“Oh, yes. Don't stop.”
Sensing Dana's arousal, Alex continued her exploration of her body. She lifted Dana's hips up and pulled the black dress up over Dana's head, leaving her exposed. She then hooked her thumbs around the waistline of Dana's silk thong. Pulling the garment down and over Dana's thighs and feet, she left the woman completely exposed. Alex then planted quick kisses over her lips and cheeks, whispering, “You are so beautiful. Let me show you how beautiful you are.”
Alex lowered her mouth again to Dana's body and trailed light kisses down her torso until she reached her inner thigh. She looked at Dana once more and placed a soft kiss on her kneecap. Dana gave Alex a slight nod and bit her lip, urging her to proceed. Once Alex got permission, she gently parted Dana's legs and found her center with her mouth. She teased her opening with her tongue and parted her folds. She was pleased to find that Dana was very aroused. She gently sucked her juices and licked her repeatedly, tasting her passion in every movement. Alex thought to herself that if it were her last night on Earth, even the finest wine couldn't compare to the taste of making love to Dana. She continued until Dana bucked and moaned pulling her hair and pushing her deeper and deeper inside her, until she finally lay back, relaxed and satisfied. Alex then changed position and moved herself back up to lie beside Dana and hold her as they both caught their breath.
7.
The following morning when Alex awoke, Dana was already gone. There was a note that read, “I had a great time last night. I need some space though, and some time to clear my head. Love, Dana.”
Alex felt a pang pierce her soul when she realized that Dana probably wouldn't be back. She let out a small sob. She wondered what it was she had done to push her away or make her feel unwanted. She showered and got dressed. She certainly hoped that Dana would return. She was looking forward to them spending the day together and just being happy in one another's arms. Looking at the clock on the wall, she noticed that it was already close to noon. She didn't know what time Dana had dislodged herself from their embrace and snuck out. The only remains of her being were the discarded thong from the previous night, and the scent of her perfume, which still seemed to linger in the air.
****
Dana opened the door to her apartment the following morning and greeted Spark with tearful eyes. She didn't know what she was thinking. Alex had done absolutely nothing wrong. The fact was, she was kind and considerate. She was possibly the most attentive and caring lover she’d ever had. The only problem was Dana had never considered herself to be a lesbian. She never thought she would be on a date with another woman, let alone in bed with one. She decided to take a shower and try to refocus her thoughts. She was so compelled by Alex's beauty. She adored her smile and the light behind her eyes. She loved the way that, when she laughed, it always sounded more like a song, going from loud to soft. In the shower, she stood with her head under the spray for a few minutes, letting the water wash over her tired body and she rolled her neck back trying to relax and get a grip on herself. Thinking back and remembering past relationships, she had always felt that something was off about them, like she was lost and didn't have a map. With Alex, everything suddenly just made sense, and she felt like she had a partner to read the map for her while she drove.
Poor Alex. How would she feel? Would she think that Dana just used her to satisfy her own curiosity and leave? Dana realized Alex was probably worried about her whereabouts, and if she had made it home okay. After exiting the shower and drying off, she put on some sweatpants and a hoodie. Feeling slightly renewed, she decided to take Spark for a walk. The dog needed some exercise and socialization. Dana also needed to get some fresh air and try to deal with her feelings. Grabbing the dog's leash, she led her out to her car and they drove to the park. Dana got out of the car and Spark was excitedly swishing her tail, ready to go exploring. She led Dana down the path and paused periodically to sniff the air. She seemed to be trailing something. Dana thought she probably scented a squirrel or bird. Spark woofed and took off around a bend, almost pulling Dana behind her.
To her shock, she saw what Spark was smelling. It was Bubbles, also excitedly wagging her tail, happy to see both her new friends. Alex was sitting on a bench eating an apple and staring off into the clouds, absentmindedly. She didn't hear Dana approach the bench, and she jumped a bit when Bubbles woofed in a greeting. She looked up at Dana and smiled weakly. Dana stood a little closer to her and then asked, “Hi. Do you mind if I sit down for a moment? My dog really seems to want to get to know yours.”
“Dana. I didn't expect to see you again. Of course you can sit down.”
Dana saw the look of mixed emotions on Alex's face. She was still licking her wounds from being left alone like a one-night stand, and partially hopeful as well. “So, can we talk?” Dana asked.
“Of course we can. I think we need to talk.”
Dana sat down beside Alex and looked at her lovingly. She studied her face and her body. She wanted to trace all of her form and commit it to memory in case Alex just told her to go away. “Listen, Alex. I'm sorry about leaving you this morning. I just couldn't come to terms with…this, with us. I've never had someone so understanding and comfortable in my life. I've also never had this kind of an experience with a woman. So I'm sorry that I left you. It was a very cruel thing to do.”
Reaching over, Alex took Dana's hand and interlaced her fingers with her own. She rubbed her thumb along the outside of Dana's hand, hoping to calm her as well. “Dana, I understand you're afraid. I understand that you're still reeling and probably a bit confused as well. I know I was my first time. I thought that I was evil or disgusting, some type of mutant that must be destroyed. I learned, though, that was a part of me I was never getting rid of, nor did I want it to go away. It was me, plain and simple. So, honey, I've been in your situation. I understand if you want to take some time apart and see if this was just a passing phase for you, or if you were only feeling a bit nostalgic for Steve and wanted a warm body for comfort.”
“No. That's not it at all, Alex. Don't you think that for one moment. What I realized, Alex, is that we both equally need each other. I need you to remind me of all the beautiful things there are in life, and I need you, well, because I'm selfish. No other woman in the world is going to snatch a catch like you up, because I had a momentary lapse in judgment by leaving you. So, can we try again, Alex?”
Alex pulled Dana to her in that moment and didn't say a word. She just kissed her passionately while Bubbles and Spark played together beside the park bench. “Of course we can try again. We can try every single day for the rest of our lives as far as I'm concerned. Dana, ever since that day in the vet's office, you have changed my life and given me hope. So yes, I'm claiming you.” Alex took Dana's hand and brought it up to her lips, kissing it tenderly while their fingers were still linked. They sat that way, holding hands on the park bench, until they saw the coming sunset threatening the horizon. When the dusk was illuminated by shades of brilliant reds and oranges, Dana rested her head on Alex's shoulder, softly saying, “I'm never going anywhere again. This is home.”
The Preacher’s Daughter
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Chapter 1
Cassidy pulled a slat of the blinds down and looked listlessly out at the small pool in the motel’s courtyard. A few errant leaves and bugs floated in the water and sunlight glinted on its surface. With a sigh she turned away from the window, she got a beer out of the fridge, and sat down at the room’s small table.
She pulled a pack of Lucky Strikes out of her shirt pocket, put one between her lips and lit it. She toyed idly with the book of matches as she smoked, sorting through too many thoughts and emotions that had been piling up over the previous week.
It felt strange to be back in Mason again aft
er all this time, and truth be told she would just as soon never have set foot here again. Too much of the past dwelt in this town. She had barely come back since the accident and her mother’s death. She had been 16 then, still a child, and had had no choice but to move in with her father in Chicago.
She had come back here to visit a few times, but it proved to be too painful. Everywhere she looked, every street she turned down, held a memory of her mother. It had taken her grandmother’s death to bring her back here again.
It had come as a shock to the whole family. At 73, Ada Bledsoe had still been in good health, spending her days tending the garden she had always so loved outside the old two story house in which Cassidy had spent so much of her childhood.
She tended to her husband as well, who had not aged quite as well as she had. No one had ever doubted that she would outlive him by a matter of years. But the heart attack had claimed her suddenly, without so much as a whisper of warning.
It had been two weeks now since her funeral, and still Cassidy was hesitant to head back to Chicago. She wanted nothing more than to get behind the wheel of her old blue Mustang and put as many miles between her and this town as she possibly could before sundown. She had felt that way every day since she’d first arrived.
But she knew that she couldn’t do that. Not yet, at least. She couldn’t leave things as they stood with Grandpa Paul. With Ada gone, there had been some debate as to who would take over his care. None of Ada’s children wanted the responsibility, despite the fact that the man had raised them as his own after their own father had walked out on them.
In the end, they had moved him out of the old two story house where he and Ada had shared so many years and into the Whispering Oaks nursing home. Cassidy had been outraged, but her hands had been tied. There wasn’t a lot she would be able to do once she returned to Chicago.
And she would have to return soon. Her father would not hold her job at the shop for her forever.
Just a while longer, she thought. Just until I’m sure that Grandpa Paul’s settled into the new place okay.
She mashed out her cigarette angrily in the glass ashtray that sat on the table and took a sip of her beer. He deserved better than this, but damned if she knew what to do about it.
She glanced at the red numbers of the clock on the nightstand. 6:15. With a sigh she got up, grabbed her beaten copy of T.S. Eliot poems, and stepped outside into the reluctantly fading Texas heat. After locking the door of her room she got into the Mustang, set the book on the passenger seat, and reached for her seatbelt.
She cursed as it burned her, too hot to touch after sitting beneath the unrelenting sun all afternoon. That was one thing she wouldn’t miss when she returned home. She leaned over and reached into the passenger floorboard, retrieving a dingy rag that she usually used when she checked her oil. She used it to protect her fingers as she fastened the seatbelt. She was grateful for the cloth cover on the steering wheel.
She lit a cigarette, put the Mustang into first gear, and turned left out of the motel parking lot toward Whispering Oaks. It had become her routine over the past week to go and read to Grandpa Paul in the evening, after he had taken his supper. The book had been his gift to her on her 15th birthday. He had been determined to instill in her his love for poetry and books.
The Mustang’s air conditioning had only just begun to make a dent in the heat by the time she pulled into the Whispering Oaks parking lot. Cassidy put the Mustang into first gear, shut off the engine, and set the emergency brake before getting out and making her way toward the nursing home. She didn’t bother locking the doors. There was no need to in this town.
When she walked through the double doors she was greeted by a wall of cool, air conditioned air, heavy with the distinctive scent that belongs only to those places where the elderly go to die. She was growing uncomfortably accustomed to it. She greeted the nurse at the front desk with a curt nod before heading down the hallway toward room 317, Grandpa Paul’s room.
She stopped just short of it, listening to the voices that drifted out into the hallway. One of the voices was an unending stream of monotone gibberish.
Must be the new roommate, Cassidy thought. She had forgotten that he was being moved in today. The nurse had mentioned that he wasn’t quite with it. Boy, had that been an understatement. The other two voices were raised slightly. From the sound of it, Cassidy couldn’t decide if they were raised in anger, or if they were simply trying to be heard above the endless drone of Grandpa Paul’s new roommate.
“I’m tellin’ you, I want to go home. You have no right to keep me in this place!” Definitely anger then.
“And I’m tellin’ you, old man, that there’s no way that can happen. Who’s gonna look after you? You damn sure can’t do it yourself.”
I see Lester hasn’t changed a bit, Cassidy thought with distaste.
She had to tamp down the urge to burst through the door and punch him right in his smug face.
She had never understood how her uncle had wound up so mean spirited. She ground her teeth as she stepped into the room. Grandpa Paul shut his mouth against whatever reply he had been about to make and worked to school his face into a mask of neutrality.
Lester changed expressions effortlessly, a too-wide smile replacing his sneer between one breath and the next.
“Why, Cassidy!” he gushed. “I had no idea you were still in town. What brings you here?” he asked, indicating the cramped room. Cassidy crossed her arms.
“Lester,” she said flatly, ignoring his question. She stared at him for a moment until the false smile slid off his face and he dropped his eyes.
“Cass here comes and reads to me in the evenin’s,” Grandpa Paul interjected. “So if you’ll excuse us.”
Lester threw up his hands in exasperation and stormed out without another word. Cassidy sat down in the chair next to Grandpa Paul’s bed and they sat in silence, listening to his roommate’s continuing litany of nonsense.
“Got a new roommate today,” he said straight faced after a long moment. Cassidy couldn’t hold back the smile that came across her face.
“I hadn’t noticed,” she said with a laugh. “Does he ever quit?”
“Not to my knowledge, no,” he answered dryly. “Name’s Ralph, the nurse says. Seems like a nice enough fella.”
“Jeez.”
They both broke into laughter for a moment. Then Cassidy sobered.
“Listen, Grandpa, about Uncle Lester…”
“Bah. Never mind him,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I don’t want to talk about him. I want to hear The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” He nodded toward the book in her hand.
“Sure thing,” she said with a thin smile. She opened the book and flipped through it until she found the poem. It only took her a moment. The poem was one of her favorites and she had turned to it many times before. Grandpa Paul leaned his head back and closed his eyes as he listened to her read, doing his best to tune out the incessant ramblings from the other side of the small room.
When she was done she closed the book and set it in her lap. Neither of them said anything for a long moment.
“Thank you,” he finally said.
“Anytime,” Cassidy replied. “You gonna be able to get any sleep with him carryin’ on like that?” she asked.
“I guess we’ll see,” Grandpa Paul said with a shrug. “I figure he’s gotta stop eventually.”
“Yeah,” Cassidy agreed. “Listen, I’ll stop by and see you in the mornin’. That donut shop down on the square still open?”
“It is.”
“Great. I’ll bring you some donuts and coffee.”
“That would be good,” he said with a smile.
Chapter 2
The next morning Cassidy woke early and made her way to the donut shop. The bell above the door chimed as she walked in and Mrs. Goodwin poked her head through the doorway that led to the back.
“Why, Cassidy Winters!” she exclaimed when she
saw Cassidy. “I almost didn’t recognize you. Let me get a good look at you!” She made her way around the counter, put her hands on Cassidy’s shoulders and held her at arm’s length as she looked her up and down.
“Hi, Mrs. Goodwin,” Cassidy said, enduring the inspection as good naturedly as she could.
Mrs. Goodwin ran a finger through Cassidy’s short, black hair, clicking her tongue in mild disapproval.
“What did you do to your hair? You always had such beautiful hair. It’s a good thing you’ve got such a pretty face or folks’d mistake you for a man! How do you expect to ever find a husband that way?”
Cassidy opened her mouth to say that, being a lesbian, it was very doubtful she’d find a husband regardless of what she did to her hair, but thought better of it. Mrs. Goodwin meant well and there was no sense in opening that particular can of worms right now. She just let her chatter on until she was out of steam.
Mrs. Goodwin rang up half a dozen donuts and two cups of coffee for Cassidy as she talked.
“Well,” she said, more serious now that she was done inspecting Cassidy and giving her rapid-fire dating advice. “Tell me, dear, how are you?”
“Makin’ it, I suppose,” Cassidy said with a shrug. Mrs. Goodwin nodded.
“I was so sorry to hear about your grandmother,” she said sincerely. “She was a great woman.”
“She was,” Cassidy agreed.
“It’s a good thing you’re here now,” Mrs. Goodwin continued. “Nice to know there’s somebody around who’ll look after your granddad. Lord knows those good for nothin’ sons o’ his ain’t gonna do it. No offense, I know they’re your kin and all, but…”
Dana's Discovery Page 3
