“I think there’s been an us for a long time,” Avery said, smiling up at her. “We were both too shy, or tentative, or frightened to admit it.”
“I’m not shy, but god knows I can let things ride when I should push ahead. Anyway, I was thinking of when we met, and how that was a launching pad for the surprising trip to where we are now.” She turned the art around, smiling down at the image, liking it upside down as well as the proper way.
“Hudson High,” Avery said, nearly squealing. “This is so cool!” She put her glass down, then wrapped her arms around Casey, who settled into the embrace feeling like they’d been touching each other that way for years. “But…” Avery murmured. “Your memories about high school are so…”
“They’re not great. But the things that happened then gave me the motivation to stop listening to anyone who tried to cut me down, which was the best decision I’ve ever made. Well, maybe second best.” She touched Avery’s chin, tilting it up so their eyes met. “We wouldn’t have talked at the Pub that night if your mom hadn’t used her Hudson High connections to find me. And I promise you that all of the bullshit I had to work through then was well worth having you now.”
“Oh, you smooth talker, you,” Avery said, grinning up at her.
“You’re the talker. I’m the doer.” She reached out to set her glass on her desk, then held Avery close and kissed her again, really letting herself go this time. She’d never kissed a woman who’d just had a glass of a beer she’d labored over, and she had to admit it was a rush. Tasting the grassy, yeasty, citrusy flavors on Avery’s lips took the beer from a ninety five to an even hundred. “I like doing that. A lot,” she murmured, staying very close for another kiss. She nuzzled against Avery’s neck, feeling blissfully warm and content. “We’re going to have a wonderful time together. Are you ready to start?”
Avery pulled away to gaze into her eyes, searching them deeply. “I am,” she said, looking a bit tentative. “Are you sure you’re ready for this? It’s not just me, Casey. Lisbet’s involved, too.”
“Um, I think I noticed,” she said, trying to tease and lighten Avery’s mood. “Short little thing. Very demanding. A real attention hog—”
Avery gripped her arms, holding on firmly. “I need to know where you see this going. Ideally, we’d co-parent. But if you’d rather be one step removed—”
“Removed? I’d push you out of the way to be number one if I could,” Casey said, laughing at her own exaggeration. “Seriously, if you’d let me—”
“I want what’s best for Lisbet,” she said, her expression sill sober and thoughtful. “And having you be one of her two mommys is what’s best. For both of us.”
“For all three of us,” Casey said, feeling her eyes fill with tears. “God damn,” she said, sighing. “I had no idea this was going to be such a ridiculously awesome day, but if I have many more like this my circuits will fry.”
“So you’re all in? You’re ready to take the leap?”
“I’m so in there’s no more in to be.”
“You’ll live with us?”
“I can pack up on Saturday.” She let out a laugh. “My parents are going to be a little surprised, but they’ll adjust.”
“Will you?” Avery asked, moving closer to press her body against Casey’s. “Can you adjust to all of these changes? They’re sure not minor ones.”
“I’m very adaptable. Everyone at work already assumes we’re…something…even though they can’t figure out what. Once I move in, they’ll be able to stop gossiping about us.”
“I guess we should do one more thing. I mean…what if we don’t have any chemistry?”
“Oh, right,” Casey said, finding that just short of ridiculous. “Like that’s going to be a problem.”
“I didn’t say it was,” Avery insisted, giving her another sexy, sly look. “I just want to have my suspicions confirmed. My house? Like now?”
Casey checked the clock over the door. “It’s seven,” she said, sighing. “I didn’t realize it was so late. Lisbet has to go to bed soon.”
“My mom would be happy to keep her if I tell her I need a night off. And that will give us a whole day where only the two of us know about this. Once my mom knows…”
“What will happen then?”
“Once she knows, you won’t be able to get away, even if you wanted to.”
Casey laughed at that. “I don’t think you’ll turn into some kind of ogre who makes me want to run.” She tightened her hold, smiling when Avery rested her cheek on her chest and let out a sigh. “But why risk starting off our lives together with an unhappy baby?”
“Why would she be unhappy?”
“Didn’t you think she was acting a little weird today?”
“Maybe a little…”
“I don’t know if it’s teething pain or if she’s catching a cold, but she was unusually grouchy this afternoon. I think she might need her mommy.” She gave Avery a gentle kiss, saying, “You’re going to have to put up with my cautious nature to live with me. Do you mind starting now?”
Avery’s eyes scanned Casey’s for a solid minute, probably trying to see how firm her resolve was. It must have been clear, since she sighed heavily and said, “I want to start off right, too. I’ll go get her.”
“Good choice. While I’ll admit I’d rather be footloose and fancy free, that train has left the station.”
“I know.” She turned her head to see the big clock over the main door. “I’ll be at home by eight. Meet me there?”
Casey delayed for just a moment, certain Avery wasn’t going to like her next suggestion either. “I know Lisbet will mostly be a few feet away from us for the next couple of years. So wouldn’t it be nice to have a whole day alone to start this relationship off right? Having uninterrupted time with you sounds awfully good to me. I think we need to be alone to start this off right.”
Avery stared at her for a very long time. “Are you saying you want me to go home alone?”
“No, no, I don’t want that.” She took in a breath as some of the tension seemed to leave Avery’s body, knowing she was about to put it right back in. “I want to be with you right now. But I don’t want to have Lisbet be cranky or wake up while we’re getting to know each other. I’d like a block of time when we’re awake and alert and completely alone. I thought we could both take tomorrow off and spend it in bed.”
Avery nodded, finally meeting Casey’s gaze with a small smile. “I think that’s a great idea.” She slipped her arms around Casey’s neck and pulled her down for a long, sensual kiss, the kind of kiss that took you to the verge of forgetting your own name. As she moved back a tiny amount she batted her eyes and said, “We’ll have all day tomorrow to recover from tonight.”
“But you’re going home with Lisbet…”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Avery said, shaking her head a tiny bit. “You’re right that we’re going to spend the next few years with Lisbet right between us, and that’s going to be a tough way to start a relationship. So…” She put her hands on Casey’s shoulders and pulled her down so they were nose to nose. “We’re going to have this night to ourselves.”
“We are?”
“We’re going to be selfish. Tonight, Lisbet doesn’t come first.”
“But—”
“Your forehead’s all wrinkled up,” she said, looking up at her with such affection that it made Casey slightly weak in the knees. “Come on now, stop worrying,” she said, smoothing out the skin with her fingertips. “It’s not like I’m proposing we tie her to a chair on the porch. Lisbet’s an incredibly adaptable child. She can be with my mom for twenty-four hours.”
“The whole day?”
“Uh-huh. We’re going to have tonight and all day tomorrow to spend in bed. I’ll admit that’s not what Lisbet would vote for, but we have wants and desires, too.”
“But—”
Firmly, Avery said, “The baby has to come first in terms of needs, since she can’t provide for
her own. But she doesn’t have to come first in terms of wants. Tonight, I want you all to myself.” She smiled as her fingers slipped down Casey’s back, sending shivers everywhere they touched. Her smile was luminous, and so filled with sexual innuendo that Casey was hardly able to focus. “I think I can make a good case that I need to be with you tonight.”
“Don’t you want to run over to your parents’ house and say goodnight?” she asked, still feeling edgy about leaving the baby for an overnight stay without any preparation.
“Let it go,” Avery said. “You can start being the overprotective mommy tomorrow. Tonight, you’re mine.”
“All right,” she said, trying to look like she’d given up after a long battle. “If you insist.”
Avery stopped on a dime and put her hands flat up against Casey’s chest. “If you’re not a hundred percent—”
She let out a laugh as she put her arms around Avery’s waist to lift her off her feet. “I’m on the verge of tossing you over my shoulder to carry you off to bed. If I was any more into this…”
Avery’s face was just an inch in front of Casey’s, and she was smiling like she’d won the lottery. “I think I’d like it if you threw me over your shoulder. I’ve never dated anyone bigger and stronger than I am…”
Casey lowered her to the floor, then wrapped her in a tender, but firm hug. “I assume I could do that, but I’m definitely not going to spend our first night together in the emergency room. Clearly, I’m going to have to be the practical one in this relationship.”
“I’m pretty practical too,” Avery said as she nuzzled her face against Casey’s neck. “But you shake the foundations of my practicality.” She backed away and took Casey’s hand. “Ready?”
“I am.”
“Then pull off a growler of our beer and let’s hit the road.”
“A growler? Seriously?”
“No baby. No nursing. No curfew. No alarm in the morning. Let’s light it up!”
“Well, well, well,” Casey said as she went to find a box of growlers with the Kaaterskill logo on them. “If I’d had a thousand years to dream when I was a kid, I don’t think I would have ever gotten to the ‘have hot sex with Avery Nichols while drinking a half gallon of beer I created’ fantasy. But now that I’m here, I think it’s a pretty darned good idea.”
She’d only walked a few feet when Avery said, “Catch me!” and launched herself at Casey’s back. She’d had time to brace herself, and had bent over slightly, standing her ground when Avery’s arms whipped around her neck as her body draped along her back.
Casey reached back to grab her thighs. “Scoot up so you’re helping, you goofball!”
“If we’re going to be carefree for a whole day, I’m going all in. I haven’t acted like a kid in years and years. I’m due.”
“I like this,” Casey said, reaching back to give her a swat on the seat. “I’ve never given an adult woman a piggy-back ride, but I think we should start doing this on a routine basis.”
“I want to tell you a secret,” Avery said, holding on a little tighter as she craned her head around to be able to speak right into Casey’s ear. “Want to know about the first time I touched myself while fantasizing about you?”
“Definitely!”
“Senior year.”
“Are you shitting me? I was going out of my way to avoid you in the hall while you were spanking it to me?”
“I wasn’t spanking it,” she said, laughing softly. “And if you think that’s the right way to do it, we need to have another talk.”
Casey had reached the storage area where they kept logoed material, and she found a box of the growlers. “I think I did all right the night we had, as you call it, pity sex.”
“Point taken. So,” she said, whispering again. “It was senior year, and it was cold out. Maybe it was November or even December. I had Ms. Valentine for P.E., and she had us outside running around the track. We were freezing our asses off, but no one minded since it was always better to be outside than in.”
“I didn’t have Ms. Valentine,” Casey said.
“I know. So…I was running around and noticed someone way out in the area where the football team practiced, but it was too early for the team to be out there. This person was kicking footballs, really rocketing them toward the track.”
“I bet I know who the person was, especially if this story ends with you spanking it when you thought of me.”
“You’re incredibly psychic,” she said, laughing. “Anyway, you had a bunch of footballs, and when you’d kicked them all you ran close to the track to kick them back in the other direction.”
“Sounds like me goofing off, which I was really good at.”
“Right. But you were all alone. It’s not like you were with a coach or anything. I couldn’t figure out if you were cutting class, or if you had permission to be out there.”
“Cutting class,” Casey admitted. “I never went to English class, and Mr. Potter never gave me a hard time since he knew I was unreachable,” she said, feeling a little sting at how certain she’d been that she was a dunce.
“You simply hadn’t had your awakening yet,” Avery said. “But even though you weren’t confident of your academic skills, you were one cocky girl when it came to kicking those balls. One of them had rolled close to the fence, and I rounded the track right when you went to pick it up. You gave me a devastatingly sexy smile, winked at me, then grabbed the ball and kicked it for a mile!”
“I did? Jesus! I must have been flooded with some kind of confidence hormone from working out. I can’t imagine doing that!”
“Well, you did,” Avery said, clearly certain of herself. “I almost fell down as I tried to go around that turn, and when I got home, I imagined you doing all sorts of things to me. Sexy things,” she added, “even though I had to guess at what those might be.”
“Did I kick a football for you?” Casey asked, chuckling.
“No way. I imagined you coming over to my house for some unexplained reason, then taking me to bed. I’d never been to bed with anyone at that point, and I hadn’t even looked at porn yet, but my imagination must have been good enough. It worked like a charm,” she added. “My very first Casey Van Dyke-induced orgasm.”
“Have you been keeping this little secret from me all this time? I mean, I can see why you would…”
“No, I haven’t. This hit me about a month or two ago. It came from nowhere, but I’m certain it really happened.”
“This was when you were happily straight, right? When all of the smart guys were chasing you around, and you kept letting yourself be caught?”
“Uh-huh,” she said lightly, clearly unbothered by the contradiction. “I fantasized about all sorts of things, and all sorts of people. I thought I was just open-minded.” She took a little nibble from Casey’s ear. “I was, but a couple of years later I realized that most of my best fantasies were about girls. That’s when it clicked.”
“Fascinating,” Casey said. “Well, that day might have give you your first Casey Van Dyke-induced orgasm, but it won’t be the last, and that’s a promise.”
They were near the door then, and Casey gave Avery’s butt a firm pat. “Mind if I put you down? I don’t want to risk dropping the beer while I lock up.”
“I appreciate that you’re good at prioritizing,” Avery said, sliding to the floor. “I’ve had a blast while we’re still fully dressed. Kind of awesome.”
“You’re not going to be dressed for long. Let’s go replay that old fantasy. But this time, we’re playing for keeps.”
***
Casey had insisted on going home to shower and change, so Avery used the time to go freshen up. She hadn’t done anything vigorous, so she could have gotten by without a shower, but she hadn’t shaved her legs in weeks, and she wanted every part of herself to be smooth for Casey’s lips.
Once she was finished, she put on her sexiest bra, one she’d recently bought to reign in her breasts when she got dressed up to
go into the city. It was one size smaller than the nursing bras she’d bought, which was a good sign that things were slowly going back to normal. She’d always been a little larger than she would have liked, but the girls had gotten out of control when Lisbet was nursing eight to ten times a day. If she dropped down one more size she’d be happy.
After putting on clean shorts and a blouse, she sat on the wide sill of her dormer window. It was a little strange sitting there waiting for Casey to come over and have sex with so little lead-up, and she was more nervous than she wanted to be. Even though Avery had been with a good number of women, and had experienced a wide variety of encounters, she’d never had a first like this.
Every other time had come about pretty organically, usually after meeting at a club or some other kind of social event, often after a drink or two. While she’d just put a growler of good beer in the fridge, she didn’t need a drink to get over her nerves. She and Casey would figure out a way to get in sync, or they’d just have a fumbling, stiff first time. They’d just have to keep at it until they nailed it. When you were deeply attracted to each other, and determined to start off your lives with a bang, it was only a matter of time.
She smiled to herself, puzzled, yet relieved to feel so calm about the sexual part of their relationship. Letting out a laugh, she thought that maybe having had tearful, pity sex on the polyester pod had made it clear they could get the technical details figured out without a problem. And since she felt like she knew Casey’s heart—there was literally nothing to worry about. But she was still annoyingly nervous, and couldn’t wait for Casey to arrive.
She heard the truck when it turned onto her street, feeling like a dog who can detect the postal service truck a minute before anyone else.
Then the big vehicle rolled down her gravel drive, and she heard the engine cut. A minute later a sweet voice called out through the open front door. “I’ve got a delivery here for Avery…middle name unknown…Nichols.”
Friday Night Flights Page 45