Hurt by Lila Bruce Page B

Samuels.
    What the hell.
    “Would you like all the down and dirty details, or just the ten second version?” she finally asked, shifting against the door.
    “You can hit the high points,” Megan answered. “Do you want to sit down?” She motioned to a chair sitting beside the desk.
    “No, I’m fine,” Jamie said. “In a nutshell? I fucked up.”
    “Well, maybe you can be a little more detailed than that, detective,” Megan quipped.
    Jamie pushed her hair back with one hand and then stared at the filing cabinet before she answered. “I decided to sell my house and move in with Nicole.”
    “Well, it’s about damn time,” Megan interjected. “What? Did Nicole get cold feet or something?”
    “No, nothing like that. I was going to make it a surprise—stupid now, I know—and was showing the house to a girlfriend from high school. Nicole thought I was going to be at the station working and walked in on us while we were in the bedroom.”
    “Hmm.”
    Jamie turned to look at her.
    “What is that supposed to mean?”
    “Was this a girlfriend from high school, or a girlfriend from high school?”
    “No,” Jamie scowled. “Not like that. Just a friend.”
    “So then what happened?” Megan dropped the pen and pushed her glasses up on her nose as she watched Jamie answer. Jamie got the feeling that the other woman was gauging whether or not she was being truthful in her responses.
    “She freaked, cussed me out, and drove off pissed.” Jamie gave a wry grin. “I should probably add that I had spilled water on my clothes and was in the middle of changing when Nicole walked in.”
    “Oh goddamn, Jamie.”
    “And Sundae had just—”
    “Wait,” Megan interrupted. “Your friend’s name is Sundae ?”
    “Don’t start on the name, for God’s sake,” Jamie growled.
    “All right, then, Sundae had just what?” Megan folded both hands behind her head, but didn’t change her expression.
    “Sundae had just told me that she and her husband found out they’re pregnant,” Jamie continued. “I was happy for her and gave her a hug. She was actually a little wet too and changing her shirt at the time.”
    Megan held out the palm of one hand and closed her eyes.
    “God.” She sighed. Megan sat up in the chair and stared at Jamie. “So let me get this straight. After telling Nicole you would be at work, she caught you and an old girlfriend in the bedroom of your house in a naked embrace?”
    “I don’t know that I would go so far as to call it naked exactly...or an embrace, for that matter,” Jamie responded, shuffling one foot. “Okay, we were mostly naked, but it was just a hug.”
    “Jesus, Jamie. You’re lucky she didn’t take you both out right then and there. Especially after what went down with her last girlfriend.”
    Jamie arched an eyebrow at that last comment.
    “You know about her last girlfriend?”
    Megan rolled her eyes.
    “Please. Chattanooga’s a big city, but there’s not that many of us that word doesn’t get around. You don’t have to hang out at ‘Lesbians ‘R Us’ to know who’s been sleeping with whom.”
    “I guess you’re right,” Jamie said. “Although I have to admit, I didn’t realize the lesbian grapevine made its way into the closet.” As soon as she said the words, Jamie regretted them. From the look that flashed over Megan’s face, she knew that she’d struck a nerve.
    Fuck , Jamie thought.
    She knew Megan was gay, had ever since stopping by a fourth of July pool party that last summer she had worked patrol. Jamie wasn’t sure which of them had been more surprised when she’d spotted the new Assistant District Attorney by the pool house making out with a woman that Jamie herself had dated for a short time. She hadn’t been so much surprised to see Megan kissing Zoe Ralston, because, hell, for all her other many faults the woman was hot. Rather it was the fact that Jamie knew Megan’s father was a pastor at one of the larger, more conservative