When All Else Fails (11 page)
They cleaned up, poured coffee, and decided on breakfast. Every time she glanced Andrea’s way, her partner’s gaze was caressing over her. She felt wanted, needed, and not only a mom, sister, daughter, or friend, but also a woman. When all goes wrong and all else fails, there is always love.
One year later
…
“Mama! Mom, Andy’s going to embarrass me!” The whine of a teenage girl had to be worse than nails on a chalkboard. She turned as a frustrated Jenny stormed into the kitchen with a smug Andrea right on her heels.
“Baby, I don’t know this cool girl with a car who’s picking up our daughter.”
Laughing would be a terrible idea now, so she bit the inside of her cheek and forced her amusement down.
“Jenny, Andrea is right. We don’t know this girl, and I’m sure she’s a very nice and respectable young lady, but we have to meet her.”
“Mama, Andy has Charise outside the house in her damn uniform.”
“Jenny, watch your language. Andrea, you don’t have a cop outside.”
“Damn right I do, Charise even put her uniform on for me.” The conceited smirk intensified, and Eva shot her wife a dirty glower. “I don’t care if our daughter doesn’t like boys and there’s never a chance she’ll come home accidently pregnant, this so-called nice girl has a car with a backseat.”
“Actually she has a truck,” Jenny admitted.
The loud gasp coming from Andrea almost made her snort.
“That’s worse. It has a bed.” Andrea did her best tantrum imitation, all stomping feet, heavy sighs, and aggravated huffs. What in the hell had she gotten herself into? Her house had become a loony bin since Andrea moved in. Their one-year anniversary was only a week away, and it was like having three kids in the house instead of two.
“Go away, just….” She threw her hands up in defeat. “You two need to go. Andrea, you send Charise home. Jenny, you go finish getting ready for your date.”
“Mama, Jenny’s date is here. Charise is in interrogation mode. She’s got Jenny’s girlfriend all backed up against this huge-ass truck and is asking for her license.” Her son’s voice drifted from the front porch.
She groaned. She could already picture all the neighbors gathering on their lawns.
“Shoo, go. I have to fix everything around this damn place.” She passed Andrea, stopped, and looked up at her. “When the third in our little brood comes along, it better not be a girl.” Andrea’s mouth dropped open—she didn’t appear so smug now. Eva rubbed her belly, winked at her wife, and headed for the door. “Bradley, watch your damn mouth!”
“When you and Mom Andy start watching your damn mouths!”
“A madhouse. I run a damn madhouse!” She stomped through the open front door and sighed, finding Detective Charise Knowles making a show of running the girl’s license. “Charise, give the girl’s ID back!” She cast an apologetic glance at the frightened girl then noticed the yards littered with nosy neighbors pointing and laughing at the spectacle. “Honey, I’m so sorry for my wife and her friends. Please, come on to the house. Jenny’s almost ready. I’m Eva.”
“Geri, ma’am. I can go—”
“No! It’s fine. Like I said, Andrea and her friends didn’t progress past high school in the maturity department. You’ll do fine, I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Eva!” Her wife hung out an upstairs window, and Eva shot her a withering stare.
“Andrea! You are sleeping on the couch, I swear. Sampson needs a roommate!” She glared at her partner then turned a friendly smile on Geri. “We’re not always this crazy.”
“Are you sure?” the girl asked.
Eva’s eyes widened, and joy bubbled up from her chest, bursting free.
“No, honey, I’m not.”
By day, she is an Innkeeper at a B&B on the grounds of a winery in beautiful Ohio, by night and any free time she may have, she is a writer of mainly LGBTQ Fiction and Erotica. Although. she's equal opportunity when it comes to telling a story, she'll even write a bit of straight erotic romance when the mood strikes.
She has been writing for years in old notebooks. At the age of eight, she wrote the worst poem in the history of poetry, but it sparked her love for writing. She reads too much and loves to get lost in other worlds and her favorite stories have to include laughter and having the reader doing at least one double take. Thirty-something, forever restless she uses her stories to ground herself, and find her place of peace.
You may visit with J.M. at:
http://jmdabney.wix.com/jmdabneyauthor
Born to a destitute woodworker who wanted a son to carry on the family business, Talia grew up with one phrase on her lips: “If I had been born a boy.” If she had been born a boy, she would have been cherished, supported, and launched into the world with her father’s legacy. As only a worthless girl, she toils all day long to earn her handful of inferior grain.
Far away in the heavenly palace, Queen Vina receives a mysterious coin necklace from Nicodemus, teller of stories. Compelled by the throbbing heartbeat, she scours the earth to come across Talia, enslaved to a family who never wanted her. Rather than admit her motives, Vina purchases the girl with a sack full of gold. Furious, betrayed, and homesick, Talia endeavors to share her misery with the entire palace. Vina, afraid to confess her love, allows herself to become trapped in the role of brutal slave owner.
Talia, bred to expect nothing but misery, faces the first choice of her life. Will she accept love, even if it comes from an unlikely source? Or will she reject the one who offers her everything?
