Deal-Breaker

by Siri Caldwell

  When was she going to learn to stop doing this to herself? To become intrigued by someone she couldn’t have? Someone she didn’t want to have. Because even if Jori was working both sides of the fence and Rae maybe could have her, she didn’t want someone who thought she wanted a lesbian relationship but really didn’t.

  She was too old for that. She really was. She knew better.

  Chapter Eight

  The party was in full swing by the time Jori and Baylee reached the pool. The patio area was packed with women in costume, and the shallow end of the pool overflowed with swimsuit‌-‌clad partyers chatting and drinking cocktails in waist‌-‌ to chest‌-‌high water that glowed with purple underwater lights like a jewel in the night. Sierra was easy to spot by the makeshift bar, as was her partner, Melanie, who was chatting with a knot of guests. They were both dressed as poodles with a mop of yarn curls on top of their heads and a fabric, batting‌-‌stuffed tail with an oversize pom‌-‌pom at the end.

  Jori had laughed when she’d seen the fabric and sewing supplies Sierra had invited her to use to make costumes. That was her‌—‌a mom who had time to sew. She’d found a discarded cardboard box instead and cut it into two triangles. Baylee had drawn the pepperoni and cheese with crayons and they’d turned Jori into a slice of pizza. Baylee’s costume was just as sad‌—‌a Maryland blue crab with blue crepe paper streamers wrapped around her waist and pinned to her shoulders where they dangled loose as extra arms, a pair of blue felt‌-‌covered tongs‌—‌glued, not sewn‌—‌in her hand as a makeshift claw, and a profusion of shiny ribbons in her hair because crabs liked to be pretty.

  “Come on,” Jori told Baylee. “Let’s see if there are any kids here you can play with.” It was unlikely there would be, because the workshop people never brought kids, but there were always a few guests staying at the lodge who were passing through and weren’t participating in whatever the workshop of the week was, and sometimes they had children in tow, so it was worth a look.

  She scanned the crowd, guiding her daughter in close so she was pressed to her leg, protecting her from being jostled by people who might not look down and notice a little girl. A witch, an astronaut, a robot, a princess in an ornate ball gown…‌but no kids. That was too bad, but Baylee would be fine by her side for a while, and once she reached her limit, they could always leave. So, what next? Not the pool, not without their swimsuits. The bar might have snacks, but reaching the bar might be difficult with all the people packed in front of it. There were so many people…‌

  Jori’s gaze landed on Rae and stopped. Rae was balanced on the edge of one of the bubble‌-‌shaped lounge chairs, leaning back on her elbow in a comfortable, graceful pose, chatting with a woman in a cupcake costume. Rae was dressed as some kind of bird in a clingy white sleeveless, below‌-‌the‌-‌knee dress and a baseball cap she’d fitted with a cardboard beak and eyes made out of ping‌-‌pong balls. Her legs were crossed at the knee, and she swung her free leg in a lazy arc, dangling a flat sandal from her toes, skillfully maneuvering it on and off her heel. Jori leaned against the patio’s wrought‌-‌iron fence and watched, fascinated, waiting for the sandal to fall to the ground, but Rae’s foot and ankle were as coordinated and flexible as the rest of her. If Jori were that cupcake, she’d never guess Rae was injured.

  Jori pushed off from the fence and approached, Baylee dragging at her side, before she realized what she was doing and came to a halt. Just because Rae was one of the only people she knew here didn’t mean she had to go talk to her, especially when Rae was already having a conversation with someone else. She should mingle. Move randomly through the crowd. Keep Baylee occupied by guessing all the costumes. Jori was good at making conversation with strangers. Liked it, even. New people could be so interesting.

  But before she knew it she had subconsciously made her way toward Rae. It didn’t feel random.

  The cupcake wandered off. Rae noticed Jori and smiled, and Jori forgot all about mingling. Rae slipped her feet out of her sandals and tucked one leg underneath her. It made her look like a model in one of those furniture ads where a barefoot woman, looking sexy yet wholesome, curled up on a spotless sofa and draped herself over the back of it like a man’s fantasy that traditionally involved a woman on the hood of a sports car. Ads that had never done a thing for Jori besides make her laugh at how ridiculous they were.

  She wasn’t laughing now. Rae didn’t look ridiculous. She looked sexy. And elegant. And stunning.

  It kind of made her wish she wasn’t dressed as a slice of pizza. An hour ago, allowing her daughter to smear borrowed red makeup on Mommy’s face to look like tomato sauce had seemed like a great idea. Now she wished she looked like less of a mess. Because nothing said dating material like being dressed as a tomato massacre, especially in a sea of women in beautifully made costumes broken only by Sierra’s and Melanie’s goofy ones.

  Oh well, par for the course. Even when she wasn’t wearing a pizza costume, Jori was not exactly what anyone would call classy. Her wardrobe consisted of a ton of cotton and Lycra and not much else. Nice workout clothes, grungy workout clothes, non‌-‌workout clothes that worked with athletic shoes…‌ She looked good, but there was something about wearing shorts for every occasion that, sometimes, when she was around people who dressed better, felt not quite presentable. But that was who she was. God knew what she’d do when she became an accountant and had to wear professional business attire.

  “Hi, Miss Peters,” Baylee said, looking up at Rae. Apparently Baylee was the only one able to speak. “I like your costume.”

  Rae smiled. “Thank you, Baylee, I like yours, too. Are you a…‌” She trailed off.

  Jori held her breath, praying she’d get it right.

  “…‌crab?” Rae guessed.

  How in the world did she‌—‌

  “I’m a crab!” Baylee waved the tongs that were her crab’s claw.

  “I love it!” Rae sounded like she really meant it, which made Jori like her even more.

  “See my blue nail polish?” Baylee held out her non‌-‌claw hand. It was mortifying that a kid of hers would love nail polish, but if it made Baylee happy, she supposed a little mortification was a small price to pay.

  “Nice,” Rae said.

  Baylee spun around to show off her dancing crab moves. Jori moved to protect the bystanders from Baylee’s claw and was nearly knocked over by Melanie, who rushed in and swept Baylee off her feet. Baylee giggled and reached for the poodle yarn on top of Melanie’s head.

  “There’s someone I want you to meet,” Melanie told Baylee in a voice full of excitement, settling her on her hip and catching Jori’s eye to make sure it was okay.

  Jori nodded her permission. Melanie pushed through the crowd to the far side of the patio and lowered Baylee to the ground next to a dachshund dressed as a ballerina with a tutu around its middle and pink ribbons tied to its tail. Baylee stared, then tried to give the dog a hug as it wiggled away from her.

  Had Melanie snatched Baylee on purpose so Jori and Rae would be alone? No, of course not. Jori gave herself a mental shake. Melanie didn’t know she’d been staring at Rae. Coincidence, that’s all it was.

  “Baylee’s father’s not here tonight?” Rae said.

  Why would Rae think he’d be here? Was she fishing for information? Trying to figure out how available Jori was? That would be nice. But she’d already told her she and Axel weren’t really dating. Oh, right. Rae didn’t know who Baylee’s father was.

  “He wasn’t invited,” Jori said, staying purposely vague to see just how far Rae would go with her fishing expedition, if that was what this was.

  Rae frowned. Jori hoped that was because she didn’t like her answer and not because she disapproved of Baylee’s father’s existence, because she’d better not disapprove of Jori’s choices. She’d had good reasons for everything she’d done.

  Not that she didn’t still find Rae more interesting than a full‌-‌time grad student and mother
ought to have time for.

  “What kind of bird are you?” Jori asked, steering the conversation to less personal ground.

  “A seagull,” Rae said. “I was trying to think of a costume where hopping with a not very functional leg would look natural.”

  “A peg‌-‌legged pirate,” offered Sierra, appearing out of nowhere.

  Dang, she’d forgotten there were other people here.

  “Jori! Just who I wanted to see.” Sierra took Jori by the arm and dragged her away, walking backward and parting the crowd with the tail that jutted from her belt.

  Jori didn’t know what was up, but she went along with it. She could always talk to Rae later. Or not. There was no need to act like a stalker.

  “What’s with the giant poodle tail?” Jori asked. “Kind of phallic, isn’t it?”

  Sierra stopped tugging on her arm for a moment and smirked. “It pains me to be the one to have to explain this to you, because you of all people should know this already, but that part of the body is located in the front.”

  “Shut up,” Jori said. “I’m the only one around here who gets to make obnoxious comments.”

  “You’re rubbing off on me.” Sierra stopped in front of the bar, which was really just a long table holding drinks. “Listen, are you a Kaoli Morgenroth fan?”

  Speak of the devil. She would have said yes without hesitation three days ago, but now she was wary of what this might be leading up to.

  “Isn’t everyone?”

  “Want to see her in concert in DC in a couple weeks? I have an extra free ticket if you can put up with sitting next to me in the front row.”

  “Are you serious?”

  She’d noticed the ads, but hadn’t planned on going. Even if she could afford it, driving four hours for a concert was impractical, even if it was the closest stop on Kaoli Morgenroth’s tour. But front‌-‌row seats…‌ The invitation didn’t include a ticket for Baylee, though, and unless Sierra was better at driving safely long past midnight than Jori was, it would be best to stay the night and drive back the next day. That would make finding a sitter a major challenge. Axel’s mother might do it if asked, but Jori would rather not leave her child with someone who claimed to have no interest in being alone with her. Just because Grandma liked the idea of grandchildren didn’t mean she wanted to get her hands dirty. Her childrearing days were over, she said, and Jori was fine with that. Axel’s mother didn’t owe her anything.

  “I don’t know if I can get a sitter.”

  “Melanie can watch her,” Sierra said. “She loves Baylee.”

  “Isn’t Melanie going with you to the concert?”

  Sierra shook her head. “One of us needs to stay here to keep everything running smoothly.”

  “Then she’ll be too busy to watch Baylee.”

  “She’ll only be busy if there’s an emergency,” Sierra said. “Which there won’t be. So don’t worry about it.”

  “I can’t ask her to do that. The two of you are already doing so much for me.” Housing, a job, babysitting…‌ “I can’t accept the ticket. It’s too generous.”

  “It didn’t cost me anything. Rae gave us two tickets, and since Melanie’s not a big fan and volunteered not to go…‌ Did I mention Rae’s going, too?”

  Jori glanced across the crowd and found Rae, who was chatting with someone new. Would Rae want her there? She’d invited Sierra and Melanie‌—‌not her. “I really can’t take the ticket.”

  “You really can.”

  “You could return it to Rae.”

  “I tried that. She won’t take it back.”

  “Don’t you have other friends?”

  Sierra shrugged. “You’re a friend.”

  Jori took a deep breath. Could she really leave Baylee overnight with Melanie? Of course she could. Front‌-‌row seats were something she might never get another chance at. What the heck. “Okay. Thanks. But why me? I mean, I meant it about the friend thing. You see me every day.”

  Sierra turned so her unwieldy poodle tail didn’t whack the glassware or the rows of glass liquor bottles off the table, angled her head in Rae’s direction, and winked. “No reason.”

  Jori cringed. Did her boss think she wanted an excuse to spend time with Rae? How embarrassing. What did she do? Stare at her? Flirt too much? Wish Kaoli Morgenroth dead and not realize she was doing it out loud?

  Sierra leaned across the woman who was taking care of the bar and opened the cash box and fished out the ticket. “Nice costume, by the way. Did you and Rae coordinate?”

  “No, why?” Jori took the ticket‌—‌VIP seating, amazing‌—‌and stared at it. Coordinate? What did that even mean? Rae was an elegant black‌-‌and‌-‌white seagull and Jori was not a black‌-‌and‌-‌white pizza, but a sloppy brown and red pepperoni mess. There was no color coordination whatsoever.

  “Seagulls eat pizza,” Sierra said.

  What? Oh no. “Promise me you won’t say that in front of Rae.”

  “Too crass? Or too true?”

  Jori blushed. She could feel her face burning. “I’m begging you.”

  “What? I’m kidding.” Sierra backed away from the table, carefully maneuvering her tail. “Is something actually going on between you two?”

  Great. Sierra had been kidding, and now Jori was going to have to explain that although Rae was intriguing, Rae was totally hung up on her rock‌-‌star boss, of all people, so Jori was focusing instead on pretending to date her ex‌-‌boyfriend. Because of the two nonexistent relationships‌—‌with Rae and with Axel‌—‌the one involving blackmail was less confusing.

  “Something is going on,” Sierra said.

  “No, really, it’s not.”

  “I suspect we’ll find out at the concert.”

  Just what she needed‌—‌a matchmaker. “If I didn’t like Kaoli Morgenroth’s music so much, I might give you back your ticket.”

  Sierra put her hands up, palms out, refusing to take anything back. “It’s going to be fun. I’ll make sure not to sit in the middle and get between the two of you.”

  Jori smiled despite herself. Even though nothing romantic would happen, it would be fun. In the dark, she could pretend she and Rae were on a date, soak in Rae’s presence in the seat next to her, and wonder what it would be like to brush against her knee. It was perfect‌—‌she’d get all the excitement of the promise of a relationship with none of the complications. Because the last thing she needed was one more distraction. She already had her hands full with school and Baylee and now Axel. She didn’t have time for anything else.

  “Run along,” Sierra said. “Hurry back to Rae.”

  Jori stuck the ticket in her pocket. “There’s nothing going on.”

  “Go. Have fun tonight.”

  Sierra made a shooing motion with her hands and Jori stopped arguing and slipped into the crowd, back toward Rae. She thought she might have heard Sierra laugh.

  But someone else reached Rae first.

  “Rae Peters? Oh my God, you’re Rae Peters.” The female vampire in a plunging neckline was almost hyperventilating.

  “Uh…‌” Rae smiled tentatively but politely, the kind of smile a politician would put on when she met a constituent and didn’t yet know whether she was going to be hugged or yelled at. “How are you?”

  “You’re Kaoli Morgenroth’s girlfriend, right?”

  Everyone within earshot turned to look, their faces full of curiosity. Jori stared, too, but not out of curiosity‌—‌it was more like shock. What exactly had happened after Kaoli’s visit? Hadn’t Kaoli said she was engaged to a man? Wasn’t Kaoli her boss? And wouldn’t Rae or Sierra or somebody have at least mentioned this?

  “I’m…‌what?” Rae looked confused. “Uh…‌no.”

  “Oh.” The woman’s face fell. “You look just like her.”

  “I look just like…‌” She frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  The vampire produced a smartphone from a pocket in her shredded skirt and swiped
at the screen. “Here.” She thrust the phone in Rae’s direction.

  Jori moved in to see. It was a photo of Kaoli Morgenroth kneeling at the edge of a swimming pool, hands on the tile for balance, kissing Rae on the forehead. The headline read: “Kaoli Morgenroth can’t stay away from her secret girlfriend: visits to injured backup dancer threaten to derail concert schedule.”

  Wait. She’d been there when that photo was taken. That was their pool. This very patio. Their pool was famous. Wait until she told Sierra.

  But the headline‌—‌that was wrong. A fraction of a second after that photo was taken, Rae had been halfway across the pool, flinching from the unwanted contact. Where was the real headline? Thank‌-‌you kiss not appreciated. Or how about: Kaoli Morgenroth toys with struggling dancer’s affections. And how did anyone manage to take that photo, anyway? There had been no one else there but herself and Kaoli’s bodyguard.

  “A telephoto lens,” Rae said, echoing her thoughts. “Kaoli is not going to be happy about this.”

  “You are Rae Peters,” said the vampire. “This is so great! They’re saying that song that’s on the radio constantly‌—‌‘Sex Goddess’‌—‌is about her new, first‌-‌time‌-‌ever girlfriend. You! She says now she understands why men like women so much.” She threw her arm around Rae’s shoulders and posed as she thrust her phone out. “Mind if I take a picture?”

  “She…‌what?” Rae’s face froze with the panicked look of someone who walks into a classroom and realizes the exam is not next week, as she had marked on her calendar, but today. “She…‌I can’t believe this. She told the press I’m her girlfriend?”

  * * *

  As if living in a log cabin in the woods wasn’t close enough to nature, Melanie and Sierra were building themselves a tree house. Baylee of course thought it was the best idea ever.