would this place feel when Tina inevitably moved on? Tina wasn’t looking for anything permanent—and neither was Jan right now—but the thought of touching her and then watching her walk away was too much to bear.
Jan slid between the sheets and let images from the evening replay in her head. It had taken monumental effort to focus on the pool game instead of on Tina, but it had been worth it to see the expression of stunned appreciation on Tina’s face after Jan won the game. She hoped she had made it appear effortless, but with Tina standing so close behind her, she’d been afraid she wouldn’t even be able to hit the cue ball, much less run the table. All Tina would have had to do was take one step forward while Jan was leaning over to take a shot, and their hips would have been pressed together. Jan felt warmth spread from the point of imagined contact through her whole body. Tina’s music drifted through her mind as she slid her hand over her tense stomach muscles. In real life, she couldn’t let Tina get any closer, certainly not close enough to touch. But in her fantasies? She could go all the way.
Chapter Eight
A quiet, boring street. Nothing to see. Tina tried to distract herself with work or television, but she kept returning to the window and twitching aside the curtain. She was anxious to get going because she needed a day trip, a chance to get out of Spokane. Jan’s company was just incidental. Tina left the apartment, locking the door behind her, as soon as she saw Jan’s Prius pull up to the curb. A whole day together. Brooke would be thrilled, but Tina sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her about the outing. She felt safe assuming Jan wouldn’t, either.
“Nice car,” she said when she sat down. Her car might be a Toyota as well, but the similarity ended there. Jan’s was only a year or two old, and clean inside and out. No trails of sticky dried Coke streaking down the dash, or piles of sheet music, art supplies, and fast-food bags littering the backseat. And probably no emergency stash of napkins from McDonald’s and cardboard cup sleeves from Starbucks in the glove compartment. There were, however, two large Starbucks coffees in the cup holders.
“Thanks,” Jan said as she merged onto the street. She pointed at the coffee. “I hope you like sweet. Mocha on the left, vanilla latte on the right. You get your pick.”
Tina took the mocha and moved the latte to the holder on Jan’s side. She settled back in her seat and took a sip of her drink. Drops of rain freckled the window as Jan turned toward I-90.
“How far are we going?”
“About a half hour,” Jan said. “Coeur d’Alene is just over the Idaho border. It’s an easy trip, and there are some beautiful places to hike and camp around the lake. I used to go there a lot with Dad, and with friends when I was in college, but I haven’t been for a couple years. How’s your PR work for Peter going?”
“Not bad. The drapes for his home-and-garden show booth were the wrong color, so I had to spend a few hours begging and threatening before the company agreed to redo them. And I’ve been trying to convince Peter to set up a permanent booth at the farmers’ market, so he can sell herbs and vegetable starts there. And maybe some of the handcrafted things he loves so much.”
“What a great way to connect with the community,” Jan said.
“Exactly what I told him. How was your week at school?” Tina asked when it was her turn. She and Jan sounded like they had spent the evening before coming up with safe conversation starters. She hoped they wouldn’t be talking about the weather by the time the ride was over. It was supposed to be rainy all day, so the topic wouldn’t get them through many miles of drive time.
Tina listened to Jan’s stories about her students and was surprised to find she was interested in the unique projects Jan had devised to teach them about geometry and how it applied to architecture. She had
Jan slid between the sheets and let images from the evening replay in her head. It had taken monumental effort to focus on the pool game instead of on Tina, but it had been worth it to see the expression of stunned appreciation on Tina’s face after Jan won the game. She hoped she had made it appear effortless, but with Tina standing so close behind her, she’d been afraid she wouldn’t even be able to hit the cue ball, much less run the table. All Tina would have had to do was take one step forward while Jan was leaning over to take a shot, and their hips would have been pressed together. Jan felt warmth spread from the point of imagined contact through her whole body. Tina’s music drifted through her mind as she slid her hand over her tense stomach muscles. In real life, she couldn’t let Tina get any closer, certainly not close enough to touch. But in her fantasies? She could go all the way.
Chapter Eight
A quiet, boring street. Nothing to see. Tina tried to distract herself with work or television, but she kept returning to the window and twitching aside the curtain. She was anxious to get going because she needed a day trip, a chance to get out of Spokane. Jan’s company was just incidental. Tina left the apartment, locking the door behind her, as soon as she saw Jan’s Prius pull up to the curb. A whole day together. Brooke would be thrilled, but Tina sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her about the outing. She felt safe assuming Jan wouldn’t, either.
“Nice car,” she said when she sat down. Her car might be a Toyota as well, but the similarity ended there. Jan’s was only a year or two old, and clean inside and out. No trails of sticky dried Coke streaking down the dash, or piles of sheet music, art supplies, and fast-food bags littering the backseat. And probably no emergency stash of napkins from McDonald’s and cardboard cup sleeves from Starbucks in the glove compartment. There were, however, two large Starbucks coffees in the cup holders.
“Thanks,” Jan said as she merged onto the street. She pointed at the coffee. “I hope you like sweet. Mocha on the left, vanilla latte on the right. You get your pick.”
Tina took the mocha and moved the latte to the holder on Jan’s side. She settled back in her seat and took a sip of her drink. Drops of rain freckled the window as Jan turned toward I-90.
“How far are we going?”
“About a half hour,” Jan said. “Coeur d’Alene is just over the Idaho border. It’s an easy trip, and there are some beautiful places to hike and camp around the lake. I used to go there a lot with Dad, and with friends when I was in college, but I haven’t been for a couple years. How’s your PR work for Peter going?”
“Not bad. The drapes for his home-and-garden show booth were the wrong color, so I had to spend a few hours begging and threatening before the company agreed to redo them. And I’ve been trying to convince Peter to set up a permanent booth at the farmers’ market, so he can sell herbs and vegetable starts there. And maybe some of the handcrafted things he loves so much.”
“What a great way to connect with the community,” Jan said.
“Exactly what I told him. How was your week at school?” Tina asked when it was her turn. She and Jan sounded like they had spent the evening before coming up with safe conversation starters. She hoped they wouldn’t be talking about the weather by the time the ride was over. It was supposed to be rainy all day, so the topic wouldn’t get them through many miles of drive time.
Tina listened to Jan’s stories about her students and was surprised to find she was interested in the unique projects Jan had devised to teach them about geometry and how it applied to architecture. She had
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