Beyond the Breakwater

by Radclyffe

  “Fine.” Tory took her hand again. “It was nice to be away with you, even for a checkup.”

  “How about I drive over to the beach, and we take a look at the ocean.”

  “Nice. I’d like that.”

  A few moments later, Reese parked in front of the ranger’s station and helped Tory climb from the Blazer. “Do you want to walk down to the beach, or to the lighthouse?”

  “The lighthouse, I think.”

  They held hands and took their time walking down the winding sand path between low scrubs to the lighthouse that stood at the curve of the tip of Cape Cod as it stretched out into the Atlantic Ocean.

  Reese smoothed the sand free of pebbles and needles at the base of the stone structure. “Is this okay?”

  “Perfect.” Tory eased down with a sigh.

  Reese settled beside her and slid an arm behind Tory’s shoulder. For a few moments, they were silent, basking in the June sun and watching the sailboats and larger crafts track across the ocean in front of them.

  “Tell me how worried I should be about what’s happening,” Reese said at length.

  “For now, not too.” Tory rested her cheek against Reese’s shoulder. She turned slightly so she could thread her arm around Reese’s waist, drawing her knee gently over Reese’s thigh until she was reclining in her lover’s arms. “Everything has been stable except for the blood pressure, and that hasn’t really changed very much.”

  “How long until the baby has a good chance?”

  “God, you always go right for the heart of things, don’t you, Sheriff?”

  Reese tightened her hold. “I don’t know the things you know. But I need to, because I want to be prepared.”

  “Like Wendy said, thirty-seven weeks is usually the point when labor is induced in situations like this. But many times, a few weeks earlier and the baby will do fine.”

  “So, we need at least another eight or nine, right?”

  “That would be good.”

  “I don’t want you to train anymore.” Reese gently massaged Tory’s back.

  Tory was still for a moment, and then she tilted her chin and kissed the underside of Reese’s jaw. “Okay.”

  “And you’ll do half-shifts at the clinic?”

  “Yep.”

  “Do you know how much I love you?” Reese asked, looking into Tory’s eyes.

  “I do.” Tory kissed her, slow and deep and thoroughly. When she drew her head back, she smiled, knowing from the way Reese’s eyes had darkened that the kiss had had its intended effect. “Do you know how much I love you?”

  “I can make a pretty good guess,” Reese murmured softly, running her free hand up and down Tory’s arm.

  “Make sure you get home on time from work tonight, and you won’t have to guess.”

  *

  “Everything okay?” Nelson questioned the instant Reese walked into the office just after four p.m.

  “Yep. Perfect.” Reese nodded to Gladys, who responded with a thumbs-up gesture and a smile. Reese removed her hat, put it on the corner of her desk, and looked around the room. “Is Bri out on patrol?”

  “Yep.” Nelson closed one folder and opened another. “She’s out on a call with Smith, checking out a complaint about a noisy dog.”

  “Now, Chief,” Reese said with a grin, “she could handle that by herself.”

  “I know that. I wanted to make sure Smith had some backup.” He laughed. “Don’t forget the time Smith had the seat torn out of his pants by a pit bull he was trying to corral.”

  “I remember. I’m sure he does, too.” Chuckling, Reese settled behind her desk to examine the pile of memos in her intake box.

  “Anything new on the firebug?” Nelson asked.

  “No.” Reese frowned. “We’ve got his description out to all the departments on the Cape. We still haven’t identified the body from the fire in Truro, but it’s probably going to turn out to be a vagrant, if we ever get an ID on him at all.”

  “Any reason to think the perp’s still around here?”

  “Not that I can figure out.” Still, Reese had a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that their arsonist hadn’t moved on to greener pastures. “There’s nothing in his background that targets this particular location, as far as I can tell. The insurance company he used to work for insures properties all over New England, with a concentration in lower Massachusetts and Rhode Island. If there’s something keeping him around here, I don’t know what it might be.”

  “You know how it goes. Usually it’s some trivial detail that you never find out until you catch the guy,” Nelson observed. “It could be something as simple as he used to vacation here every summer. Who the hell knows? The guy is nuts.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So…Bri graduates, formally, in a couple of weeks.” Nelson squared the papers on his desk into neat piles.

  “I know.” Reese looked up from her own paperwork and studied him.

  He met her eyes and grinned sheepishly. “I put in for her to be assigned here permanently.”

  “Good.” Reese grinned back. “I was going to suggest it, if you didn’t. She’s a good officer, Nelson, and this is her home. She’s good with the people, and she’s happy here.”

  “Is she?” His voice was solemn and his expression serious. “She’s been coming around for dinner a couple times a week, but she never says much.”

  “She’s doing okay, Nelson,” Reese replied to his unasked question. Since the fire in Truro, Bri had done nothing but work hard every day, performing in an exemplary fashion. She spent her evenings at home with Reese and Tory, trained in the dojo every morning before work, and seemed to have found some new level of peace.

  “Caroline’s going to be here the end of this week.”

  “Then I’d say that might be the only thing Bri needs to be really okay.”

  “Jesus,” Nelson said wistfully. “I hope so.”

  *

  When the door to Bri’s room opened a little after seven on Friday night, Tory looked up from the couch where she sat reading a magazine. Her young house guest crossed the room toward her, a faintly uneasy look on her face.

  “Nervous?” Tory asked kindly. They were alone in the house, because Reese was at the dojo teaching a class. Ordinarily, Bri would have been with her assisting, but tonight was an exception.

  “Jesus, yes.” Bri’s voice was tight and clipped. “Dumb, huh?”

  “No.” Tory shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think it’s pretty sweet.”

  Bri blushed furiously. Then, almost shyly, she asked, “Do I…uh…look okay?”

  Giving the question due respect, Tory took in the new black jeans, the polished black boots, and the crisp white shirt. Bri looked like Bri always looked, lean and sleek and slightly dangerous. “You look great. I’m sure the only thing that’s going to matter to Caroline is that you’re there to see her.”

  “It feels pretty weird visiting her at my own house, where we used to sleep in my bedroom together. And now she lives there and I don’t.”

  “Things have changed now, Bri. You were kids then, and you’re not any longer.”

  Bri settled a hip on the arm of the sofa and regarded Tory solemnly. “If you were Carre, what would you want from me now?”

  Tory almost smiled, but she managed not to. Sometimes, Bri was so much like Reese—totally guileless and without a clue as to how attractive that was. No wonder every young lesbian with a heartbeat on the Cape was after her. “Caroline loves you, Bri. I’m sure all she needs to know is that you love her, too.”

  “I do.” Bri searched Tory’s eyes. “But I’ve messed things up, and now I’m not sure she believes me.”

  “Trust is a terribly fragile thing,” Tory said gently. “You know that, right?”

  Bri nodded. She had become very still and every ounce of her attention was riveted on Tory’s face.

  “The first step is to tell her what you feel, everything that you feel, as honestly as you can. If you’re
scared, or not sure of how you feel, or even if you’re not sure if you love her—”

  “No,” Bri interrupted vehemently. “I am sure.”

  “Then tell her all those things.” Tory waited a beat, and then continued softly, “But sometimes, sweetie, when we’ve hurt someone or shaken their trust in us, it just takes time for that to get better.”

  “Do you think it will ever be okay?” Bri’s voice was hoarse with the effort to hold back tears.

  “I do.” Tory’s voice was certain and sure. “I have faith in you. Both of you.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Bri walked down the gravel path, zipped her leathers, and straddled her motorcycle. She tried not to think too hard about what she should say; she was afraid that if she did, she’d blow it. The house she had grown up in was only a mile from Reese and Tory’s. Going west into Provincetown, just before 6A split to become Bradford and Commercial, a narrow street ran north into the scrub pines. The Parkers’ tidy two-story Cape Codder with its small yard and tiny front porch was one of several on the street. A sheriff’s cruiser was pulled over in front of the house, so she knew her dad was home.

  She parked in the narrow driveway and walked up the familiar front steps. There she hesitated, uncertain whether to knock or go in. It felt strange even coming to the front door, and stranger still to be picking up her girlfriend for a date. Before she could make up her mind, the door opened, and she was face to face with her father.

  “Hi,” she said quickly.

  “Hey, Bri.” Nelson made a motion with his head toward the interior of the house. “Caroline said she’d be right down.” He looked at her awkwardly for a second. “You...uh...want to come in?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Bri followed him into the living room. The television was on in one corner, turned down low and tuned to some kind of reality program. She stared at it as her father sat down, but she had no idea what she was seeing. She rocked uneasily from foot to foot. It had been almost two months since she’d seen Caroline.

  “Hi, Bri,” a soft voice said from somewhere quite close by.

  Bri jumped, startled, and looked toward the stairs that led down from the upper floor, separating the living room and dining room. Caroline stood halfway down, dressed in a scoop-neck black Lycra top and hip-hugger blue jeans. A thin silver belt of interlocking links was looped around her waist. The end trailed down one thigh.

  Bri’s mouth was suddenly dry. How could she have forgotten how hot Caroline was? Only when a puzzled expression replaced Caroline’s initial tentative smile of welcome did Bri find her voice.

  “Hi, ba—uh, Carre.”

  Nelson cleared his throat and stood up from his recliner in front of the television. Christ, he felt like he was watching his kid on her first date, and come to think of it, he guessed he was. When Bri had been a teenager, she’d kept her relationship with Caroline a secret, and by the time he’d found out about it, they’d been well past the courtship stage. He’d never seen them together in the beginning, and he was just now realizing how glad he was to have a second chance. The funny thing was, looking from Caroline to Bri, he couldn’t decide which one he wanted to protect more. Hell, he loved them both.

  “So, you two doing anything interesting?”

  “Uh...” Bri’s eyes devoured Caroline even as she stood rooted to the spot. “I was wondering if you’d like to go to the movies? They’re showing Bound again at the Cinema Arts, and I know you’ve seen it, but—”

  “I’d love to go,” Caroline said quickly. She descended the stairs and crossed the small room to Bri’s side. She wanted to throw her arms around her. If it had been any other time that they’d been apart, she would have. Now, she felt shy and uncertain. Bri had said that there was no one else, but it seemed like forever since they had been together. She knew hardly anything of what had happened to Bri in the last few months, and she couldn’t quite bring herself to touch her. “Eight o’clock?”

  “Uh-huh.” Bri lifted a hand, automatically reaching for Caroline’s, and then stopped. Softly, she said, “We should go now.”

  “Okay,” Caroline replied, her eyes holding Bri’s.

  Nelson coughed and broke the spell. “Well, you two have fun. And be careful.” As the two young women turned and started toward the door, he cleared his throat. “Just so I know, uh, should I expect you back tonight?”

  He’d left the question intentionally vague, because he couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. His daughter was living with his second in command, and her girlfriend was living with him. The two of them had lived together here for several months before leaving for college. He’d known then they were lovers, but it had all been so new to him that he had managed to avoid really thinking about the particulars. Now, it was pretty clear that what kept these two together was the same thing that kept a man and woman together—love and everything that went with it, including sex. Except they weren’t married, so he had no idea what the protocol was now.

  “I will be back later,” Caroline said immediately.

  “Okay then.” He tried to act as if he hadn’t seen Bri flinch slightly at the answer.

  “I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Dad,” Bri said before closing the door.

  Once outside, they walked to the motorcycle and Bri climbed on. A few seconds later, Caroline followed, as she had done hundreds of times before. When she wrapped her arms around Bri’s waist from behind, automatically sliding warm palms over Bri’s stomach, Bri shivered and dropped the keys. When Caroline tightened her hold and rested her cheek against the back of Bri’s leather-jacketed shoulder, Bri spoke without turning around. “You look beautiful.”

  “You look great, too.”

  Bri’s entire body twitched as she felt Caroline’s hot breath against the back of her neck. Then she put one leg down and leaned over, groping on the ground for her keys. When she found them, her hands were shaking so badly she barely managed to get them into the ignition. “Hold on.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I will.”

  The sound of the engine drowned out Caroline’s reply.

  *

  The small theater in the center of town was crowded, mostly with gays and lesbians, but also with a fair number of ordinary tourists as well. Caroline and Bri found seats near the back just as the show started.

  Fifteen minutes after the movie had begun, Caroline reached between the seats and found Bri’s left hand, linking their fingers together.

  Bri stared straight ahead at the screen, but her entire focus was riveted on the small points of contact between her body and Caroline’s. Where the outside of her thigh rested against Caroline’s leg, where the point of her shoulder touched Caroline’s arm, where the insides of her fingers fused with Caroline’s smaller ones. It was as if life flowed into her through those small areas of connection—a sensation more exciting than anything she had experienced in weeks.

  Her breathing suddenly ragged, Bri struggled with a mass of conflicting emotions. It was so good to be with Caroline again, but being this close to her and unable to touch her was making Bri crazy. She wanted to kiss Caroline more at that moment than she had ever wanted to kiss her in her life. Even when they had first been together, she hadn’t felt this deep, aching need. Back then, as a teenager, she had been neither sure of her welcome nor certain of her worthiness. All she had known was the pain of being different, and it had been hard to believe that Caroline really wanted her. The desire that consumed her then had been almost desperate—often foreign and unfocused—even to her.

  Now, her mind and body held the memory of Caroline’s mouth and hands and skin, the smell of her, the soft sound of her in the night. Now Bri wanted her, wanted what they’d had and lost, with an intensity that left her breathless. The muscles in her legs were so tight they were cramping, and the crotch of her jeans was soaked with urgency. Somehow, she managed to sit still through the entire movie.

  As she and Caroline walked out onto the still-busy streets a little after ten p.m., Caroline tugged
on their linked hands. “Do you want to walk on the beach?”

  “Yeah. Okay.” To Bri’s great relief, Caroline did not let go of her hand.

  They walked through town with their fingers interlinked until they reached the beach access path between the Boatslip and the Martin House, one of the oldest buildings in town that housed one of the most popular restaurants. A few minutes later, they reached the water’s edge, not far from the tumbled-down pier where Bri had sat that night with Ashley.

  Moonlight glinted on the water and the surf frothed white just inches from their toes. The sand was black where the ocean had bled onto it.

  It was Caroline who broke the silence. “How’s work?”

  “Good,” Bri said quickly. The nights were cold by the water, even in summer, and Bri removed her jacket and draped it around Caroline’s shoulders. “I like it.”

  Caroline turned, snuggled into the jacket, and luxuriated in the heat left behind by her lover’s body. Tentatively, she lifted a hand and ran her fingers tenderly down the side of Bri’s neck. “I can see where you got burned.”

  “It’s all healed. Tory said it would just be red for a while.”

  “So you’re glad about the decision that you made?” Caroline’s voice trembled slightly with the question.

  “Well, I’m glad that I went to the academy when I did.” Cautiously, Bri placed her fingertips very lightly on either side of Caroline’s waist beneath the bottom of the jacket. Now, only shadows separated them. “I’m not happy I left you, though. I’m sorry for screwing up.”

  “I knew something was wrong for a while, and I should have made you tell me.” Caroline automatically slid her hand around Bri’s hips and hooked her thumb into Bri’s back pocket, a gesture so ingrained she didn’t notice it. Her movement brought them closer together until their thighs touched.

  Bri swallowed, concentrating on what she needed to say while trying to ignore the swift surge of arousal stirred by the press of Caroline’s body. “I should’ve told you sooner. It’s not your fault.”