The Summer of Our Discontent (18 page)

When water soaked through Rachel’s shorts, she gave up most of her fight but held on to Faith by wrapping a leg around hers. She fisted her hands in Faith’s shirt, determined to pull her in along with her. Faith apparently had no problem with getting wet. She trudged on in and submerged them both.

“Don’t you feel better after your bath? The stain of your deceit is gone now,” Faith said when Rachel broke the surface.

Rachel winced. “I think you seriously bruised my wrist.” She took full advantage of Faith’s concern and latched on to her when she swam near. Rachel shoved her head under the water, then yelped when Faith pinched her on the ass.

*******

“You really did bruise my butt when you pinched me.”

Faith grinned as she lay in the sand, her face to the sun. “That wasn’t me, it was a hungry fish.”

Rachel was on her stomach. She knew she couldn’t afford to lie out long without sunscreen. Faith’s skin was a deep golden brown. Her wet tank top and shorts clung to her body like a glove. Rachel was looking at her with new eyes, ones that appreciated the lean muscular form. Muscles in her own abdomen began to dance as she wondered what it would feel like to run her hand over the smooth skin of Faith’s thighs. “Okay, I’m going to change.”

Faith grabbed her arm as she started to get up. “Stay, play with me some more.”

“One of us will end up in traction if I do. Besides, I’m not olive-skinned like you are. I’ll be red as a beet if I stay in the sun.”

Faith smiled as she released her. “It always made you freckle. You used to have a bunch on your face. What happened to those?”

“I had them
lasered
off.”

“Oh, that’s painful. I had…it hurts. They lie when they say it’s painless.”

Rachel propped her chin in her hand. Her grin was impish. “What did you have removed? Was it a nasty tattoo? Something pornographic, or did you have a name you wanted to forget?”

“I have virgin skin, I’ve never been inked.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “I don’t believe you, Faith Leblanc.”

Faith sat up. “You have one, don’t you?”

“One, it’s very small.”

“Let me see it.”

“I can’t.”

Faith’s eyes went wide. “Oh, it’s in a naughty place. What is it?”

“It’s a…none of your business.”

“Oh, Rachel, haven’t you learned anything about me by now? If you tell me that, I just have to know. Don’t make me creep into the bathhouse while you’re showering.”

The idea was appealing, but Rachel shook it off as quickly as it hit her spinning mind. “You sneak up on me in the shower, and I’ll dot your eye,” she said as she got up.

“Now that sounds like a challenge.”

“You stay here and watch the kids. Do you want me to put your things in the bathhouse so you can go straight there when you’re done baking yourself?”

Faith dropped back into the sand. “You’re so thoughtful, but no thanks, I’m sure payback is coming for tossing you in the water. Don’t take it out on my clothes. I have just enough clean ones to last me until the end of the trip.”

*******

Rachel was miserable by the time she made it to her cabin. The sand in her clothes had exfoliated the most tender areas of her body. She gathered her things and headed to the bathhouse. Since the nap, her mind seemed to be a bit clearer. Yes, she could admit that Faith was attractive, and she was a pleasure to be around. What she felt was a simple crush; she’d had them many times before on other women, but they faded into nothing at all. It was the newness of someone, figuring her out, she supposed, that was the lure. She’d known Faith all her life, but now she was getting to know the other side of her personality. The sweet, albeit impish one.

And she was horny. That alone made more sense to Rachel than anything else. It’d been five years since she’d been with anyone. Her vibrator did the trick most of the time, but there were no sex toys at camp and no privacy. Sexual release was one thing, but she missed the intimacy, the touch of another. Faith was somewhat single, a lesbian, and in her face. Soon they would be home, and the interest and the urges it provoked would abate, and she’d be back to normal—alone.

Chapter Twenty-two

“Tomorrow morning, I’m gonna get up early and go for a run. I eat and sit too much, and the snack run is making me feel guilty.”

“Want company?” Rachel asked.

“Sure, but tonight, I’m not gonna sit here and stare at those
s’mores
because I really, really want one. I’m gonna call my sister and give her an update, then I’m gonna shower. I’ll be back in time to say good night to the girls.”

“Okay, enjoy.” Rachel watched Faith walk away, then looked back at the kids. She began to daydream, and her gaze drifted. She blinked when she realized that Lisa met her stare. Rachel refused to look away until Lisa did. She’d mulled the conversation they’d had time from time during the day, and it rankled her when she allowed it to.

Long ago, before she became a Barlow, Lisa Quaid had been vivacious, jovial, the life of the party, and extremely pretty. In high school, Rachel thought her vain and snobby. But as she gazed at Lisa then, she noticed that she no longer seemed so tightly put together. Her natural blond hair was always up in a clip. She no longer wore the glamorous makeup. She’d married into wealth, but her clothes always seemed to be too large and unkempt. Instead of standing out in the crowd, as she had done in school, she seemed to hide in the background.

Rachel wondered what had brought on the change, perhaps raising three children while her husband spent his days at the office and weekends on the golf course had taken its toll. She knew very little about Lisa’s life, but from where Rachel sat, Lisa looked extremely depressed. She felt a sliver of sympathy for her, but old hurts chased it away.

*******

“Rachel.”

“What?”

“A UFO just landed near the tree line, they’re taking the cow.”

Rachel chuckled softly. “How’d you know I was awake, or did you care?”

“You say ‘shit’ every time you sneeze, and…I didn’t care. I was laying here pondering the mysteries of the universe and thought you should be included. Life on other planets, yes or no?”

“Yes. The last time I was here, I had trouble sleeping, too, so I took a walk late one night. I was just sitting on the dock, and a greenish flash streaked through the sky, then I noticed the same glow coming from the woods across the lake. At first, I thought a plane had gone down, but there was no sound, no explosion. Curious, I hiked around the lake and went into the woods. There was this orb-like thing just sitting in a clearing, pulsating. While I stood there staring at it completely stupefied, someone tapped me on the shoulder. She was totally hot despite being green, and we had sex for like hours. That’s how I got Kaycee. Alien children grow really fast.”

“Ass. I guess there’s no sense in asking if you believe in Bigfoot, or did you have sex with one of them, too?”

“I don’t think I could ever do a Sasquatch. I’ve heard they smell really bad,
kinda
like you each night before you shower.”

“Tell me about Lisa.”

Rachel sighed. “Why is that so important to you?”

“She’s piqued my curiosity only slightly less than you have. There’s a story there, and you won’t share it with me.”

Rachel got up with a sigh and crept over to Faith’s cabin. She opened the door but stopped right before stepping in. “You have clothes on, right?”

“Sports bra and shorts count?”

“I guess so, I can’t see a damn thing anyway.” Rachel walked in and took a seat at the foot of Faith’s bed. “This isn’t something I want repeated, that’s why I came over here. I wasn’t sure if Simone, who’s in the cabin on the other side of me, is asleep. Very few people know, and I’ve only really ever confided in Chance about what actually happened.”

Faith sat up and leaned against the wall, hugging her pillow to her chest. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise. Wait, are you gonna bullshit me like you did with the alien thing?”

Rachel laughed softly. “No.” She released a long sigh. “Lisa and I went to Southeastern together. I don’t know if you remember, but in high school, she was bubbly and vivacious and had absolutely nothing to do with me.”

“Yeah, I remember. She avoided me like the plague, too.”

“I’d just come out right before I went off to college. It was
chickenshit
, but I dropped that bomb and took off. I figured by the time I graduated, everyone would’ve just gotten over the shock. I didn’t have any classes with Lisa, but she sought me out and acted like we were the best of friends. I was away from home, there were quite a few lesbians on campus, and I was ready to explore that frontier. Lisa kept getting in my way, though. I’d made a few gay friends, and we’d go to the bars in Baton Rouge, and she always wanted to come along. She claimed to be straight, and in the bars, she stuck to my hip like glue so much so that other women thought we were a couple. She was totally wrecking my chances of meeting someone, so I just started avoiding her.”

“She was testing the waters through you but still hiding in the closet,” Faith surmised.

“Yeah. After college, I came back home and rented an apartment near the station. She just showed up one night, and as soon as I closed the door, she showed me what was on her mind.”

“Ah,” Faith said with a nod, “pounced like a jungle cat.”

“I was stupid and still terribly naïve. The affair lasted four months, and the extent of our relationship was confined to my apartment. We never really went out on a date. Lisa’s family is real religious, and she said she wasn’t ready to come out yet. I understood that fear, so I was patient. I just thought that eventually she’d find her courage. One night, we had plans to get together, and she never showed. She didn’t answer my calls, and she was still living with her folks. I sure as hell wasn’t going over there to look for her, so I just waited. A week later, a type-written note comes in the mail unsigned. It said
Don’t call me, don’t look for me, it’s over.
I didn’t have to guess who it was from. A week after that, someone told me she’d eloped with Craig Barlow. We never discussed what happened or why.”

“Wow.” Faith was quiet for a moment. “Were you in love?”

Rachel shrugged. “I don’t know. I cared deeply for her, but…I couldn’t let go completely. I guess somewhere deep in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn’t going to last, even though I’d hoped it would.” She pulled her knees up beneath her chin and wrapped her arms around them. “We had a lot of fun in that apartment. We laughed, and of course, did other things. Behind that locked door, we lived another life, escaped from reality, I suppose.”

“Why do you think she stares at you?”

Rachel shrugged. “I refuse to give it much thought. Maybe she’s toying with me again, waiting to see how I’ll respond. I only speak to her when I have to, and that’s how it’ll remain.”

“Want me to ask her what her problem is?”

“No,” Rachel said with a laugh. “You’ve already pissed her off. She came into my cabin this morning and was all upset because she thought I’d told you about us. She’s afraid that you’re gonna say something to someone, and it’ll affect her family, so please don’t. I honestly just want all of it to stay in the past. I don’t want to be confronted about it or deal with gossip.”

“I give you my word, and I apologize for teasing you about her.” Faith shifted and readjusted her pillow. “I guess it’s pretty obvious what her problem is. She’s queer as a three-dollar bill and stuck in the life she chose to live. If she admitted that she screwed up and wanted another chance, left her husband, what would you do?”

“That was a very long time ago. The wounds have healed, but I know I could never trust her again. I didn’t fully trust her then.”