“Dr. Sanders, hello,” Reese greeted. “It’s nice to see you.”
“You too,” the old doctor replied and glanced at Remy. “How are you, dear?”
“Good.” Remy nodded her head slightly in the direction of Kellan. “Dr. Sanders, this is Kellan Cobb. She’s a friend of Reese’s.”
“Nice to meet you, Kellan.”
“You too,” she replied.
“So, Dr. Sanders is the premier veterinarian in South Lake Tahoe,” Remy continued. “Kellan is also a vet; big coincidence.” She glanced at Reese, who let go of Kellan’s hand under the table and promptly kicked her sister’s shin. “Ouch!”
“Remy did mention that to me earlier.”
The old man had a nearly bald head, but the hair he did have was gray. He’d begun that hunch in his shoulders that most older people started to adopt unwillingly around his age. Reese had to guess he was closer to seventy than sixty these days. Their parents had known the doctor. He’d been invited to some holiday parties, so they were more than familiar with the man and his wife, Elizabeth, who was a few years younger and often volunteered at the visitor center with Reese when she was able.
“She did, did she?” Reese asked the man but stared at Remy.
“We ran into one another earlier today,” Remy explained. “I was picking up my clothes from the dry cleaner, and I saw Edward there. He mentioned he comes here every week with Elizabeth. I knew we had plans to do dinner together, so I made reservations.”
“And I’ve interrupted your meal,” Dr. Sanders commented. “Elizabeth is waiting at our table for me anyway. I’ll leave you kids to enjoy your dinner.” He moved to walk away.
“Dr. Sanders?” It was Kellan’s voice, and Reese turned to see that Kellan was leaning into her with her arm over her chair, looking in the doctor’s direction. “Would it be possible for me to maybe check out your practice while I’m in town?” she asked. “I want to have my own practice one day. If it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition, could I stop by and see how you run things? If not, I totally understand.”
“Of course, dear,” he answered with a smile. “I’d love to show you around. It’s just me and my staff. I had a couple of other doctors with me up until last year, but they’ve both moved on.”
“That’s fine. I’d like to just see how it runs if that’s okay, as a comparison to where I interned and where I am now.”
“No problem. Remy has my number. Have her pass it along and call me on Monday. We’ll set something up.”
“Thank you. That’s amazing.”
“Of course.” The doctor waved at the four of them and walked back toward his table.
“Well, that was pretty cool, huh?” Remy asked and gave Reese a wink.
“Yeah, cool,” Reese replied but wanted to know exactly what her sister was up to with her clear conspiracy.
◆◆◆
“Well, that was fun,” Kellan said as they drove away from the restaurant. “Remy is hilarious.”
“Remy is annoying,” Reese replied as she turned them onto the street. “I’m sorry. She gets a little excited sometimes.”
“Stop apologizing. I really did have fun. I like your sister, and Ryan is nice.” Kellan placed a hand on her thigh. “Hey, I don’t know what we’re going to do now, but Remy said they’re staying at Ryan’s place tonight. Do you want to go back to your place?” she asked.
“My place?” Reese repeated.
“Or not. You can just take me home. I’m sure you’re tired. It’s been a busy week.”
“No, it’s not that.” Reese placed her hand on top of the one Kellan had pressed to her thigh. “I want to spend the night with you again, Kell. Let’s just go to your place, though.”
“Your place is closer, and it’s a real house,” she returned. “My cabin is bare essentials only.”
“My place is a mess. Remy kind of spins around like a tornado and leaves stuff everywhere,” she argued.
“I don’t care.” Kellan laughed lightly. “And it seemed fine when I was there for dinner.”
“I cleaned up before you got there.”
“Right…” Kellan lengthened the word and withdrew her hand. “My cabin it is then.”
“Are you mad?” Reese looked over at her.
“No. I’ve just only been there once and thought we’d have the place to ourselves.”
“I’m sorry,” Reese apologized and took Kellan’s hand. “Tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, sure,” Kellan replied with disappointment bleeding out of her tone. “Actually, do you want to just call it a night? I am kind of tired, and I’m sure you are.”
“You don’t want me to stay over? It’s like eight o’clock.”
“I think the activities of the week are getting to me.”
“Kellan, just tell me you’re upset. Don’t lie about being tired and not wanting me to stay over, okay? Say you’re upset about me not wanting you to stay at my place tonight. Hell, yell at me if you want. But don’t do the thing where you pretend you’re okay when you’re not and it starts a fight later on.”
Kellan turned to Reese, and in that moment, she knew she was falling in love with Reese Lee. It was a very strange moment to have this realization, given that they were likely going to start an argument. Reese turned to her to gauge her reaction to her comment. Kellan had to hold back her smile because she knew it was an inappropriate response. She felt it though. She’d never had a woman call her out on this type of thing before. Most of her former flames had just gone along with her passive-aggressive tendencies. They’d let her fester until she eventually let it all out. They’d fight about whatever was causing the problem, but it always ended up snowballing into something even worse and never ended well. Reese was the first who’d just said it and made her want to stop acting like a child and tell her how she felt.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Kellan said after a long moment. “I thought tonight we could go back to your place since no one else would be there. Maybe we could talk about what comes next. Maybe that could be us being together.”
“You wanted to have sex tonight?” Reese asked and removed her hand from Kellan’s grasp to place it on her thigh. “I thought that was off the table for now.” She ran her hand down her thigh.
“I didn’t say that.” Kellan leaned over toward her. “But I don’t know. I had fun with you and Ryan and Remy tonight. I feel like we’re spending a lot of time together. I’m getting to know you and your family. I don’t know. Tonight was just a good night.”
“So, you don’t want to have sex tonight?” Reese asked in a mocking tone and gave Kellan a wink.
“Oh, wanting is not the issue,” Kellan assured and moved Reese’s hand higher up her thigh. “I definitely want to have sex with you.” She leaned over a little more so that her mouth was near Reese’s ear. “I am looking forward to touching you, Reese. At dinner tonight, it took everything in me not to reach over and slide my hand up your thigh. You had to wear a skirt tonight? Really?”
That caused Reese to laugh. She pulled her hand off Kellan’s thigh, moved it back to the steering wheel, and cleared her throat once her laughter died down.
“That’s not funny. I’m driving. You can’t talk to me like that. These roads can be dangerous.” She let out a softer laugh. “But seriously, where did we land on the sex thing?”
It was Kellan’s turn to burst into laughter.
CHAPTER 18
Reese woke up Saturday morning to the sight of Kellan sprawled out in the bed next to her. The woman was occupying most of the bed, with one arm and leg over Reese and her other leg over the side of the bed. She was face down in the pillow while Reese was lying on her back. Reese laughed silently at the sight of Kellan’s messy, dirty blonde hair, and realized immediately after that she needed a trip to the bathroom but didn’t want to wake Kellan. She stared up at the ceiling of the cabin with its bare bones, an old ceiling fan that probably hadn’t been dusted in years, and then looked around the sparsely furn
ished room.
She glanced at Kellan’s sleeping form again and realized why the woman had wanted to go to her house so badly the night before. Reese lived in Tahoe. Her house was her home. For Kellan, this cabin was a hotel. She’d wanted to spend the night with Reese in her home. Reese hadn’t been able to give that to her because she hadn’t prepared her house for visitors. It had been stupid on her part. She should have gone through the normal routine, but Remy hadn’t planned on staying at Ryan’s that night initially. It was news to Reese at the restaurant that she’d made that decision. Reese had never brought a woman back to her house when her sister was there. She needed privacy, and having her twin sitting on the sofa while she was in her room doing explicit things to a woman wasn’t something she enjoyed. She’d lost her chance last night because she’d been stupid. She’d been very, very stupid. She could have been with Kellan last night. They could have been in comfortable surroundings, alone, and with a roaring fire in the fireplace her grandfather had built himself. She could have touched Kellan and allowed Kellan to touch her. She could have woken up next to her naked this morning. They could have spent the entire day in bed together, repeating those activities and discovering more about their bodies and how they connected together.
“You’re thinking hard,” Kellan mumbled.
Reese watched Kellan’s eyes open and close before opening again slowly. She smiled down at Kellan and ran her hand through Kellan’s messy bed head.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.” Kellan stretched. “Something on your mind? If so, can it wait for coffee?” She held her hand out, palm up on the bed.
Reese laid flat and placed her hand on top of it, intertwining their fingers.
“Do you even have coffee in this place? We didn’t have any yesterday.”
“I don’t,” Kellan revealed. “But there’s that café not too far from here. I can hop in the jeep and pick some up, or I can run to the market and get some to make here. I had some. I just ran out. I wasn’t planning on staying this long.”
“Well, now that you are, you should pick up enough to last a couple of weeks.” Reese rolled to face her. “A couple of weeks, right?”
Kellan rolled to face her, too, and ran a hand through Reese’s hair this time. She offered a smile before she leaned in and kissed her lightly.
“Yes, a couple of weeks,” she replied. “I just need to run into the rental agency. Let me do that this morning so you don’t have anything to worry about.”
“I’m not worried,” Reese replied.
“Please, you’ve brought it up like ten times since yesterday, including four times at dinner and at least twice during the movie we watched. When we went down to the beach, you actually stopped making out with me to ask when I’d go to request the extension. Don’t think I didn’t take offense to that.”
Reese rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling again. She let go of Kellan’s hand and placed both of her own across her stomach.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t keep bringing up the fact that you’re leaving.”
“Hey, I was kidding.” Kellan slid over to her and placed an arm over her body. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
“You didn’t. It’s fine.” Reese placed a hand on Kellan’s cheek. “Let’s just go to the market and rental place together. We can come back here after, eat breakfast, and then decide how we’re going to spend our day.”
“So, you’re spending the whole day with me?” Kellan asked with a smile.
“If you’ll have me.”
“Oh, I’ll have you,” Kellan teased and leaned down to hover her lips just above Reese’s. “Someday.”
“Crap,” Reese exclaimed just as Kellan was about to kiss her.
“Not the reaction I was hoping for.” Kellan pulled back.
“I totally spaced it. I’m babysitting for Stacy today.” She smacked her forehead. “She and her husband are going out of town tonight. I’m staying at their place. They’re leaving around two and asked me to come by before that.”
“Oh, that’s okay.” Kellan rolled over onto her back.
“I’d offer for you to babysit with me, but I don’t know how they’d feel about that. They don’t really know you, and that you and I are–”
“Not just friends?”
“I can ask. But I don’t know that I’m comfortable with you staying the night with them there. Their youngest still sometimes sleeps with them, and she might want to sleep with me tonight.”
“I understand, Reese. It’s okay.”
“I might end up taking them to the park or something. You can join us for that.”
“I’ll let you do your babysitting. I’ve got some stuff I can do around here.”
“Like what? You’re on vacation.” Reese giggled.
“I’ve got enough to keep myself occupied. I hadn’t exactly planned on meeting people while I was here. I have a few trails I’d like to hit. I might kayak around the sunken forest.”
“That sounds like fun.” Reese smiled up at her.
“I’ll try to take it easy though, since I have to play football tomorrow.”
“If you need a day alone, Kell, you can tell me.” She shifted until she was sitting up, causing Kellan to back up.
“I don’t need a day alone,” Kellan insisted. “Reese, I don’t want time away from you. I want time with you. You have to babysit though. I understand that you have commitments. I’m on vacation, but you live here. This is your life. These are your friends. You can take care of them. I’ll see you tomorrow at the beach.”
“You sure?” she checked.
“Can we still have breakfast?”
“Of course.”
“Then, I’m sure.” Kellan smiled.
◆◆◆
“Hey,” Reese said once Kellan greeted her.
“Hey! I didn’t think I’d hear from you tonight,” Kellan replied.
“We didn’t discuss doing the goodnight thing. I know,” Reese said. “And it’s only nine. I doubt you’re going to sleep this early. I just wanted to ask you something before I had to put the kids to bed. What do you think about staying over tomorrow night?”
“You staying here?” Kellan asked.
“No, you stay with me, Kell,” Reese replied. “At my place. Remy might be there. I don’t know if she’s planning to stay with Ryan or not, but I’d like you to stay over.”
“Because you have time to clean up?” Kellan smiled as she climbed into her bed.
“I’ll meet you at football. We can go to dinner, and you can spend the night.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“I have another question. Do you want to maybe take a boat out and have an early dinner while we watch the sunset?”
“It’s like you’re trying to woo me, Reese Lee.” Kellan laid her head back on the pillow.
“I figured if I try really hard, I might be able to convince you to stay forever.”
“Reese…”
Reese didn’t say anything for a moment, and Kellan wondered if she should maybe say something instead.
“Babe, it was my turn to joke,” Reese said, but her tone led Kellan to believe that it hadn’t been a joke at all.
“Right.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow at football?”
“I’ll be there,” Kellan assured.
“Night.”
“Good night,” Kellan replied.
◆◆◆
“She’s coming over here?” Remy asked while Reese moved about the living room in a frenzy.
“Yes, tonight.” Reese picked up a sweater. “Did you borrow my sweater?”
“What’s the point of having a twin if I can’t steal your clothes?”
“I’ll just pick it up for you then.” She tossed it into the hamper she’d brought out for this very purpose.
“She’s staying the night, right? Do you want me to stay at Ryan’s? I wasn’t planning on it, since he has an early work day tomorrow.”
“You don’t have to,” Reese replied and removed one of the stupid rubber bumpers off their square coffee table before tossing it onto the sofa.
“You don’t want a night alone with your lady friend?” Remy sat on the sofa and picked up the object meant to protect toddlers.
“I don’t know.” Reese pulled the other three off the other corners and tossed them next to Remy. “I do, but I don’t.”
“Explain that to me.”
“I want the house to myself, yes. I want her here, and I want us to–”
“Have mind-blowing sex?”
“God, Rem! Sometimes, you make it so hard to have an important conversation with you. You’re the older one. Shouldn’t you be more mature?”
“You’re the one that always says I’m only four minutes older.” Remy shrugged. “And should you be pulling these off now? You’re still cleaning.” She held up the rubber piece.
“It’s fine.” Reese tossed one sock into the hamper. “I want to be alone with her tonight because, yes – I want to sleep with her.”
“I still can’t believe you haven’t yet. The way you two look at each other, it’s clear you’re crazy about her, and she feels the same way.”
“That’s why we haven’t.”
“I guess I get it.” Remy placed the rubber barriers back on top of the table. “I waited a while with Ryan.”
“I want to be with her, Remy.” She flopped down next to her sister. “But not just tonight, and not just for the next week or two.”
“That’s great, Reese.” Remy turned slightly toward her.
“How exactly? She lives like four hours away.”
“It’s not that far,” Remy told her. “Other people have it way worse. Thomas has been dating his girlfriend for like nine months, and she lives in Orlando. They make it work.”
“That’s different,” Reese argued.
“How?”
“Because they’re so far away that it takes the pressure off.”
“What?” Remy laid her head on the back of the sofa.
“We’re only a drive apart once she goes home,” Reese began. “Orlando and Tahoe are so far apart that they have to plan trips to see one another. It’s expensive, and there’s a time difference. With us, it’s a drive, and it’s not even a long one.”
Keep Tahoe Blue Page 13
