Photographs of Claudia

by KG MacGregor

  Gasping for breath, Leo gave herself over to the euphoria

  of Claudia’s lips on hers. Though her heart raged with fear and

  doubt, she was powerless to resist the fantasy that had visited her

  every day for the last two decades. “Please don’t break my heart

  again.”

  In an unspoken assurance, Claudia tightened her arms around

  her neck and her kiss grew more intense.

  It didn’t matter if Claudia denied her a verbal promise. She

  would put today with the other memories if it was all they had.

  Her hands traveled over Claudia’s back, settling on the curve of

  her hips. “You have the sweetest body in the world.”

  “It’s not the same body you remember,” Claudia demurred,

  brushing her nose against Leo’s shoulder.

  It was too sappy to say aloud, but all Leo could think was

  that this body held the heart of the woman she loved, and that

  was all that mattered. She dipped her fingers beneath the hem

  of Claudia’s shirt and tickled the warm flesh of her back. They

  kissed again, deep and slow, as her hands wandered higher and

  released the bra’s clasp. She could feel Claudia respond, allowing

  her hips to be pulled forward as her head fell back. Emboldened

  by the surrender, Leo grasped a breast and kneaded its nipple to

  a peak.

  Claudia hissed with pleasure.

  With mounting fervor, she tugged at the fastener on Claudia’s

  slacks and thrust her hand inside.

  “You’ve got to let me lie down, Leo, or I’m going to fall.”

  She released her prize and led the way into the bedroom,

  where Claudia tossed the comforter into a pile at the foot of the

  bed. Leo kicked off her shoes and dropped all of her clothes onto

  the floor. Claudia did the same, and they met on the cool white

  sheets and fell together in a heap.

  Leo was inside her instantly, covering her moan with a kiss.

  With every stroke Claudia grew wetter, and Leo gave in to her

  lust and lowered her mouth to its source. It was exactly the taste

  that had been burned into her memory.

  Claudia groped for her hand and squeezed it hard as she

  came with a shudder. Panting from exertion, she tugged Leo

  upward and grasped her face with both hands. “I love you. Give

  me another chance and I promise I’ll put you first every time.”

  Chapter 30

  It was daybreak when Claudia awoke. A chilly breeze

  wafted the cloth curtains, but Leo’s warm body covered most of

  hers. Their lovemaking had been intense, both physically and

  emotionally, as they poured themselves into each other. It was

  unbelievable she had lived so long without it.

  They had rediscovered one another throughout the night,

  getting out of bed only to wolf down cheesecake from room

  service. It was decadent, like the half dozen orgasms she’d had

  at Leo’s touch.

  “You were wrong about your body,” Leo murmured, nuzzling

  her head under Claudia’s chin. “It’s as amazing now as it was the

  last time I touched you.”

  “How long have you been awake?”

  “About ten minutes maybe. I was thinking about Maria and

  wondering if she expected this to happen.”

  Claudia rumbled with a low laugh. “I think she staged the

  whole thing. I didn’t actually see her broken leg.”

  “Are you going to tell anyone about this?”

  She struggled to sit up. “Of course I’m going to tell people.

  What kind of question is that?”

  “I didn’t mean ever. I just wondered if you were thinking

  about waiting awhile to see what happens. It isn’t something you

  can un-say.”

  Obviously, it wasn’t going to be easy for Leo to trust her.

  “Look, if my feelings for you were going to go away, don’t you

  think they would have done that already? The people who care

  about me need to know about you. And I think some of them

  might notice when I move to Monterey.”

  “Mmmm,” Leo said, wriggling with satisfaction. Apparently,

  the commitment to move was just the thing she needed to hear.

  “I think Eva already knows.”

  “Yeah, I think I might have told her but I’m not sure.”

  Leo sat up in bed beside her. “Might have?”

  “It was on her twenty-first birthday. I went up to Stanford

  that weekend. I remember something vaguely about sitting in

  her apartment and sharing a bottle of tequila. I’m pretty sure I

  spilled my guts.” And it had brought her the worst hangover of

  her life. “I definitely spilled them the next day.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “That was the weekend she told me she was in love with

  Todd. I remember saying that I’d only been in love once, and it

  was with a woman I’d met in Monterey.”

  Leo thinned her lips and nodded. “That explains what she

  said. She doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.”

  “My daughter? Are you kidding?” Claudia stretched and

  swung her feet out of bed. She had a robe out in the sitting room,

  but it was silly to fetch it so she could wear it into the bathroom.

  “She thought it was cool as hell. Turns out she had a girlfriend

  her freshman year. Believe me, that was an eye-opener. It finally

  hit me what my father must have thought about me.”

  “You told him about us?”

  “Not specifically, but he knows I was in love with a woman

  when I married Mike. Wait till he finds out I still am. He’s going

  to love you, by the way.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  Claudia cranked the shower handle until it flowed hot.

  “Because I do.”

  Leo nodded. “I’ll buy that. I liked him for the same reason.”

  As she stepped into the shower, she saw that Leo had come

  to stand in the doorway naked with her arms folded casually

  across her chest. She was as lanky as ever, and gravity had been

  kind to her small breasts. Lots of things about seeing her again

  were bittersweet, she thought, like feeling so comfortable with

  someone after not having this level of companionship in her life.

  “I never asked about your mother.”

  “Eighty-one and still going strong.”

  “Will I get to meet her?”

  “Sure. She probably won’t get the lesbian thing, but she’ll

  treat you a lot better than your last mother-in-law.” Leo handed

  her a towel and stepped into the shower as she was getting out.

  “I’ll have to tell Patty. She’s going to say I told you so.”

  “Did she really know you were in love with me, or was she

  just guessing?”

  “We talked about everything. And one time she caught me

  looking at the portfolio we did for that workshop.”

  Claudia smiled at her memories of their attic sessions. She had

  thought of the photos several times, but had decided they might

  be a sore subject, since Maria had told her Leo wasn’t accepted

  into the workshop that year. She assumed that meant they didn’t

  pass muster, but she still wanted to see them eventually, especially

  the nude. “You promised to show me those, you know.”

  “And then you lef
t me to get married to somebody else,” Leo

  said, shaking her head with incredulity. “I refuse to feel guilty

  about not crashing your wedding to show you a photo album.”

  “Do you still have them?”

  “Of course I still have them. They’re locked up in my cedar

  chest. No one’s ever seen them but me.”

  “And the judges.”

  “Not even the judges. I ended up not applying that year. My

  heart wasn’t in it but I hired a model over the summer and shot

  them again in the studio downstairs.”

  Claudia was stunned. “Are you serious? We did all of that

  work and you never even sent them in?”

  “I didn’t want to give them up.” She finished rinsing her hair

  and turned off the shower. “They were all I had left of you. I used

  to sit and stare at them for hours thinking about all that time we

  spent in the attic.”

  She tossed Leo a fresh towel and started filling her toiletry

  bag. “Hurry up and get dressed. I want to see those pictures

  now.”

  Claudia made one last sweep of the suite for her personal

  items. The bellman had carted away all but her purse and Leo’s

  camera bag.

  “I think we should drive straight to Cambria and pack your

  things,” Leo said seriously, pulling her into an embrace at the

  door. “Otherwise I’ll have nightmares about you never coming

  back.”

  Claudia understood that she had to earn Leo’s trust but

  she couldn’t speed up the process. It would come only with the

  passage of time. “I’m under contract for next year in Cambria. I’ll

  break it though if you really need me to.”

  Leo’s jaw twitched before she finally shook her head. “I won’t

  make you do that. But it’s going to be a long year.”

  She recalled wistfully what Leo had said the night before

  about wishing she had chosen for them. “You know what? Forget

  it. I’m going to call my boss on Monday and tell him he has

  six weeks to find someone else. Life’s a lot shorter than it was

  twenty-three years ago and I don’t want to wait another year to

  sleep with you every night.”

  Leo’s face lit up in a bright smile. “Does that mean you’ll live

  with me?”

  “I told you I always wanted a Victorian house.” She wrapped

  0

  her arms around Leo’s neck and pulled her down for a kiss.

  “And I always wanted you,” Leo said, guiding her into the

  hallway toward the elevator.

  Claudia was still grinning when the doors parted on the

  ground floor.

  Marjorie Pettigrew stood beside Big Jim, whose chair was

  being pushed by a bellman. In typical fashion, she looked past

  Claudia as she spoke, as though making direct eye contact was

  beneath her. “I had presumed you would have departed already.”

  “I’m leaving now.” Claudia pulled Leo forward and grasped

  her hand. “Did you have a chance to meet our photographer?”

  “Of course I did. Miss Westcott, isn’t it?” Marjorie’s eyes

  dropped to their joined hands and she shrugged her shoulders

  uneasily. “I’m quite surprised to see you today as well.”

  “Leo stayed the night with me in my bed,” Claudia said

  smugly. “In fact if you ever see me again, you can expect to see

  her too.”

  As realization dawned, her mother-in-law’s face contorted

  with fury. “Don’t think for a minute that I’m going to allow—”

  Claudia lowered her voice but leaned in to make certain the

  woman heard every word. “You don’t allow a fucking thing in

  my life, Marjorie. Eva graduated from college last month. That

  means her father’s trust is vested, so you don’t get to pull our

  strings anymore.”

  With Leo’s hand still firmly in her grasp, she marched to the

  exit, exhilarated to finally be free of Marjorie Pettigrew.

  Leo grinned to see Claudia’s sports car alongside hers in the

  parking area next to her house. The wedding dress was buckled

  into the passenger seat, where Claudia had adorned it with

  sunglasses and a scarf.

  “I can’t believe you made fun of my car and you’re still

  driving a Volvo station wagon that’s older than Miley Cyrus. For

  an artist, that doesn’t say much for your creativity.”

  “It says I’m practical,” Leo said, hoisting the camera bag

  over her shoulder. After a burglary several years ago in which she

  had lost over a hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment—

  fortunately insured—she had installed an alarm system on her

  house and car, and placed security lights around the perimeter.

  “You should bring the lovely lady inside, along with anything else

  you want to keep.”

  “I still love this house.”

  Leo looked with pride at her yard, which she’d had

  professionally landscaped after completing the last round of

  interior renovations. “Wait till you see the inside.” She usually

  entered through the back door, but since she wanted to show off

  the new look they walked around to the front porch.

  “I see you still have your porch swing.”

  “I sit out here and read sometimes…and watch for sports

  cars.”

  She opened the door into the parlor, where the first of many

  renovations leapt out. A long staircase led to the second floor.

  “Oh, my goodness. It doesn’t even look like the same house.”

  Claudia twirled slowly in the parlor, taking in the other changes.

  The seating area was smaller, its centerpiece still the antique

  davenport that had always adorned the entry.

  The living room, which had once been the office and

  showroom, was now formally appointed with contemporary

  classics, a simple leather sofa with a matching loveseat and chair.

  Colorful rugs and throw pillows gave the room a modern flair.

  Opposite the fireplace, which was centered on the outside

  wall, was an archway. “You remember my studio.” A teak table

  with eight place settings sat beneath a bright chandelier. The far

  wall was a picture window that looked out onto a tree and narrow

  strip of yard.

  “You put in a window.”

  “No, it was here already. I just uncovered it.”

  Claudia walked around the table, her fingers trailing along

  the tops of the chairs. “Do you even know seven other people?”

  she teased.

  Leo laughed. “Believe it or not, I hosted Thanksgiving

  dinner last year, and we had to drag in two more chairs from the

  kitchen.”

  “You’re right, I don’t believe you.”

  “It’s true.”

  “What happened to that bashful introvert I used to know?”

  One by one, Leo had expanded her circle of friends—real

  friends. It was easier now that the lesbian community was more

  visible, and it didn’t hurt that her best friend was the most

  outgoing person she knew. “Patty keeps me in the thick of things.

  She likes to throw her parties here because she still lives in a one-

  bedroom condo out near Pebble Beach.”

  Claudia went ahead into the kitchen, which had been

/>   remodeled in granite and mahogany. An island with two barstools

  stood where the small table had once been. “You got rid of the

  back staircase.”

  “It’s the laundry room now. I had to move the second-floor

  bathroom over to where the guest room was because the front

  stairs came up on that side.”

  “This was a huge job.”

  “It took about two years to do it all, but it was worth it. I was

  working out of the new studio by then and I took Madeline with

  me every day.” She led the way back into the parlor and up the

  stairs. The door leading into the turret room was gone, giving the

  whole floor an open feel. It was still her den, but it now doubled

  as an office. Another staircase led to the attic.

  “No more ladder?”

  Leo laughed and shook her head. “I’m too old to climb a

  ladder. Go on up.”

  A king-sized brass bed sat before the front window of the

  turret. A dresser, cedar chest, side table and loveseat completed the

  ensemble. The floors were polished oak, as was the wainscoting

  that met the sloping ceiling. Toward the back end of the house, a

  hallway separated a row of closets from the master bath.

  “Leo, this is stunning.”

  “I might never have done this if not for you. My bed’s right

  where you used to sit.”

  Claudia walked around and sat on the edge. “You can see the

  ocean from here.”

  “I wake up to it every day. Go sit on the loveseat.” She groped

  in her bottom dresser drawer and located the key to the cedar

  chest. The portfolio holding the photographs of Claudia was on

  top, as she had studied them for hours during the week leading

  up to the wedding. She opened to the first.

  “God, I look so young.”

  “It was half a lifetime ago. Do you remember what we were

  trying to do with this one?”

  With the tip of a manicured nail, Claudia traced the outline of

  the stark shadow across her face. “Something about hard light.”

  “That’s right.” Leo flipped to the next one. “And here we

  have the same pose in soft light. See that?” She touched the

  line of Claudia’s brow. “I saw this in the darkroom and thought

  about where it came from. You were talking that day about your

  engagement ring, how it was too big…something Mike wanted

  but you didn’t.”