking at the clock. Jennifer had texted her that she was almost home right before she went down to the boat with Sam, which was nearly three hours ago.
“Do you want me to warm that up?” Sara said, opening the refrigerator door and staring inside. “Or make you something else?”
Jennifer ran her hand through her hair and dropped her head into her hands. “Jesus, Sara,” she said, frustration starting to creep into her voice. “I’m just not hungry, okay?”
Sam walked over to the table and picked up Jennifer’s plate. She handed it to Sara, nodding toward the counter. Sara put it in the sink.
“How much have you had to drink tonight?” Sam said, her eyes locked onto Jennifer’s.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I haven’t had anything since yesterday.”
Sam held out her hand to her. “Get up, Jen,” she said, her voice more gentle than her words. “We’re going for a swim.”
Jennifer let Sam pull her up and she walked wordlessly down the hall to change.
“What the hell is she doing?” Sara said, tears of frustration welling up in her eyes. “Why won’t she just eat? If she’d just eat, all this would just go away.”
Sam pulled Sara into her arms. “It’s not about the food,” she said, holding her closer. “And it’s not about you. You’re not doing anything wrong.”
“I have to be doing something wrong,” Sara whispered. “I love her so much, and all I seem to do is make it worse.”
“You’re not making anything worse, Sara…she’s here. When she was really in trouble, she came to you,” Sam said. “Jennifer has to get her head around it herself. You can’t fix this for her.”
Sara nodded.
“Let’s just get her in the water, okay?”
“Okay,” she said, wiping the tears from her cheek with the heel of her hand. “I’ll send her down to the dock.”
Sam stripped off her clothes as Jennifer walked down the dock, wearing her swimsuit with a fleece jacket over the top and the sleeves pulled tight in her fists. She sat on the end of the dock with her feet in the water, but left her fleece zipped up.
“So,” Jennifer said looking over at Sam, “It’s just us here now. Why are you doing this?”
Sam lowered herself into the water to her shoulders and stood on the little aluminum stairs that hung off the end. The water was warmer than the sharp night air.
Jennifer shook her head, her blond hair almost translucent in the moonlight. “I mean, I know you and Sara are doing…” Jennifer searched for the right words. “Whatever it is you’re doing, but it has to be more than that.” She tapped her toe on the surface of the black water, sending ripples out in perfect circles around it.
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yeah,” Jennifer said, “I do.”
Sam looked down into the water, until Jennifer wondered if she was going to answer at all.
“I know something about how it feels to not be able to fix what’s wrong.”
Jen paused, then shook her head, looking out over the water. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, Sam,” she said, “But you can’t understand. Even Sara doesn’t get it.”
An owl swooped down suddenly over the surface of the water, then came to rest on the windscreen of Sara’s boat about ten yards away. She turned her head toward them slowly, as if she was listening.
“Wow,” Jennifer whispered, “I’ve never seen an owl in real life.”
“Actually, they rarely hang out over the water.” Sam pointed in the direction of the woods. “They’re usually at the tops of Sara’s trees over there. She must like you.”
Jennifer took the hair band out of her hair and pulled it tighter into a bun at the nape of her neck, her jaw tense.
“Why did you say that about not being able to fix something?”
Sam skimmed the surface of the water with her hand. “About a year ago, someone I loved died. I felt powerless, and I didn’t deal with it well.”
Jennifer nodded, and looked back toward the cabin. “Sara’s always been the powerful one.”
The water lapped at the dock and Sam climbed the ladder to sit on the dock, wrapping her shirt around her and listening.
“I mean,” Jennifer said, “Sara’s just a bad ass, isn’t she? She
doesn’t take shit from anyone.”
“Yeah,” Sam said, smiling, “I’ve noticed.”
Jennifer stared up at the stars. “I’m just so tired of everyone having an opinion about how I look. I wish I was Sara, so I could tell them to fuck off.”
“Who’s everyone?”
“My mom. Trevor. My friends.” A tear slipped down her cheek and dripped slowly off her chin. “It’s all they notice about me, so it’s always made me feel like it’s the only thing I have to offer.” She shook her head, wiping the tear from her face with her fist. “And that makes staying skinny feel pretty fucking important.”
Sam nodded. “I can understand that.”
Jen looked at Sam and rolled her eyes. “No offense, but you’re not exactly unattractive. I have a hard time believing you’re insecure about your looks.”
“Are you kidding?” Sam said, rolling her eyes and looking over at Jennifer. “I know how it feels to be stared at every day, and not in a good way.”
“What do you mean?’
“Well,” Sam said, “The fact that I’m a woman, but also very masculine, throws everyone off. I guess they don’t know how to label me, and it can piss people off pretty quickly. It’s like I have to fit the standard mold or they don’t know what to think about me.”
“I never thought about that.” Jennifer thought for a moment. “Being judged every day about how you look must get old.”
“Yep,” said Sam. “So I get how shitty that must be for you too.”
Jen looked up at her. “Thanks.”
She unclenched the fist she didn’t realize she’d made and stared at the little red marks where her nails had dug into her skin.
“I don’t know why, but that actually makes me feel a little better.”
“Okay,” Sam said, “It’s hard not to care what people think, but let’s knock Trevor right off the list of people you give a shit about. Clearly he’s an asshat.”
Jennifer laughed. “I’ll give you that one.”
“And correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like from what Sara’s said that your mom might be so critical of how you look because she thinks it reflects on her.”
Jennifer nodded. “Always.”
“Look,” Sam said, running her fingers through her hair. “I’m not going to say this food thing is easy. It’s not.” She looked into Jennifer’s eyes. “But before you let it ruin your life, think about how you actually want to look. Fuck them.”
Jennifer thought for a few seconds and trailed her fingers back and forth in the water. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think you may actually have a point there.”
“And I think we both know what the real problem is.”
Jennifer looked up.
“You want to look like a tall version of Tom Cruise. It’s understandable.” Sam looked over at Jennifer with an angelic smile. “And I know it’s hard, but you just have to accept that’s not going to happen for you.”
Jennifer stood and unzipped her fleece, dropping it on Sam’s head. “Thanks for the head start, Tom.”
She dove into the inky water, making an effort to splash as much water as possible in Sam’s direction.
Chapter Nine
A few days later, Sam headed into the station earlier than usual and got a start on her paperwork. If drama was going to happen on the water, it was usually on a Friday, so she always liked to get a head start on patrol before anything kicked off. She unwrapped a cinnamon muffin she’d grabbed at Moxie Java on the way in and leafed through the duty logs.
“Hey, boss,” Murphy said as he rounded the corner of her office door. “You wanted to see me?”
“Murphy.” Sam leaned back in her chair. “Where are you from?”
“Jasper, Arkansas, ma’am.”
“Did a little old lady flag you down from the dock on the east side last weekend?”
Murphy looked up, surprised. “She did. I thought she might need help, but I think she may have just wanted a little company.”
“Well,” Sam said, handing him a card with a rose on the front, “I just got a thank you card from her for the little boat tour you took her on to see the ‘fancy houses’ on the north side of the lake. She said she couldn’t remember your name, but you were the perfect southern gentleman, so I figured that was you.”
“Yeah, that was me,” he said, glancing down. “I probably should have been making better use of my time, but she was just so excited to see all those big lake houses.”
“I looked at the logs from that day; call outs were slow, so you had plenty of time to show her around. That’s not what I called you in about.”
Sam smiled, popping the last bite of the muffin into her mouth.
“It says in that note that you reminded her of her late husband. Even used the same brand of chewing tobacco that he did.”
“Oh.”
“Now, I’m just going to assume you weren’t using that and spitting off the side of the boat while you were driving her around.”
“Well, actually…”
Sam raised her hand. “Nope, just that mental picture is plenty, thanks.”
Murphy nodded and started to leave, but Sam stopped him and took a sip of her coffee.
“Does the name Shawn Keough ring a bell?”
“No, ma’am.”
“He’s an Idaho State Senator. And the woman you picked up is his mother-in-law. She called me personally to tell me about it and I put two and two together. Keough has a lake house on the east side.”
“No way!” Murphy said, scanning the card in his hand. “Come to think of it, I did think it was strange that she wanted to see all the fancy houses but I’d picked her up from the biggest house on the lake.”
“I think you were right,” Sam said. “She just wanted a little company. I appreciate you taking good care of her.”
“My pleasure, Captain.”
As Murphy left and closed the door behind him, Sam picked up her phone and texted Sara.
Lesson tonight after work? Around seven?
She went back to her paperwork until her phone pinged a few minutes later.
Depends on what you’re teaching me, Captain Draper.
Sam laughed, leaning back in her chair and looking out over the water. She’d never wanted anyone like she wanted Sara that night in the lake. It took everything she had not to take her on the back seat of her boat, and she’d gone to bed every night since thinking about Sara’s naked legs wrapped around her waist.
I guess you’ll just have to find out, Sam texted. I’ll bring dinner.
If it’s spam, I’m calling the police and having you arrested.
Good luck with that, Sam typed. See you tonight.
****
Sara smiled as she put her phone away and pushed open the door to the drugstore.
“Thank God you’re here.” Mary pulled a pan of cinnamon rolls from underneath her counter. “I would have eaten every one of these.”
“Now you’re keeping pastries down there with your coffee pot and gun?”
“Well, I always have a little something to eat up here, but it just kind of became self-preservation after McCall’s closed.” She looked across the street at the diner. “Samantha used to bring me leftover pie at the end of the day and I walked over every day for lunch. It wasn’t until Gus passed that I realized I missed the company more than anything.”
They both stared at the abandoned diner. It was hard to imagine it full of locals and great food.
“Hey,” Mary said suddenly, “I think I met your sister the other day. She mentioned she’s staying with you for a while. She looks just like you, except she’s too damn skinny.” Mary ripped the top off yet another Sweet-N-Low and dumped it into the black abyss of her mug. “That girl needs to hang out in here with us. I’ll turn that around right quick.”
“Yeah, I’m working on that,” Sara said, looking down into her cup. “I can’t get her to eat. I always say the wrong thing. It’s gotten to the point that I’m worr
ied she’ll go too far and I’ll lose her someday.”
“I’m sorry,” Mary said, “Me and my big mouth. I had no idea.”
“You know what’s weird, though?” Sara said, almost to herself. “Sam seems to be getting through to her somehow.”
“So, Samantha’s hanging out at the cabin lately?” Mary smiled, her eyebrow raised.
Mary got called away to help a hapless customer find Band-Aids, and Sara thought about the last night Sam had been at the cabin. To be honest, it still surprised her that she’d stopped them before they had sex. It definitely wasn’t her idea. Just thinking about Sam on top of her, pulling her nipple into the warmth of her mouth…it made her wet every time she thought about it. Unfortunately.
“Actually,” Mary said as she stepped behind the counter again, “It kind of makes sense that Sam might be able to get through to your sister. What’s her name?”
“Jennifer.”
“Jennifer,” she said, clinking her spoon down on the counter. “After Gus died, it was a good few months before that girl got her balance back. Everyone was worried about her; she wasn’t taking care of herself and worked to all damn hours of the night. The Chief finally made her take a month of paid leave, which finally seemed to do the trick, thank God.”
“She must have been so sad,” Sara said, thinking of the picture of Sam and Gus in the diner.
“The Lake Patrol officers told me later that they took turns going by her dock every evening to check on her,” Mary said. “She was easy to find; she just swam back and forth to that Rock Island for a few weeks straight, or that’s what it looked like to them, anyway.”
“Wait,” Sara said, “Rock Island? That’s across from my cabin.”
“Yeah.” Mary tilted her head, puzzled. “She’s your neighbor; didn’t you know that?”
“You’re kidding me,” Sara said.
“Nope, that great big log cabin is hers.” Mary warmed up Sara’s coffee and put the pot back under the counter. “Gus had an eye for business; all that time he was police chief, he was quietly making investments, though in what I have no idea. He never talked about it. He just said he wanted to make sure Sam was taken care of.”
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