“Oh,” Lacey uttered and swallowed. “I have a late client. She’s in meetings until six, so she asked me to be there around six-fifteen. I’ll be there until at least eight because she gets aninety-minute treatment. She’s about an hour away from my place, so–”
“So, no on tomorrow night. That’s okay.”
“Tuesday?”
“Can’t,” River replied. “I’m closing and working on an order for Wednesday morning. I had to put in a special order with a vendor for one of the ingredients, and it’s not going to be there until Tuesday afternoon, or I would’ve started working on it earlier.”
“Wednesday night, I’m supposed to have dinner with my parents, and Thursday night, I have another late client, so maybe Friday.”
“Yeah, maybe,” River replied and put her arms behind her head. “Did you have fun? I mean, this weekend, did you have fun like you wanted?”
That was a loaded question, and River had to know it. Yes, Lacey had had fun. Remarkably, she’d had a lot of fun. It just wasn’t fun with River. Since they’d arrived, they had hardly touched, and even then, it had only been in front of the cameras. They hadn’t kissed good morning or good night. They definitely hadn’t made love. And while they’d seen each other naked a couple of times, that had been the extent of it. Even in the shower, they’d hardly touched. So, no, she hadn’t had the weekend she had been hoping for, but maybe she’d had the weekend that she’d needed.
“I had fun,” she said, keeping it simple. “You?”
“Good. Me too.”
“We should get packed and go out there. We don’t want to miss breakfast. I think Jessie wants one more group thing and then all of us saying goodbye.”
“Goodbye,” River said softly for some reason.
Lacey chose not to address that and slid out of bed. She headed to the bathroom, where she washed her face, brushed her teeth, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.
“I’m taking a quick shower to help me wake up,” River told her when she walked in a few minutes later, and it was strange because she was wearing a towel around her body.
She must have taken off the clothes she’d slept in after Lacey had gone into the bathroom, but that wasn’t the weird part. River went to turn on the water while holding the towel to her body as if Lacey hadn’t seen her naked just yesterday.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll go get dressed,” Lacey said and walked past her before closing the bathroom door between them.
She knew what River was doing. Silently, River was telling her that she wasn’t hers to see naked anymore. She wasn’t hers to touch, kiss, or be with in any way that could be considered romantic. Lacey sighed as she sat on the end of the bed. She knew they’d have to talk about it, but not right now. Now, they had to go out there and pretend to be in love while one of them stared across the table at Kennedy Gannon and the other wished she wasn’t about to say goodbye to Cameron Levine.
???
“So, how long will it take you two to get home?” Kennedy asked as they all sat around the table.
“Probably a couple of hours,” River replied before she bit into her toast.
Kennedy smiled, and Lacey could only shake her head. Kennedy was smiling and looking athergirlfriend like she thought she was the most adorable woman in the world for how she bit into a piece of toast, but as much as it should’ve bothered Lacey, it didn’t.
“What are you planning on doing the rest of the day?” Cameron asked.
Lacey turned to her when she realized that no one else was answering and that Cameron was talking to her.
“River has to work,” she said.
“Oh,” Cameron replied.
“You’re working on a Sunday?” Kennedy asked.
“I meantyou,” Cameron said to Lacey at the same time.
Lacey turned her head back and forth, not sure where to put her focus, but when River turned more to Kennedy to answer her question, Lacey had her answer.
“I don’t know yet. I thought River and I would hang out, but she’s going to work. She needs to close up for her business partner, who has a romantic night planned with her wife.”
Cameron nodded and took a sip of her coffee.
“What about you?” Lacey asked while River continued to talk to Kennedy.
