Bitterroot Queen

by Jove Belle

  “Damn it.” She returned to her cleaning and tried not to think about how many loose ends she was waiting to tie up.

  Beth came out of her bedroom with her phone to her ear, an unlit cigarette between her lips, and a broad smile on her face that reached all the way up to her eyes. She silently mouthed, “Denmar,” as she slipped through the sliding-glass door to the back patio, leaving Sam to wonder where the hell she’d found a new pack of Marlboros. She gritted her teeth and wondered if Beth’s dad had been more active in her life, if it would have somehow helped. But he had his own problems, and even if he could have been bothered to help, she doubted he was capable of it.

  Beth left the door cracked, the opening too narrow for the smoke to slip back in when she lit her cigarette, but wide enough to allow Sam to clearly hear Beth’s side of the conversation. It was time to clean the inside of the fridge and give Beth some privacy, as much as she wanted to hear and find out how much more she should worry about.

  Inside the refrigerator, Sam found a burned-out light bulb and an unopened bottle of Bud Light. She flipped open her notebook and added the light bulb to her growing list of things to pick up from the hardware store. According to the label on the beer, it was well before the sell-by date, and Sam debated the risks of drinking it. Yes, it was unopened, but who had last touched it? God only knew what that person had done or where his hands had been before putting the bottle on the shelf in the fridge. The images that conjured made her shiver. She set the beer on the counter. She’d decide what to do with it later.

  As she cleaned the interior of the appliance, she caught snatches of Beth’s conversation even though she was trying to tune her out.

  “No, I’m not sure.” Beth didn’t shout, but her voice wasn’t soft, either. Sam turned to see the smile on Beth’s face had been replaced by a deep scowl.

  Sam wished for a radio. She already didn’t like Denmar and hearing Beth argue with him long distance didn’t help her opinion of him.

  “—test!” Beth waved her cigarette around, causing the cherry to flare up. That she talked with her hands was a sure sign that Beth was her daughter. Sam did the same thing when she was upset.

  It was time to change the water in her cleaning bucket. The sound of the water whooshing down the drain, followed by the rush of tap water filling the bucket, drowned out Beth’s voice. As soon as she turned it off, she could hear again.

  “—asshole! It’s not my fault.” Beth crushed out her cigarette and hung up without saying goodbye. As she stomped to her room, Sam saw tears on Beth’s face.

  “Are you okay?”

  Beth stopped and looked at her. She tilted her head and stared hard at Sam, as though she was trying to decide something. After a moment, she shook her head and said, “I’m fine.” Her voice was brittle, but controlled. She went into her room and slammed the door hard enough to make the cupboards shake.

  Sam sighed and picked up the Bud Light. She gave it a cursory cleaning with her rag, then twisted off the top. As she tilted the bottle to her mouth, she thought that any disease she might contract from the bottle would be easier to deal with than parenting a teenager.

  ∞

  By the time Beth re-emerged from her bedroom, Sam had finished the fridge and started on the top set of cabinets.

  Beth returned to her earlier spot staring at the wall. Her eyes were puffy and red. Before she could ask what was wrong, Beth said, “Time to get some paint.” Her voice was tight, but no longer held the anger from earlier. “Ready to go shopping?”

  She wasn’t ready by a long shot, but she had enough of a list to start with, including replacing the pepper spray she’d packed away, and Beth clearly needed a distraction. Sam ripped the page with the list from the notebook, folded it, and slipped it into her back pocket.

  “Sure.” She wanted to hug her, to hold her in her arms and promise everything would be okay like she did when Beth was a little girl. Except she was older now, and smart enough to know that saying the words didn’t make it true, especially when the person speaking had no idea what was wrong in the first place. “How’s Denmar?” she tried.

  The question was as innocuous as she could make it, but Beth still stiffened, her back and shoulders rigid with tension.

  “He’s an asshole.”

  Sam hated when she swore, hated that she smoked, and hated that she looked like a grown woman before Sam was ready for it. She drew Beth into a hug without saying anything. When Beth tried to squirm away, she tightened her hold. After several moments, Beth relaxed and her body slumped against her. She wrapped her arms around Sam and buried her face in her shirt. Sam stroked her hair and made shushing sounds because that had worked last time Beth let her hold her as she cried.

  “Whatever it is,” Sam said, “you can talk to me. I know I don’t always get it right, but I will always have your back.”

  Beth’s shoulders started to shake, and she inhaled roughly and sobbed. Sam held her while she cried, unsure how to fix whatever her daughter was facing. Her heart ached with the weight of whatever it was and the knowledge that in some way, she held some responsibility in it, with her long hours working and difficulties reaching her.

  After several minutes, Beth pulled away and Sam let her go. Beth wiped her eyes with the bottom of her T-shirt, smearing dark makeup over the fabric. “Damn, I thought I was done crying.” She snuffled.

  “What can I do to help?”

  Beth shook her head and averted her gaze. Her expression was one of pure anguish. Sam had forgotten the harsh pain of a teenage broken heart until that moment.

  “Oh, honey, talk to me,” Sam pleaded.

  “There’s nothing you can do, Mom. Nothing anyone can do.” Beth drew herself up, straightening her spine as if she was willing her emotions into a place where she could control them. “I’m going to go fix my makeup.”

  A knock sounded at the door. “Hello? Sam?”

  Karen stood in the entryway holding a pizza and a six-pack of beer. Beth escaped to the bathroom without a word, and Sam met her at the door.

  “I was wondering when the hell you’d show up.” Sam took the six-pack and put it in the fridge as Karen set the pizza on the counter. When she turned around, Karen was right behind her and she almost knocked into her.

  She was tall and lean, with short, light blonde hair. The sides and back were combed neatly, but the top was a floppy mess of surfer chic. Karen smiled, all lopsided and sexy as she pulled Sam into a hug.

  “You look great. Clearly the mountain air already agrees with you.”

  Sam never knew what she’d get with Karen. Sometimes, she treated Sam as a sister, sometimes as a would-be lover. Apparently, this was one of the would-be lover moments, and Sam decided to go with it. She and Karen would never work in a long-term romance, but it’d been forever since she’d shared a night with anybody and she trusted Karen not to be an asshole the next morning.

  Sam straightened Karen’s collar, letting her fingers linger. Touching her like this, adjusting her clothes the way a lover would, wasn’t something she would normally do, but as long as she was going for it, she was going all in. Karen’s eyelids dropped and when she looked at Sam, her intentions were clear.

  “You look good, too.” Sam played with the short hair at the back of Karen’s neck. She loved the bumps that rose on Karen’s skin and the shudder that worked through her body.

  Karen looked at her, a wary expression in her dark eyes, but clearer than the moment before. “Yeah?” She hooked her fingers into Sam’s back pockets and pulled her closer. The cool air of the refrigerator caressed her back and the heat of Karen’s body pressed at her front made her think of many other things than cleaning.

  She mimicked Karen’s crooked smile and nodded. “Sure, why not?”

  There were a million reasons why not, but Sam couldn’t focus on a single one long enough to let it override the tension building low in her belly. God, she’d forgotten how intense Karen could be.

  Karen’s smile blo
ssomed to include both sides of her mouth and the soft crinkles at the corners of her eyes. She brought her head closer to Sam’s, slowly as if to allow her time to change her mind. When Karen’s mouth finally closed over hers, she didn’t see fireworks or feel a bolt of electricity race through her body, but it was warm and soft, and so, so nice. She missed kissing as much as what came next and she sighed against Karen’s lips because she was too damn happy to hold it in.

  “Jesus! I leave the room for five minutes and this is what you do. Ack. Gross!” Beth made retching noises to go along with her protests.

  Karen started to pull away, but Sam tightened her grip in her hair. She wouldn’t let Beth dictate who she could kiss, or when and where she did it. Just because she wasn’t used to seeing Sam like this didn’t mean she couldn’t get used to it. She pressed her mouth firmly against Karen’s, and tilted her head to the side so she could feel the delicious slide of Karen’s lips against hers. She let the kiss end naturally and didn’t stop Karen from lifting her head away.

  She gave Karen one last quick peck on the mouth, tweaked her collar, and then released her. Karen stepped out of her embrace and turned to face Beth.

  “Hey, squirt! Come over here and give me a hug.”

  Beth didn’t hesitate to close the distance between them. “I missed you.” She gave Karen a bracing hug and winked at Sam when it was over. She may have said she was disgusted, but the delighted look on her face betrayed her true feelings.

  “Sorry I didn’t get out here yesterday to say hi. Work.”

  Karen shrugged as if to say, “What can you do?”

  Yesterday, Sam had been on the verge of a meltdown, so it was best that Karen hadn’t been there to witness her falling apart.

  “It’s okay.” Sam closed the refrigerator and leaned against the counter.

  Karen glanced around the apartment. “So,” she said, rueful. “This place is a disaster. What happened?”

  Sam shook her head. “No idea. Beth thinks this is the leftover remnants of a high school party.”

  “Jesus. It didn’t look like this when I drove past a few weeks ago.”

  That’s right. She’d asked Karen to take a look, just to make sure the photos matched the property, but that was before she’d made the offer.

  “Do you remember what day you did that?” With any luck, this information would help with the insurance company.

  “Sure, I took photos.” Karen pulled her phone from her back pocket and tapped the screen. “I sent them to you, remember?” A moment later, she turned it until Sam could see the display. Pictures of the Queen, time stamped and dated, scrolled past in a slideshow. They were from the week prior to Sam making her offer on the property. Perhaps helpful with establishing a timeline, but not definitive evidence that the damage happened after closing.

  “You’re right, I have those. Thanks.”

  She nodded. “Sure thing.” She looped one arm around Beth’s neck and said, “You guys hungry?” She motioned at the pizza.

  “God, yes. Mom hasn’t fed me all day.”

  “Hey, you’re always telling me that you’re old enough to take care of yourself, but now you expect me to feed you? You can’t have it both ways, missy.”

  Beth poked out her tongue, but it didn’t diminish her smile. She looked happy, and it felt wonderful. She’d have to convince Karen to stay if she continued to have this effect on Beth.

  “Well, it’s a good thing I showed up when I did. Eat.” Karen flipped open the lid to the pizza box and revealed a large combination pizza. It smelled delicious and Sam became acutely aware of how hungry she was herself.

  “We don’t have plates yet. Sorry.”

  “Who cares?” Beth pulled a slice from the box and bit off the end before the strings of cheese had broken free. She swallowed quickly and took another bite. All joking aside, Sam felt guilty about not stopping to eat sooner.

  “Slow down, there, squirt. Nobody’s going to steal it from you.”

  Beth growled and tucked her face close to her body as if she was guarding the pizza. Sam laughed and the sound was so foreign, she startled herself. If she hadn’t wanted to sleep with Karen before, she sure as hell did now.

  Karen selected a piece of pizza and smiled at Sam as she took a bite. She stared for a moment, watching as Karen’s lips closed around the tip of the pizza. She chewed slowly, swallowed, and then poked her tongue out to lick her lower lip. Sam was officially entranced.

  “Oh, come on.” Beth snorted. “Stop being gross already.”

  Karen laughed and took another bite, and Sam turned to the fridge. The heat of a blush crept up her face, and she hid it in the cool air as she pulled a beer from the carton for Karen.

  “Here.” She felt stupid saying something so pedestrian, but she couldn’t think of anything that didn’t sound equally asinine.

  Instead of Karen, Beth swiped the bottle and twisted the top off. She smiled wickedly at Sam and said, “Cheers.”

  Before Sam could react, she tipped the bottle back and took a long pull.

  “Hold on, squirt.” Karen laughed good-naturedly, but pulled the bottle from Beth’s hand nonetheless.

  Sam stared at her daughter. She was only fifteen, but already so much older than Sam had been at that age.

  Surprisingly, Beth didn’t protest the loss of the beer. She took another bite of pizza and laughed at something Karen said. Maybe it was her worst idea ever, but Sam pulled two more beers from the fridge, one for herself and one for Beth.

  Beth took it from her with a small, serious smile. “Thanks, Mom.”

  With the way Beth looked at her, as if she wasn’t quite sure she knew Sam as well as she thought, Sam thought perhaps it had been the right decision. Time would tell, she guessed.

  “All right, you guys. Eat up. We need to get that paint if we ever plan to stop living in that other hotel and start living in this one.”

  “What other hotel? You guys should stay with me.” Karen smiled.

  “Really?” Sam gave her the opportunity to back out.

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. We will.” She smiled.

  As she took her first bite of pizza, Karen slipped her arm casually around her waist. With Karen’s fingers tickling along her hip and the cool slide of cold beer mingled with hot cheesy sauce in her mouth, Sam relaxed for the first time in months. Beth tipped her bottle toward them, and in that moment, Sam thought they might just be okay.

  Chapter Six

  Sam awoke to the thick, rich aroma of dark coffee, and in the sleep-mulled minutes between dreams and consciousness, she imagined herself back home in Las Vegas. The bed dipped beside her a moment before she felt a light touch against her stomach, followed by the press of lips to the corner of her mouth.

  “Good morning.” Karen kissed the side of her neck, up high in that perfect spot behind her ear. She trailed her fingers lower, skimming Sam’s thigh and circling inward. God, she could wake up like this every day.

  “Mmm, morning.” Sam let her legs fall open. Sure, she had things to do today, but the way Karen’s hand was moving up her leg felt really nice. If Karen was in the mood again after last night, she wasn’t going to stop her. She’d just hurry through her shower later.

  Rather than taking her up on the offer, Karen laughed and lightly slapped her thigh. “The squirt’s already up. She’s pacing around the living room. Something about painting a wall?”

  “Right.” Sam climbed out of bed. Clearly she wouldn’t get any more sleep. They’d picked up the paint on the way to Karen’s apartment the night before. Beth hadn’t stopped talking about her plans since they left the Queen. Frankly, she’d been surprised that Beth hadn’t insisted on going back last night to get started. “I guess that means it’s time to get in the shower.”

  “Sounds like.” Karen was fully dressed, wearing a snug black T-shirt and a pair of faded blue jeans with a thick leather belt around her waist. She even had a pair of black boots on and laced up. She was ready to start h
er day.

  “What time is it?” She turned on the shower to adjust the water temperature. While it warmed up, she brushed her teeth.

  Karen leaned against the doorframe, her arms folded over her chest and her gaze focused on Sam’s backside. Apparently, she didn’t realize Sam could see her in the mirror.

  “Hey,” she said. “Do I need to get dressed in order for you to answer my question?”

  Karen laughed. “It certainly wouldn’t hurt. What was your question?”

  “Time?”

  Karen glanced at her watch. “Just after seven. What’s on your agenda today?”

  Sam sighed. “Call my insurance adjuster. Again. I sent the claim in yesterday. Now it’s in review.” Until he called back, she was in limbo. “And at some point, I have to go past the high school and register Beth for classes.”

  Before getting into the shower, she turned and pressed her lips to Karen’s. If she’d known how good a kisser Karen was, she’d have started kissing her years ago. Karen laced their fingers together and held her in place when she went to retreat. Karen deepened the kiss, working her tongue inside Sam’s mouth, and her fingers moved restlessly against the skin at her hip. By the time Karen released her, Sam was breathless and ready to forget her plans for the day.

  Karen nudged her gently toward the shower. “What else?”

  Sam huffed and stepped into the shower. The water was perfect. Exactly the right temperature, with amazing pressure. She had used the hotel showers in Vegas for years, and had forgotten what real water pressure felt like. She tipped her head under the spray and stood, enjoying the tingle as the water pelted her skin. Eventually, she adjusted the showerhead so that she could speak without getting a mouthful of water. “I’m going to call some local contractors for bids. There’s no way I can do all that work myself.”

  “I’ll help when I can.” Karen had moved closer while Sam was under the water. “You know that.”

  “I appreciate it, but I’ll need a contractor regardless. There’s just too much work. And I don’t want it to look like a do-it-yourself project.” Sam lathered shampoo into her hair.