by Rachel Lacey
My gaze caught on the detachable showerhead. I needed an orgasm or two to get my mind off sex—and Taylor. The ache inside me roared back to life as I lifted the showerhead out of its bracket. It had been a revelation all its own for sixteen-year-old me after a particularly long make-out session with Taylor.
I leaned against the cold wall of the shower as I brought the showerhead between my legs, unsuccessfully stifling a cry as the hot spray met my sensitive skin. I adjusted the angle so the jet of water hit my clit just right, moaning because God, that was amazing. My hips moved rhythmically as everything inside me turned hot and tingly.
“Fuck,” I cried as release rushed through me, so sharp and powerful, my knees turned to rubber. I slid down the wall to sit in the tub, letting the showerhead coax every last bit of pleasure from my orgasm, and then I let it carry me over the edge a second time, Taylor’s name on my lips as endorphins flooded my system, bathing me in pleasure.
I sat slumped against the back of the tub with hot water cascading over my stomach until I’d recovered, and then I got to my feet and finished my shower, feeling like a whole new woman. I dressed and went into the kitchen to fix breakfast for Violet and me. It was weird having a dog that was dependent on me for food and care. I’d never been responsible for anyone’s—or anything’s—care before.
“Glad you like your new bedding,” I said as I mixed up her food. “I don’t know about you, but I really needed a good night’s sleep.”
After we’d both eaten, I took her for a stroll around the yard so she could take care of business, and then I went into the master bedroom to continue packing away my grandma’s things. It had been slow going yesterday because I kept getting distracted by memories. I’d spent hours poring over old photo albums before I finally packed those away too.
My summers in Vermont had been some of the happiest times in my childhood, and not just because of Taylor. Back then, my parents fought constantly, often using me as a pawn in their battles. This cabin and my grandma had been a respite from the fighting. My parents finally divorced around the time I started college, and I got along with both of them so much better now that they were happily remarried to new people.
While I worked, Violet lay in her playpen and napped. At least she seemed comfortable in it now. I went into the closet to box up my grandma’s shoes for donation, and when I came back out, there was something small and furry in the playpen next to Violet.
“Shit,” I blurted. “Oh my God! You had a puppy while I was in the closet?”
I rushed over, trying not to startle her but desperate to see if everything was okay. How had it happened so quickly? As I crouched by the playpen, I saw that there were actually several furry things in there with her, but they weren’t puppies. They were stuffed animals from the box of dog toys Taylor had sent over. Violet must have brought them in here to snuggle with.
“Aw, are you nesting?” I asked as my heart turned all warm and mushy. “Is this a thing you do to get ready for motherhood?”
Violet nuzzled one of the stuffed animals and looked at me, quiet and serious as always.
“I think you’ll be a good mom.” I reached over and rubbed her behind her ears, rewarded by more tail wagging.
Violet’s belly twitched, and oh, was that a puppy moving? I rubbed my hand down her side, and something moved beneath my fingers.
“That’s amazing,” I said as I felt it again, a definite wiggle from inside her stomach. It was exciting, but also terrifying because it meant I would soon be looking after puppies.
My phone started to ring where it lay on the bed. I gave Violet one last pat before I stood to get it. My friend Emily was FaceTiming me, and I squealed as I connected the call and her face appeared on my screen. “Em!”
She beamed at me from her couch. “I’m so happy I finally caught you.”
“Me too.”
“How’s Vermont?” she asked. “And tell me about this new foster dog. How did that happen? I want to know everything.”
“I see you’ve been talking to Courtney,” I teased as I sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed. I’d FaceTimed with Courtney yesterday, and the three of us generally shared everything. I missed my friends something fierce.
“I have,” Emily confirmed. “And from what I gather, there’s a girl involved.”
“She’s just a friend,” I said, even though my feelings for Taylor weren’t very friendly today. “We knew each other when we were kids.”
“And now?” Emily asked.
“Now I barely know her at all,” I said, but I knew I was busted by the look on Emily’s face. “Fine. We were more than friends when we were teenagers.”
“I knew it,” Emily said triumphantly. “Oh my God. Was she your first?”
“First kiss, yes, but we never had sex, and it’s not why I agreed to the foster dog.”
Emily lifted an eyebrow. “Isn’t it? Because I don’t think you’d bring home a pregnant dog if I asked.”
I sighed, glancing at Violet, who was asleep in her pen. “Well, maybe I felt like I owed her one because I ran out on her when we were teenagers. But also, the dog is really cute.”
“Can I see her?” Emily asked, sounding excited at the prospect. She loved animals, but with two little kids underfoot, she had her hands full at the moment.
“Sure.” I slid off the bed and went to sit beside Violet’s pen, turning the phone so Emily could see her.
“Aw, she has such a sweet face. I can’t wait to see pictures of the puppies,” Emily said. “Although I’m glad you’re the one dealing with them instead of me. I’ve got enough butts to wipe as it is.”
“Oh God. I don’t have to wipe their butts, do I?” I asked, horrified.
Emily shrugged. “I don’t know.” A shriek echoed from her end of the line, and she made a face. “Sounds like I’d better go check on the munchkins, but call me again soon, okay? I’m going to need frequent Taylor—and puppy—updates.”
“Will do, although Taylor’s just a friend these days, I swear. Give Noah and Lily a kiss for me.”
“You got it.” With a wave, Emily disappeared from my screen.
I spent another hour or so packing up my grandma’s clothes, and then I went down the hall to wait for Taylor’s volunteers Holly and Peyton to arrive. They’d both raised litters of puppies in the past and were going to show me the ropes. While I waited, I sat at the piano and began to play, practicing a few of the songs I would perform at V and V next week.
I heard the click of Violet’s nails on the floor and turned to see her walking into the living room. She lay in the dog bed there and watched me play, and I wasn’t sure why, but I had the definite impression she liked it. She seemed to relax as she listened, lying with her head between her front paws. Maybe I should play for her more often.
There was a knock at the door, and I stood from the piano. I opened it to find two women standing there. One was a petite blonde with a baby on her hip. The other woman was tall, with dark brown skin and a warm smile.
“Hi,” I said, motioning them in. “Thanks so much for coming.”
“We’re happy to help,” the taller woman said. “I’m Holly. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“And I’m Peyton,” the woman with the baby chimed in.
“I’m Phoebe,” I told them. “And I’m so glad you’re both here. I need all the help I can get.”
12
Taylor
I arrived at the cabin that evening carrying a box of pizza and a six-pack of my favorite hard cider, ready to spend the evening helping Phoebe put down new floors in the living room. I knocked, and she answered the door wearing purple shorts and a rainbow-striped tank top, her hair piled in its usual messy knot on her head.
“Hi,” she said, motioning me in. “Thanks for coming, and dinner is a happy surprise.”
“Figured we’d need some fuel,” I said as I walked into the kitchen, setting everything down on the table.
Violet got up from her dog bed and
walked over, tail wagging.
“She looks more settled today,” I said. “How are things?”
“She’s nesting, I think,” Phoebe told me. “This morning, she brought all the stuffed animals you gave her and put them in her playpen. For a minute, I thought she’d had puppies without me noticing.”
“You’ve been taking her temperature every day?” I asked as I crouched to rub the dog.
Phoebe nodded. “It hasn’t dropped yet.”
“I think she’s close, but I’ve only witnessed one puppy birth, and Peyton was in charge. I was just watching.”
“She and Holly were really helpful when they came over earlier,” Phoebe said. “They left me a huge checklist of things to do and watch for.”
“I’m glad. Hungry?”
She nodded, and we sat at the table together to eat the pizza while it was hot. I’d gotten a large pie with the works, figuring Phoebe could pick off what she didn’t like, but she dove right in, devouring everything from olives to prosciutto.
“This is so good,” she mumbled as she wiped her mouth with a napkin and reached for her cider.
“You missed a spot.” Without thinking, I leaned over to wipe the sauce from her cheek, but as my thumb met her skin, an electrical charge seemed to jump between us. I drew back, but not before my heart gave a kick in my chest, pulse racing from that simple touch. I really was hopeless where Phoebe was concerned.
She kept eating, but her cheeks were a little bit pinker than they had been a few minutes ago. “Violet likes the new bedding you brought over yesterday.”
“Yeah?”
“She slept straight through the night, which was much-needed for both of us.”
“I’m glad. I really do think she’s settling in well.”
“Still, if a more qualified foster home opens up, please let them have her. I’m scared shitless about delivering puppies, and I’m not going to be here long enough to see this through,” she said. “I can’t afford to stay here two months. I need to go home and get a new job.”
I swallowed a mouthful of pizza before answering. “I hear you, and don’t worry. I’ll figure something out if you leave before the puppies are weaned. Are you job hunting while you’re here or waiting until after you get home to start?”
“I’m applying for everything I can find,” Phoebe told me. “If I get an in-person interview, I’ll just take a day trip down to Boston.”
“You work in finance, right?”
She nodded. “I’m a corporate financial analyst. I track a company’s financial goals and help them budget and forecast for the future. I was working for a large research firm in Boston before that meme got me fired.”
“I can’t believe they held that against you,” I said, shaking my head. “Like it’s your fault someone took a photo of you without your permission and posted it online?”
“Well, I did flip off a guy on a public street, although that doesn’t go against anything in the employee handbook—I checked—since I wasn’t at work at the time. But after one of our clients recognized me and brought it to their attention, they felt it reflected badly on the company. So, I had to go.”
“Still fuckin’ sucks,” I said.
“It does,” she agreed. “I’d been there five years, and I was damn good at my job. I saved them a ton of money over the years.”
“I hope their next financial analyst isn’t nearly as good,” I said, nudging my elbow against hers. “It would serve them right.”
She gave me one of those crooked smiles that always made me weak in the knees. “Anyway, I’m still paying for my condo in Boston, and my savings won’t last long, so I need a new job, the sooner the better.”
I looked down at my half-eaten slice of pizza. “I hope you find one, even better than the one you lost.”
“Thanks. Me too.”
“Is there anything you could do while you’re here?” I asked, shaking off my conflicted feelings about her leaving, because it wasn’t her fault she lived in Boston. “Some kind of consulting so you don’t burn through all your savings?”
“Hmm, I don’t know. I guess I could try, but I don’t know who would hire me. I don’t have any experience consulting.”
“There are a lot of people around here who knew and loved your grandma, though,” I said. “And we Vermonters love supporting our own, so if you put up a post on some of the local boards, maybe post a notice in V and V, offering accounting consults or whatever, you might find enough business to tide you over.”
“It’s definitely something to think about,” she said. “Thanks for the idea.”
“No problem. Ready to get started on the floors?” I asked.
“Sure. Where are Minnie and Blue tonight?”
“I dropped them off at home before I came over.”
“I miss seeing Minnie’s happy face,” Phoebe said as she polished off her cider and stood from the table. “Sometimes I don’t think Violet’s happy here.”
“Why not?”
One of Phoebe’s shoulders lifted. “She doesn’t get excited to see me like Minnie does, or you know how dogs seem to smile when their mouths are open and their tongues hang out? Violet doesn’t do that either. She just lies around and watches me all day.”
“Well, she’s still getting settled, and she’s probably anxious about giving birth, but she doesn’t seem unhappy to me. She looks relaxed, and that’s a pretty big deal for a dog in her situation.”
“I guess.” Phoebe didn’t look convinced.
“You’re going to have to show me what we’re doing here,” I said.
She pointed to the boxes of laminate flooring stacked against the wall. “I’ve already put down the under layer and installed the first row just to get the hang of it. They snap together like big puzzle pieces, so mostly it’s just a matter of laying them all down, although we do have to cut the end pieces to fit and stagger them so the pattern looks random, like real hardwood.”
“How do you cut them?” I asked.
“With my grandma’s circular saw,” Phoebe said with a grin. “I’ve got it set up in back, and while it’s slightly terrifying in action, I haven’t chopped off any fingers yet.”
“I wouldn’t have pegged you as a girl who knew how to use a saw, Phoebe Shaw.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“All the same, I can cut the rest, if you want,” I offered.
“You know how to use a saw?”
“Do I look like I know how to handle a saw?” I asked, because I’d always considered myself a hands-on kind of woman. I knew how to use most kinds of tools and was generally more comfortable working with my hands than with my mouth. My mouth sometimes had a tendency to get me in trouble.
Phoebe’s gaze dipped, traversing my plaid cotton top to my khaki shorts before lingering somewhere in the vicinity of my thighs. “I think you can handle a saw,” she mumbled, and her cheeks were a perfect match for one of the rosebushes out back.
“Good, because I can.” My heart was running a marathon in my chest, and I had no idea what we were even talking about anymore. I could keep myself in check. I’d lusted after Phoebe quietly for years before kissing her, but if she was feeling it too, we might be in trouble, because that was what got us in trouble last time.
Not tonight, though. We got to work, unboxing and laying each piece of laminate flooring. Phoebe let me handle the saw, although she took every opportunity to needle me about it. She’d chosen flooring that was a rich cherry color, and I had to admit, it made the room look a lot bigger and brighter. It would be so much easier to clean too.
Three hours later, it was dark outside, Violet was asleep in her whelping pen in the master bedroom, and I was sweaty and disheveled, but the flooring was finished. The laminate gleamed a bright coppery color beneath the overhead light.
“It’s so different,” Phoebe said as she sat back on her heels, surveying our work. Her hair got curlier when she sweated, and right now, she had a mass of ringlets arou
nd her face that was highly distracting.
“I should go,” I said as I rose to my feet. My quads ached from too much time spent crouching over floorboards. “I’ll have a mutiny on my hands if I don’t get home and feed Minnie soon.”
“She is dramatic,” Phoebe agreed as she stood. “Thanks again for your help tonight.”
“It’s the least I could do since I’m the one who messed up your renovation plans by giving you a pregnant dog to care for.”
“I suppose that’s true.” She shoved her hands in her front pockets, rocking back on her heels.
I didn’t know what to do with my hands either, which meant I needed to go home before I did something I’d regret. “Good night.”
“Night.”
I let myself out the front door and climbed into my SUV, rolling down the window so I’d get a blast of cool country air as I drove. Hopefully that would clear the romantic nonsense from my head, because I wasn’t going there with Phoebe.
Ten minutes later, I pulled into my own driveway. I went down the stairs to my basement apartment to feed and walk the dogs, annoyed every time my thoughts drifted to Phoebe. Once the dogs were settled, I took a shower and went straight to bed, determined to keep a certain brunette out of my dreams.
I was successful too. But when I picked up my phone the next morning, there was a text from Phoebe waiting for me.
Violet’s temperature dropped!!!!!!!
13
Phoebe
My knees hurt. I’d been kneeling on them all afternoon, nailing trim now that the laminate was down. Every half hour or so, I went down the hall to check on Violet. She’d taken to her playpen like a champ now, spending the majority of her time there. She’d evicted the stuffed animals, though, perhaps in anticipation of her real puppies. They were scattered across the floor of the master bedroom.
I scooped them up and dropped them into the toy box as I eyed Violet. Her temperature had dropped this morning, which meant she was likely to go into labor in the next twenty-four hours. “Want to go for a walk?” I asked.