by Jenny Frame
Dale looked mightily relieved at that answer. “Nah, it’s okay. As soon as I knew I wanted you, Ms. Harper, me and Britney had a talk.”
“Oh? And where did this happen?”
“On her calendar, in my office. I told her that I’ll always remember her fondly, but I’ve fallen in love with the woman of my dreams. It was all very civil.”
Becca couldn’t help but laugh out loud. She grasped Dale’s unruly hair and said, “You’re off your rocker, do you know that?”
“I found that out a long time ago, but I make you laugh, don’t I?” Dale said hopefully.
“You do—you’re the only one that’s ever been able to. Dale…”
Becca suddenly felt the need to be serious, and Dale gave her a soft kiss to reassure her. “Tell me.”
This was the hard part. Saying those three words was giving someone else a power over you. Could she trust Dale with that power? The baby chose that moment to start kicking inside her, as if she was saying, Tell her!
Maybe she could have the happiness she had dreamed of, after so many years of running and looking over her shoulder.
“Is it the baby?” Dale asked.
“Yes, she’s kicking and telling me to get on with it.”
“Get on with what?” Dale asked.
Becca stroked the hair that so fascinated her fingers, and said, “Telling you I love you. I love you, Dale McGuire, and I’d like to use your body for a lifetime.”
Dale was silent and then gulped hard as tears came to her eyes. “You love me? Really?”
Knowing Dale’s background, it was easy to see how hard it was for Dale to take that on board.
“Yes, I love you, Jake loves you, your wee yin loves you, your whole family loves you, and we’ll never turn our backs on you.”
Dale kissed her deeply, and desperately. She had been waiting for a family her whole life, and the way Dale kissed her, she knew that Dale would never leave them. She would defend and give her loyalty to them forever.
“Thank you, Becca. Thank you for telling me. I won’t let you down. I’ll love and take care of you all, every day of my life.”
Dale was almost shaking with the raw emotion she was feeling. Becca knew what Dale needed to help her process and cement these emotions between them.
“I want you to make love to me and then, only if you want to, go home to your flat, collect some things to stay, and come back to your family.”
“Yes, that’s what I want more than anything in the world.”
Dale reached down to touch her, but Becca caught her hand. “No, not this time. I need you to come on me.”
The hot, desperate gaze she got in return from Dale was instantaneous. Becca turned on her side and presented her bottom to Dale. She knew she would enjoy making love with Dale in this position, because Dale could hold her close in a tight embrace.
Dale ran her hand over Becca’s curves and over her bottom. She couldn’t believe how lucky she was. To have a woman like Rebecca Harper offer herself, her body and her heart, was more than she could have ever dreamed of.
Her body felt more alive than it ever had been, like electricity was sparking all over her, and the only one who could calm her was Becca, her love.
She quickly opened herself up, so that she could thrust against Becca’s fleshy backside. Dale held Becca close, one arm holding herself up and the other alternating between Becca’s hip, baby bump, and her heavy breasts.
Dale started to thrust. She was wet and ready before she even touched Becca. Her sex was so hot and she needed to come so badly, she knew it wouldn’t take long. Becca’s body made Dale feel fire in her veins. She had slept with a lot of girls, but Becca was a woman, not a girl. She was a lady, very female, very curvaceous, and the fact that she was pregnant with her child made her all the more attractive. Dale felt the deep need at some primal level, to claim Becca and her baby as her own.
“You’re mine, Becca. I love you.”
“I love you too, darling. Come on me.” Becca reached back to caress Dale’s face and neck with her fingers.
Dale felt Becca push her bottom harder, to give her better contact. She started to thrust much harder, and held on tightly to Becca’s hip to keep them in the right position.
Her orgasm was seconds away, and she asked with desperate need in her voice, “Tell me, Becca. Please?”
“I’m yours, Dale. I love you.”
That was all Dale needed. The heat that had been building in her sex exploded into an almost painful orgasm that swept down her legs, and up to the top of her head. “Fuck, fuck, I love you, I love you.”
After a few seconds, Dale fell back on her pillow, limp and breathing hard. Becca turned around and placed gentle kisses over her cheeks and mouth.
Dale put her arms around her and held her while she tried to get her breath back. “That was so good. I can hardly breathe.” She opened her eyes and saw Becca looked a bit unsure of herself. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sure you’ve made love in much more exciting ways than you have with me, but after the baby—”
Dale rolled her over and silenced her with a kiss. “Don’t ever say things like that. Making love…sex has never felt like that just felt, and it’s because it’s you, your body, the woman I’m in love with. Don’t ever say anything like that again, okay?”
Becca’s smile was back. “I’m sorry, I’m pregnant and I’ve got hang-ups and hormones.”
“Well, don’t listen to them. I’m just a grease monkey from the East End of Glasgow, and you are so far above my league. I’m the lucky one, hen.”
That made Becca laugh. “Oh, stop it. I’m the daughter of a doctor who was struck off for selling drugs.”
“You’re my posh girl, and you always will be.” Dale kissed her lips, then said, “Sorry for swearing, by the way.”
Becca ran her hands through Dale’s hair. “It’s okay. It’s allowed during sex.”
Dale laughed. “Is that the rule, is it?”
Becca kissed her nose sweetly. “As long as it’s with me.”
“Always and forever.”
Dale started to kiss her way down Becca’s body.
“I thought you were going to collect some things from your flat.”
Dale looked up at her with a hungry look in her eyes. “I have to taste you first, posh girl.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jake was bursting with excitement this morning. Dale was going to take him for a drive to her flat, so she could pick up some essentials to stay at the vicarage, while Becca started to bring some of the kitchen things back to their rightful places.
“Don’t do anything heavy,” Dale called out as they walked out the door.
“I won’t, just the little things. Hurry back, and we can have lunch.”
Becca started carrying in tins and packets of food from the living room. She set the items on the countertop and looked around at her beautiful new kitchen. Dale and Sammy had done a wonderful job. Next they thought they would put down a new floor. There was hope in the vicarage now, whereas before she could only see never-ending problems. Now they she had a partner who wanted to be fully involved in their family, they could plan on rebuilding the home together. It was warm and cosy, and one day it would be as she had dreamed, except this time, Becca would have someone to stand by her side.
Becca heard the back door open, and assumed Dale had forgotten something. “Dale, you…”
Her voice trailed off when she saw Ashley Duval standing in her kitchen.
Ashley shut the door and said, “Hello, Vic. You’ve been a hard woman to find.”
“Ash…what do you want?” All Becca’s fear and paranoia came crashing back into her soul.
Ash pulled out a chair and sat down nonchalantly. “I see you’ve been busy.” She indicated Becca’s stomach. “Is that the daddy that just left? She looks butch enough to be capable of it. First Trent, then Dale McGuire.”
Becca was in full panic mode. How did Ash know Dale’s an
d Trent’s names?
“I suppose after I fucked you, you were always going to be slumming it, but at least Trent was a lawyer. McGuire is as common as they come, but maybe you like roughing it, Vic.”
“Tell me what you want, or get out.”
“I want more of you. Your story made me, and I’m in need of just a little more. I tried to find you after your father hanged himself, but Trent hid you well. Then one day, quite by chance, I ran into a girl who was looking at a photograph of you and your son.”
“I don’t understand. Who had a picture of us?” Becca sat at the table before she fell down. How could this be happening? When she woke this morning everything had been perfect, and she was looking forward to life, but now her past was sitting right in front of her.
“A young reporter at the newspaper I work for. Dale McGuire fucked her and fucked off. I’m surprised you put up with that, but then you were always easy prey, Vic.”
Becca’s shock was turning into anger. “Get out of my house. I don’t believe a word you say. I don’t know how you found me, but it wasn’t by some girl sleeping with Dale.”
But we made no promises for so long. In fact Becca had tried her hardest not to fall for Dale’s advances. Had Dale been sleeping with other people while they had been falling in love? She had no right to be jealous, but she was. The thought of Dale sharing herself with someone like they did last night hurt her.
“Well how else did she get your picture? Don’t be a fool all of your life, Vic.”
“Just tell me what you want and go. I’ve finally stopped running, and I’m going to make a fresh start for me and my children,” Becca said.
Ash leaned forward. “You couldn’t run from me forever.”
“What did I ever do to you, Ash?”
Becca had always wondered what had made Ash go after her so ruthlessly. Surely there had to be a reason?
“You were an opportunity, a means to an end. One of life’s little opportunities that gives you a chance to take and make yourself a success, if you’re brave enough, but it also gave me a chance to destroy your bastard of a father.”
“What did my father ever do to you?” Becca asked.
A look of deep anger came upon Ash’s face. “Fucked my mother and got her hooked on drugs. The drugs that killed her, but since your mother topped herself maybe all things are equal.”
Becca’s breathing became raspy and she started to feel sick. “I had no idea.”
Ash stood and leaned in close to her with hate in her eyes. “Do you know how it feels to watch you mother so desperate for her next fix that she’s willing to be treated like a whore just to get her drugs? Your father did that to her. But you would never know how that feels. You and Carlotta were too busy enjoying your luxury holidays and spending the money made by other people’s misery. I always swore I’d make him pay.”
Ash sat back down, calming her seething rage. “Then I found you. You were my little goose that laid golden eggs, and I want one more.”
“Just get on with it then.”
“Now, now, no need to be like that. I’m not without a heart—I will give you a choice. There are two ways I can do this story. One, without your cooperation, but that would mean me having to dig a lot of dirt about your loved ones to make it interesting or—”
“What about my loved ones?” Becca snapped.
Vic took a file out of her case and slid it over to Becca. When Becca opened it she found lots of pictures and information, but the labels caught her eye. There were pictures of Dale’s real mother, Nora, and her stepbrothers and stepsisters.
“How did you find this out?”
“I’m a journalist, Vic. No one can hide from me.”
There were also pictures of Dale’s garage, Sammy, Val, and Mia, and, most disturbingly, pictures of Jake with Dale.
“If you print pictures of my son, I’ll kill you,” Becca warned.
But Ash just laughed. “Oh, give me a break. You’ll do nothing. You’re weak, easily led, and pathetic.”
It would break Dale’s heart to have Nora and her past splashed everywhere. She couldn’t allow it.
“Dale has nothing to do with this story. Why would it interest you to add in Dale’s story to mine? There’s no purpose to it.”
“Of course there is. A sordid lesbian story spices up anything, especially if it shows family dysfunction. The readers of my newspaper are very conservative. They liked to be reminded how right they are in their condemnation of gay people and their lives.”
“But you’re gay, Ash. How could you do that?”
Ash smirked. “Every man—or lesbian—for themselves in this world. I look after me and me alone.”
Becca threw the folder back across the table at Ash. “So? You said there are two ways you can write this story. What will it take to keep my family and friends out of this article?”
“A full no-holds-barred interview with you, on camera. I’ll be able to make a lot of money off you again, Vic. Your family caused one of the biggest national scandals in fifty years, and I want more.”
“Go to hell,” Becca said.
“Is that a yes then?”
Becca said nothing. She couldn’t speak, could hardly breathe. Why could she never walk free from the sins of her father? In the end, what choice did she have?
“I’ll let you think it over, but don’t be foolish. I can make your friends look really bad, even if they are perfectly good citizens.”
Ash stood up and put the file back in her case. “I’ll be in touch.”
* * *
Jake loved visiting Dale’s flat. As he walked around looking at all her cool gadgets, Dale could hear, “Wow!” every few seconds.
Dale quickly put all her essentials in a small suitcase, knowing she could come back for other things later. She was so excited. She just wanted to get back to the vicarage before Becca changed her mind—not that she would.
She went into her bedside table and picked up her mum’s Bible. I’ve found my family, Ma, and I know you’d love them.
After carefully placing the Bible in her bag, she zipped it up and went to get Jake. She found him in her home office, just about hugging her computer.
“Hey, wee man. You like that?”
He nodded briskly. “They have this kind at computer club but not as good a one as this. It’s so cool.”
Dale hoped Becca wouldn’t be mad at her idea, but she did have a lot of child support to catch up on. “I’ll tell you what. It’s Christmas in a couple of months. You do some research into what would be the perfect computer for you to code all your projects and we’ll see if Santa can bring it, okay?”
Jake’s eyes went wide with wonder and he jumped into Dale’s arms. “Thank you. It would be the best present ever, and I’d take care of it so well.”
Dale squeezed him tight. How did she ever live without Jake and Becca in her life? It seemed like she had always known them.
“I know you would.” She put him down and fished two lollipops from her pocket. “Let’s celebrate with a cherry lollipop.”
Jake unwrapped his stick and said, “Dale? Are you my mummy’s girlfriend now?”
Girlfriend seemed such a temporary title. I want to marry her. Dale had never thought she would ever want that in her life, but she wanted it badly.
“Aye, girlfriend, or partner, hopefully something more, one day. Are you okay with that?”
Jake nodded enthusiastically. “Uh-huh. It’s the best news ever. That’s why I came to find you, to help my mummy and make her happy. No one’s ever made her happy and laugh, except you.”
This boy would melt your heart, Dale thought. “Well don’t you worry any more, Jake. I’ll take care of your mummy, and you and your baby sister.”
Jake looked down at the floor, as if he was building up to something. “Dale, remember when we met you said I shouldn’t call you Mum?”
Dale felt instantly guilty about what she’d said that first day they met. “Aye, I remember.”
He looked up at her with eyes just like hers and said, “Can me and my little sister call you Mum now?”
She pulled him into a hug. “I would love that, Jake, as long as your mummy says its okay. Remember, no matter what, Mummy’s in charge and we do what she says. We need to make her happy, and look after her. She’s not so ill any more, and we have to keep it that way.”
Jake took her hand, and said, “Okay, Mum, let’s go home.”
Dale didn’t think she’d heard a more perfect sentence in her life.
* * *
Dale looked in on Jake and saw he was sleeping soundly. She hesitated at Becca’s bedroom door. She’d sensed something wrong since they’d returned from her flat, and she only prayed that Becca wasn’t having second thoughts.
She walked through the door and found Becca already in bed, but lying on her side, with just the small lamp on.
“Everything okay, hen?”
“Yes, I’m just tired,” Becca said, sounding unconvincing.
Dale got changed into her boxers and sleep T-shirt, and slipped under the covers. Becca never made a move towards her, and the bed suddenly felt very big. This was not how she’d imagined their first night living together.
It got even worse when Becca snapped off the light, plunging them into lonely blackness.
Dale didn’t know what to say or do. Should she try and hug her? Should she talk?
“Dale?”
“Yeah?”
“When was the last time you slept with someone?”
Dale’s heart sank. This was not a good opening to a conversation. She sat up quickly and switched her lamp on. “I don’t think that’s a good thing to talk about when we’re just starting out on our life together.”
Becca turned around quickly and gave her an accusatory stare. “Why, was it just last week? Was it while we were getting together?”
“What? No, what do you think I am?”
“I know you like sex with lots of women. When was the last time, Dale?”
Dale couldn’t understand what had happened to her sweet, loving Becca. “Why are you being like this? I thought we were past that. You know that’s not me.”
