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“Some of the best lessons I’ve ever learned have been in this relationship.”
Paige giggled. Once her energy lessened, she sagged against Rhea’s body and gazed across the ocean. For once, she truly felt the peace that had eluded her for too long.
More days like this, please.Her, Rhea, and the best parts the world had to offer.
The only thing Paige loved more than a slow and casual day at the Pier was coming home and heading straight to bed, where she and Rhea made the kind of sensual love that reminded her that not everything had to be fast and different now.
She still needed tenderness. She still needed the softer, feminine side of her wife.
That was the thing about love for Paige Powell, the woman who had put her wild days behind her. She wanted it to be forever. She was that girl who tore apart her dolls because she played with them like the plastic things they were, but she also daydreamed about the perfect wedding and the kind of Prince Charming who would one day sweep her off her feet and show her a Happily Ever After.
Prince Charming didn’t have to be a man, she learned when she reached high school and realized she liked girls. It was a gender-neutral term that referred to the soldier of love who would fight for Paige’s heart.
Here they were, making her dreams come true.
I’ll do anything to keep this going.She wanted Rhea to tell her what it took. Anytime.
Chapter 26
Rheafinallyfoundthecourage to clean up some of her new stories and put them together in a single document. What killed her wasn’t having to relive some of the fantasies she never thought she’d look at again: it was how neatly she put them into separate chapters, each with their own headers and the usual page numbering and attribution she gave her editor every time she submitted something for consideration.
Truly, life was strange.
She rubbed her forehead and massaged her sinuses as the printer spat out page after page of some of the raunchiest things she had ever manifested in her brain.Why am I doing this?What did Rhea possibly hope to achieve by submitting what basically amounted to“Spank This Ass”to her publisher? She had scoped out some of the books put out by Forever Escapes and knew that they could bedirtierthan what Rhea thought sexy by her measure.Who is the audience for this?As she had proclaimed to Paige, there were no men in the stories. It was all women. Even the gangbangs.Can they sell this?Were there enough people out there who wanted to read the story titled “The Perilous Plight of Patricia’s Pussy?” Rhea suddenly regretted naming the twenty-something Patricia. Since when was anyone in Gen-Z namedPatricia?
She had an unassuming dark blue portfolio she neatly stacked the printed papers into. She thought about putting a combination lock on the outside, but what was the point? The cleaning lady who came here twice a month only dusted and vacuumed Rhea’s office – she never went through anything,thank God.And Paige? The only time she came in here when Rhea wasn’t around was if she printed something from her laptop. Rhea had the only printer in the house.
She left the portfolio on the corner of her desk. It was surreptitiously labeledR. Powell.She still hadn’t settled on a pen name that was sexy, related to her real identity in some way, andnottaken by some poor doctor in Indiana. Rhea would rather die than have someone searching for “dermatologists near me” and find her erotica!
She was about to fix herself some lunch when her phone buzzed in her pocket.
The number was not immediately recognizable. Even the area code caught her off guard because it was related to Malibu but not her father’s number.
Nevertheless, something told her to answer it. Just thinking about her father calling made Rhea’s heart race with anxiety.
“Hello?” Rhea held her breath as the other end of the line remained silent. “Hello?”
“Is this Rhiannon?”
Thereit was. An older woman with the no-nonsense attitude of a home healthcare nurse, as well as the intercom announcements, squeaking wheels, and demanding questions of a hospital setting.
Rhea knew what had happened before the nurse said anything.
“I’m calling about your dad, Daniel.” The nurse went straight to it before Rhea had the chance to gasp. “He has had another heart attack. We’re at the university hospital with…”
The sound to finally ruin Rhea’s day wasn’t loud enough to silence the in-home nurse. Nor did it shatter her windows or summon her wife’s attention from halfway across Los Angeles. No, it was such a pathetic whimper that even Rhea questioned why she didn’t have it in her to scream in horror or shed loud, ugly tears of a daughter who desired to not yet be an orphan.
But the slight squeak of horror was real. There was only one thing Rhea cared about now.
She waited until she was in her car connected to her Bluetooth before calling Paige, who sent her straight to voicemail. Since she was probably in the middle of working with a client, Rhea called the gym’s front desk number and asked the man who answered to leave a message, since Rhea had no idea when her wife would get around to checking her phone.
Even though the nearest hospital to her father’s place was in Santa Monica, it took Rhea more time than reasonable to get there. When she arrived, she suddenly forgot where the hell to park without getting in trouble. All she could think was that her father was ill. He might not even be conscious enough to appreciate her arrival, but it didn’t matter. When he last ended up at this hospital after the first heart attack, Rhea stayed by his bedside for three days. She would do it again. She was simply glad that this time she remembered to tell her wife ahead of time.
She hated that she knew the way to the ICU. She hated that she recognized the faces of the nurses, doctors, and janitors on her way there. And she hated the stench of medical supplies infiltrating her head as she shielded her eyes from the harsh fluorescent lighting that led the way to her father’s wing.
It took her an age to find the nurse who had called her. Since she was still on the clock, the woman had patiently sat in the waiting area while anticipating Rhea’s arrival.I could hug her right now.Yet Rhea refrained. The nurse had done her job when she arrived at Danny’s house and discovered his state. All Rhea wanted now was answers, and who better to ask than a woman paid to know all about his health?
“Is he all right?” Rhea clutched the older woman’s arms and resisted the urge to shake her. “How long had it been when you found him?”
