Dark Horse, page 23
“Come on in.” Elsie stepped back from the handshake and walked back into the house, leaving the two younger women to follow her.
“She’s in the lounge room,” Elsie called over her shoulder as she headed deeper into the house.
Barely registering her surroundings, Holly followed Sadie into a small but comfortably furnished room. As they entered the room, Sadie’s mother pushed herself out of a recliner chair and stepped across to them.
“Hello,” she said warmly, extending her hand. “You must be Holly. It’s lovely to meet you.” If she was nervous, she was doing an admirable job of not showing it. Holly was impressed.
She shook her hand, trying not to stare at the sallow skin or the dark circles under the woman’s eyes. Trying not to remember that this woman was dying.
“It’s really nice to meet you, too, Mrs Williams.”
“Oh, please, call me Christine.”
Holly smiled. “Okay, I will.”
Christine smiled in return, and motioned for them to sit down.
Elsie reappeared. “Want something to drink?” she asked the room in general.
“Here, Gran, I’ll help.” Sadie leapt to her feet. “Is beer okay for you?” she asked Holly, and Holly could tell she was making a big effort not to sound anything but normal in front of her family.
“Sure. Thanks.” Holly tried not to worry too much about being left on her own with Christine as Sadie followed her grandmother from the room.
“Don’t worry,” Christine said, from her position on the recliner. “I’m not going to interrogate you.” Her face crinkled in a soft smile.
Holly chuckled. “Was I that obvious?”
Christine shook her head. “Not really, but I guessed you’d be a little nervous.” She paused. “I am too, if I’m honest.”
Holly cocked her head. “You? Why?”
“I’ve never met a…partner of Sadie’s before. This is all very new to me. I’m worried I’ll say the wrong thing, or—”
Inwardly flinching at the title Christine had bestowed on her, Holly interrupted. “Please, don’t worry. Just you asking me here tonight, making that effort, that means so much to her.” Her thoughts from earlier leapt into her mind. Surely this shows how much I mean to Sadie too, for her to want me here? The warmth that notion sent through her body almost left her breathless.
Christine nodded. “Well, it was long overdue. As was a lot of what we have shared this past week or so.”
Her gaze lost focus, and Holly waited, knowing nothing needed to be said.
“Anyway,” Christine said suddenly, shaking her head. “Enough of that. So, tell me all about yourself. You work at your parents’ hotel, yes?”
Holly relaxed as she talked to Christine about her job and her parents. Elsie and Sadie came in with drinks, and, to Holly’s relief, the four women chatted easily until the sound of the oven timer summoned them to the kitchen to eat.
They talked throughout the meal and found an easy camaraderie that had them all smiling warmly at each other. Holly was finding it increasingly difficult not to react to Sadie’s smiles, her nearness. The hurt from yesterday was starting to ease, as were all of her doubts about Sadie’s character, in seeing her so open and warm with her mother and grandmother.
“So,” Christine said, partway through the meal. “I would like to talk about your father.”
Holly saw Sadie flinch, and she only just resisted the urge to reach for her hand.
“If we must,” Sadie said begrudgingly.
“We must,” Christine replied firmly. She took a sip of her wine. “You need to know what’s happening. He’s moved out. Or, at least, he and his clothes have. He’s gone to stay with his brother, and he’ll be back this weekend to take the rest of his things.”
Holly met Sadie’s gaze, knowing that both of them were remembering their conversation about this only a couple of days ago.
“He doesn’t like it,” Christine continued, “but he does accept that these are my…final wishes. I’ve promised him that if he gives me this peace and quiet for my last however many days, weeks, or months, I won’t try and divorce him. He’ll therefore still inherit the house when I die, as is his right. But, I’ve also made it clear that I am changing my will. My car goes to Izzy. It’s still worth a lot, so if nothing else, she can sell it. But all my other assets, or their net worth at least, which isn’t a small sum, will now go to you.”
Sadie gasped. “What?”
“I spoke to my lawyer this morning, and we’ll have it all in place and signed off by the end of the week.”
“I-I don’t know what to say, Mum. That’s… God, that is something I just don’t know what to do with.” Sadie slumped back in her chair, looking overwhelmed, and Holly’s heart jumped in her chest. She knew Sadie would never have imagined something like this, to be welcomed back so comprehensively into the warmth of her family unit. God, everything that had happened to her, and she was still so self-effacing and so full of the potential for love. People like Chloe and Sadie’s father had abused that, she could finally see. But it hadn’t broken her—made her scared, yes. But it was all there, a huge heart capable of giving so much.
Christine patted Sadie’s hand. “You don’t have to do anything with it, other than to accept it. Please, it’s truly what I want.”
Sadie blinked rapidly. “Thank you, Mum. That means so much. So much.” She turned to look at Holly, and Holly couldn’t help the warm smile she gave her, so pleased to see Sadie understanding how much she meant to her mother. Sadie returned her smile, albeit tentatively.
They finished their food in silence; by unspoken agreement they all needed a little time to absorb the emotion of that exchange. The meal was simple but delicious, and Holly complimented Elsie on the cooking.
Elsie waved it off. “Can’t go wrong with a roast chicken,” she said, but her eyes sparkled nonetheless.
Once they’d finished eating, Holly insisted on clearing the table and washing the dishes. Sadie offered to help, and they banished the older women to the lounge room with cups of tea.
When they were alone in the kitchen, Sadie paused in her activity of stacking the dishwasher, and walked across to Holly, who smiled as she neared.
“You okay?” Sadie asked her.
Holly nodded. “I am. It’s taken me a while, but I just needed to work my way through all…that,” she said. “I’m sorry, I know that probably upset you.”
Sadie shook her head. “Don’t apologise. Of course you needed time to deal with what happened yesterday. I’m so sorry I hurt you with that. The last thing I would ever want to do is hurt you.”
“I know. But I am sorry,” Holly said softly, “because what I did with that knowledge was what other people have been doing to you ever since you got back here. I was judging you based on your past. My first reaction to learning about you and…her, was that it made you a bad person and a bad judge of character.” She grimaced. “But even if that was true back then, that isn’t who you are now. I did the same thing my mother did—held your past against you. And I really shouldn’t have done that, me of all people, because I’ve seen who you are now.”
Sadie’s smile lit up her face. “That means so much, to hear that from you. I hated that element of my past catching up with me in the way that it did. I hoped you’d know how different I am now.”
“I do,” Holly said, and then there was nothing else she wanted to do than pull Sadie into her arms. She reached out, and Sadie moved instantly, holding her tight, sighing happily against Holly’s hair.
Holly pulled back slightly, tilting her head up. Their lips met in a soft, chaste kiss, sealing the rift that the last day had rent between them.
“Oh my goodness!” Christine’s voice hurriedly forced them apart.
Holly’s cheeks were flaming, as were Sadie’s.
“Sorry, Mum.” Sadie looked mortified, and Holly squeezed her eyes shut in mutual embarrassment.
“Um, well, I-I just needed a bit more sugar for my tea.”
Holly dared to look at Christine and could see her gaze flicking anywhere in the room except at the two of them.
“I’ll bring it out, Mum,” Sadie said, turning rapidly to the canisters that lined the back of the countertop.
Christine left the room quickly, and Holly hung her head in her hands.
“Oh, God,” she groaned, “and it was all going so well.”
Sadie chuckled beside her and gently cupped her chin to lift it up. “It’s not the end of the world,” she said, kissing the tip of Holly’s nose.
“Yeah, but did you see her face? Oh, God, she’s never going to speak to me again.” Holly pulled away.
Sadie grinned. “She’ll get over it, I’m sure. Look, I’ll be back in a minute—” she gestured to the canister in her hand, “—and then we can get this clearing up finished, okay?”
“That’s fine by me. I’ll just stay here and hide until it’s time to go home, okay?”
Sadie laughed and left the room.
Holly leaned back against the countertop, her cheeks still hot from blushing. Oh, God, of all the things for Christine to walk in on. Especially when it was one of the most special moments she and Sadie had shared yet.
She heard chuckling coming from the hallway and looked up just as a smirking Elsie walked into the kitchen.
“Well, that just raised my daughter’s education on the homosexual lifestyle to a whole new level,” she said, patting Holly on the arm. “Well done.”
“Oh, God.” Holly’s head was back in her hands again, her face blazing. “This is just too embarrassing.”
Elsie laughed loudly. “Oh, you’re as bad as each other! Sadie’s in there, her face a shade of red I’ve never seen on a person. And you’re in here, almost as rosy. It was a kiss. Christine’ll get over it.”
Holly raised her head to stare at Elsie. “How are you so…cool about all this, Elsie?” She was genuinely curious. For her age, Elsie seemed extraordinarily laid-back.
Elsie met her gaze. “When your son-in-law conspires to kick his seventeen-year-old daughter out of home, and she pitches up on your doorstep with nowhere else in the world to go, you have a very quick, very simple decision to make. Support her, or not. There was no choice, obviously. And in supporting her, I support her. Who she is. What she is.”
Tears pricked at Holly’s eyes. For all her bluntness and her gruffness, Elsie had just demonstrated that she had an enormous heart full of love for her elder grandchild.
“You’re amazing,” Holly whispered.
Elsie huffed, obviously uncomfortable at Holly’s words. “I just love my granddaughter.” She paused and pierced Holly with her stare. “As do you, I think?”
Holly blushed. “I do.” She hadn’t told Sadie yet, but she knew it wouldn’t be long before those words would be shared.
“Good. She needs someone like you. You’re good for her, I can see that. You going to stick around?”
“If she’ll have me.” Holly shrugged. “As long as she wants.”
Elsie smiled.
CHAPTER 22
Sadie woke slowly on Thursday morning, her body tingling with arousal before she’d even opened her eyes. She smiled as her awareness sharpened, and she realised that what had woken her was Holly’s hot, wet tongue stroking determinedly up her inner thighs.
“You’re insatiable,” she murmured sleepily, her back arching as Holly dipped into her wetness, the flat of her tongue tracing a firm but lazy path over every fold and crevice.
“Uh-huh.” Holly barely paused in her attentions, and Sadie gasped as the tongue strokes quickened. When Holly pulled Sadie’s clit between her lips and began to gently suck, Sadie moaned, long and loud, into the quiet hotel room.
“Oh, God,” she breathed, her hips writhing beneath Holly’s hands, which clutched tightly at her as she moved.
The orgasm was rapid and pinpoint—exquisitely sharp and focused only on her clit. She grabbed handfuls of sheet as she rode it out, her breath leaving her lungs in a series of staccato huffs.
“Mm.” Holly looked up at her from between her thighs. “I could wake you like that every day.”
“And I would let you.” Sadie laughed. “How long had you been down there before I woke?”
Holly giggled and moved her way up Sadie’s body to lie carefully on top of her.
“Only a couple of minutes. I was curious to see how long it would take. I decided if you didn’t wake when I licked your clit, I’d have to resort to stronger measures.”
Sadie laughed. “Not sure I want to ask what those would have been.” She wiggled her eyebrows, lifting up slightly to kiss her lover. Tasting herself on Holly’s lips, she moaned and pulled Holly in for a deeper kiss.
“No.” Holly groaned and pushed up on her elbows. “I’ve got to go. One of us has to go to work today.”
Sadie pushed her bottom lip out in a pout. “Not fair.”
Holly ran her fingers though Sadie’s hair, her face softening.
“We’ll be back together tonight. Promise.” Her voice was husky, and Sadie cocked her head.
“Are you okay, babe?”
Holly nodded, but Sadie could see tears moistening her eyes.
“What is it?” Sadie stroked Holly’s face tenderly with the back of her hand.
Holly shrugged, almost imperceptibly. “You’re leaving in two days. I’ve known that all week, of course, but every now and then it hits me. And it hurts.”
Sadie nodded, but couldn’t find any words to make it all better.
Holly smiled wanly, kissed Sadie briefly, then hauled herself out of the bed. “Time for me to shower and get out of here.” Her voice was cheery, but Sadie could hear the falseness in it.
Sadie flopped back on the bed and listened to the sounds of Holly going through her ablutions. Two days. That’s all they had left together. Tonight, we really needed to plan when and how to see each other again. Sadie also needed to talk to her mum about how and when she could see her again too. She couldn’t keep coming back to Ballarat for great lengths of time. Sure, Bill and Marie would probably be pretty understanding on that score, but they still had a business to run. Maybe in another couple of weeks’ time she could take a four-day weekend, maybe fly this time. She had money saved up; that wasn’t the issue. It was all about time. And time was something her mother didn’t have a lot of.
Holly kissed her goodbye, taking her time, it seemed, and Sadie didn’t begrudge her.
When she’d gone, Sadie showered and ate some breakfast. She could have tried to go back to sleep—it was still only just before seven—but her maudlin thoughts had her fully awake. She needed to ride. Whenever her head got full of…stuff, climbing onto her Harley usually sorted her out. She picked up her jacket and helmet, pushed her wallet into her pocket, and made sure to wander out via reception, just so she could gaze on her girlfriend once more. Holly was busy with a checkout but shot Sadie a wink when the departing guest wasn’t looking. Sadie grinned and blew her a kiss before making her way out through the front doors.
After stopping to fill up the tank, she hit the road. She had only a vague route in mind; where she was going wasn’t important. It was all about the ride.
* * *
“How was it?” Elsie asked as she stirred sugar into the tea she had made for her daughter.
“Good. I went out to Halls Gap, up to Boroka Lookout.”
Elsie grinned. “That’s not a short one.”
Sadie laughed. “I know. I just needed to cut loose.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. Mostly.” Sadie shrugged. For all her happiness at how she had reconciled with her mother this week, and what she had found with Holly, her heart ached. Behind it all, lurking in dark corners, was the awareness that no matter how good their time was together, her mum would soon be gone. Each day this week had followed the same relaxing pattern—she’d ride up to her mum’s house and spend all day with her and Elsie before meeting up with Holly later. They’d share their run, a light dinner somewhere, and then hours of talking, laughing, and lovemaking that brought them ever closer together. It had been blissful, but tinged with sadness.
“Are you two still coming for tea tonight?” Elsie’s voice broke into her thoughts.
“Absolutely.” Sadie pulled her mind back to the present, adding a levity to her voice she wasn’t sure she felt. “And we promise to keep our hands off each other this time.”
Sadie smiled as Elsie giggled. Sadie had been delighted when her mum had extended another invite for her and Holly to come over for dinner. A small part of her had been worried that the kiss incident, as she and Holly had taken to calling it, might have made her mum wary of seeing them together again. Christine had made it very clear her fears were groundless. Not that she’d mentioned the kiss, but she’d been adamant about wanting to see Holly again before the end of the week.
“What time shall we come?”
“Seven’s fine. It’s stir-fry tonight. Prawn—is that okay for you?”
“Sounds great! I’ll cook. Give you a night off, Gran.”
“I’m not going to argue with you.” Elsie winked. “Now, come on through. Christine’s got news of Izzy.”
Sadie walked quickly through to the lounge room. Her mum was in her recliner again, and she looked tired. Actually more than tired—exhausted.
“Hey, Mum.” Sadie stepped over and leaned down to give her a careful hug.
“Hello, darling.” Even her voice sounded tired.
“You sure you’re up for me visiting? You look really tired, Mum.”
Christine smiled, wryly. “I am, I can’t lie. Just stay a while, until I sleep. Please?”
“Sure, Mum, whatever you want. Just don’t wear yourself out talking to me.”
Christine waved a hand weakly. “Let me just tell you about my call with Izzy last night.”
“Yes?”
“Very interesting. I hadn’t heard from her since she was here with that boy. And as you know, your grandmother gave her a piece of her mind after that.”
