because I’d been trying to figure out what course of action to take
when my mother stopped in for an unexpected visit. I went into the
kitchen for a minute and didn’t notice that she’d taken the poems
with her when she left. Apparently, she’d seen them addressed to
“Ms. Foster” and signed with a girl’s name and decided to take mat-
ters into her own hands without even talking to me.
“The next day, she turned them in to the school. If she’d just
gone to my principal, things would have been kept quiet, but she
didn’t. Instead, she had an in-depth discussion about them with the
three administrative assistants in the district office. It just snow-
balled from there and everything was blown out of proportion. Ten
different versions of the situation circulated, mostly ones that col-
ored me as having an affair with my student.” She snorted in dis-
gust. “Please. My students were fourteen and fifteen years old. How
sick would I have to be?”
“So, your mother was the parent who turned in the poems.”
“Yeah.” Alex gave Jennifer a suspicious look. “You’ve heard
the rumors, too, I assume?”
Jennifer grimaced with guilt. “Dawn made a comment that day
she and Kayla visited and met you. Her kids go to your school.”
“Ah.” Alex nodded. “That’s why she kept looking at me
funny.”
They sat in silence for a long while, sipping their wine and
looking out onto the water.
“Alex, could you still get your job back? If you wanted to, I
mean.”
Alex blinked in surprise. “I don’t know; I never really thought
about it. Maybe.”
“Mm.” They were silent again. Then Jennifer got up to retrieve
the bottle of wine from inside. Kinsey got up, too, and Alex untied
him and handed him off to Jennifer without a word. She took him
inside with her just as if she’d done so a million times, as if he was
her dog, too, and they all lived together. The Westie immediately
curled up on the couch and Jennifer lovingly scratched his head
before returning to the deck with the wine. She refilled both glasses.
“I think you and I need to make a pact.”
“What kind of pact?”
128 Georgia Beers
“From this point on, we do what we thing we should do. Not
what our mothers think. Not what our friends think. What we
think.”
“In what types of situations?”
“In all types. Every type.”
“Every type?”
“Mm hmm.”
“That’s a lot.”
“Yup.”
Alex stared out onto the water, looking pensive. When she
looked back at Jennifer, there was a sparkle in her eyes reflecting
the moonlight and the almost indiscernible flickering of the candle.
When she smiled, Jennifer’s heart melted right into her knees. Alex
held up her glass. “To exercising our own free will.”
They clinked glasses and sipped.
The breeze kicked up a bit and Jennifer shivered involuntarily.
It didn’t escape Alex’s notice. “Cold?”
A sheepish smile crossed Jennifer’s face. “I caught a few too
many rays today.”
“Come here.” Alex said it without thinking. She set her glass
down, sat up, and opened her arms and legs to make room on the
lounge.
Warning flags popped up all over the place, but Jennifer
refused to acknowledge their existence. It took all of three seconds
for her body to veto her brain and make the move to the chair. Her
head screamed at her in alarm, but her body moved of its own
accord, settling comfortably in front of Alex. When Alex gently
pulled her back against her, Jennifer couldn’t hold in the sigh of
contentment.
They sat quietly for a long time, just listening to the wind blow
and the waves lap and the occasional boat hum slowly by, the red
and green lights the only other proof of its presence. Jennifer
couldn’t recall ever having felt quite so comfortable in her entire
life. At the same time, though, she felt totally and utterly alive, as if
every nerve ending in her body was standing at attention and her
nervous system could short circuit at any moment. It was delicious
and unpredictable and she never wanted the night to end. Ever.
Alex’s bare legs were warm and much longer than Jennifer’s.
Their knees were bent, Alex’s legs surrounding Jennifer’s lower
body, keeping her safely on the lounge. When she wrapped her arms
around Jennifer, the smaller woman felt like she was in a giant
cocoon, protected and cared for.
“Better?” Alex asked, her lips so dangerously close to Jenni-
fer’s ear that she felt an immediate surge in her belly.
“Much.” Jennifer’s voice was so low it cracked. Alex’s chin
Thy Neighbor’s Wife 129
rested on her right shoulder and Jennifer turned to look into her
eyes. That small movement proved to be her absolute undoing.
Alex’s face was flushed, her eyes dark, her lips moist. Jennifer
could feel the heat coming off Alex’s body and it seemed that she
had no course of action but one.
She reached back with her right arm and hooked it around the
back of Alex’s neck, pulling her face the last inch to her own. With-
out stopping to think twice—without stopping to think at all—she
crushed her mouth to Alex’s, dual moans escaped from each of
them at the moment of contact.
There was no tentative uncertainty. There was no taking of
time to gently brush and softly nibble one another’s lips. There was
only hunger and want and not just from Jennifer. Alex felt it, too,
and was just as swept away as Jennifer. Warning bells clanged
loudly, but neither woman paid any attention to them. They had
simply gotten too physically close to one another and all the will-
power they’d been using to resist temptation had basically fallen in
on them.
Jennifer went by pure instinct. For the first time in her life, she
did what felt right at the time. Alex’s lips were the softest she’d ever
felt and she wasted no time pushing her demanding tongue between
them. Alex pushed back and they battled back and forth as Jennifer
twisted in Alex’s arms, trying to gain herself a better angle for
which to explore her friend’s incredible body with her hands.
There was a sharp crack and the back of the chair jerked down
harshly to a flat position, leaving Jennifer lying directly on top of
Alex. Their eyes met in amusement over their new position and Jen-
nifer raised one wicked eyebrow before descending upon Alex’s
mouth again, ravaging with pure delight.
She felt like a teenage boy. Her hands fumbled with the buttons
on Alex’s shirt as she tasted the skin of her friend’s cheek, her ear,
and her neck. She wanted so badly to touch, to feel with her finger-
tips that skin that had been taunting her for weeks.
Alex’s hands were in Jennifer’s hair, her breathing ragged. She
pulled Jennifer’s face back up and plunged her tongue possessively
into her mouth, moaning as she did so. Jennifer pushed the shirt
open and cupped one lace-covered breast in her palm, enthralled by
the feel, the weight of it. She ran her thumb over the nipple, causing
Alex to arch into her hand.
“Oh, God,” she groaned, suddenly wrenching her mouth from
Jennifer’s. “Wait.” Panting, she shifted beneath Jennifer. She slid
her off to the side and sat up. “Jennifer, wait. Please.” She swal-
lowed, catching her breath. “Wait.”
Jennifer blinked at her, still immersed in a haze of sex.
“What?” she asked breathlessly, struggling to sit up. “What’s the
130 Georgia Beers
matter?”
“What are you doing?” Alex gasped, trying to clear her head.
“What are you doing to me?”
“What?”
“I can’t…I can’t do this.”
“Alex…” Jennifer reached for her again, kissing her neck, mur-
muring against her skin. “Please. I know you want this as much as I
do. It’s okay.” She slipped her hand back under Alex’s shirt, softly
stroking the same breast. Alex closed her eyes briefly, reveling in
the aura of this woman who seemed to inexplicably know just how
to touch her. Her legs felt like they were made of jelly and the ache
in her groin was insistent. She was vaguely aware of Jennifer’s hand
slipping around behind her and fumbling with the clasp on her bra;
it was enough to snap her back to reality.
“No.” She grabbed Jennifer’s hands and held them both in her
own. Looking her in the eye with difficulty, she said, “We can’t do
this.”
“Why not?” Jennifer felt like she’d lost all ability to think
clearly.
Alex closed her eyes, letting out a long, slow breath. The anger
seeped slowly in and she covered her eyes with her hands. “Damn
you, Jennifer,” she said through clenched teeth. “Damn you.”
Jennifer reached to pull away Alex’s hands. “Alex…talk to me.”
She pried gently at the fingers, her voice soothing and sweet.
“Come on. Come on, sweetie. Please.”
“Stop it,” Alex said, lowering her hands. Her voice was almost
firm and the crack in it almost unnoticeable. “Stop coaxing me like
that. I can’t…I can’t…It can’t be like this.” Her eyes filled with
tears. “I don’t want it to be like this.”
Jennifer’s heart filled with dread at the sight and she wanted
nothing more than to make it better. “Alex,” she said again in the
same loving tone. She brushed a strand of hair out of Alex’s face,
surprised when her hand was pushed roughly away.
“Stop it! Stop touching me and stop saying my name like that.
Please. God, why can’t you understand? Why can’t you understand
what it does to me? Don’t you have any idea what it does to me?”
Jennifer blinked as Alex stood up and put distance between
them. She leaned on the deck’s railing with her hands, staring out
onto the water. Silent tears rolled down her face. Jennifer had no
idea what to say, so she waited until Alex finally spoke.
“You’re married, Jennifer.” Alex’s voice was barely discernible
in the night air.
“I know.”
“I’m not your experiment.”
“I know that, too.”
Thy Neighbor’s Wife 131
“Do you think this makes you any better than Eric?”
Jennifer flinched, surprised by the accusation in the question.
“Excuse me?”
Alex turned to face her. “Do you think your sleeping with me is
any different than him having an affair on you?”
“What?” Jennifer felt her face flush with irritation. “Pardon
me, Little Miss I’ll Warm You Up, Come Here And Sit Between My
Legs. What was that, a test?” Alex looked away, guilt written all
over her face, visible even in the dark as Jennifer continued. “In
case you hadn’t noticed, your tongue was in my mouth just as often
as mine was in yours. I’m not the only guilty party here.”
“You’re the married one!” Alex shouted. “Jesus, Jennifer, make
up your mind. Go buy some courage. You’re not in love with your
husband; anybody can see that. If you’re not happy, then leave.
Leave him. Do something. Have the guts to be who you are for a
change.”
Jennifer’s fury grew so dark that it clouded over the hidden
message Alex was sending. Her eyes crackled with rage. “Let me see
if I’ve got this right. You’re judging me? You? The lesbian author
who only writes about straight people? The out and proud gay
woman who let her own mother run her out of a job without the
tiniest of whimpers? You’re telling me I need to find the courage to
be who I am?”
Both women were breathless and the angry tension on the deck
was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Alex swore she could hear
Jennifer’s heart pounding as hard as her own. Kinsey had left his
place on the couch and was standing at the door, sending disapprov-
ing looks at the pair through the screen.
Jennifer was the first to break eye contact; she did so when she
felt the anger recede and the tears begin to well. She looked down at
her feet for a minute. Then, swiping angrily at her wet cheek, she
turned, walked down the steps of the deck, and left.
Alex watched her go, unable to move, still feeling the remnants
of her own resentment, though they were quickly eclipsed by guilt
and the desire to wipe Jennifer’s tears away. She scrubbed her hand
over her face with frustration.
“Shit.”
Chapter
Fourteen
“Awek!”
A little blonde-headed body torpedoed itself into Alex’s mid-
section and she scooped it up. She kissed Hannah’s face and
smelled her hair, closing her eyes and reveling in the sweet, inno-
cent scent of Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. Sometimes, just holding on
to Hannah was all she needed to do to make the world seem not so
bad after all.
“Hey, Stretch. How’s life?” Jackie asked, handing her friend a
glass of Merlot.
“It’s there,” Alex replied, taking a too-large mouthful of the
wine and setting Hannah down on her feet. “Sometimes it’s just
there and that’s all.”
Jackie looked at her a little oddly, like she wanted to explore
the comment. Instead, she nodded. “Ain’t that the truth.”
Rita’s kitchen was bright and sunny, filled with yellows and
floral designs. Alex always thought of it as “Rita’s kitchen” because
Jackie absolutely despised cooking and rarely spent any time in