“If you tell me it was God’s will I’m going to get up right now and never speak to you again.” Lovey dabbed at her cheeks with a corner of the thin linen cloth.
She supposed that Lovey was sick to her wits’ end of hearing that particular platitude given the fact that as the minister’s daughter she was probably continually surrounded by well-meaning church folk. Believers always seemed to fall back on that sentiment for some tragedy that made no sense. It hadn’t rung any less hollow to Royal upon losing her father suddenly when she was a child, and it no doubt had no healing effect on Lovey either.
Lovey regarded Royal’s gentle expression and was extremely sensitive to the press of Royal’s open palm against her back.
“That is the last thing I would say to you, Lovey.”
Lovey smiled, sniffed, and wiped again at the tears on her cheeks. “Well, now that’s settled maybe we can be friends.” She used the word friend, but even as she said the word, she felt something much stronger for Royal. A stirring of her insides she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt before. An unrequited need so powerful that it seemed outside her ability to control the effect it was having on her body. She fondled the handkerchief between her fingers, rubbing her thumb over the embroidery at the corner; the initials R. D. and what looked like the outline of a car. She couldn’t help smiling.
“A car?”
“My mother did the stitching. She says all ladies should keep a clean handkerchief on their person.” Royal shifted, possibly feeling a bit bashful about the personal detail the embroidery revealed.
“I think most ladies have flowers, not cars. Your mother must be very understanding.”
“I would say she’s tolerant. She knows if she put flowers on it I’d never leave the house with it.”
They were facing each other now, although their bodies were side by side, knees bent. She became aware of Royal’s mouth, darkly tinted by the blackberry cordial. She wanted to kiss Royal. The realization that she wanted to kiss another woman quickened her pulse. She’d ever only kissed George.
Lovey shifted closer, never taking her eyes off Royal’s lips. After another moment of hesitation, she leaned into Royal, placing her lips lightly on Royal’s. She lingered there, with eyes closed, savoring the soft sensation of their lips pressed together.
If the world was still spinning, she had no sense of it, for in the moment when their lips touched everything in motion seemed to still. Even the birds were silent. She held her breath. The only sound she heard was the pounding of her own heart in her chest like a bass drum.
After a moment, she pulled away, not sure what Royal’s reaction might be to the kiss. She’d never kissed a woman before, but she’d wanted to kiss Royal since they’d stood facing each other in her father’s kitchen. Royal’s face was flushed, maybe from the heat of midday or from the kiss. She was about to apologize for her boldness when Royal closed the space between them and kissed her. The kiss was gentle, but demanding. With the weight of Royal pushing against her, she fell back onto the blanket pulling Royal with her. She held Royal’s face in her hands and kissed her deeply, mouths open, tongues touching. She felt Royal’s hand drift down her ribs to the outside curve of her hip.
This was nothing more than a first kiss, and yet she was more aroused than she’d ever been in three years of marriage to George. While she’d cared deeply for George and they had even been close friends before marriage, this…this was something else entirely. She had a moment of panic because of the strength of her body’s reaction to the kiss and broke away from Royal, breathing hard. She held Royal’s face in her hands, and the expression on Royal’s face seemed to telegraph the same surprised intensity that she was feeling, an intensity that scared her a little.
“Does this frighten you?” She whispered the question as she gazed into Royal’s eyes, attempting to gauge the sincerity she saw there.
“I see you, Lovey Porter. And I am not afraid.”
Lovey did feel seen. For the first time in a long time.
She pulled Royal’s mouth to hers and they kissed. Time suspended as shadows grew longer around them and a light afternoon breeze danced across their heated skin.
Chapter Seven
It was late the next evening when Royal finally showed up to retrieve her Ford sedan from Ned’s shop. The car was already loaded for a delivery to Forsyth County on the northern outskirts of Atlanta.
“Sorry, I didn’t make it over last night.” Royal parked her grandfather’s old truck beside the weathered barn that doubled as Ned’s makeshift garage. “I ended up hanging out for a while.”
“I kinda figured you might.” Ned slid back the large front door of the barn to reveal the car already headed in the “out” direction. “I went ahead and got this all loaded for you. Dad wanted to talk to you about something, but he got tired of waiting.”
Ned’s father, Wade, Royal’s uncle, was as thick as he was mean. Stout through the chest and neck, he looked more like a boxer than a farmer. Which no one believed he was anyway. He was the sort of fellow who believed that the sun rose just to hear him crow. Royal was more than pleased she’d missed whatever directive Wade Duval had planned to deliver. She tried to spend as little time around him as possible and hated to see the long-term effect his aggressive parenting had had on Ned.
More than once when they were kids she’d seen Wade shove Ned with his boot hard enough to knock him down. She never really believed Ned when he explained away a black eye as a fight at school.
Royal’s
