August Heat

by Billings, Hildred

  Siobhan merely wished she hadn’t been seated so closely to them. Rather awkward looking at a woman while her partner went on about strong, healthy babies. You hear it every day in the animal husbandry world… not so much with people. Siobhan kept her mouth preoccupied with food and drink. Joan couldn’t drink any alcohol, but the rest of the table was served with beer and cheap wine. Siobhan limited herself to one small beer since she had to drive later.

  In all honesty, the evening wasn’t as bad or awkward as Siobhan anticipated. Nobody dug into her personal life once they had the basics in their heads. The cats only came up once more, when Krys told Jalen to “adopt some kitties, for God’s sake.” Is she doing this as a show for me? Or did Krys really care about the animals as much as she portrayed?

  It didn’t feel like a date as much as it simply felt like hanging out with some people. For that, Siobhan was grateful. Krys’s lack of pretenses made relaxing a bit easier, although the “truth” forever tugged at Siobhan’s imagination. Was she willing to believe that Krys wasn’t a liar? That she really never knew Emily, let alone dated her? Maybe Siobhan could believe that Krys didn’t do it on purpose, knowing that Emily was already with someone. But that still left a lot of questions unanswered. Questions Siobhan continued to think about when she knew she needed to let go.

  For her own sanity. And her own future.

  “Thanks for dealing with those loons tonight,” Krys said at the end of Lorri and Joan’s path to the sidewalk. Fleur and Jalen had left ten minutes earlier, and it was clear what those two were up to that fine weeknight. Siobhan kept a respectful distance from Krys as they stood beside the car at the curb. “They can be kinda loud and obnoxious. I always forget how much so until I bring somebody new to meet them.”

  “If they’re good enough for a Hollywood starlet,” Siobhan opened her car door and remained standing between it and her seat, “then I’m sure they’re good enough for me. I’m just not used to a lot of people in general.”

  “A lot of people?”

  “Yes… that was a lot of people. Five strangers for me, anyway.”

  “Five?” Krys leaned against the door. “You’re including me in those estimates? Since when am I a stranger, huh?”

  “Sorry. Four.” Siobhan glanced down the darkened sidewalk. One car with its high beams lit ambled down the residential street. After that momentary blindness, Siobhan asked, “Are you walking home?”

  “I usually do.”

  “It’s good exercise, I guess. You don’t live too far, do you?”

  Krys shrugged. “Over at sixth and Colorado. Not a big deal.”

  “Still a little ways away…” Siobhan motioned to her car. “You want a ride?”

  Although it was dark out, there was enough light from the streetlamps for Siobhan to catch the widening of Krys’s eyes. “You’re offering me to get in your car and drive me a whole five blocks to my house? A distance that I could easily walk in fewer than ten minutes at a leisurely pace?”

  “Fine.” Siobhan sat down in her driver’s seat. “See you around.”

  “Whoa, whoa.” Krys quickly rounded the front of the car and latched onto the passenger side handle. “Let’s not get hasty there, hon. I always accept free rides. I practically do it for a living.”

  “This isn’t a fire truck.” Siobhan almost caught herself saying ain’t. Sheesh. She had been around Krys and her friends too much already. If Siobhan had one thing going for her, it was proper grammar. Most of the time. “I don’t have any sirens to set off.”

  Krys snapped the seatbelt and shut the passenger side door. “Hate to break it to ya, but you already have.” She smashed her hand against her chest. “Right here.”

  Siobhan started the car. “Are you always this cheesy?”

  “Only if it’s working for you. Otherwise… yeah. I am. Sorry.”

  “At least you’re honest.” After a cursory look up and down the street, Siobhan changed gears and pulled out onto Idaho Street.

  She needed a few directions in the dark, when it was more difficult to read the road signs. She already had being an out-of-towner working against her, since people who had lived in town for more than a year could walk around the blocks with their eyes closed. Never mind people who were from around there. I can’t imagine growing up here. Siobhan left that thought in the dust as she turned the corner between Colorado and Arizona. Or was it Colorado and Sixth?

  “This is it.” Krys was true to her word when she said she lived on the corner. A humble ranch house, like many of the others around it. Siobhan knew that the town was mostly divided by manufactured architecture styles, but it was rather hilarious how quickly things changed from cottage, to ranch, to Victorian-inspired in two blocks. That’s before you hit the trailer park or the two-story craftsmen they built a few years ago. Emily had wanted to purchase one that had recently hit the market when they moved to town. Siobhan needed the countryside to keep her sanity. “Thanks for dropping me off. Hope you had somewhat of a good time tonight. I kinda worry I keep showing you the most boring sides of myself.”

  “We both have stressful jobs,” Siobhan said, allowing the car to idle. “I figure you’re much like me, in that you don’t have the patience for more stress in your after hours. I’m all about ‘boring’ in the evening.”

  “I mean… hopefully not super boring?”

  “Is there something wrong with dinner and TV?”

  “I mean, there’s stuff to do after the talk shows, right?”

  Yes, I get your meaning. Sex. Sex, sex, sex. That’s where Krys’s mind went, apparently. Siobhan didn’t blame her, but it wasn’t ideal for a second date conversation.

  Or was it?

  Pull yourself together. People have sex. You used to like it, remember? Yeah, you and Emily would watch the early viewing of Jay Leno and go to bed earlier. You guys weren’t in there to read or catch up on your sleep. Since Emily cheated on her, however, Siobhan’s libido had taken a hit. She chalked it up to aging and isolation. The few times she got the urge, she took care of it herself, and often wondered why she bothered afterward.

  For every part of her that hated what Krys did to her, there was another part grateful to feel that way again. Yet there wasn’t any point to it if it only brought more pain.

  “I’m not as big of a prude as you might think I am.” Siobhan said.

  “Didn’t say I thought you were a prude.”

  “You were thinking it.”

  “Was I?”

  Siobhan cleared her throat. “Maybe on the tenth date.”

  “You an all or nothing kind of gal?”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Uh…” Krys chuckled. “Guess I mean to ask if you’re the kind of person who can’t kiss without getting busy with it.”

  Palms sweating and arms stiffening, Siobhan reminded herself to ease up on her grip. “Assumed you were like that.”

  “You really think I can’t kiss a gal without inviting her inside for more? Hmph. Maybe you’re right, but that doesn’t mean I won’t survive a little rejection.”

  “Are you trying to say that you want to kiss me?”

  “You got a problem with…” Krys stopped herself, a laugh breaking through as she looked out the window and toward her darkened house. “Hon, I’ve been wanting to kiss you since the moment I met you.”

  That was the cheesiest line yet. Except Krys delivered it with such nonchalance that Siobhan almost believed her. Nobody really means it when they say stuff like that. Such a thing would be ridiculous. Yet was that a smile peeking on Siobhan’s face? Did the girlish side of her want to believe that Krys wanted her that badly? Setting aside the strange truths that might exist between them, it was almost a paradisiacal end to a second date. Krys had a casual stance in the passenger seat that suggested she wasn’t going anywhere until she got a kiss.

  “You’re full of crap,” Siobhan said with a grin.

  “Yeah?” Krys sat up, but not for long. Soon, her face came cl
oser. The only thing keeping her from kissing Siobhan was decorum. “Try me. Bet it will be the best kiss of your life.”

  “That’s quite the haughty take to have of yourself.”

  “I’m not saying I’m that good of a kisser, myself. I’m only saying that the right inspiration makes people… better.”

  “The more you talk, the less inclined I am to kiss you. Ever.”

  “Yet you haven’t kicked me out of your car.”

  Siobhan had two options. She could either kick Krys out, or she could do something that would make the old her shudder.

  She could kiss her. After all, Krys’s face was right there. All Siobhan had to do was lean in a little and pucker up.

  Do I remember how to kiss? Feels like so long ago…

  God, what was she waiting for? What did she have to lose? A little dignity? Ha! She only played at having any dignity. This was a woman who holed herself up in the countryside. Even if rumors disseminated that Krys played her like a sexy fiddle, the public would move on within a few weeks. Considering how things had been going that year, anything could happen to take the spotlight off Krys kissing one inconsequential woman.

  Siobhan never envisioned herself as the one who lunged forward for a kiss. Yet that’s what happened when she finally gave in to that salty temptation.

  Hm. Maybe Krys was right.

  Maybe it was the best kiss Siobhan ever had. Or, at least, in a long, long while.

  There were no expectations harnessed in that kiss. Boom. Lips met. Breaths were caught. A hand touched Siobhan’s face as the leather in the seats creaked and eased from Krys leaning closer, closer, closer, until Siobhan was pressed against her headrest. Krys offered the kind of immediate power women like Siobhan craved. She didn’t want someone to take over in the household, let alone out in the public. Except she wanted someone who wasn’t afraid to lead behind closed doors. That same person better be able to sit back and take some of her own medicine, too. Siobhan couldn’t do that on a second date, though. Maybe not even the tenth. It took her a while to warm up to someone’s lovemaking style and figure out how she fit into it. Until then, Siobhan went along for the wild rides coming her way.

  Especially since Krys was the kind of kisser who thrived at offering steamy previews of what more may come her lover’s way.

  “Okay, okay…” Siobhan drew the line at a hand coming for her chest. It was one thing when it was on her face, caressing her cheek and playing with the curls around her ear. Quite another when it went for second base.

  “Sorry.” Krys sat back a little, but not enough that she was in her seat again. “Got carried away. Good kissing does that to me.”

  I bet it does. Siobhan put her hands back on the steering wheel. “Glad you thought it was good.”

  Krys didn’t have to ask what Siobhan thought of it. The answer was clear on the grin Siobhan could not contain. “So…” Krys began, a thumb pressing against her window, “I’m pretty sure my roommate is already in a coma for the night. You wanna come in for a bit?”

  Siobhan’s instincts gave her a resounding yes, but that was the thumping of her heart talking. The rational side of her said that once she was in Krys’s house so late, everything would end with her clothes on the floor and her face between somebody’s legs. Get it together, Chev. You know your rules.

  “I can’t,” Siobhan said. “I have to be up early, so I should head home. I’m supposed to be looking at a few sheep.” Yeah, that sounded good. Sheep. They needed looking at, sometimes. “Thank you, though.”

  “Don’t wanna keep either of us up too late if we’ve both got work in the morning.” Although Krys was smiling, something in her voice told Siobhan that disappointment hit hard. Krys said she could handle a little rejection. How true was that, though? “Although…”

  “Yes?”

  “If it’s all right, I’ll come by tomorrow and pick up those kittens. I’ve already got a nice place to keep them in garage. My landlord won’t ever know. Dude doesn’t come up much.”

  Siobhan sucked in her breath. “Sounds good.” More like it was a convenient excuse for Krys to come around again. “Thanks again for inviting me out tonight.”

  Krys finally got out of the car. “I’ll see you around, Siobhan.”

  “Chev,” she said.

  “Hm?”

  Siobhan couldn’t believe she was doing this. Few were privileged enough to know this name she had since childhood. Who was the last person outside of her family to call her by her nickname? Emily… “Chev. That’s what everyone calls me.” Well, Gabriella called her Chevy, but that didn’t need to get around.

  “Chev. See you around.” Krys shut the door and headed toward her house without looking back.

  Siobhan lingered longer than she anticipated.

  Chapter 13

  KRYS

  “I swear to God, if you get us in trouble for those things, I’m kicking your ass from here to Hillsboro.” Lucas followed Krys from the kitchen to the garage door, which might as well have been the distance from Paradise Valley to Hillsboro. “What’s our lease say? No pets. Come the hell on, those are pets.”

  Krys opened the door. She didn’t know what she expected temperature wise, but the blast of warm air told her to get out the air conditioner so the kittens didn’t overheat. “They don’t count as pets if I’m trying to get them adopted.” Phase one of her plan? Wagoning them to the firehouse, where Chief Johnson would absolutely fall in love with them and insist on bringing them in permanently. Flawless! Krys wished she had thought of it sooner.

  Except she had forgotten a small detail – telling Lucas, her roommate of going on the four years she had lived in Paradise Valley. While they weren’t the best of friends, they had a mutual understanding that the house was the landlord’s first, theirs second. Probably because they got such a great deal on rent because they were considered “trustworthy.” Krys the firefighter and Lucas the maintainer of the church across the street came with glowing recommendations. It meant a nice discount on rent, but that wouldn’t last if they mucked it up with a giant mark against their lease.

  “They’ll be out of here before you know it.” Krys shut the door in Lucas’s face. Didn’t he have better things to do on his Saturday? Like go spruce up the church before Sunday service? The man was a whizz with a riding lawnmower and a ladder! There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do when he got out of Krys’s face and did his job across the street!

  Krys turned on the light and surveyed the stuffy garage. Right. She needed to grab some kind of portable fan or AC, since it was that wonderful time of year when garages turned into hot boxes if it were only seventy degrees outside.

  That day was a little warmer than seventy, though. Augusts were like that, and the kids took every advantage of it as they rushed out on their bikes and scooters. School registration was only a week away. If they didn’t have a childhood now, they might miss their chances!

  Which means I’ll be picking kids out of ditches and off riverbanks this time Monday afternoon… Happened every year. As long as they avoided the forest fires, though, Krys would consider this summer a win.

  “Where you guys at?” Krys had hidden the kittens’ box in a cooler corner of the garage, but they were more than old enough to jump out and get into a little trouble. The litter box was gently used, though, and the kitten food lapped up like they were growing boys and girls. Before Krys could be too proud, though, she found some kitten puke by a bicycle tire.

  She found the culprit sitting on the old, cracked leather seat. He looked at her as if he were the most innocent child in the world.

  “Did you eat all the food? Or did you drink too much after you ate?” Krys plucked him up, his little mews of protest and purrs of compliance settling him against her chest. “Who’s a pukey boy? Hm?”

  She found his brother and one of his sisters, although she quickly realized that the hairy girl was missing. Nothing to panic about. Little Meg loved to crawl beneath drawers and into any bins left h
alf open. Not everything in the garage belonged to either Krys or Lucas, however. Their landlord kept a few handy things around. Krys had a few panicked visions of Meg falling into a drawer of nails or getting crushed by an old, rusty rake.

  “Meg?” Krys lowered the kittens in her hands and began the hunt for their fluffy sister. “Where are ya, girl? Here, kitty kitty!”

  Krys kept a calm countenance, hoping the energy would draw the baby out as opposed to further sending her into hiding. Meg’s littermates ran around Krys’s feet, as if looking for their fluffy buddy. I’ve always had the worst luck with fluffy cats. Never had one that lived more than a year. Now Krys began to panic.

  “Meg?” She got down on her knees and looked beneath the bottom of a raised file cabinet. “Where are you, baby? Meg?”

  She stopped talking and listened closely. Soon, she heard the pathetic mewling of a kitten crying in the far corner of the room. That… did not sound good.

  By the time Krys finally found Meg huddled behind an old bag of fertilizer, she knew something was wrong. The kitten couldn’t open one of its eyes, nor could Meg make much effort to come to Krys without breathing so hard that she fell over. This wasn’t a cat who had taken a quiet nap away from her rowdy littermates. She was in trouble. If Krys didn’t do something, she might lose yet another fluffy cat before it had the chance to turn a few months old.

  “You stay there, little girl.” Krys grabbed her phone from her back pocket. Luckily, Siobhan had finally given her a personal number to call when Krys picked the kittens up a couple of days ago. “I’m gonna get you help.”

  The other kittens padded toward their sister, who opened her mouth but didn’t make a sound. Soon, she had a pile of gray and black fur surrounding her, her brothers grooming her head while her sister stared at Krys, as if hoping she’d do something.