Chapter 16

Caitlyn

She got out of her seat at the kitchen table as soon as Rebecca and Christine came down the driveway.

"It's about time we added some class to this place!" Christine thought that overused line was hilarious when Caitlyn bounded out of the front door and threw her arms around Rebecca, who almost dropped her purse to be immediately accosted upon arriving at the lake house. "How was the flight, huh?"

"The flight was fine." Rebecca shared a quick kiss with her girlfriend before reclaiming her breathing space. "But you know Noah is a great pilot. You hired him."

"Nobody lands like he does." After Caitlyn booped Rebecca's nose, she turned to her mother. "Thanks for going to get her, Mom. I know it's like two hours away."

"Oh, no worries! Was a bit boring going there, but we chatted the whole way here! It flew by. Oh! We did stop at the store in town so we could get Rebecca some snacks. And myself. I wanted snacks."

"Yeah, I'm not on a diet." Rebecca shrugged. "I want snacks."

"Snacks?" Izzy bounded through the screen door, nearly barreling over Caitlyn and Rebecca as she went to help bring in groceries. "I'm starving!"

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "She never makes it all the way to the competition. Solidarity dieting my ass."

"You are eating though, right?"

Caitlyn grinned. "You hear that? She's concerned for my wellbeing." After another laugh, she continued, "Of course I am, Becca. Just nothing exciting. Food is a fuel right now, not so much a source of life's pleasure."

"You're eating a bunch of greens, I'm guessing."

"Greens and beans. Ooh, you get to sleep with me."

"Between you and Jane's diets, I'm used to it."

They had kept dinner warm for Rebecca and Christine. The cauliflower crust pizza with goat cheese and vegetables made Rebecca scrunch her mouth to eat, but she claimed to be too hungry to care. Christine said nothing, because she had long learned to stop questioning how her daughter ate before a competition.

Caitlyn grilled her partner on how things were back east, from Jane, to Cecelia, to the business. I know I get daily updates, but it's not the same as hearing it from someone's mouth right in front of you. Just like it wasn't the same for Rebecca to hear that Caitlyn was fine in rural Iowa without seeing it for herself.

"Everyone is the same as usual. Oh, but Willow made an impromptu appearance to check in on the fact that Cecelia went to homecoming with a white boy."

While Caitlyn gasped, Izzy asked, "Who the hell is Willow?"

Apparently, Caitlyn had forgotten to clue her coach in on the biggest thorn in the family's side. "She's more bark than bite," she explained to Izzy, who was enraptured to hear about the kind of mother-in-law fit for a Korean drama, "but when she does bite, you better hope you can get a rabies shot."

"Willow's always been nice and polite to me." Christine began washing the dishes in the sink. "Which means she probably hates me or sees me as someone of no consequence to her."

Basically. Caitlyn offered her partner some decaf coffee, but they settled on some red wine to celebrate their reunion. Izzy indulged in a glass while Christine insisted she shouldn't.

"Last I heard from Jane, she was going out to the Italian bistro for dinner. I guess Cecelia went to a friend's party to watch horror movies," Rebecca said.

"Yes, that's what she last told me too. Kinda weird for her to be quiet all night. Maybe she turned in early."

"Yeah, I texted her that we were almost here and I've got nothing."

Caitlyn shrugged. "She's probably sulking because we left her for a week."

"A week flies by so quickly."

"Don't have to tell me twice. I've somehow been here for three and it feels like… well, like three months. Especially with Izzy."

"I don't have to be here, you know," the coach, who sat right between them, said. "But thank you, Cait. Glad to know I can slow your life down for you."

"Likewise."

After dinner and wine, Caitlyn showed Rebecca to their room, which had its linens refreshed that day. There were a few other things Caitlyn had added as well, because she knew exactly what Jane felt like being alone after getting so used to having not just one, but two other lovers around.

"Oh, my." Rebecca lingered in the bathroom doorway, giggling. "You went all out."

Rose petals on the bathtub, candles ready to be lit, and a Bluetooth speaker playing only the best mix ‘90s pop (for Caitlyn) and 2000s RnB (for Rebecca.) It was the playlist they both messed around with to send messages to one another during the day. Right now, when Caitlyn pressed the button on her phone, Boyz II Men began their sensual serenade.

"Did you think you were getting away for one night without someone coming on to you?" Caitlyn wrapped her arms around Rebecca from behind, growling into the crook of her girlfriend's neck and swaying them back and forth in the doorway. "I've been surviving on vibrators and living vicariously through you and Jane."

Rebecca encased her hands over Caitlyn's, losing her footing as the latter rocked them a little too far. "Nope." When Caitlyn moved her hands, feeling up Rebecca's modest chest that she knew was more than fun to play with when clothes were off, she continued, "Maybe I was counting on it, Cait."

"Got horny on the plane ride, did you?"

"Maybe." Rebecca turned in Caitlyn's hold, flinging arms around her as well. "Then it died on a two hour car ride with your mother."

"That is an unfortunate side effect of riding in a car with my mother for so long."

"She's so wholesome. I can't keep thinking about how badly I want to fuck her daughter. It's wrong."

"You're not in a car with her anymore." Caitlyn squeezed Rebecca's ass. "You're free to think about it now."

Manifest it, Cait. She had to have something to look forward to this week!

"You think this is what you want," Rebecca flirtatiously said, water dripping down her front as she sat up in the bathwater. "But what if I told you I brought a copy of Blood Meridian to read? I could read it for you right here. It's the perfect bathtime companion."

Caitlyn balanced her elbows on the sides of the tub. "Depends. Did you bring an actual physical copy, or is it on your tablet?"

"It's on my tablet. Is that not good enough for you?"

"You see, it's not so much the content as it is the vision." Caitlyn's eyes traveled the length of Rebecca's torso, always the connoisseur of pert, wet nipples and how her partner's coppery bush looked beneath the water's surface. These two had taken so many baths together over the years that it was like their special date nights away from the rest of the world. Jane likes her hot showers, and I like my deep, hot tubs. Finally, they found a woman who appreciated both. "If you had an actual book in your hands, we could have quite the sexy and scintillating photoshoot. Because I still owe Jane a picture of you naked with me."

Rebecca put her hands on hips. The tub was just big enough for her to straddle Caitlyn's thighs in the water, but if either of them budged, then Rebecca came down. "No pictures tonight, please. I'm still dying that she sent you that other one."

Caitlyn covered her camera with her hand to prove she wasn't on her phone to take a forbidden picture. Instead, she dug up her new favorite photo of Rebecca, in the midst of the throes of lovemaking with their third. "You mean you don't appreciate the beauty behind this?" She showed Rebecca the picture. "I am going to treasure this forever."

"Only because you know how desperate I was."

"Sweetheart, half the reason I get obsessed with you is because of your desperation."

"Oh, yeah? What would happen if I suddenly wasn't desperate?" Rebecca pressed her hands on the bottom of her back to keep her balance as she slowly shifted her hips back and forth against Caitlyn's thighs. "You would still love me, right?"

Caitlyn put her phone aside. "I'd find other reasons to love you by that point, yes."

"By that point?"

Stretching her arms above her head, Caitlyn said, "We're talking about at least twenty years from now, when all three of us are long hit by the menopause stick. God only knows what our sex lives will be like by then. Which is why we must appreciate what we have now. We could as easily become completely disinterested in sex or become even more hormonal maniacs."

"I think we both know which one I'm going to be."

"That's the beautiful thing. We actually don't know." Caitlyn twiddled her fingers as she came in for the boob grab. "We've got to make the most of it! Right now!"

Squealing in surprise, Rebecca's arms spun in the air as she fought to regain her balance atop Caitlyn, who went out of her way to slosh bathwater over the side of the tub as she brought herself up and Rebecca closer for a kiss.

This was exactly what the doctor ordered for Caitlyn's homesickness. And what the pageant ordered to keep her head straight and her mind focused on a prize she probably didn't have a chance at winning.

"So, you're saying that the Monroes aren't interested but Monica is?" Caitlyn walked the length of her driveway, where her reception was strongest when attempting a serious conversation with her wife and business partner. "Interesting. Does Damon know that you've gone behind his back to strike deals with his biggest industry rival?"

Although Caitlyn sparred with wit, Jane wasn't giving it back. "No. I hope to keep it that way, but he has his birdies everywhere, like Monica does. Actually, Monica's birdies scare me more. She knows everything."

"That's what happens when you crawl up from the bottom." Caitlyn reached the road where she mindlessly checked for mail she knew wasn't there and started heading back to the house. "Fine. If Monica wants to go ahead with our investment, then let's do it."

"Really?"

"The more time I've had to think about it this month, the more sense it makes. You were right, Lin. We really should diversify our investments into hospitality, especially if it's something we know about. Like sex clubs."

"I have been explicitly told that it is not a sex club. That was the Monroes' idea."

"Teaching beginners about the ABCs of BDSM, pole dancing, and whatnot counts to most Americans."

"You know how Monica is. She is legal to a fault. That woman isn't ever going to prison, including for tax fraud. I am pretty sure she pays more taxes than we do. More than she has to."

"Again, that's what happens when you crawl up from the bottom. You're not letting anyone or anything pry you away from the money you've earned. In the long term, anyway. Monica is one of the smartest women we know. She has impeccable business acumen." Caitlyn paused her steps to laugh. "Forgive me, but I trust her more than Damon. He's had a couple of bombs since the pandemic."

"How was he to know that lockdown was coming the moment he opened an elite massage parlor? You cannot recover from that."

"Didn't it open literally on the day of the governor-mandated lockdown?"

"He does not like to talk about it."

"Most men don't like to talk about their failures, yes."

Usually, Jane would laugh, but she was still noticeably stoic.

"What's up?" Caitlyn prompted.

Jane took a few seconds to respond. "What do you mean?"

"You're being kinda cagey and not your usual self. Everything all right over there?"

"God, can't get anything past you, huh?"

Caitlyn practiced not tripping over her feet as she was distracted from her walk up a rocky driveway. "Personal or professional?"

"Suppose my niece is pretty personal."

For a moment, Caitlyn forgot the scent of the cedar trees bursting with autumn's life around her. Maybe it was olfactory fatigue, or maybe she had held her breath for that long. "What happened to Cecelia? Is she okay?"

"According to her, life is over. But yes, she is fine. No need to go to the doctor."

"Oh, dear. How serious it is?"

"Let's say she is grounded for lying to her old Aunt Jane."

"Grounded? You?" Caitlyn slapped her hand against her chest to suppress her startled guffaw. "I'm shocked you even knew of the concept!"

"Excuse me. My mother attempted to ground me multiple times when I was her age. It simply did not work due to the nature of my home and upbringing."

"What did she lie about?"

"She asked me last night if she could go to a friend's Halloween horror movie party and I told her yes. Turned out she was… well, she was with a boy. When I found out, I lost it. But I did the right thing, right? Taking her home and grounding her?"

It took Caitlyn a second to catch up with what Jane was telling her. Cece lied about going out with a boy? That was certainly cause for concern. It was one thing to lie about going to a friend's house and instead taking one's self out for a romp at the mall – something Caitlyn did a couple of times when she was in high school. "If you had proof she lied…"

"Oh, I had proof, Cait. I saw the boy's pecker two inches away from our Cece's hand."

That was one way to cause temporary blindness – for them both! "I'm sorry, what?"

Jane proceeded to tell her the important parts of the whole story, from Ceceila lying, to seeing her and the boy at the bistro, and following them to the address Cece had given in case there was an emergency. Caitlyn didn't know if she considered Jane lucky or Cecelia stupid for giving the real address and not a fake one! That's lying to your parents 101, Cece. Come on!

"They were having sex?" The lake house was within sight, but Caitlyn hung back, not wanting either Christine or Rebecca to see her having a heated conversation on the phone.

"They certainly were not playing a rousing game of cribbage, that's for sure."

"Jesus!"

"What's worse is that this bloke is eighteen, Cait. Still in Winchester Academy, but eighteen! That is way too old for her, right?"

Caitlyn had to do the real math since she was so used to thinking of Cecelia as sixteen when she was still fifteen. "I do not like that, no. Who was it? I thought her date to homecoming was in her class."

"Oh, different lad. Our Cece is getting around."

"Lin!"

"You know what I mean. She has more game with boys than I ever could have. She must get it from her mother. Lilian was always flirting and getting her way with the blokes in Hong Kong. You have to remember, her great bisexual awakening is happening before menopause!"

"You don't have to remind me." Caitlyn didn't bring up that she had been popular with boys while in school but spent most of her time finding safe ways to let them down because she already knew she was a lesbian and too busy crushing on the captain of the cheerleading squad and her more tomboyish cousin, the captain of the girls' lacrosse team. Ugh, those cousins were double trouble… What was wild was that Caitlyn made out with the cheerleader at a graduation party while the lacrosse captain turned out straight! Sometimes your gaydar malfunctions, okay?

Someone waved to her from the living room window. Caitlyn waved back.

"Yes, if she lied to you that egregiously so she could go play find the footlong with a boy you've never met, then ground her ass."

"You know I am not good with imperial measurements, but footlong is very generous."

"You know what I mean, Lin. I'm really sorry you're having to deal with this yourself. Are you going to let her go to New York with us?"

"I do not have a choice. There is no one to keep an eye on her, and besides…" Jane sighed. "I am grounding her from going out with friends or having any fun outside of me. I thought that was a fair trade. She can still go out and do stuff with us, especially if we have been planning it for weeks."

"Right. I know it's not like you to be the ‘bad cop,' so to speak, but I think you're doing the right thing."

"Oh, this reminds me. I have looked more into the room situation by the venue, and We are getting two connected rooms instead of our usual big suite. Everything is either already booked or not enough room for four people needing at least three beds. So, this is the best I can do without sacrificing too much comfort."

"Thanks, Jane. I've already donated my room that comes with the pageant to someone who needs it. Aw, maybe we should sleep together while we're there and let Becca have the other room. She's been such a good sport about losing her room since Cecelia came to America."

"I know. I was thinking the same thing. Besides, you are competing as Mrs. Iowa. What kind of Missus are you if you are not sleeping with your beautiful wife? The one who wants to make sure she fucks you really good before your competition?"

Caitlyn rolled her eyes as a crispy breeze penetrated her single layer of clothing. "You must be serious if you said ‘fuck.'"

"I know. Shag did not feel right there. I have more purpose in mind. By the way, how is our Becca? I have been so distracted by what is going on with Cece that I was not really paying attention to her texts last night. Do tell me you welcomed her with open pussy."

"What if I didn't?"

"I'd call you a dirty liar, Cait. You have been waiting to get your grubby hands on Rebecca for at least two weeks, if not longer."

Caitlyn rubbed the back of her neck as she finally headed toward the house. "You're right. We've been doing the kind of thing my mother would have grounded me for in school."

"She probably wants to ground you now!"

It was Christine waving to Caitlyn through the window, as made clearer when one approached the other on the porch. "Is that Jane?" Christine asked through the opened front door. "Tell her we miss her!"

"My mom misses you."

"This is getting odd. I am hanging up."

Christine asked what was so funny. Caitlyn merely told her, "Jane being Jane," which was enough to change the subject to something far more mundane.