by Jae
Margot seemed to think about it for a few seconds. "Are you saying you aren't the first woman my granddaughter has... been with?" Disbelief colored her words.
"I think that's something you should discuss with Dawn." Aiden didn't want Margot to think she was refusing to talk to her or had anything to hide, but she also didn't feel comfortable making Dawn's decisions for her. She knew Dawn wouldn't have liked it.
"So that's a yes," Margot Kinsley concluded. She patted Aiden's arm when she started to protest. "You don't have to answer that. I'll talk about it with Dawn later. I'm just a little surprised. I never thought Dawn could be..." She shook her head. "I could understand it with Del. Don't get me wrong, she's a sweetheart, and all these years after Jimmy's death, she's been like a daughter to me. But she's not very..."
Aiden cocked her head and watched Margot search for the right word.
"She's a little..."
"Butch?" Aiden suggested.
Margot nodded hesitantly. "I think that's what you young folks call it."
"Being gay is not about how you look. Some of us look like Del, some look like me, and others look like..." Aiden hesitated. She wanted to add Kade's name to the list but knew it was not her place to do it.
"Like Dawn," Margot surprisingly finished her sentence.
Aiden looked up and met Margot's gaze. What she saw in the gray eyes looked already close to acceptance. "Yes," she said quietly. She looked at Margot with amazement.
"I won't insult Dawn's intelligence, or my own, by asking if she's sure about this. She obviously is, or she wouldn't have given you this." Margot slowly lifted her hand and touched the pendant around Aiden's neck with one gnarled finger.
Aiden could see a lot of sad and happy memories flash across Margot's face, and she immediately felt guilty. She lifted her hands to the clasp, starting to open the necklace. "I'm sorry Dawn gave it away without asking your opinion first, and I can give it back if you want."
"No." Margot placed her hand over Aiden's. "Stop. Dawn wanted you to have it, so it's yours."
Grace came out of the house and joined them. "Is everything okay?" she asked, worriedly looking from her mother-in-law to Aiden.
"You could have told me a little sooner," Margot immediately accused her.
"I needed time to come to terms with it myself," Grace defended herself.
Margot intently stared at her. "And?" she asked. "Did you?"
Aiden wished herself far, far away, but at the same time, she wanted to hear Grace's answer. Grace hadn't been a big fan of her relationship with Dawn at the beginning, and Aiden wasn't sure how she felt about it now. Grace had acted supportive but never voiced an opinion about Aiden or her relationship with Dawn.
"If I'd had to pick a spouse for Dawn, it would have been one of her male colleagues," Grace spoke to her mother-in-law but looked at Aiden. "I didn't like Dawn being in a relationship with a cop or with a woman."
Aiden swallowed. She had sensed that, but now Grace had said it out loud for the first time.
"Both for the same reason," Grace continued pensively. "I want Dawn safe and happy. I knew sharing her life with a person who's a woman and works in a high-risk job could end up hurting Dawn."
"Yes, it could," Margot agreed. The worried frown added a few wrinkles to her face.
It already has, Aiden thought. Dawn had been raped just because of her sexual orientation. Thinking about it still made her stomach roil.
"But then I watched them together, and for the first time in years, Dawn seems happy," Grace continued. "In the last ten years, I can count the number of times when I've seen Dawn really happy, not just content, on one hand. First Jimmy died just a few months after Dawn's car accident, then Brian. She lived through an unhappy marriage and an ugly divorce. She struggled with coming to turns with her sexual orientation, and her first relationship with a woman was a disappointment to her, so she stayed alone and concentrated on her work. Then, just when she seemed to have found her stride, she was raped."
"I... I didn't know she was unhappy." Margot looked horrified and close to tears.
Aiden stood silently staring at Grace, not able to utter a single word. She had known about all the bad, sad, and disappointing things that had happened to Dawn in the last decade, but she had never thought of Dawn as an unhappy woman. Even right after the rape, Dawn's inner strength had always seemed unbroken.
Grace shook her head. "You know Dawn. She was pure sunshine from the day she was born. It's not that she was unhappy with her life. She just wasn't happy."
"But she's happy now?" Margot asked, hope in her voice and in her gray eyes.
Grace looked directly at Aiden, capturing her gaze while she answered. "She's happy, healthy, and in love. What more could a mother want for her child?"
To be a happy, healthy, straight woman in love with a man? Aiden's skeptical inner voice answered.
"Nothing," Margot answered. "It's exactly what I want for Dawn. But still, it's hard to wrap my mind around... this." She looked at Aiden almost apologetically.
"I know. For now, you don't have to understand it; you just have to accept it. Give yourself time," Grace told her mother-in-law what Del had told her a few years ago. "A year from now, you'll be at a point where you can't imagine Dawn with anyone else but Aiden."
Aiden was startled to feel Grace's arm slip around her, wrapping her in a supportive half embrace.
Margot sighed. "I promise to try."
That promise was enough for Aiden because she had expected a much worse reaction. She just hoped it would be enough for Dawn too.
Margot began to walk again. "Once more around the block?" she asked.
Uh. Aiden looked longingly back to the house. Not only did she want to escape this awkward situation, she also didn't want Dawn to worry if they didn't return to the house immediately. "Dawn –"
"Can have you back after we talk a little," Margot interrupted resolutely.
Grace laughed at the expression on Aiden's face. "Don't worry. She put me through the same interrogation when Jimmy brought me home to meet her for the first time."
It made Aiden feel better, if only a little.
"So tell me about your family," Margot began with what she probably thought was a harmless conversation starter. She couldn't know it was anything but harmless for Aiden.
Aiden opened her mouth for the "I don't have a family" answer she had gotten used to after her mother's death but stopped herself just in time. That answer didn't feel right anymore. Dawn was her family now. And there's Evan, she reminded herself. "My mother died almost two years ago, but I have a half sister." She said it out loud for the first time, and suddenly, it was almost overwhelming. There was someone who shared her blood and probably also shared the circumstances of her conception.
"What about your father?" Margot asked curiously. "He's not around?"
Aiden looked at Grace, but nothing in her face revealed if Dawn had told her about Aiden's father. Knowing Dawn, she probably hadn't. "I never knew him," she answered truthfully. She didn't want to lie, but she also didn't want to reveal the whole truth. Dawn's grandmother had enough to deal with for now.
"Grandma? Aiden?" Dawn's voice came from around the corner.
Aiden longed to turn around and run toward her, but she held herself back.
Margot studied her for a few seconds, then smiled. "Go before she thinks I hit you over the head with my cane and gagged you with my support stockings."
Aiden walked away with a smile.
CHAPTER 22
DEL LEANED BACK in her chair. After Margot had cornered Carlisle, her guests had finally diverted their attention away from Del. They were staring out of the window or talking to each other, speculating about what Margot might be saying to Carlisle. It gave Del the opportunity to focus on her favorite guest.
Kade had been standing next to Dawn, directing a few calming words toward her. Now that Dawn had gone to make sure her grandmother didn't torture Carlisle, Kade looked a little forl
orn. Before Del could move in her direction, Kade started for the door to follow Dawn.
"Oh, no!" Del quickly blocked her way. "Not you too. I invited you to keep me company and celebrate my birthday with me, not to run around outside."
"It's a surprise party. You didn't invite me at all," Kade pointed out.
Del grinned. She loved Kade's annoyingly analytical mind. "All right. But I still want you to keep me company. If Carlisle needs more backup, she'll call for help." She pointed at the gift-wrapped, rectangular present that Kade had laid on the table when she arrived. "Is that for me?"
"Yes," Kade answered. Her raised eyebrows added a silent, "Stupid question."
"Will you give it to me?" Del asked with a smile.
Kade looked around the room. Most of the other guests were staring out of the windows, trying to find out what was going on with Carlisle and Dawn's grandmother. "I want to take the opportunity to thank you for everything you've done for me in the last few weeks," Kade said with an atypical emotional openness.
Del gently squeezed her hand. "Anytime." She looked deeply into Kade's eyes, trying to make her see how sincere that promise was. "Whatever you need."
Clearly uncomfortable, Kade broke their eye contact when she handed Del her gift.
Del carefully shook it and tested its weight in her hands. "A book?" she guessed.
Kade didn't confirm or deny it. "Open it and find out."
Del removed the wrapping paper. It was indeed a book. She turned it around to find out the title and author, half expecting a crime novel.
At first glance, it seemed to be. A yellow crime scene tape stretched across the bottom of the cover. But one glance at the name of the author told Del she was holding a lesbian romance novel in her hands. She looked at Kade in surprise.
"I hope you don't already have it. I didn't see it in your collection when Laurie and I stayed over at your apartment," Kade said, almost babbling in her nervousness.
Del smiled. A nervous Kade Matheson... isn't that adorable? "No, I don't have it, and I haven't read it. I always wanted to but never got around to it." Kade giving her that book meant a lot to her. Only two weeks before, Kade had known nothing about lesbian fiction. She had even mistaken one of Del's favorite romances for a book about chess. It was obvious that she had done some serious research in the field of lesbian fiction.
"I'm glad you like it," Kade said. She looked down at Del's hands holding the book.
"What's not to like? It's a story about a sexy butch cop seducing her hot, formerly straight colleague." Del flashed her a challenging grin, waiting to see if Kade would take the bait or ignore the remark.
Kade looked up. Her arctic blue gaze met Del. "It's fiction," she said sternly.
Del laughed and gave up. "Thanks for the book, Kade."
They were distracted when Carlisle, Dawn, and the two older Kinsley women came back inside. Dawn had her arm around Carlisle, stubbornly demonstrating her love and support.
"Everything okay?" Del asked when Dawn reached them.
"Yes, I think everything's fine. Sorry for making your birthday party a Kinsley family drama," Dawn said.
Del gently chucked her under the chin. "My birthdays would be boring without it. Do you remember when you fell into my cake face first when you were ten?" Sometimes it was still hard to believe that Dawn was a grown woman now and didn't need her protection anymore.
"How did you manage to do that?" Carlisle asked.
Dawn flushed and rubbed the eyebrow she had singed back then. "I think I fell over my own feet. Speaking of cake..." She pointed in the direction of the kitchen.
When Del turned, she saw Grace carrying a big birthday cake with a sea of burning candles over to her.
"Oh my!" Kade laughed. "Tell me, Del, how many candles are on this cake?"
Del chuckled ruefully. "A lot more than on yours, I'm afraid." She didn't need to count to know that Kade would only have two thirds of the candles on her birthday.
"You're not feeling insecure, are you?" Kade teased.
"Nope." Del watched Grace place the cake on the table in front of her. "Not insecure. Just old." She looked at Grace. "Did you have to put all the candles on the cake? A few symbolic ones would have been enough."
Grace gently pinched her. "Don't complain. I'm older than you. Now shut up and blow out the candles before they burn the house down!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Del bent down and took a deep breath. She felt a gentle hand in her hair, keeping it from getting too close to the burning candles. To her surprise, she realized that the hand belonged not to Grace or Dawn, but to Kade. She quickly blew out the candles before Kade could notice what she had done without thinking.
Her guests clapped and hollered.
"Del!" Grace shouted over the chaos. She reached over the table and handed Del the cordless phone. "Your brother is on the phone for you."
Del shook her head. Her brothers hadn't called her for over twenty-five years. Must be one of the clowns from the station. She took the phone and walked away from her noisy guests.
* * *
Evan leaned against the tree in the Kinsleys' yard, hiding in its shadows. This way she could watch without being watched. Totally bored with the party inside, she had come out here to have a smoke. I shouldn't have let that damn shrink talk me into coming to this lame-ass party.
She regretted it now. Being at the party made her feel like growing up in the foster system had always made her feel. She was on the outside looking in, not really part of the group.
Not that I'd want to be, she quickly told herself. It has been hard enough to avoid Laurie all evening.
She watched as the front door opened. The doc's grandmother stepped out, her steps resolute despite her cane. A more hesitant Aiden Carlisle followed. Evan couldn't hear their conversation, but Aiden looked clearly uncomfortable. The old lady is interrogating her! Evan realized. And the cop doesn't like a taste of her own medicine!
As she watched Aiden uncomfortably follow the old woman down the street, Evan thought back to what Dr. Kinsley had told her. It seemed the doc had been right about her girlfriend. So the big, bad cop can really be afraid, huh? She took another drag on her cigarette.
"Hey." The sudden voice right next to her almost made Evan drop the cigarette.
Laurie Matheson had walked up to her, her blue eyes and the pale skin almost glowing in the near darkness beneath the tree. "What are you doing out here?" Laurie asked.
Hiding. Dying of boredom. "Smoking," Evan answered. She casually flicked the ash off the tip of her cigarette. She didn't say anything else, not knowing what to say to Laurie. The last time they had seen each other had ended in a disaster, and the last time they talked to each other on the phone, Laurie had ended up in tears.
"Oh." Laurie stepped closer and leaned next to her against the tree. "Can I have one?"
Miss Goody Two-shoes wants to smoke with me? That was a surprise. Evan wasn't sure if it was a pleasant surprise. For some reason, she didn't like the thought of Laurie smoking.
"This is a cigarette, isn't it?" Laurie asked when Evan didn't answer or offer her a cigarette from her pack. "It's not a joint, right?"
Nope. Those are in my other pocket. Evan had thought about it, but with the house full of cops, she didn't want to risk it. One of them was sure to notice something, and then all hell would break loose. "It's a regular cigarette, but I don't think your aunt would like it if I gave you one anyway," she finally answered.
"Just like your sister wouldn't like it if she saw you smoking," Laurie answered with an uncharacteristic boldness.
"I don't care what my sister likes or doesn't like." Evan growled at her. She didn't care if Aiden caught her smoking. If Aiden got angry and lost her temper with her, it would only prove she wasn't the perfect sister she pretended to be. "How do you even know she's my sister?"
Laurie shrugged. She looked at Evan from under blond lashes. "I eavesdropped on my aunt," she admitted, flushing a bright pink.
&nbs
p; Laurie stepped even closer, making Evan decidedly uncomfortable. She had nothing against being physically close to a pretty girl, but it had to be her choice, not the girl's attempt to have an intimate conversation. "So Detective Carlisle really is your sister?" Laurie asked.
Evan shrugged. "I suppose."
"Wow! That's so cool!" Laurie enthused.
"No, it's not!" It wasn't cool at all. Maybe if it had been the cute little doc, but Aiden Carlisle was just a pain in the ass.
"Hello?" a small voice called. "Is someone out there?"