Hurt
Page 9
“No,” Jamie scowled. “Not like that. Just a friend.”
“So then what happened?” Megan dropped the pen and pushed her glasses up on her nose as she watched Jamie answer. Jamie got the feeling that the other woman was gauging whether or not she was being truthful in her responses.
“She freaked, cussed me out, and drove off pissed.” Jamie gave a wry grin. “I should probably add that I had spilled water on my clothes and was in the middle of changing when Nicole walked in.”
“Oh goddamn, Jamie.”
“And Sundae had just—”
“Wait,” Megan interrupted. “Your friend’s name is Sundae?”
“Don’t start on the name, for God’s sake,” Jamie growled.
“All right, then, Sundae had just what?” Megan folded both hands behind her head, but didn’t change her expression.
“Sundae had just told me that she and her husband found out they’re pregnant,” Jamie continued. “I was happy for her and gave her a hug. She was actually a little wet too and changing her shirt at the time.”
Megan held out the palm of one hand and closed her eyes.
“God.” She sighed. Megan sat up in the chair and stared at Jamie. “So let me get this straight. After telling Nicole you would be at work, she caught you and an old girlfriend in the bedroom of your house in a naked embrace?”
“I don’t know that I would go so far as to call it naked exactly…or an embrace, for that matter,” Jamie responded, shuffling one foot. “Okay, we were mostly naked, but it was just a hug.”
“Jesus, Jamie. You’re lucky she didn’t take you both out right then and there. Especially after what went down with her last girlfriend.”
Jamie arched an eyebrow at that last comment.
“You know about her last girlfriend?”
Megan rolled her eyes.
“Please. Chattanooga’s a big city, but there’s not that many of us that word doesn’t get around. You don’t have to hang out at ‘Lesbians ‘R Us’ to know who’s been sleeping with whom.”
“I guess you’re right,” Jamie said. “Although I have to admit, I didn’t realize the lesbian grapevine made its way into the closet.” As soon as she said the words, Jamie regretted them. From the look that flashed over Megan’s face, she knew that she’d struck a nerve.
Fuck, Jamie thought.
She knew Megan was gay, had ever since stopping by a fourth of July pool party that last summer she had worked patrol. Jamie wasn’t sure which of them had been more surprised when she’d spotted the new Assistant District Attorney by the pool house making out with a woman that Jamie herself had dated for a short time. She hadn’t been so much surprised to see Megan kissing Zoe Ralston, because, hell, for all her other many faults the woman was hot. Rather it was the fact that Jamie knew Megan’s father was a pastor at one of the larger, more conservative Baptist churches in the area. They’d had an awkward meeting a few days later in the courthouse ladies room, during which Jamie had assured a visibly worried Megan that she was not in the habit of outing people. After that, she and Megan developed a camaraderie of sorts. Not quite friends—Megan Riley didn’t let people get that close—but the next best thing.
“Christ, Megan, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that like it came out.”
Megan waved her off.
“No, it’s okay. It’s my choice to…well, I wouldn’t say be in the closet. My closet door is open, but I just haven’t turned on the light yet. We still live in the South and I have a very public job. I need my juries deciding cases based on their merit and not on their interpretation of what it says in Leviticus.” Megan flashed Jamie a wry smile. “Besides, I’m not quite ready to break my daddy’s heart just yet.”
“I know. I’m sorry. That was still a really shitty thing for me say. I’m just not thinking straight right now.” After days of not sleeping and worrying over the mess with Nicole, Jamie felt exhausted, but that still was no excuse for what she had said.
“Don’t worry about it, really,” Megan assured her.
Jamie rubbed her eyes and then pushed off the door with one foot. She crossed the room and then slid down in the chair beside Megan’s desk. She propped an elbow on one arm of the chair and leaned her head into her hand.
“Anyway, like I said, I fucked up with Nicole.”
“So, what are you doing about it?”
“I finally got her on the phone long enough—well, Samuels got her on the phone, she’s blocked my number—to agree to lunch tomorrow. I’m going to lay it all out for her and hope for the best.”
“Hmm.” Jamie glanced over at Megan. The blonde attorney continued, “I’m just thinking that for a conversation of that magnitude you want to do more than just hope for the best. It’s no different than taking a case to court, detective. You need to prepare.”
“What’s to prepare? I’m just going to tell her what happened.”
Megan pushed her glasses up on her nose.
“Because that’s worked so well for you so far? If that’s all it took, you could have left her a voicemail.”
“She’s not taking my calls, remember,” Jamie murmured.
“Exactly. So hoping that she’s going to sit across a table from you, look into those baby blue eyes of yours and instantly forgive all is wishful thinking.”
There was knock at the door and then Natalie Porter cracked it open, interrupting the conversation.
“Megan? I hate to barge in, but we just got word from Judge Miller’s clerk. He’s moving the ten o’clock bond hearing up to nine-thirty.”
“Thanks Natalie,” Megan said as her assistant smiled and closed the door.
Jamie stood from the chair and stretched.
“Well,” she said. “I better let you get to it.”
“Just think about what I said,” Megan answered.
“I will.” Jamie turned and stepped toward the door. She stopped halfway there and turned back toward Megan. “Will you go to dinner with me tonight?”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t give me that look. I didn’t mean like that,” Jamie laughed. “You’re right, I do need to prepare. I think it would help to have someone to bounce what I’m going to say off of just to make sure I don’t go into this thing with Nicole sounding like an idiot. I don’t know that I’m going to get a second chance to make it right. You can pick the restaurant.” Jamie pushed away an errant strand of hair. “But if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, I understand.”
For a moment, Jamie thought she was going to say no, but then Megan gave a small nod.
“All right. But no Mexican. I’m going to my parents’ house for Christmas dinner. That alone will be more than enough indigestion for one week.”
Chapter Fifteen
Nicole closed the heavy oak door shut and turned the key in the lock. Out of habit, she tried the door and then, satisfied it was secure, turned and headed to her green Honda parked in the driveway of the two story brick house. There had been a good turnout at the open house and Nicole was more than a little tired. She’d already called in a take-out order at a nearby barbeque restaurant and was ready to call it a day and head back to her own home to settle in for the evening.
She backed the Honda out of the driveway, pausing to check for traffic before pulling out onto the street. It was an older neighborhood with most of the residents coming from even older money, but, even so, it had a fair amount of cars that traveled through due to its proximity to nearby shopping centers and restaurants. Nicole didn’t expect the two story brick to be on the market for very long. Houses in this neighborhood typically sold quickly simply because there was such low turnover amongst its residents.
Nicole gave a bitter smile as she tried to remember the last house that she’d had listed in the neighborhood and then realized it had been that one. The house that had gotten broken into the day after Nicole had held its open house. The one that had led to her meeting Jamie.
She blew out a breath and felt her stomach turn as she th
ought about the lunch she had planned with Jamie tomorrow. Nicole wondered if she shouldn’t have let Julie come after all. As much as she had told her protesting friend that she could more than handle the meeting, now that she was less than twenty-four hours out, Nicole wasn’t so sure. She wanted to believe what Jamie had said in her voicemail, but at the same time…
Nicole tightened her grip on the steering wheel as she came to a red light. God, she loved Jamie, but she couldn’t ignore what she’d seen. Jamie, dressed only in her underwear, standing there with her arms wrapped around the blonde. It just hit too close to home, was just too much like what she’d gone through with Carol. Still, in the year plus that they had been together, this was the longest stretch she had gone without talking to Jamie. More than a little part of her was aching to hear Jamie’s husky voice.
She jumped as a horn blew from behind her and Nicole realized the light had turned green. She threw an apologetic hand up and then accelerated, trying unsuccessfully to keep her thoughts off Jamie and in the present.
****
“I’ll have a large hazelnut latte, and do you have any of those banana nut muffins today?”
Nicole looked up from her laptop at the sound of the familiar voice. A quick glance to the counter at the front of the coffee shop had her sliding down in the hard metal chair. Nicole bent down close to her laptop, even though she knew there was no way the seventeen inch screen was going to hide her from the tall redheaded police officer ordering breakfast ten feet away.
It’d been weeks since Nicole had met the police officer and the woman looked even more amazing now than she had that day. As she peered over the screen at the officer—Officer Tate, if she remembered correctly—she realized that her hair was more of a copper color than a true red. It just barely touched her shoulders and bounced ever so slightly as she pointed to a particularly large muffin in the display cabinet. It hadn’t registered to Nicole during their brief meeting at her real estate office three weeks ago to discuss a breakin at one of Nicole’s listings on the north end of Chattanooga, but, watching her now, Nicole’s eyes were drawn to the generous swell of the officer’s breasts as she leaned forward toward the display counter.
Nicole realized that she was staring and quickly dropped her eyes back to the laptop.
She was a little embarrassed to see the police officer. Nicole had thought she had read the signs correctly during their earlier encounter and had given the attractive woman a business card with Nicole’s personal cell number written on the back ‘in case she had any more questions’. But, after days and then weeks without hearing from her, Nicole assumed that either she had misjudged the officer or the woman was just not interested.
“Nicole, isn’t it?”
Nicole snapped up at the sound of the husky voice and found herself staring into blue eyes. She opened her mouth to answer and found that she’d suddenly been struck mute. Nicole mustered an embarrassing croaking sound and then nodded her head. God, what eyes that woman has. They were the lightest color of blue and seemed to be dancing as she spoke.
“I don’t know if you remember me, but we met a few weeks ago. That house over on Miller Street?” The police officer was standing just on the other side of the table, coffee in one hand and a small paper bag in the other.
“I, uh, I—that is, yes, of course. Officer Tate, isn’t that right?” Nicole said, finally finding her voice.
Copper hair bobbed as the woman nodded.
“That’s right, but it’s Detective Tate,” she corrected with a small smile.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Nah, not a big deal. So, is this seat taken? It’s kinda crowded in here today and I wasn’t sure if you would mind sharing a table?”
Nicole glanced briefly at the half-empty coffee shop and felt her stomach give a little flutter as she nodded. “Of course, let me move some of my stuff out of the way.” Nicole closed the lid on her laptop and slid it over to the edge of the table.
“I hope I wasn’t interrupting your work or anything. If so, I’m sure I can find another table,” the detective said, her voice bordering on uncertain.
“Oh God, no…I mean, no, I was just browsing the internet while I ate breakfast. Please, I would love to have the company.”
Let’s try not to sound too desperate, now shall we? Nicole thought.
“Great. So, uh…we caught the guy that broke into the house, by the way.”
“Oh, you did?”
“Mm-hmm. He hit a few other houses, all homes listed for sale. The last house—unfortunately for him—came equipped with a pair of Rottweilers. He confessed to all the burglaries as soon as he got out of the hospital, so it’s pretty much an open and shut case.”
Nicole found the detective’s grin contagious and smiled as she took a sip of her now lukewarm coffee.
“I hadn’t heard. That’s great, Detective Tate. I’m sure the homeowners were thrilled.”
“Please, call me Jamie. It’s no longer an active case, so there’s no…” the detective’s voice tapered off as she looked deep into Nicole’s eyes. “…reason to be so formal. You know, I don’t have any…restrictions…on contact with potential witnesses and such any longer.”
“Oh. Oh,” Nicole said, realizing what Detective Tate—Jamie—was saying. “Well, I’m very glad to hear that.”
“So, I was wondering…” Jamie began, chewing on her bottom lip.
“Yes?” Nicole said, her voice catching in her throat.
“Tate! Are you going to be in here all day or what?” A man’s gruff voice called out across the coffee shop.
Jamie sighed and shook her head.
“There are days that I really hate that man,” she muttered, rising from the table. “Just a minute,” she called back over her shoulder.
“Oh, I hope I didn’t make you late,” Nicole said, glancing at the stout man with thinning gray hair standing in the doorway. Nicole recognized him as Jamie’s partner, who had been with her that day at the office.
“You didn’t. But I do need to get going.” Jamie picked up her coffee and her muffin, pushing the chair back toward the table with one foot. “So, I don’t know if you might be free sometime to maybe get a bite to eat or something? If you’re not busy.”
“That would be great,” Nicole said, in what she hoped was not too eager a voice.
“Okay, then. Great. I’ll give you a call this evening then and we can work out the details.” Jamie gave an awkward wave with the hand holding the coffee and then turned to walk toward her scowling partner.
“Wait,” Nicole called after her. “I need to give you my number.”
Jamie smiled back over her shoulder and shook her head.
“Nah, don’t worry. I already have it.”
Nicole watched the copper-haired woman exchange evil glances with the other detective and then leave the coffee shop.
****
Nicole pulled into a parking spot on the side of the bright red building adorned with various images of overall-wearing pigs. She inhaled deeply as she stepped out of the Honda and sighed at the aroma of hickory smoked pork that drifted over the parking lot of Barnyard Barbeque and Ribs. There was just something completely decadent about the smell of barbeque smoking on an open pit, and her stomach growled in anticipation of the pork plate she had called in as soon as the open house was over.
Opening the side door of the restaurant, made to look like an old barn door, Nicole walked in and blinked her eyes to adjust to the dim light. It had been a while since she’d been to this particular restaurant and she had forgotten how dark it was inside. To go with the ‘old barn’ theme, they used hanging lanterns to light the tables instead of traditional lighting, and that, coupled with the smoke from the pit, made it difficult to see.
A hostess in a red-checkered shirt and overalls smiled at Nicole.
“Hi, welcome to Barnyard Barbeque, just one today?”
Nicole shook her head at the perky girl.
“No, I have a to-go ord
er I called in a little while ago. For Landers.”
“Sure, let me go check on that for you,” the hostess said and then turned to walk through a swinging door that led to the kitchen.
“Thanks,” Nicole called behind her and then started to mill around the restaurant’s small waiting area. She picked up a catering menu and began to absently read over it as she leaned against the hostess station.
“There’s no one I’d rather be with than you.”
Nicole’s head snapped up at the sound of the low voice speaking from the booth just to the right of the hostess station.
“You don’t know what you do to me. There’s no one that has ever made me feel the way you do. You are the only one that I want, have ever wanted, will ever want.”
Nicole froze as she heard the unmistakable sound of Jamie’s husky tones and, just for a second, felt nauseous. She covered her mouth with one hand and shook her head, trying to convince herself that she was imagining things.
“Oh, Lord. I don’t know where you got that line, but, damn, it makes me want to go home with you,” a woman’s voice laughed back, sending a chill over Nicole. She couldn’t place it, but she knew that she’d heard the voice before. She really didn’t want to place it, didn’t want to stand there even a second longer.
Nicole turned and began to rush out of the restaurant, but stopped as her hand touched the door. She closed her eyes and swallowed, steadying her resolve before whirling back around and striding to the booth where Jamie and the mystery woman sat.
“It most definitely is a line, and I wouldn’t believe a word of it,” Nicole said quietly as she stepped up to the table. Jamie and the other woman—Nicole recognized her from the cook-out the Sheriff had held a few months ago, but didn’t remember her name, only that she worked in the D.A.’s office—both jumped at Nicole’s words. Ignoring the shocked expression on Jamie’s face, Nicole continued, “I’m going to give you a good piece of advice and tell you to get out now while you can. If she cheated on me, she’ll cheat on you. Hell, she’s already cheated on both us from what I saw the other day.” Nicole turned to glare at Jamie. “Just how many women do you have, Jamie?”