Change of Pace

by Jae

  “Very considerate of you,” Sophie said.

  Del couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or criticism. While she had learned to read Kade and hear what she didn’t say, Sophie had perfected the polite mask over the years.

  “Hi.” Kade rushed into the restaurant, making a few heads turn - Del’s included. Kade bent down to peck her mother’s cheek.

  Del was used to the warm interaction between Dawn and her mother, and this formal greeting made her sad for both of them.

  * * *

  “Hello, Mother. How was your flight?” Kade asked as she sat down next to Del.

  Del moved a plate of chicken fajita, Kade’s favorite Mexican dish, in front of her. Her stomach growled in appreciation, reminding Kade that she hadn’t eaten all day. “Thank you,” she said. She wanted to say so much more, wanted to kiss Del hello, but under the watchful eyes of her mother, she settled for giving Del’s thigh a soft squeeze under the table.

  Del’s fingers covered hers and squeezed back, starting a silent conversation of squeezes and gentle caresses while Kade made small talk with her mother.

  “Dessert?” Del finally asked when the waitress returned to collect their empty plates.

  “No, thank you,” Kade answered automatically. She almost never ordered dessert but for the last few months had always ended up sharing Del’s.

  Sophie critically appraised the caramel flan the waitress set down in front of Del a few minutes later.

  For a moment, Kade envied the undaunted way in which Del enjoyed her caramel-custard-covered dessert.

  Del looked up and met her gaze. “Want some? It’s really good.”

  Kade knew that, in the privacy of their apartments, Del would have offered her a bit of the flan by holding the spoon to her lips. Then she would have kissed off all the imaginary traces of caramel. In more public settings, Del had always respected Kade’s unease with open displays of affection. It wasn’t only that Kade was still getting used to being in a lesbian relationship and working on being more open about it. She had never been a fan of public displays of affection, even when she had dated men. “No, thanks,” she said. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, it was hard not to seek her mother’s approval even in things like her eating habits.

  “So I thought we could visit the Portland Art Museum tomorrow and PICA on Sunday,” Sophie continued to announce her plans for her stay in Portland.

  That finally got Kade’s attention. “Tomorrow?” She exchanged a quick glance with Del. “We already have other plans tomorrow.”

  “Certainly nothing that couldn’t be postponed,” Sophie said with determination.

  Kade allowed her anger to surface a little. “We promised to help two friends move into a new apartment. I don’t think they want to postpone moving just because you decided to visit two days earlier than planned.”

  Sophie set down her wineglass. “I came all the way from Ashland, and now you don’t even take the time to spend a few hours with me?”

  “I would have taken the time. I cleared my schedule to spend time with you - on Sunday and Monday, when you said you would visit,” Kade said, trying hard to keep her voice low and calm. “Now you inform me that you’re coming two days early and just expect me to cancel all my plans? I have other obligations too, Mother!” She hated the way her mother still tried to control her life and her time.

  “Other obligations?” Sophie repeated. “Does that mean you consider spending time with your mother an obligation?”

  Kade swallowed the angry “yes” with a gulp of too expensive wine and just stared at her mother.

  She felt Del lay a calming hand on her knee. “Why don’t you come with us tomorrow?” Del suggested. “I know Kade would love to introduce you to her friends.”

  Oh, don’t bother, Del, Kade thought. She has never really been interested in me, much less my friends.

  Sophie gave Del an appreciative nod. “At least your friend has the manners not to expect me to spend the day on my own,” she said to Kade.

  My friend? Del is much more than my friend, and you know it! Kade said nothing, though. After a day of nerve-racking arguments and legal fights, she just wanted to spend a quiet evening and not start World War III with her mother.

  “So you’ll come with us?” Del asked. How she managed to sound so sincerely pleased was beyond Kade.

  Even Sophie blinked, clearly caught a little off guard by Del’s enthusiasm. “I’ll come with you,” she finally said.

  Great. Kade took another sip of wine. U-hauling a lesbian couple… Mother is going to love it!

  CHAPTER 2

  “JUST A LITTLE to the right. Use the other hand too,” Dawn instructed. “Yes, yes, that’s good.”

  “There?” Aiden asked.

  Dawn pressed closer against her. “That’s it… just a little more… Yes! There!”

  “What are you doing in there, girls?” Dawn’s mother called from the hallway.

  Dawn chuckled as Aiden hit her head at the unexpected interruption. She peered over Aiden’s shoulder and saw the cat move even deeper under the bed. “Still trying to get Kia into her transport box,” she called back. “Aiden is trying now since she has longer arms, but so far, Kia has managed to outsmart us both.”

  Aiden turned around in the cramped space halfway under the bed. “She probably thinks I’m in here having my way with you,” she whispered and nipped Dawn’s ear.

  Aiden’s lips on her ear caused pleasant shudders to race up and down Dawn’s body. “My mother is thinking no such thing,” she protested.

  “No?” Aiden trailed a line of openmouthed kisses down Dawn’s jaw and neck. “You mean she won’t suspect a thing if I actually do?”

  “Hey, you two!” Grace called through the still closed door. “Get a move on! Cal will be here any minute with the moving van! You can make out later.”

  Aiden jerked back, making Dawn laugh. “No, honey,” Dawn said, patting Aiden’s cheek, “I’m sure she won’t suspect a thing.”

  * * *

  When Dawn finally carried the transport box with its loudly complaining inhabitant out of the bedroom, her mother was just saying hello to Laurie and Evan. “Hey, you two,” Dawn said. “Good to see you.”

  Laurie, Kade’s sixteen-year-old niece, came over to give Dawn a hug, and Dawn embraced Evan too, despite her halfhearted protests. Dawn knew that she was the only adult whom Evan allowed to hug her. “I really appreciate you taking the time to come and help us move,” Dawn told the two teenagers.

  “I only do it because I’m bored,” Evan claimed. “There’s nothing on TV…”

  “…and you ran out of weed?” Dawn finished what Evan had once told her almost four months ago when Dawn had still been her therapist.

  “Well, I gave that up. Maybe that’s why I’m so bored that carrying moving boxes all day sounds like a nice change of pace, huh?” Evan grinned, never one to admit that she had volunteered to help just for the sake of helping someone she liked.

  Laurie casually hooked her fingers through the belt loops of Evan’s jeans, obviously at ease with that little sign of belonging together now that it was just Dawn watching them. “I thought Aiden said she’d move in with you?”

  Dawn looked around her little apartment. She had just moved here nine months before, and she had been reluctant to give it up, but she knew getting a new apartment together would make both of them feel more at home. “We talked about that, yes, but we finally decided that a bigger apartment would be better,” she answered. Aiden needed a room of her own, where she could retreat whenever she needed a little time to herself. “It’ll be nice to have an extra room, and if we decide to have a baby one day, my little apartment would be too small.”

  Evan groaned at the word “baby.”

  Dawn gave her a gentle nudge. “No groaning about your future niece or nephew, please. Once you’re an aunt, your days of boredom will be over.” She knew that Evan, growing up in foster care, had twice been replaced by a baby being born int
o the foster family, so she wanted to let her know right away that any future plans of family included her too.

  Aiden came out of the bedroom, carrying a large moving box. “Who’s bored?” she asked.

  “No one,” Evan said a little too quickly.

  “Come on,” Aiden said. “You can help me dismantle the bed.”

  “I said I wasn’t bored,” Evan protested but followed Aiden and Laurie into the bedroom.

  Dawn chuckled and went to help her mother pack up the last few items in the kitchen.

  * * *

  “You’re humming,” Grace said as she closed the last moving box. Dawn had hummed and whistled all morning.

  Dawn looked up and smiled at her. “I am? Sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. It isn’t bothering me,” Grace said. “I love seeing you so happy.” After everything that had happened to Dawn last year, Grace had feared her daughter would never again be truly happy.

  “I am happy,” Dawn agreed, smiling even brighter.

  “Oh, just wait until she starts to squeeze the tube of toothpaste from the wrong end,” Grace warned playfully.

  Dawn laughed. She abandoned the moving boxes and walked over to Grace, pulling her into a tight embrace. “Thank you, Mom,” she whispered. “Thank you for all your support and for welcoming Aiden into the family.”

  “Hush,” Grace said, feeling tears threaten. “You’re my daughter. You’ll always have my support, no matter what. And Aiden is a wonderful addition to the family. I know your father would have thought so too.”

  “He would have kicked your butts for standing here chatting while there’s still so much work to do,” Del’s voice came from the doorway.

  Grace slowly let go of Dawn and turned to her best friend. One glance showed her that Del’s dark eyes were a little moist too, but she ignored it with a smile, not wanting to embarrass her friend. “That’s what you’re here for,” she answered.

  “Yeah, and I even brought help,” Del said. “Kade and her mother are in the living room.”

  “Her mother?” Grace repeated. She had barely gotten used to the fact that Del had a girlfriend, and now it seemed there was a whole family involved.

  Del nodded. “She came to visit Kade two days early, and now she’s giving Kade a hard time about not bending over backwards to spend time with her.”

  “So you brought her with you to help us move? Del, really!” Dawn shook her head. “I doubt that was what she had in mind when she came to spend time with Kade.”

  Del shrugged unrepentantly. “She has a big chip on her shoulder, and she’s less than supportive of Kade, so I thought it would be good to introduce her to family interaction 101.”

  “And you want us to teach that course?” Dawn asked.

  “Oh, no. Just be yourself. If Sophie is as clever as her daughter, she’ll learn just by watching,” Del said.

  Dawn’s expression made it clear she was less than convinced. “What if she’s also as stubborn as her daughter?”

  “Well,” Del said, “then anything could happen.”

  CHAPTER 3

  “HEY, KADE.” Aiden couldn’t help staring as Kade entered the living room. She could count the number of times she had seen Kade in anything but custom-tailored power suits on one hand. Kade Matheson in jeans, an old T-shirt, and with her red hair pulled back into a ponytail was a rare treat.

  Their working relationship had slowly developed into a timid friendship over the last few months, so Aiden stepped forward and hugged Kade for a moment.

  She was amazed by a sudden realization. This feels so… wrong. Well, no, not really wrong, but… It wasn’t that she felt guilty for hugging Kade. Dawn had always encouraged her to build a friendship with Kade, and Aiden knew she would be fine with her hugging Kade. Aiden embraced Kade for a few seconds longer while she tried to figure it out.

  Looking down at the red strands, she noticed that Kade was a few inches taller than Dawn’s familiar five-four. Her less obvious curves met Aiden’s body in all the wrong places. Aiden suddenly realized that she had been comparing everything in her life, every woman she met, with Dawn on an unconscious level for some time now. The cooking of Ray’s wife was not as good as Dawn’s, the eyes of SAD’s new detective not as expressive as Dawn’s gray-green irises, and Kade’s confident elegance was no longer more attractive than Dawn’s gentle warmth.

  With a laugh, she let go of Kade. Only then did she realize that they were not alone in the living room.

  * * *

  Sophie stopped in the doorway and watched as the stranger greeted Kadence. The warm embrace surprised her. She had never seen anyone greet Kadence in such a way. Are they…? Is she…? She let her analytical gaze slide over the tall, short-haired woman. Isn’t she one of the officers working with Kadence? She had only met Kadence’s colleagues once, so she wasn’t sure.

  Finally, Kadence and the stranger separated and turned toward her, but at the same moment, the doorbell rang and half a dozen more moving helpers arrived while others came in from the bedroom. Suddenly, the noise level went up as all around Sophie hugs were exchanged, jokes were thrown back and forth, and children chattered excitedly. Sophie suppressed the urge to cover her ears. What is this - moving day or a wild party?

  “Hi, Grandmother Sophie,” a young voice said behind her.

  Sophie turned around and came face-to-face with her granddaughter. “Laurel? What are you doing here?”

  “I’m helping them move. Aiden is Evan’s sister,” Laurel explained, pointing at someone within the throng of laughing and hugging people.

  “Aiden? Evan?” Sophie still didn’t understand what Laurel had to do with this group of adults.

  Laurel nodded and tugged on the sleeve of someone right next to them. “Grandmother, this is Evan - my girlfriend.”

  Sophie stared at her granddaughter’s face, noticing the pride and nervousness in Laurel’s expression. Then her glance wandered to the teenager next to her. She felt her eyebrows rise higher and higher as she took in the worn leather jacket, the tattoo peeking out of the neck of a black T-shirt, and the very short hair of the tough-looking girl. Oh, good God! No wonder Laurel broke her arm when she was with this… this… She shook her head. How could her parents allow this? I need to have a serious talk with Douglas!

  The girl wiped her hand on her jeans and offered it to Sophie. “Hi,” she said.

  “Hello,” Sophie murmured, and only her good manners made her shake the girl’s hand.

  “It’s really super of you to come and help them move,” Laurel said. “Has anyone introduced you to Dawn? I know you’ll love her. She really is the coolest woman. She’s even letting me ask her all these questions about becoming a psychologist.”

  Sophie stopped her granddaughter’s rambling with a raised hand. “Becoming a psychologist?” She frowned.

  “Yeah. That’s what I want to do. My grades are good enough,” Laurel said defensively.

  “I think it’s great,” the girl next to her said.

  Sophie shot her a quick glance but didn’t bother to answer the irrelevant remark. “Your grades are good enough to do anything,” she emphasized. “Why would you want to become a psychologist?” Never before had a Matheson made her living dealing with other people’s problems and inadequacies.

  “I want to help people and make a difference in their lives, just the way Dawn did for Evan,” Laurel explained earnestly.

  “Mother,” Kadence interrupted them at just the wrong moment, “would you mind riding in the moving van with Cal and Dawn? We need the space in Del’s SUV to transport a few more moving boxes.”

  Riding in a moving van… Sophie sighed. I wonder what the rest of the day will bring.

  * * *

  Sophie cleared her throat and gave the blond woman who had introduced herself as Dawn Kinsley a pointed look.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” Ms. Kinsley said, finally noticing that she had hummed along with some rock song for the last five minutes.

  Sophi
e breathed a sigh of relief as Ms. Kinsley turned off the moving van’s radio. She glanced at the man behind the steering wheel, and then studied Ms. Kinsley, who was practically bouncing in her seat. While Sophie normally didn’t approve of such wriggling and fidgeting, she gave the younger woman a lenient smile. It was good to see a young couple so happy about moving in together. Sophie couldn’t remember ever being so overjoyed during her marriage.

  “So, this is the big day,” Sophie commented, trying to be nice to Kadence’s friend.

  Ms. Kinsley beamed at her. “Yes.”

  “Needless to ask if you’re looking forward to it,” Sophie said.

  “Yeah,” the man behind the wheel growled. “I can’t remember you being this excited when we moved in together.”

  Sophie looked from one to the other in confusion.

  “Cal,” Ms. Kinsley said. She reached over Sophie and squeezed his arm for a moment. “We talked about this. It has nothing to do with you.”

  Sophie tried to understand what was going on. “So you are not moving in together?” she asked.

  “Been there, done that,” the man named Cal grumbled.

  “No.” Ms. Kinsley shook her head. “We’re divorced.”

  “Oh.” Sophie refrained from saying anything more. She’s barely thirty and already divorced? She and Douglas Sr. had always stuck together, through good and bad times. Neither of us cried for a divorce at the first sign of trouble!

  “I’m moving in with Aiden,” Ms. Kinsley explained.

  Aiden… Sophie knew someone had mentioned that name before, but during the chaotic introductions, she had lost track of all the names and faces. Well, it can’t be too hard to guess. All but three or four of Kadence’s friends seem to be women. She discounted the tall, black detective and the older Asian man, so that left only their younger colleague. Sophie wasn’t sure, but she thought his name was Rufus or Ruben or something similar. “Oh, so it’s that dark-haired detective with the nice smile.”