by Erin Dutton
“No?” Jacqueline slid her hand around to Casey’s back, resting it just above the waistband of her slacks.
“No. Just a handful in the past eight years, and before that—well, I was with the most amazing woman. I didn’t have much need for dating.”
“Amazing, huh?”
“Mmm.” Casey’s response was muffled as she opened her mouth low on Jacqueline’s throat and bit lightly.
“That’s a lot for me to live up to.”
Casey shook her head. “I’m certain you can handle it. Besides, I’m not comparing past to present. I plan to enjoy what’s in front of me right now.”
Casey kissed up her jaw, and Jacqueline lowered her chin until their mouths met in a soft, exquisitely tender kiss. Jacqueline threaded her fingers into Casey’s hair and ran her tongue over Casey’s lower lip. When Casey opened to her, Jacqueline moaned into her mouth. For eight years, she’d been a jigsaw puzzle in a box—five hundred pieces of something whole. But when Casey touched her, the pieces fit together and she became a beautiful landscape.
“Casey.” Jacqueline moaned again when they broke apart. “Wait.” She grasped Casey’s shoulders. “It’s not that I don’t want that, because believe me, I do. But I meant what I said about a fresh start. And if us doing this,” she waved a finger between them, “is going to jeopardize that in any way, I’m willing to wait.”
“You could do that? Just stop right now.” Casey smiled.
“I could try.” She didn’t sound as confident as she wanted to. “Admittedly, keeping my hands off you these past years was easier when you didn’t want me.”
“I’m not sure I ever didn’t want you. But I know what you mean.” Casey touched Jacqueline’s cheek. “This is not jeopardizing anything. As long as you don’t plan to call it a mistake in an hour on your way out the door.” Casey winked.
“I’m not leaving.” Jacqueline grinned. “This is my place.”
“I’m not leaving either. So stop distracting me from where I was headed a moment ago.” Casey guided Jacqueline to straddle her lap. She slipped her hand back under Jacqueline’s skirt and up her bare thigh until she palmed her panties. “Have I mentioned how much I like this dress?”
“I think you did.” Jacqueline was wet already, and Casey’s fingers pressing into her threatened her self-control. She closed her eyes, barely managing not to grind against Casey’s hand.
“It bears repeating.” Casey pushed her underwear aside and dragged a finger through her folds. “I love anything that makes you this accessible.”
Jacqueline laughed. “That’s so romantic.”
“I brought wine. How much more romance do you need?”
When Casey entered her, Jacqueline planted her hands on the back of the couch behind her. “Keep doing that, and I don’t need any romance at all.”
Casey stroked her maddeningly slow, until Jacqueline began controlling the pace. She rose and drove her hips back down, searching for just the right leverage to ease the tension coiling inside her. Seeing Casey’s satisfied grin, Jacqueline forced herself to stop, ground against Casey’s hand, and paused.
“What’s wrong?” Casey tipped her head back to look at her.
“Absolutely nothing.” Jacqueline reached between them and unbuttoned Casey’s shirt. With one of Casey’s hands trapped between them, she had her at a disadvantage. She slipped her hand inside Casey’s shirt and cradled her breast. Her nipple pebbled under Jacqueline’s thumb as she rubbed the cup of her bra. Jacqueline squeezed, and Casey’s groan made Jacqueline clench around her fingers.
She held her, bracing her other hand on the back of the couch, and moved again. This time, as Casey matched her thrusts, she couldn’t have stopped if she’d tried. She released Casey’s breast and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, pulling her close. Casey kissed Jacqueline’s neck, and Jacqueline’s movements quickened.
“Let go, sweetheart. I’ve got you,” Casey whispered into her hair.
Losing control, Jacqueline bounced in Casey’s lap. Her head swam with the feel of Casey filling her, and when Casey’s teeth raked her neck, she came apart. She stiffened and cried out, grasping Casey desperately as she drove onto her fingers a couple more times, milking the pleasure out of each thrust. Breathing hard, she collapsed against Casey and closed her eyes.
“Jacq?” Casey’s low voice vibrated the nickname, and Jacqueline’s muscles tightened around Casey’s hand.
“I don’t think you’re allowed to call me that anymore.” Jacqueline lifted her head lazily.
“Is something burning?”
Jacqueline took a second to process those words before they sank in. “Shit! Dinner.” She rose as carefully as she could, letting Casey withdraw before she jumped off her lap and ran to the kitchen.
She pulled the chicken out of the oven amid a billow of smoke and slid it onto the top of the range. The smoke detector started beeping. She grabbed a towel off the oven handle and waved it toward the alarm on the ceiling.
“Do you think it’s salvageable?” Casey cocked her hip against the countertop. Her eyes sparkled with suppressed laughter. Her shirt gaped open, revealing a tempting glimpse of white cotton and skin.
“Absolutely.” Jacqueline wanted Casey as much today as she had twenty years ago.
Casey pushed off the counter, crossed the kitchen, and poked at the burnt skin of the chicken with a fork. “I’m not sure. It looks pretty dry.”
“No, the food’s trashed.” Jacqueline peered over Casey’s shoulder. She wasn’t even going to try to eat that chicken.
“Then what were you talking about?” Casey turned her head and Jacqueline captured her mouth. Casey spun in her arms and embraced her.
“Us,” Jacqueline said against her mouth. “Totally salvageable.”
“I’m glad you think so,” Casey murmured back, her lips buzzing against Jacqueline’s.
“I guess we’re ordering in.” Jacqueline took her hand, not ready to let her go yet, and led her back to the couch. Once they were settled, she flipped open her laptop. “Any requests?”
“Pizza. You know what I like.”
Jacqueline clicked through the online menu and ordered their food, then set her computer on the coffee table. “We have thirty minutes or less.”
“What should we do while we wait?”
Jacqueline nudged Casey’s still-unbuttoned shirt open with one finger. “I can think of a few things.”
“Do you think you can beat the pizza guy?”
Jacqueline grabbed Casey’s waist, flipped her onto her back on the couch, and moved between her legs. “It’s your turn. I should be asking you that.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Jacqueline opened the fly of Casey’s pants. Casey lifted her hips as Jacqueline jerked them off and threw them over her shoulder. “I have faith in you.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Casey knocked before opening the door to the small room down the hall from the chapel where Kendra and Gavin would exchange their vows. “Is everyone decent?” She curled around the door and pretended to sneak inside.
“I know you’re hoping I’m not, but you’re too late.” Kendra turned from the full-length mirror on the far side of the room.
Her elegant gown hugged her torso, then flared slightly at the waist and fell to the floor in a loose-flowing skirt. The lace cap-sleeves added the only ornate touch on an otherwise simple design that flattered Kendra’s figure. Someone with very talented hands had woven her hair into an intricate updo that looked both effortless and complex at the same time.
“You are gorgeous, my friend. I would hug you, but I’m afraid I’ll mess something up.” Instead, she lifted her camera and fired off several candid shots. “I came to take some pictures of you getting ready. Sean is doing the same with Gavin and the guys.”
“By himself?”
“Don’t worry. They’ll be great. He came up with some creative ideas, and I let him run with them. He’s got talent.”
�
��Our boy’s going to be a doctor. Stop trying to make him into an artist,” Jacqueline said as she came into the room behind Casey.
“Does a veterinarian still count as a doctor?” Kendra asked, teasing.
“Yes. And it makes him smarter than both of us. So leave him alone.” Casey turned toward Jacqueline, and her final word nearly turned into a moan. The V-neck of Jacqueline’s champagne gown plunged deeper than was decent and exposed the soft swells at the inside of her breasts.
Kendra turned back toward the mirror and fussed with the skirt of her dress.
Jacqueline stepped closer to Casey and kissed her cheek. “You look great.”
Casey had opted for a solid-black, wide-legged jumpsuit that allowed her the freedom to move during the ceremony. Jacqueline’s eyes dropped to her chest and to the floating pearl necklace she’d given Casey for her birthday a month before. When she lifted the single pearl, her fingers brushed Casey’s chest, and Casey shivered.
“I want some shots of you two pre-ceremony.” She tried to force her mind back to work. As they both looked at Kendra, Casey rested her hand in the middle of Jacqueline’s back, surprised to encounter bare skin. She glanced over Jacqueline’s shoulder. The folds of chiffon draped nearly to her waist. “Are you kidding me with this dress?”
“You don’t like it?”
Casey had seen the dress on the hanger, but Jacqueline had refused to model it for her, saying only that it would be worth the wait. She was right. “It’s amazing. I thought you weren’t supposed to be more stunning than the bride?”
“I heard that.” Kendra glanced back at them both. “You’re not helping my nerves.”
“Don’t listen to her, Kendra.” Jacqueline winked at Casey, then joined Kendra at the mirror. “She’s unable to be objective. It’s not her fault that I’ve so thoroughly seduced her.”
Casey couldn’t even argue. In the two months since they’d agreed to that first dinner date, their relationship had grown stronger than ever. As planned, they’d managed to take things slow, starting with a couple of dates a week. Jacqueline hadn’t pushed to accelerate things. In fact, she seemed hesitant—as if she were waiting for Casey to indicate she was ready for more commitment. Casey had told her to leave all those years ago. Though Jacqueline had asked for them to try again, maybe she needed Casey to set the timeline for the final step.
The only area they hadn’t held back was their physical relationship. Once Casey had permission to put her hands on Jacqueline, she hadn’t been able to restrict herself. And Jacqueline didn’t seem to mind at all.
Then, as the frequency of their time together increased, they included Teddy and Sean as well. Casey had been apprehensive when they began to feel too much like a family, waiting for something to go wrong. Their first disagreement had been blown up much bigger than it should have been. But after they’d both calmed down, they acknowledged that their nervousness had caused them to overreact. They both wanted this to work so badly that they saw the first sign of conflict as failure. But when they stopped being so careful with each other, things felt more natural—they had good days and bad ones, and that was okay.
Jacqueline moved behind Kendra, bracketed her waist with her hands, and rested her chin on Kendra’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. You will be the most beautiful woman in the room. Gavin won’t be able to take his eyes off you, and isn’t he the only one who matters?”
Kendra grinned at their reflections. “Of course not, it’s my wedding day. I want to be the center of everyone’s attention.”
Casey took several pictures, moving to capture a different angle. She focused on the mirror and got a great shot with their backs in the foreground. She caught a moment when Kendra and Jacqueline looked at each other and the bond between them beamed over both of their faces.
Casey focused on Jacqueline through her viewfinder. If she’d had any lingering doubts, they would have melted away in that moment. She’d shot more weddings than she could count—capturing the beginning of forever for so many couples, as she would now for Kendra and Gavin. Jacqueline glanced over her shoulder at Casey. As she clicked the shutter—freezing the love in Jacqueline’s expression—she knew that this woman was her forever.
*
“Don’t let me fall down the aisle,” Kendra said to her father.
Jacqueline glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “You’ll be fine. But just in case, do you want me to take a dive so no one notices if you do?”
“Okay, smart-ass, it’s your turn.” Kendra nodded toward the doorway in front of them. The bridesmaid before Jacqueline had already gone through.
Jacqueline took Gavin’s brother’s elbow and they started forward. Just inside the door, she caught Sean in her peripheral vision. He knelt behind the last pew, looking adorably professional in his shirt and tie with his camera raised in front of his face. She knew he’d worked a bunch of weddings with Casey, but she’d never seen him in this element.
As she walked down the aisle, she smiled at the family and guests in the pews on either side. Up ahead, Casey had found a position that afforded her a clear shot as the wedding party approached the altar. When their eyes met, Jacqueline nearly stumbled. Casey stared back at her and for a moment the room receded.
Jacqueline had enjoyed discovering the ways Casey had grown and changed over the years. At the same time, the things she’d always loved about Casey were still there. Though they still hadn’t made long-term plans for the future, she had no doubt that she would do whatever she had to do to hold onto Casey. And seeing the love in Casey’s eyes right now, she let herself hope Casey felt the same.
For the past two months, Casey had been holding back, despite her agreement to try. Oh, she’d been giving their relationship an honest chance, but she still hadn’t relinquished that last millimeter of her heart. And Jacqueline felt its absence more acutely than when they’d been broken up completely. But she’d vowed not to push. She couldn’t make Casey trust her, so she waited.
Before she could analyze what she was seeing in Casey’s eyes now, Casey blinked, then slid back behind her photographer persona. Jacqueline reached the front of the sanctuary and took her place next to the other bridesmaids.
The music changed just before Kendra and her father moved into the aisle. Kendra’s gaze darted around nervously, but Jacqueline knew the moment she saw Gavin. Serene happiness overtook the anxiety in her expression. Jacqueline snuck a glance at Gavin and found a similar dopey look on his face.
When Kendra and Gavin recited the vows they’d written for each other, Jacqueline wiped away tears. After a tender kiss that made several guests say “aww,” Jacqueline followed the happy couple back down the aisle. Swamped with emotion, she avoided looking for both Casey and Sean, as she suspected making eye contact with either of them would likely reduce her to sobs. She would take a minute before the reception to get herself together so she could be present and celebrate with Kendra.
*
“Your glass is empty,” Kendra said as she came to stand next to Jacqueline with two fresh glasses of champagne.
“Thanks.” Jacqueline clinked their glasses together. “Where’s your husband?”
“I do love the sound of that. He’s dancing with my mother.” Looking every bit the respectable son-in-law in his tuxedo, Gavin guided Kendra’s mother around the floor.
“They make such a cute couple.”
“Almost as cute as those two.” Kendra nodded toward Sean and Casey on the dance floor.
Casey had wrangled him into one dance by agreeing that Kendra’s would be the last wedding he worked for her. She’d already signed up with the art school to provide an internship in studio work for a photography student next semester.
“Yeah.” Jacqueline smiled at Sean’s begrudging participation. He didn’t like dancing anyway, but she assumed if he had to, he’d much rather be dancing with his date, Gemma.
Jacqueline searched for Gemma and found her talking to one of Kendra’s nieces, who was about her age.
Gemma was a sweet girl, and after meeting her only a couple of times, Jacqueline and Casey already approved.
“You should probably go cut in—save that boy.”
“In a minute. I’m enjoying this.”
“Tell me you wouldn’t rather be holding her.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You two have restored my faith in forever,” Kendra said in an overly dramatic tone.
“Shut up.”
“Seriously. It’s good to see you together. How are you doing?”
“Very well. We’ve been communicating. It’s not perfect—we’re not perfect, but I kind of like that, you know. If we suddenly didn’t have any more issues, I don’t think it would feel like we were being authentic. That wouldn’t fix any of our problems.”
“That makes sense.”
“But I’ve made some huge changes. I know what’s important to me now.” She looked at Casey again.
Though she still had to travel, she’d tightened her schedule and managed to spend more time in town. But she didn’t like spending nights alone in her condo. She hadn’t realized that she’d gotten so used to being gone that she would tack on an extra day to her trips here and there. Those days added up until she’d spent more time away than she did at home. Home. Her condo wasn’t home.
Now, instead of traveling to avoid her solitary residence, she visited her father. She shared dinner, did projects around his house, and took him out for a movie or ice cream once in a while. She’d resumed her semi-regular walks around his neighborhood—presumably for exercise and stress relief. If she passed Casey’s house early in her route, that was mere coincidence. And if Casey was waiting on the porch to join her for the rest of her walk, that was probably happenstance as well.
Owen didn’t hide his disappointment when she tried to talk to him about her change in career plans. When she told him she needed to travel less, he argued that she could have time with her family when she retired. Since he was only a few years away from that time, she understood why he didn’t think that was a big deal. But she wouldn’t step into his shoes and spend the next fifteen to twenty years waiting for the someday that might not come. In the end, he’d begrudgingly agreed that as long as she handled her business, she could get as creative with her schedule as she wanted to. But if she screwed up again, he wouldn’t back her.
