Page 28 of July Skies
Did Karen see how much Dahlia was blushing? Or was that from the sunlight hitting her right on the face? “Let’s hope things go well, then.”
Relief flooded from Dahlia’s lungs. The only explanation she had was the reassurance that Karen didn’ttotallyhate her.
Things could only improve from there.
Chapter 17
KAREN
“Where are you two going?” Karen sat up on the couch the moment her children burst from the kitchen, jackets on and bags hanging from their hands. “I thought we were going to watch the spot on TV?”
Christina went on ahead to the front door. Xander hung back, the smarmy look on his face inspiring little to no confidence in his mother. “They’re watching it down at Heaven’s. She says it’s the first show she’s gonna have on the new TV she got for the café. We were invited, so, ah…”
Karen kicked the light blanket laying across her lap. “You’re trying to tell me that you and your teenaged sister were invited to Heaven’s Café to watch the news spot? Tell me you were going to sneak into one of the bars, Xander.”
“I wasn’t! I mean, we weren’t! Promise! His awkward chuckles only made his argument worse.He wouldn’t last two days in an election.Was he reallyherson? “Come on, Mom, do you really want us around for this?” He covertly gestured to the fourth person in the room. The one neither of them acknowledged since this little tiff began. “You’ve got like… a date.”
Karen was about to verbally kick her son’s butt when Dahlia, who had been sitting on the other end of the couch, cut in. “Let the kids go to the café to watch the spot. We don’t need them giggling while we’re here watching it, anyway.”
“Yeah, Mom, you don’t need us here gigglin’.”
Someone honked the horn of the car out in the driveway. Christina waved her hand out the passenger side window, a warning that her brother could get his butt out there now or risk her taking the car instead. Xander took that as his signal to leave. The only wave he offered his mom on the way out the door was an afterthought.
Chuckles sounded from the other end of the couch.
“What?” Karen asked. “Trust me, if you had kids…”
“Thank God I don’t,” Dahlia replied. The blanket they shared was soon pulled back up into their laps. They kept a respectful distance from one another, but the blanket was a universal symbol of how far they had come since Dahlia returned to town. They had gone from awkward dinners – both in restaurants and in this house – to drives out in the countryside. The craziest they got was getting giddy over wine and admitting their awkward first times, both with men. Dahlia admitted that having Karen to talk to made it easier to talk aboutotherthings. It helped that Karen was an open book about the gross side of motherhood and the obnoxious side of being a mayor.I speak my truths so women like Dahlia can feel a little better about admitting they might like to kiss girls.
Perfect.
“Is it seven yet?”
Karen flipped the channel back to the news station they picked up out of LA. Already there was an anchor announcing they had a special spot that lovely Monday night about a “regional community that might be every lesbian’s dream.”
Pink Dew Films had bought the rights to the documentary, helping Dahlia break even. Yet Rachel Gibson had given her permission to release a fifteen minute spot to create buzz for the main event coming out later that year. When Dahlia wasn’t busy editing, taking phone calls, and following Pink Dew around for a paycheck, she spent her precious time with Karen. They weren’talwaystalking business. Sometimes, they were personal.
Karen supposed that’s how they ended up here, on her couch, under the same blanket. It was barely holding hands and exchanging tentative kisses that made her blush, but she knew from the beginning that anything coming out of this would take awhile.She was used to that, though. Everything took precious time when you were a single mom running a whole damn town. Right now, Karen appreciated the slowdowns that happened in her hectic schedule. With the days long and warm, she was more than happy to cuddle up next to another woman and wait for somethingmoreto happen.
“Isn’t this exciting?” she whispered, as the spot began at seven. “Does it ever get old seeing your stuff on TV?”
“I’d think you’re more excited. It’s your face about to be on TV.”
“You didn’t…”
“Welcome to Paradise Valley, Oregon,” the anchor on TV said, “where the women have no desire for husbands.”
“That wasn’t my doing, I swear,” Dahlia said.
Karen squealed to see her interview about her divorce and what it was like adjusting her children to small town life. Her face burrowed in the depths of Dahlia’s T-shirt, which was a tad ripe from some work out in the sun earlier.I’ll take it, if it saves me from this embarrassment!
It might have been a “smooth move,” too.
“Excuse you!” Dahlia fell onto the couch, Karen slouching over her as if she had the strength to bowl over the strongest of women. “Can I help you? Just a tad ticklish there!”
The giggles didn’t stop. That’s what Dahlia got for implying that Xander and Christina would be the ones with a case of laughter.More likewe’rethe ones acting like children in here.What kid wanted to see their mom acting that way? Flirting, laughing… enjoying life the way it was meant to be experienced with another person.
They barely saw any of the spot since they were too busy play-wrestling on the couch and making a big enough commotion to get a call from the neighbors, asking if Karen was all right. Did it matter, though? The spot would be up for streaming, anyway. Why watch something that was always there, when Karen could enjoy what happened now, in the moment?
Surely, that was a much better use of her precious personal time.
THE END