Page 34 of Just For Her

“Almost seems too good to be true.”

Kayla’s expression permanently froze on her face. “Funny,” she squeaked. “I’ve thought the same thing about you.”

“What? That I’m too good to be true?”

“Absolutely.”

For the umpteenth time that past month, Tove spiraled into thoughts that she was either being taken for a ride… or she had finally paid her dues, and the universe had sent her the woman of her dreams. Not that Tove had been allowed manydreamsin her day.Creating a good enough nest egg to retire on in fifteen years… that’s my dream.There had been no room for a romantic love interest in her equation, mostly because she didn’t think there was a point. She had been in love before. It could be volatile, stagnant, and wonderful, all at the same time. Yet those relationships ended because of her. Because of her family. Life was better if she simply went with the flow and expected nothing extraordinary.

Except here was this remarkable woman right in front of her. Delivered straight from heaven.

“This place is so beautiful.” Kayla placed her hand on the table while gazing out at the meadow, where another golf cart full of middle-aged Fredrikssons and their friends rolled by. “Such a lovely day. I’m glad we could spend it together.”

Tove rejected the request for intimacy by folding her arms on the table. “You mean that?”

“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? You’ve been the best part about moving to Bend.”

When the server arrived with the cider, she made a point of pouring two glasses of the blackberry blend so the guests didn’t have to lift a finger. Kayla continued to gaze at the golf course and the woods on the horizon; Tove analyzed her feelings as they insisted on swelling in Kayla’s direction.

“Thank you,” Tove said to the young lady who couldn’t have been older than Kayla. “Surely, there are other good parts,” she then said to Kayla, whose attention she had again. “How’s your job? You don’t talk about it much.”

“Oh, it’s a job. Glad to have gotten one so quickly, wish I didn’t need to and could take my time establishing myself around here. Then again…” She attempted to hide her mischievous smile behind her hair, but Tove still saw plenty. “I’ve been busy with a certain someone I met my second day here.”

“You wasted no time locking me down.”

Tove had meant to be jovial, but her words brought a dark shadow to Kayla’s face. “It’s not like that at all,” she whispered to the wind. “I merely followed my heart. It brought me here. Perhaps it brought me to you, Tove.”

Lest she fell for one of the oldest lines in the book, Tove picked up her glass of blackberry cider. “Here’s to following one’s heart. May it not lead us astray.”

Kayla had her glass up for a toast faster than Tove could clink them together. The first sip of the blackberry cider was refreshing to Tove’s sensitive palate.I didn’t grow up with the thousand-dollar bottles of wine like some others in my family did, but I still tasted them.She knew what was good and what was mediocre – and the cideries in Oregon often hit the right spot those past few years. It was easy to make one too vinegary to the point that Tove dismissed it as “bad.” Or the ingredients sourced for the flavor were not up to her discerning tastes.Huckleberry and Marionberry can be like that.Blackberry could also easily destroy an otherwise delicious cider on a warm day, but the brand the country club sourced from had made its name on blackberry cider. For them to have a bad batch was pure anathema.

“That always hits the spot.” Tove dragged her attention away from the bubbles in her drink to Kayla’s reaction as she had her first sip. A visage of sheer disgust was quickly hidden behind a dazzling smile that flirted with Tove from across the table. “Like that smile of yours.”

Was that genuine blush on Kayla’s cheek? It was hard to tell since Kayla was always finely made up in her makeup of choice. Meanwhile, Tove could seldom be assed to put on makeup anymore. She only did recently for dates like these, and even then, a hint of mascara and cover-up on the biggest blemishes were more than Tove handled on a good day.

Beholding how perfect Kayla always presented herself made Tove want to try again, though. She wanted to match that lusciously long hair and those perfect nails.

I want to do other things to them, too.Pull Kayla’s hair. Bury her face in a pillow until the makeup smudged on the Egyptian cotton…

Every date with Kayla was another step closer to opening Tove’s personal Pandora’s box.

While she wouldn’t say this was a honeymoon phase in the truest sense of the word, Tove took her mind off possibly seeing some of her family by engaging her girlfriend in frivolous conversation. She wanted to know more about how things went behind the scenes at the brewery. Had Kayla gone on any hikes with her friends? What had she majored in during college? Oh? Kayla hadn’t finished college? There was always time to get back to it. Perhaps the cost was too high now. Tove was the first to admit she had gone to school during a different financial time. She had paid for it herself, but it had been a lot easier back in the ‘90s.

She ignored the light pink flags that occasionally waved from Kayla’s impeccable aura. The way she grimaced at the cider when she thought Tove wasn’t looking but continued to say it was good; her changing a story halfway through to match the original way she told it to Tove, which happened to hit all the marks of an engaging tale instead of “so, this is how it happened”; her lightly flirting with the young male server who came by their table to inform them that there had been a shift change. But the biggest flag Tove batted out of her face was Kayla salivating over the prime rib on the menu before remembering she was a vegetarian.

“Sorry,” she said to Tove, who wasn’t offended at all. “I’ve only been vegetarian for about a year. I still get cravings.”

“I’ve been vegetarian since the late ‘90s,” Tove said. “I’ve completely forgotten what meat tastes like.”

“Really?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Did you also forget what a woman tastes like after twenty years?”

Tove had been open to flirting with her girlfriend, but that question took it to another level. “Not at all. You never forget that.”

Before Kayla could have a proper giggle, a shadow laced in the trappings of an old-fashioned dress loomed over their table.

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