Chapter 23
The sunshine was a warm welcome and a far cry from the frozen shores of Nova Scotia.
The Jeep she’d rented cruised along the Pacific Coast Highway with steep cliffs bordering one side of the car and the ocean on the other stretching out as far as the eye could see.
It had taken them forty minutes to get out of Los Angeles before reaching the highway and when they did, it was like the whole world opened up.
Beside Frankie in the passenger seat, Jules looked like a different woman from the last time they’d taken a road trip together.
Her smile was luminous as she took in the scenery, commenting on the way the sun shone on the water like light glinting off a diamond and making Frankie guess how much it would cost them to buy any one of the huge cliffside mansions with multi million dollar views that they passed before the landscape changed to nothing but trees and the lush greenery of the rolling California hills.
They had no finish line for the trip, no end destination, and had agreed to drive until it felt like the right time to turn back.
It was all just so easy with Jules; the conversation, the jokes, the laughter.
Frankie never felt like she needed to try, never had to force things, and being comfortable with Jules had always come so naturally.
“My Mom would’ve loved this,” Jules said as she stuck her hand out the window and let it float over the air. “She always said she wanted to do a California road trip one day.”
Frankie smiled at the thought. “I’m sure she’s glad that you’re seeing a bit of it now.”
“Yeah.” Jules sighed and took off her sunglasses then shifted in her seat to face Frankie. “Because of you. I never would’ve done something like this on my own. There’s a lot of things I never would’ve done if it weren’t for you, so thank you. For just…being you.”
“Well, Jules Clarke, you make it very easy to just be me.”
That made Jules grin and she turned back to face forward, and stuck her arm out the window again. It was the right response, but it was also the truth.
A few hours into their drive, after they’d already stopped for food at a small hole in the wall coastal diner and topped up on gas, they stopped at a highway pull off that allowed you to back up with your trunk facing out over the ocean.
They got out of the car and Frankie opened the back door of the jeep then laid out the blankets she’d secretly borrowed from her hotel room after asking for extras the night before at the concierge desk.
She pulled a bag of snacks from a backpack along with a pair of plastic cups and a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling cider that she’d kept cold with ice packs, then got to work setting up a tailgate charcuterie board.
It was already late afternoon and the sun hung low and golden in the sky, basking them in warm light, it had Frankie closing her eyes to soak it up.
“Wow, I really missed the sun,” she said on an exhale. “It’s just so beautiful.”
”It really is,” Jules said from her place next to Frankie on the Jeep’s back bumper.
Frankie fluttered open her eyes and glanced to her right to find Jules watching her with a lazy smile on her face.
Her sunglasses were pushed up onto her forehead, the sun turning her eyes into the bluest crystals Frankie had ever seen in her entire life, like precious gemstones no one had the right to even look at because of how perfect they were.
“So, are cheese and crackers with apple cider by the California coast better than having your world rocked by some LA lesbian in her beach house?”
Jules smirked and brought the plastic cup to her lips “Who said she was from LA?” She took a sip, never breaking eye contact with.
Too stunned to reply, Frankie turned back to the ocean and smiled to herself as she popped a piece of cheese into her mouth. As she so often did, Jules had surprised her, this time with an unexpected boldness that made her pulse race while thoughts tried to catch up.
They finished their cider and snacks in a comfortable silence and once the sun began to set, they agreed that as a nice as it was to stay until all they were left with was the afterglow of daylight turning the sky to a dark blueish gold, it was probably for the best if they turned around now.
They had a few hours worth of driving ahead of them before getting back to their hotel and Jules took the wheel for the drive back, insisting it was only fair that she drove after everything Frankie had done both in Halifax and in California.
As the Jeep wound its way along the ocean lined stretch of road, Frankie stared out the window, happily listening to Jules sing along to music on the radio, soaking up their last moments like this before they were brought back to reality.
And reality was good. Frankie liked her life and her work, but spending time with Jules, getting to exist in her orbit the way she’d done today, felt like a dream.
It was a breath of fresh air and she knew when she woke up in the morning, they’d go back to pretending like there wasn’t a river of unsaid words flowing between them.
“So…thank you again, for today,” Jules said as she stood in the threshold of her room once they’d made it back to the hotel. Frankie refused to leave her at the elevator, saying it was Valentine’s Day and the least she could do was be a chivalrous gentleman and walk her to her door.
It was nearing midnight and they both had their own separate flights home the following morning but Frankie smiled, ducking her head to look down at her feet. She wasn’t ready to say goodnight but she knew she had to.
“You’re welcome, I had a lot of fun and I’m really glad you decided to join me,” she said. “We’ll have to do it again sometime.”
“Come to California and drive up the coast?” Jules grinned. “Say the word and I’m in. It’s only a plane ride away. Not far at all.”
They both laughed and Frankie rubbed the back of her neck then offered Jules a little salute, regretting the cheesiness of it immediately. “Goodnight, Jules Clarke. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Jules gave her a salute right back. “Goodnight, Coach Stevens. Happy Valentine’s Day to you too.”
The door closed as she turned to walk away and the closer Frankie got to the elevator, the more she wanted to turn around, the more she wanted to follow her heart and do something she would probably regret but ached to do anyway. Her chest tightened with how much want she had.
She reached the elevator and pushed the down arrow. A few seconds later the doors opened and a man inside stared at her. “Going down?”
Frankie swallowed hard and gave her head a shake then spun on her heels and walked back in the direction she’d come from. She stopped in front of room 357 and raised her knuckles to the door, knocking three times.
The door opened a moment later and before Jules could speak, before she could even react and before Frankie lost her nerve, she stepped forward and cupped Jules' cheek.
Blue eyes widened in surprise but then Frankie kissed her and nothing else mattered. Frankie kissed Jules the way she’d been wanting to for months and the little ‘oh’ that slipped out of Jules mouth as Frankie’s other hand slid around her waist to pull her close made Frankie weak in the knees.
It only took a few seconds before Jules melted into the kiss, her body slackening against Frankie’s as she kicked the door closed behind them.
Frankie spun them and backed Jules against the door without breaking the kiss, trailing her tongue across Jules' soft, plump bottom lip in a silent plea for more, for all of her. Jules gave her what she asked for without question.
Her lips parted and Frankie slipped her tongue inside, marveling at the way Jules tasted, the way she pressed against her, the way Jules was just as soft as Frankie knew she would be.
She pushed her knee forward, slotting her leg between Jules’, and earned herself a gasp from Jules.
Their kiss finally broke and Jules slid her hands up to Frankie’s shoulder’s, gripping her tightly.
“Frankie,” she moaned, letting her head fall back against the door as Frankie pushed her knee up slightly, knowing exactly where she was putting pressure and loving every single second of the way Jules reacted to her touch.
She grinned and dropped her mouth to Jules' neck, pressing kisses to the base of her throat and up across her jaw before reaching a spot beneath her ear that made Jules shudder.
“You have no idea,” Frankie panted, “how badly I’ve wanted this, how long I’ve imagined it. You drive me crazy and you don’t even realize it.”
“I…I didn’t know…but I…” Jules mumbled, her voice a strangled cry as Frankie sucked the skin below her ear.
“Didn’t know that you’re so unbelievably gorgeous? That you make my heart skip a beat whenever I look at you? That you…” Frankie leaned back to look down into blue eyes she knew she could look into forever. “...are so much more than you think you are.”
“I didn’t know you felt any of this but I…I’ve wanted you too.”
The confession hung in the air between them, the tension they’d been tightening for longer than either of them was willing to acknowledge finally snapping.
Now that it had, there was no turning back. But turning back was the last thing Frankie wanted to do. She'd had some of Jules and now she wanted all of her.