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“Are you serious?” Heidi asked.
“I bet he is,” Carine said as a peal of joyous laughter escaped her.
A couple of Clay’s BDSM dabblers drifted by nosily, pretending they had some other corner to be in.
The mayor’s gaze lingered on Heidi and Carine as he skulked, only turning forward when his companion tugged him away from the column he’d been about to walk into.
And to think he’d had the fucking nerve to call me an odd duck.
Despite safely reaching ground level, Carine hadn’t let go of her arm. To Carine, that was probably an exceedingly normal thing, but Heidi had forgotten what affection could look like. And she was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that someone wanted to be so openly affectionate withher.
“Hesois!” Carine said with a gut-warming jubilance. “You gonna put on a real shirt for it, Clay? Or else you’ll bring dishonor to your impressionable niblings and great-nibling.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“You do that.” Heidi gathered her bag and Carine’s and marched them the shortest distance possible toward their vehicles. That meant through the budding orgy in the front room.
“Shit, Heidi, I didn’t know you were here,” Burt Gleason called out. “You want to energize this bunch a little?”
“Sorry, Burt. This is our last parade. You’ve got one Dowd left here to enjoy, though.”
“Ah, boo.”
Heidi and Carine had made it to the other side of the screen door when Burt amended, “Wait, can I have your Down and Dirty passes?”
Clay emitted an emphatic groan somewhere deep within the throng and shouted, “No transfers! No one cuts in line. You hear me?”
“Why you gotta be so mean?”
“’Cause you like it. Now shut up and entertain me. I’m bored. When I get bored, I start sending motherfuckers home. Dance or something.Shit.”
“I worried for a moment that I would miss it,” Heidi murmured. “The moment passed. Besides, I have all the entertainment I need.” She stopped Carine there in the middle of the vehicle-swarmed field and pressed her palms against the other woman’s cheeks.
In the waning light, Carine’s eyes twinkled, and the contours of her broad smile stood out in clear contrast.
“This makes you happy?” Heidi asked.
“Yep. This makes me happy.”
“If only I’d known you were so easy to please.”
“Easy foryouto please,” Carine said.
“Stop. You’ll make my ego worse.”
“Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to come louder, then. Such a hard-knock life.”
“My grandmother might hear.”
“Urgh.” Carine’s smile collapsed, but her energy remained the same—eager, optimistic, and loving. She cut across a couple of rows to her car. “You know, we might end up back here if only so I can get my screams out.”
“Sweetheart, that’s what yachts are for.” Heidi gave Carine’s chin a caress and pressed her bag to her. “Drive like you want to see me again soon. That means safely, Carine,notfast.”
“Do I get a prize for getting to your place without incident?”
“I’ll give you the prize right now.” With the barest touch of her fingertip to the underside of Carine’s chin, she tilted the redhead close for a kiss that made Carine sigh and her eyelids flutter. “I love you. No swerving. No texting. No mischief. Be waiting at my door when I get there.”
“I’ll be at your door when you get there, posing with my flowers for your doorbell camera and shouting ‘I love Heidi.’”
Heidi laughed and rooted in the black hole in her purse for her keys. “If you’re waiting for me to deter you, don’t hold your breath. Though I do intend to cut you a door key. It’d be quite a strange thing to be in love with someone and force them to ring the doorbell every time they need to get in. Strange, even, for Heidi Dowd.”
