Page 26 of Just For Her

Kayla picked up the brunch menu and pretended that reading the salad-plus-pancake offerings rocked her world more than this discussion. “Does it matter? The end game is the same whether it’s a man or a woman I’m trying to marry.”

“It seems so…” Chrissy spent more than a few seconds thinking up the word she wanted. “Wrong?”

Kayla put down her menu. “She had no complaints the other night.” Or the following day, because Kayla was keen on sealing the deal in the daylight. Her overt flirtations continued past breakfast and into the afternoon, and no matter how chilly it got in Tove’s house, she never put on more clothes than underwear and a T-shirt. Her plan to get Tove back in bed by dinner had worked. While round two wasn’t as salaciously intense as that dark and stormy night had been, it worked on Tove, who admitted she wouldn’t mind seeing Kayla again.

“Step one,” Kayla said to her friend, “find someone with money who is into me. Done. Now we’re on to step two, which is dating as long as it takes to lock that person down. Maybe I have to get a job in the meantime? Maybe not. Either way, step three involves a certified minister or whatever to legally connect me to my future funds. I have discovered that I don’t care if that person is male or female. I’m an equal opportunity gold-digging bitch.”

“As long as she’s happy with you…”

“Why wouldn’t she be? That’s my whole game here. Be whoever I need to be to make her happy enough to marry me. Honestly, I don’t know what the difference is between marrying a fifty-year-old woman in need of love, or an even older guy looking for wife number three.”

Although Chrissy was on the verge of answering that, she pulled back at the last second.Good. I don’t need any discouragement right now.Except…

“Do you think it’s a bad idea?” Kayla was not ready to order when the server came by. After a terse“I’ll give you gals a few more minutes,”Kayla had to refocus. “It is true that I don’t know a damn thing about dating other women. Probably a different ball game. That’s why they make those baseball metaphors about playing for some home team. I don’t know. I don’t play sports.”

The hostess walked by with a young woman behind her. As a blond in a black dress sat at the table next to Kayla and Chrissy, a new vibe reverberated between the two old friends.

“I’ve never dated women,” Chrissy admitted, “but it sounds like you had a good time.”

“Girl, you have no idea.” Kayla blushed thinking about it. “Maybe I am queer.”

“Could be a lot worse, I guess. Don’t have to worry about getting pregnant, like you said the other day.”

“Also makes it harder to lock that shit down. Tove was quick to leap into bed with me, but I doubt she was hurrying to marry someone. Women get pretty independent at fifty, right?”

“No idea. I’ve never been fifty.”

“I’m working on it. Only got seventeen more years to go.” Saying that out loud reminded Kayla why she was doing this.I don’t want to hurt anyone, and definitely not Tove…Kayla wasn’t out to hurt anyone. Sure, this might be more about her conquering her future than making friends, but… “I’m supposed to see her again tomorrow night. We’re having dinner somewhere she says nobody in her family but her frequents. I guess she doesn’t want them to know about me yet.”

“A cautious woman. You’ll have your work cut out for you.” Chrissy glimpsed at the woman sitting one table away. “You sure you don’t want to give the cousin one last shot? Stick with the familiar territory?”

“Ah… I don’t know how I’d make that happen at this point. Tove is the surer thing. Besides, Thomas seems a bit distracted right now. Why do you bring him up?”

Chrissy kept her face pointing straight ahead while her gaze traveled to the hostess once again coming back to their corner of the restaurant. “Because he’s right there.”

Although Chrissy had attempted to withhold her overt attention from Thomas Fredriksson, Kayla instantly spun around in her chair right in time to see him approach with eyes only for the blond at the other table.

“That’s not…” Kayla began.

Sure enough, the blond leaped out of her seat and flung her arms around Thomas. He returned the hug as if nobody in the cozy brunch spot watched them embrace, kiss each other’s cheeks, or apologize for the grievances leveraged against one another over those past few tumultuous months. Love lingered in the air. Kayla didn’t have to be introduced to Thomas’s wife to know exactly who she was and that they were patching things up.

“Wow…” She looked away before either Thomas or Polly bumped into their table. If Thomas recognized Kayla, he did not let on. He only had eyes for the knock-out blonde who looped an arm through his and insisted that they reconnect over food.I get what Tove was saying… this woman really is beautiful… and young.It didn’t require a degree in rocket science to see what brought these two together. Yet like in the case of Chrissy and Huey, maybe there was real love there.

Kayla could be looking into her own future. Except that wasn’t a man hugging her, saying “I love you,” or assuring her that there was, in fact, enough money in the world to protect Kayla from her greatest fears. It was a woman. Something she never thought would happen.

Then again, life had been stranger. When looking back on everything that led her to this moment, absolutely nothing was amiss, even if she would have never chosen them for herself.

PART 2

JUST FOR ME

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Chapter 8

“You’ll never guess what I’m wearing today.” Kayla said that into the phone while Tove ate her lunch at the corner café near her office. “Not much at all. Want a pic?”

Tove held her ice water in one hand while her phone shook in the other. All around her were the dining denizens of Bend, tourists loitering on the sidewalk, and people creeping by in their vehicles. Occasionally, something that felt like a raindrop landed on her head. It was always a fake-out, though. That time of year? The weather didn’t know if it was winter or spring.

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