13. Hunter
Hunter
H unter and Kiera went back into the house through the kitchen a few minutes later.
It had become too cold to stay outside long and their brisk walk around the pond had done nothing to dispel the intense desire Hunter felt ever since she woke up with Kiera snuggled into her side on the couch.
When Kiera kissed her again, Hunter walked her backward across the kitchen until they leaned against the island, Kiera’s hips pressing against Hunter’s and their lips finding each other urgently.
Hunter slid her hands down Kiera’s sides and found the curve of her hips, then Kiera said, "I’m sorry, we can’t. Not where my grandmother could walk in on us."
Hunter exhaled and rested her forehead against the curve of Kiera’s neck for a moment. It was warm and she could feel her pulse faintly. Then she stepped away from her, reigning in her desire as she said, “I should probably go anyway. Piper will be wondering where I am.”
She’d told Piper that she’d be home around eight and it must be at least an hour past that time now. Kiera nodded and kissed Hunter again, then took her hand and walked her to the front door.
When they got there, Kiera pulled Hunter in for one more kiss, then looked bashfully at her and said, "This seems like an awkward moment to bring up money, but it’s payday.”
Hunter laughed, putting a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound so they wouldn’t disturb Nana.
She wished that money didn’t have to exchange hands in this moment, even though she and Piper desperately needed it.
She wished she didn’t have to go home, because there was nothing she’d rather do than sweep Kiera off her feet and carry her up to her bedroom.
Instead, she waited patiently while Kiera went over to a small console table against the wall and took a checkbook out of the drawer.
Hunter came over and slid her arms around Kiera’s waist, looking over her shoulder as Kiera set the book down on the table and started filling out the check.
It had Rhiannon’s name in the top right corner, and her signature was pre-signed.
Kiera filled in the line where Hunter's first week of pay went - it was a larger number than she ever saw on her nursing home checks and she felt a lump of gratitude rising in her throat.
As complicated as the money made things when it came to her growing feelings for Kiera, Hunter would be proud to go home and give that check to Piper to fix their mortgage troubles. She asked softly, "Could you make it out to my sister? I'm just going to sign it over to her anyway.”
"Okay," Kiera said. “Is her last name the same as yours?”
“No. It’s Wolfe,” Hunter said. She hated even saying the name – anything that belonged to Jed was trouble.
She watched Kiera write it on the next line, then she ripped out the check, folded it once, and turned around to tuck it into Hunter’s breast pocket.
Hunter kept Kiera circled in her arms during this maneuver and they kissed again. Then she asked, “Is this wrong?”
Kiera said, “It doesn’t feel wrong.”
“I just mean because you’re kind of my boss,” Hunter said. Kiera was right – it didn’t feel wrong – but Hunter would never dream of doing something like this with Brenda… if Brenda was a beautiful lesbian with long, soft hair and big, gold-flecked eyes.
“I’m not your boss,” Kiera said with a laugh. “My mother signs your checks. Just think of me as the administrative assistant.”
She patted the check in Hunter’s pocket for emphasis, then her palm crept lower, sliding over her breast. Hunter moaned and leaned into her, then after a long minute, they managed to disentangle themselves and she said, “So will I see you tomorrow morning?”
“Yes,” Kiera said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too,” Hunter said. She stepped away from Kiera – if she didn’t do it now, she’d never leave – and Kiera let her hand trail down the buttons of Hunter’s jacket. Then she blew a kiss and Hunter stepped outside.
The cold air felt a little more bracing than it was just a few minutes ago when she had Kiera by her side.
Hunter jogged all the way down the long driveway to the bus stop and thought about Kiera the whole way home, the way her hips felt against Hunter’s body, the warmth of her hand on Hunter’s breast, the slickness of her tongue.
It was the shortest bus ride of Hunter’s life.
When she got to Piper’s house, it was a little past ten. The lights were turned off and everyone was asleep, so Hunter slipped the check under Piper’s bedroom door and practically floated down the hall to crash into bed with a stupid grin on her face.
The next couple of weeks went by in a haze of happy moments.
Hunter took every chance she could to pull Kiera aside and kiss her in the infrequent moments when they were alone, and she often caught Kiera looking at her with a small smile on her face – a look of desire that never failed to send those butterflies in Hunter’s stomach into a flurry of activity.
Those moments were rare – Kiera was always on her way out when Hunter was coming into the house, or vice versa, and when they were both there, so was Abby.
But those minutes when they got to be alone always seemed to last the longest, time slowing down so that Hunter could store every detail of her time with Kiera in her memory.
Hunter got to know Abby a lot better, too, and even though Hunter was chronically tired and rushing between her night job, Abby’s house, and home, she felt genuinely happy for the first time in a long while.
Things were going well, she was bringing in enough money to chip away at the property tax problem little by little, and Piper said things were looking good for them financially.
She was even able to pick up some extra shifts at the café thanks to Abby’s generosity in allowing the boys to come to the house now and then.
She’d really taken a shine to them, seeing their visits as an opportunity to dust off more of her old recipes, and Hunter thought that Kiera might be onto something with her cohabitation theories.
Abby seemed more alert and in higher spirits when Andrew and Josh were around to keep her busy, and their visits kept the boys from spending entire afternoons glued to their video game console.
One Saturday morning when Hunter had come directly from the nursing home to Abby’s house, Piper had the chance to pick up an extra shift at the café.
She brought the boys over on the bus and dropped them off, and Andrew went straight into the dining room to help Abby with her recipe digitization project.
He was a much faster typist than Hunter and they were really flying through the task. Andrew had even found a website that would bind Nana’s recipes into a book when they were done so she could give copies to her daughters and grandkids.
“You should order an extra copy for your house,” Abby told him as he pulled up a chair. “You’ve been so helpful, you should have one for your troubles.”
Hunter stood in the foyer with Piper and Josh, who had a backpack loaded down with his homework for the weekend. Piper ruffled his hair and asked, “Do you have everything you need? Your insulin?”
"Yeah, it's in my bag,” Josh said.
"Well, go put it in the fridge," Piper said. She kissed him goodbye and he ran down the hall, then Piper glanced at her watch and said to Hunter, “I’ve got a few minutes before the next bus comes. Mind if I wait here?”
“Sure,” Hunter said.
Piper walked lazily across the large foyer, going to the console table on the wall and tracing her finger along the edge of the silver tray where Kiera and Abby kept their keys.
Then she passed the intricate grandfather clock in the hall and inspected an antique set of shelves where Abby kept a collection of ceramic figurines.
“This place is really something,” Piper said, picking up a ceramic doll. “It’s like a museum, or a castle.”
“Kiera’s grandfather was pretty important in the rubber industry at the turn of the century,” Hunter said, repeating what Kiera had told her on her first visit to the house. “Be careful with that – Abby told me it’s a collectible.”
Piper set the doll down and picked up another, this one a little ceramic puppy.
“I’m glad Abby likes the boys. It’s a big help to be able to pick up extra shifts,” Piper said. She ran her thumb over the contours of the ceramic dog, then said with a smile, “Oh, I have an update on the property tax situation.”
“Good news, I hope?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah,” Piper said, turning her back to Hunter to put the dog back in its place. “Thanks to your extra income here and the shifts I’ve been able to pick up at the café, we’re all paid up. Crisis averted.”
“Oh, that’s great,” Hunter said, sinking against the dining room archway in a sigh of relief.
It hadn’t been fun seeing that eviction notice on their front door and she couldn’t get it out of her mind ever since. She’d been worried that Piper would get desperate and do something stupid like going to the prison to ask Jed to help them make some fast money.
But they’d done it.
Through hard work and sleep deprivation, they’d managed to dig themselves out without resorting to the old tricks that Jed had convinced Piper were necessary for survival. Hunter hoped this would stand as yet another piece of evidence in the case she was building against him.
“I better get going,” Piper said. She waved goodbye to Andrew and Abby in the dining room, then said, “I’ll see you at home tonight. Have a good day.”