Time of Day

by Nicole Pyland

  Time of Day

  by

  NICOLE PYLAND

  Tahoe Series Book #2

  Kinsley James has a nice life in South Lake Tahoe. She has a great career in real estate and a great group of friends she’s known for a long time. She also has a crush. Things had been easy when the object of that crush lived on the other side of the lake. Kinsley had been able to push her attraction aside. She’d dated other women. She’d even mostly forgotten about that time in college when she’d shared a futon with a girl three years her junior that seemed so much more comfortable in her own skin than Kinsley had ever felt. Then, her crush moved home.

  Riley Sanders decided to move back to South Lake Tahoe to settle down with her long-time and also long-distance girlfriend. Her plan was simple: find a real estate agent; find a house. Once she had that house, her girlfriend would move, and they’d be able to finally share a life together.

  Riley’s plan doesn’t quite work out. But, sometimes, the plans people make take paths of their own, taking people exactly where they need to be after all. In Riley’s case, her plan took her to Kinsley, a woman she’d known for a while but had never considered herself close to. Things change, though, when she realizes Kinsley may be the woman she hasn’t even known she should be looking for.

  To contact the author or for any additional information visit: https://nicolepyland.com

  This is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

  Copyright © 2019 Nicole Pyland

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-949308-21-1

  BY THE AUTHOR

  Stand-alone books:

  All the Love Songs

  The Fire

  The Moments

  The Disappeared

  Chicago Series:

  Introduction – Fresh Start

  Book #1 – The Best Lines

  Book #2 – Just Tell Her

  Book #3 – Love Walked into The Lantern

  Series Finale – What Happened After

  San Francisco Series:

  Book #1 – Checking the Right Box

  Book #2 – Macon’s Heart

  Book #3 – This Above All

  Series Finale – What Happened After

  Tahoe Series:

  Book #1 – Keep Tahoe Blue

  Book #2 – Time of Day

  Book #3 – The Perfect View

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  EPILOGUE

  COMING NEXT

  CHAPTER 1

  She had this long and likely soft sable-colored hair. Her eyes nearly matched the color. Her skin was always tanner in the summer, but it also never quite went pale in the mean Tahoe winters. Kinsley James couldn’t believe Riley Sanders was back in South Lake full-time. Kinsley tried to avert her stare, but it was difficult. It always was with Riley. Riley left the café with a large coffee in one hand and her cell phone pressed to her ear. Kinsley couldn’t hear what she was saying. She just watched her walk along the sidewalk in that long dark-green pencil skirt and matching heels around the corner. Kinsley took a sip of her own coffee as she waited just outside the store.

  “James, you ready?” Morgan asked as she locked the door of the sporting goods store behind her.

  “What?” Kinsley asked.

  Morgan glanced at her inquisitively and followed Kinsley’s gaze just as Riley disappeared around the corner.

  “Seriously?” Morgan asked and took Kinsley’s coffee cup to take a drink for herself. “Riley again?”

  “No,” Kinsley replied and took her coffee back.

  “You know she’s back. She’s been back for months now. She actually lived with Kellan until Kell moved in with Reese.”

  “What’s your point?” Kinsley asked her.

  “Nothing, I guess.” Morgan took Kinsley’s elbow and directed her toward their destination. “Just tell me if you went to the place to get coffee just because you know she goes there around this time nearly every day? We’re on our way to dinner, James.”

  “I had a long day. I wanted coffee. It’s decaf, anyway.”

  “I doubt high-powered attorney Riley Sanders drinks decaf,” Morgan teased.

  “She’s not a high-powered attorney, and I don’t know what she drinks,” Kinsley said as they walked on.

  “Because you never talk to her.”

  “Why would I?”

  “Kinsley, how long have you known Riley?”

  “I don’t know. A while.” She shrugged.

  “And how long have you had a massive crush on her?”

  “I don’t know. A while.”

  Morgan laughed at her and said, “Come on. Let’s go grab dinner. I think you could use a strong drink.”

  Kinsley did agree with Morgan on that. Her longtime crush on Riley wasn’t news to Morgan. She’d kept it to herself all through senior year of college, though. Riley was three years younger and a freshman in Reno when Kinsley met Reese and Morgan. Kinsley hadn’t been raised in South Lake like they had. Morgan and Reese had been best friends and later lovers. When they met Kinsley in school, she’d joined their group of friends and had met Riley through that group. Riley was only a freshman, which meant she couldn’t go to bars with them and often wasn’t at the parties they attended, but she’d hang around coffee houses and libraries with Reese sometimes. Kinsley liked her back then, but she also seemed so young. Eighteen and twenty-one were very different ages after all.

  What Kinsley found possibly the most infuriating thing and yet also the most attractive thing about Riley Sanders back then, was the fact that she never gave Kinsley the time of day. She was younger and should have looked up to the seniors she hung out with. She should’ve wanted to impress them. But she didn’t. She hardly talked to Kinsley even after Kinsley came out. Riley came out not long after. Kinsley could have been a confidant for her, but Riley didn’t seem to need one. It was so damn sexy and yet so frustrating to Kinsley.

  Kinsley had dinner with Morgan, Reese, and Kellan that night. Then, she went home to the two-story, lakeside house she’d bought two years prior. Being a real estate agent in a place like Lake Tahoe had its perks. She knew about listings before everyone else, and she had connections with the other realtors. This realtor, who’d told her about this house, was a friend who’d known she’d been looking for a house to get out of the apartment she’d lived in since college. He’d also known that this particular house was about to go into foreclosure. She’d been able to afford it, thankfully, and loved moving into her dream home.

  She’d spent the past two years fixing the place up here and there while using most of her discretionary income to decorate it. The house had four bedrooms along with the master bedro
om. It had three baths. It also had both first-story and second-story balconies overlooking the lake, with only the hill leading down to it and the shallowness of the water at its edge preventing her from diving straight into the water. She stared out at the crystal blue of it, as she drank from her mug of tea, and took in the lake at night. She loved doing this. She’d come home from a long day at work and, normally, take in the sunset if she’d timed it just right. Tonight, she’d chosen dinner with her friends. She’d missed the sun, but she’d enjoy the moon all the same. She usually made her tea, wrapped herself into something warm when it called for it, and leaned over the rail of her wood-planked balcony, breathing in the air.

  She thought of Riley Sanders, wishing she’d told her back in college that she had a crush on her. She’d pictured Riley’s reaction time and time again. Riley had always been so cool and confident. Kinsley had passed her a beer once, thinking Riley would find it cool that the older girl was handing her an illegal beverage. Riley had passed it back saying she wasn’t a beer drinker. Kinsley had finished the beer herself.

  She moved to lie on her chaise lounge chair that allowed her to comfortably take in the sights and sounds. She turned the lamp on, that was just behind the chair, and picked up her book. She spent the rest of the night reading before her yawns finally took over. She turned the lamp off, covered the furniture to protect it from the elements, and went inside with her empty mug and the book. When she fell asleep that night, it was to the image of Riley Sanders walking out of the café and around the corner until she disappeared.

  ◆◆◆

  Kinsley arrived at her office around eight the next morning. She was the owner of her business and also the only employee. She managed to run the office, do her own marketing, and help her clients find their dream homes. Her plan was to hire one or two employees within the year to expand. For now, though, she was content in the office she rented on the ground floor of an apartment building just off the main drag downtown. It was convenient. Morgan’s sporting goods store was just down the block. Kellan’s vet clinic was within walking distance, and Reese stopped by there nearly every day to pick up her girlfriend from work.

  When Kinsley heard the bell over the door chime, she turned her head away from the laptop and up to greet the visitor. She was surprised to see none other than Riley Sanders looking down at her. Riley was wearing another business suit, which did not go with the vibe of South Lake at all, but still looked great on her. Today, it was a charcoal gray pantsuit with a matching jacket and a scarlet-colored blouse underneath. Her heels were short but still managed to lengthen her legs. That was what drew Kinsley’s attention first as her eyes went from Riley’s shoes up her legs to her breasts and then her eyes, which were giving her a confused expression at the moment.

  “Hey, Kinsley.”

  “Riley, hi,” Kinsley replied quickly. “Do you need a bathroom or something?” she asked and didn’t know why.

  “What? No.” Riley chuckled a bit and shifted her purse to her other shoulder. “Why would you think that?”

  “I don’t know. Your office is, like, a mile away. I thought maybe you needed to borrow a bathroom.”

  She closed her eyes only for a moment, but it was enough to silently scold herself for being a complete and utter weirdo.

  “No, I don’t need a bathroom.” Riley sat in one of the two expensive chairs in front of Kinsley’s desk. “I need a house. I ran into Morgan the other day, and she reminded me you’re a real estate agent.”

  “I am,” Kinsley replied.

  “Sorry, we haven’t had a chance to really hang out since I moved back. Things have been a little crazy, trying to get my practice up and running,” Riley said. “But I’m still living in that apartment above my dad’s old clinic. It was actually great when Kellan was there; I kind of liked having a roommate. But she’s been with Reese for a while, and I’m still there.” She rattled that all off very quickly.

  Kinsley could only focus on the shape of her mouth and those full lips as Riley spoke.

  “Anyway, now that I’m staying for good, I’d like to find a house.”

  “Okay. I can help you,” Kinsley said. “Do you have time now or should we set something up for later? I’ll need some details before I get started,” she added.

  “I have a meeting in about twenty minutes, but I’m free for lunch.”

  “I can do noon. I have a showing after that,” Kinsley said as she glanced at the calendar on her computer. For some reason, she was glad she had something to do. It made her feel like less of a loser in front of this elegant creature. “Or, I can do tomorrow.”

  “I can’t do noon. I was thinking more like one, but I can do dinner.”

  “Dinner?” Kinsley replied with a break in her voice that she was certain would give her nervousness away.

  “Seven?” Riley glanced at her cell phone in her hand, and Kinsley assumed she was checking her own calendar. “My place work for you? I can order us something. We can go over everything there.”

  “Oh, sure,” Kinsley answered a little too quickly again.

  “Great,” Riley said and stood. She gave Kinsley a wide, expressive smile. “I’ll see you then.”

  “Okay,” Kinsley said.

  She then watched Riley walk in those heels out her front door. Her eyes were so occupied, that her ears didn’t even hear the sound of the bell over her door. She was going to Riley’s apartment later for dinner. She smiled and tried to make her blush disappear as she got back to work.

  CHAPTER 2

  Riley took the pizza from the delivery guy after passing him the signed credit card receipt. He nodded at her, and she closed the door behind him. She turned to see Kinsley sitting at her dining room table, closing her laptop. Riley smiled at Kinsley, who had smiled at her at least three times since she’d arrived about ten minutes prior. Riley set the pizza on the kitchen counter and pulled two plates from the cabinet. She added two slices each to their plates and walked them to the table.

  “Wine?” she asked.

  “No beer, I take it?” Kinsley took the plate from Riley’s hand.

  “I have beer, too.” Riley sat her own plate down. “It’s a dark beer. Is that okay? An import I really like.” She headed back into the kitchen.

  “I thought you didn’t like beer,” Kinsley replied.

  “Why would you think that?” Riley asked as she set a bottle in front of Kinsley and then opened one for herself, sitting down across from her.

  “In college, I offered you a beer once,” Kinsley said as she shrugged. “You said you didn’t like it.”

  “I did? I don’t remember that.” Riley took a drink and placed the bottle back down. “When was that?”

  “At some party.”

  “We hung out a little then, huh?” Riley asked and picked up her first slice of pizza.

  “We did, yeah.” Kinsley grabbed for her own pizza.

  “You were always hanging out with Reese, Remy, and Morgan. Reese and Remy were always so nice to me.”

  Kinsley took a bite and gave her an expression with her blue eyes that had Riley wondering what the woman was thinking before she replied, “They’re nice people.”

  Riley stared at her for a moment, taking her in. Kinsley had been a transplant to South Lake after they’d all met at college. She’d been from Reno, originally, but after making friends with South Lake locals, she’d moved here after graduation. Riley hadn’t heard much from or about Kinsley since her older friends moved on from university and she made new friends that were her age. She’d gone to law school and moved to the north side of the lake in Truckee. She’d wanted to live close enough to her family that she could get to them, but far enough away in order to get some privacy. She loved her parents, but she was their only daughter, squeezed between two brothers. They tended to pay her more attention. It was only recently that she’d decided to relocate back to South Lake permanently.

  Her father had retired and sold his vet practice to Kellan. He and her mo
ther were traveling more but were also getting up there in age. Riley wanted to be closer to them in case they needed her. She was also ready to settle down and buy a place. If she was going to do that anywhere, she thought South Lake was the best location for her. It also afforded her the chance to leave behind the law practice in Truckee where she’d specialized in divorce cases. She wanted family law – and sometimes that involved divorce cases, but she wanted more. She wanted her own practice. She would still handle the occasional divorce case, but she wanted to change her focus to helping women who’d been victims of domestic violence. She’d also help in proceedings for adoption, guardianship, and child abuse. She was ready to start this new chapter of her life and needed a home.

  “So, I’m thinking… I’d like something with at least three bedrooms.” Riley wiped her hands on her napkin and pushed her plate away. “And at least two bathrooms. I love the garden tub in this place. If I can get one of those, that would be amazing. If not, I can always put one in.”

  “Down to business,” Kinsley said, shoving the last piece of crust into her mouth before sliding her plate to the side and opening her laptop. “Okay.”

  Riley watched as a piece of Kinsley’s dark blonde hair fell into her face. She also watched Kinsley attempt to blow it up and away. When that failed, she smiled as Kinsley tucked it behind her ear and stared at her computer.