Chapter 12
When Dani asks Nora to go for a picnic at the tree house in mid-July, she thinks nothing of it.
They’ve driven out here together several times by now, and a picnic seems like a fun way to pass an early evening. Dani shows up in another clean button-up shirt, seeming strangely nervous, but Nora puts it off to her being worried that Nora won’t like the food she’s brought. After the matzo ball soup, this is only the second time Dani has made food for her. That prospect could make anyone nervous.
The button-up and Dani’s jeans are clean and neat, and her hands have been scrubbed diligently, but her hair is still tied up and tucked under her cap. She looks if she left straight from work and had to get ready in a hurry. It’s surprisingly sweet, especially when Dani unbuttons the shirt a little in the summer heat and Nora can see the shop stains on the tank top she’s wearing underneath.
Before meeting Dani, something like that might have made Nora scoff. Now it just brings the warm, affectionate glow of sweet familiarity. Dani put in the effort of wearing a nice shirt overtop and scouring her hands clean just for Nora, even when she’s pressed for time.
Dani lays a blanket down under the shade of the maple tree and insists that Nora sit while she hurriedly sets out a large mason jar full of homemade lemonade, several containers of food—potato salad, sandwiches, and mixed fruit—and, strangely, a bunch of flowers in an old glass Coke bottle.
As soon as Nora takes her first bite, Dani’s expression is oddly hopeful. It’s a grilled-chicken sandwich on sourdough, one of Nora’s favourite orders from the restaurant, and it’s even nicer homemade.
“Do you like it?” Dani asks.
Nora finishes chewing slowly, the gears in her head turning.
Dani is a bit dressed up for a casual hangout, now that Nora is paying attention. The flowers are also a new detail—daisies and tulips that look like they were snagged from someone’s garden—and Dani is looking at her like there’s something huge at stake. Her calloused fingers drum on the blanket nervously, and there’s a blush creeping up her neck.
Nora almost drops the sandwich.
“Dani, is this a date?”
Nora says it almost as soon as the thought enters her head, and she almost regrets it in the moments after. The idea that Dani would spring a date on her like this seems crazy. But when Dani’s whole face lights up red, Nora knows that she was right.
It’s actually happening.
“Oh my God, did you take me on a date without asking me out?” Nora asks, now fully dropping the sandwich onto a paper plate. This is a date. They’re on a date right now.
Nora didn’t even shave her legs this morning.
“I got nervous!” Dani stammers, rubbing at the crimson back of her neck. “I’ve been wanting to ask you out, but I didn’t know if you’d be receptive, and so I…I figured I could do a test run!”
“I would have said yes.”
It slips out of Nora with hardly a thought, landing in the middle of the blanket like a shock wave to her summer of avoidance. All the constant uncertainty, all the denial of her attraction, and she crumbles at the first hint of taking things further.
Dani blinks, putting her own sandwich back into the container and shifting closer. “You would?”
Nora can’t begrudge Dani that doubt. Nora isn’t sure it’s a good idea even as she says it, but now that she’s in this moment, she can’t bring herself to deny the truth. She doesn’t have it in her. Maybe she’s just as weak and ineffective as Renée has always said.
“I went to a duck race with you,” Nora says matter-of-factly.
Dani laughs, brushing the crumbs from her hands. “I guess I just assumed that you had better prospects than me. People more on your level.”
Although Dani says it in her usual breezy tone, Nora can hear the insecurity behind it. The same one she heard in Dani’s conversation with Sarah. Dani thinks she isn’t good enough.
Nora can see how she might have drawn that incorrect conclusion—Nora has made no secret of her befuddlement around the various small-town customs Dani has introduced her to—but Dani is the best person Nora has been in the romantic vicinity of in years. Maybe ever.
Not that Nora is willing to fully explore that when the prospect of her departure looms over them like a storm cloud. Instead she shoves the thought down deep with the rest and shakes her head. “Don’t be silly. I don’t really have time for any of that.”
“Except on vacation?” Dani says hopefully.
They’ve been drifting closer together throughout the whole conversation, almost close enough to touch, and Nora finally gives in to what she’s wanted to do for months now. She takes off Dani’s hat and runs her fingers through her hair. Nora can feel warm breath on her face, and when she inhales, she can detect that distinctive Dani scent. Warm vanilla and machine shop.
Dani’s eyes drift closed as Nora’s nails scrape her scalp, a tiny noise of approval escaping her as the space between their faces narrows. Dani’s hair is soft and golden, a little sweaty at the temples, but falling down in tangled waves, and Nora’s heart pounds ever faster when one of the hands she’s been so fixated on lands on her knee just below the hem of her sundress.
“Are you gonna kiss me?” Dani whispers. She’s grinning, and apparently that’s all it takes to shatter the last of Nora’s self-control.
Nora grabs the front of Dani’s unbuttoned shirt and pulls her in.
The kiss quickly goes from new and hesitant to hot and hard and absolutely perfect . The desire Nora has tried so hard to dampen comes alive, unfurling in her chest and roaring in pleasure, and Nora isn’t even ashamed of the pathetic noise that leaves her as their lips part and she presses in for more.
Dani seems to be expecting a soft first kiss, but Nora is tired of the dance. Of tiptoeing around each other, somewhere between friends and something more, constantly resisting the urge to push Dani onto the nearest surface and climb into her lap.
So she does just that.
“Jeez, Nora,” Dani gasps as Nora pushes her onto her back and swings a leg over her hips, moving those calloused hands up to her waist. “I should’ve done this sooner.”
Nora kisses her again, and it’s like a sigh of relief. The force of everything Nora has been holding back for two months hits her at once, and Nora finds herself genuinely considering letting Dani take her right here on this blanket. Their little spot is very private, really, and Nora is so worked up after only a few moments of kissing that in the moment, it seems quite appealing.
Dani remains stubbornly gallant. She only moves her hands from Nora’s waist to her hips, and finally to her thighs, when Nora guides them there herself. They slip under Nora’s sundress, caressing her bare skin eagerly, but no further.
It’s clear now that Dani wants her just as badly: Dani’s hands shake with it. The heat of her kisses and the little noises she makes and the twitchy, unconscious movements of her hips under Nora’s all make it obvious—but she seems determined to go slowly.
So Nora tries to slow down to match, even though everything in her is screaming to do the opposite. She kisses thoroughly, enjoying Dani’s skilled tongue and broad hands. The pressure builds inside her until she feels like she might explode, but Nora stops when she feels something tickling her arm and it turns out to be the biggest ant she’s ever seen crawling its way toward her elbow.
Some of the pressure gets vented when she shrieks, flinging it into the grass while Dani giggles.
Dani drives Nora home when the sun sets and walks her to the front step, where a brief good night kiss turns abruptly into a heated good night make out session.
Nora drops her keys before they’ve even touched the lock when Dani pins her to the door, throwing her arms around Dani’s neck and losing herself in the kiss. It’s even more intense this time, and as Dani trails hot kisses up her throat, Nora finally groans the words she’s been thinking since she first shook Dani’s hand on the shop floor in May.
“God, I want you.”
Dani whimpers. Her hips buck up slightly, grinding into Nora just enough to make her want to come out of her skin. “I want you too. Fuck .”
Nora presses herself down onto the flexed thigh that’s been accidentally presented, and in the swell of desire and sensation that follows, she loses all pretense. Nora wants more. She wants Dani, and finally she pulls away and gasps into Dani’s mouth. “Nightcap?”
Instead of the enthusiastic yes that Nora had been hoping for, Dani hesitates. Her voice is unsteady. “Maybe, um, we should slow down. Right? We only just kissed. I feel like I should take you out for real before…you know.”
Nora takes a big, fortifying breath.
“Of course. Whenever you’re ready,” Nora says, and she means it. Dani deserves to go at her own pace, no matter how much Nora wants to race to the finish line. She’s grateful for the politeness of the rejection, but her body is definitely asking for something that she’ll need to work out for herself tonight.
Their proper good night kiss is sweet and chaste, and Nora appreciates the restraint. She also appreciates the way Dani goes back to her truck and leaves swiftly—swiftly enough that Nora can go inside and immediately strip down to nothing but her silk robe, pour herself a large glass of red wine, and recline on the couch to deal with the problem that still throbs insistently between her legs.
At this point, doing this is so routine that it goes like clockwork.
Nora gets through most of the wine, thinking about exactly what she wants Dani to do to her. What she could do to Dani. All the sweaty, dirty ways they could get to know each other. She lets her robe slide open, exposing her skin to the air, and as she fantasizes, her hands wander. Over her collar bone. Her breasts. Down her stomach and, finally, between her thighs.
The moment her fingers make contact, a live wire runs directly to the most animal part of her brain. She’s so wet after an entire evening of heated kissing that half her hand is coated in seconds; her fingers slip around her clit, and then inside, and God, it’s so good , the way her palm presses and her fingers curl just like Dani’s would if she—if her fingers were—
Nora is on the razor’s edge of the world’s quickest orgasm when the doorbell rings, and as that edge recedes from her grasp, she seriously contemplates how difficult it would be to cover up a murder out here.
She considers ignoring it. She doesn’t get up from the couch in the quiet that follows the bell, her fingers unmoving, but soon it rings again, slightly more insistently this time.
With a frustrated groan, Nora ties the robe back up and stalks over to the door, trying to ignore the slickness that coats her inner thighs.
The frustration dissipates when she rips it open to reveal Dani. She’s leaning against the doorframe, looking as intense as Nora has ever seen her.
“Dani,” Nora says in breathless surprise. “I didn’t… I thought you went home?” She’s suddenly intensely aware of the fact that she’s wearing absolutely nothing under her robe. Her fingers are still slick; Nora slides them together self-consciously at her side, hoping Dani won’t notice.
“I was driving home and thinking about you, and I just thought…what kind of idiot leaves in a situation like that?” Dani’s voice is low and breathy, and it makes Nora shiver. “I figured I should be a gentleman, but I was so into it—and you seemed to be, too—and I sort of panicked. So I came back to see if—but if you don’t want to, I understand.”
Whatever confidence Dani had when she knocked seems to be evaporating by the second, and Nora has an idea how to stop that.
She grabs the tie of her robe, untwists it, and lets it drift open.
Dani chokes on her words. Her gaze drifts down, her eyes visibly darkening as she takes in all the skin Nora just shamelessly bared.
Nora is at least moderately confident in what she has to offer. Her thighs are maybe a bit softer than she’d like, her stomach a little more rounded, and she hasn’t bothered to shave quite as religiously as she used to before her vacation, but she’s never had any actual complaints. She’s perfectly adequate.
Dani looks at her with a hunger Nora’s never experienced before. She doesn’t feel just moderately confident when Dani drinks her in—she feels hot. She feels wanted . She feels the path Dani’s gaze takes like a brand on her skin; it tingles and burns and reminds Nora viscerally of exactly what she was on the edge of just a minute ago.
“ Fuck ,” Dani breathes. Seconds later her rough hands are cupping Nora’s face and her entire clothed front is pressed to Nora’s terribly naked one. Their kisses pick up exactly where they left off earlier—hot, open-mouthed, and messy.
“I’m so glad you came back,” Nora gasps as Dani trails kisses down her neck, calloused fingers sliding down to cup around Nora’s bare thighs.
“Me, too.” Suddenly there’s a denim-covered leg being pressed into Nora. She’s still so wet that she can feel the wide, slick spot she’s leaving on the fabric.
She wants to feel Dani’s naked skin there.
“Off,” Nora mutters, fumbling with the button of Dani’s jeans as Dani bites at her lower lip. Her hands are shaky and inefficient. “Take these off.”
Dani is already knocking Nora’s hand away, yanking the jeans down until she’s left in green, checkered boxer briefs just visible under the hem of her shirt. Dani momentarily struggles for balance while she rips off her boots and socks, but before long she’s free, and she pulls Nora to her again, picking her up like she weighs nothing at all.
Nora wraps her legs around Dani’s waist with a shaky gasp, grabbing two fistfuls of Dani’s crisp shirt. The collar wrinkles under her eager hands. The easy strength with which Dani carries her to the couch, and the way her hip bone presses into Nora, quickly has her just as close to coming as she was before Dani arrived.
They fall back onto the cushions, throw pillows scattering across the floor, and Nora cups Dani’s face to guide her in for a kiss.
Just before their lips meet, Dani stops.
“Your hand is wet,” Dani says distractedly.
Nora can actually see her own blush, climbing its way up her naked chest.
“After you left, I was a little…worked up,” Nora says. Through her embarrassment, she sees understanding dawn on Dani’s face.
Nora tries to distract from the subject by grabbing Dani’s chin with the wet hand. “Yes, I was ridiculously turned on after you left, but you’re here now, so can we just—”
“Did you come?”
That question is enough to make Nora stop. It’s the most blatantly sexual thing she’s ever heard Dani say, uttered with an intensity that borders on fascination.
“No,” Nora whispers, rubbing her legs together to relieve some of the pressure. Dani shifts her hips so that they pin Nora’s thighs open, spread and helpless with nothing to press against, and the quiet confidence in the movement is enough to make Nora feel a little unhinged, a wild, thrashing thing under Dani’s body, nothing but shaking need. “I was—when you got here, I was about to.”
Dani smiles, slow and satisfied. And in a move that almost makes Nora’s brain shut down entirely, she turns her head and takes Nora’s wet fingers into her mouth.
The sweet, gentlemanly Dani that Nora has been getting to know is nowhere to be found. A new Dani is emerging, one who moves her mouth down Nora’s slick fingers until they’re completely engulfed and then sighs at the taste. Who grinds her pelvis between Nora’s bare, spread legs and grins at her moan.
The duality is as intoxicating as it is surprising. Nora can feel Dani’s shirt rubbing against her—dry and then so, so wet. She knows she’s leaving a stain on the clean cotton, but Dani doesn’t seem to care. She just grinds harder, finally kissing Nora again hard and fast and swallowing her whimpers.
“I’m sorry I left,” Dani gasps into Nora’s mouth.
Nora wraps two tight fists into the collar of her shirt, pulling her closer. “I don’t care, just make me— ah!”
In response to Nora’s half-finished plea, Dani has pressed herself down firmly, and Nora is lost. She couldn’t stop herself from grinding onto the surface she’s been given if she tried. It’s an instinct, after she’s already worked herself up so effectively. With Dani helping the process, with hands on her hips and teeth on her neck, it’s an embarrassingly short time before Nora is arching up and coming, her teeth sunk deep into Dani’s shoulder, left twitching against her abdomen.
“So good,” Dani murmurs, burying her nose in Nora’s hair while she slows her movement to gentle rocking. “So fucking good, Nora.”
Dani’s warm, affected tone is more than enough to get Nora going again. She has no doubt that she’s capable.
She wouldn’t mind Dani testing her limits.
In the heartbeats after, when Dani is breathing in hot bursts against her collar and Nora is still coasting on warm updrafts, she finally forms an awareness of the exact situation.
Nora is completely naked, her robe having slipped from her shoulders somewhere on the trip to the couch, and her legs are wrapped tightly around Dani’s entirely clothed midsection. She can still feel herself pulsing lazily against Dani’s now-soaked shirt. The only clothing Dani lost during the whole exchange were her jeans and shoes, scattered across the living room, and her hat, which Nora can vaguely remember throwing somewhere behind them.
It’s a scene that speaks to the pressure that’s been mounting inside Nora all summer, an itch finally scratched, but she can’t help but feel a bit embarrassed at her own fervour.