CHAPTER 15
Lacey
She hadn’t slept well. She’d given up around sunrise and just lay there staring up at the ceiling before she rolled over and took in her sleeping girlfriend.
River was facing her and had a little drool on her pillow, which made her smile.
They hadn’t talked much yesterday after arriving at the house, and Lacey had expected them to spend all their time together here, but they’d separated and had come back together for dinner, which had been awkward, but also not.
It was hard to explain. It had been four people sitting around a table, enjoying delicious food made just for them.
Two of those people were celebrities. The other two were Lacey and River.
She had sat down next to River, with Cameron on her other side at the round table in the informal dining room, as Jessie had called it since the formal dining room still had the snack and drinks out.
Lacey had felt guilty at first for talking more to Cameron than River, but it had seemed like River had been doing the same with Kennedy, who’d been on River’s other side, so she hadn’t worried too much about it.
Every so often, they’d end up in the same conversation, but sometimes, when they hadn’t, Jessie, from off camera, had interjected with a topic for them to discuss.
Once, it had been Cameron’s most recent movie, which River and Lacey had both seen.
Another time, it had been Kennedy’s hit TV show from a long time ago, and River had watched it all the way through, but Lacey had only seen sporadic episodes of it at best and couldn’t recall much about it.
Cameron had met her eye when Lacey had gotten quiet then, and she’d given her a little smile.
Lacey had been grateful for that smile because, with Kennedy there, she had felt a little more nervous.
Kennedy seemed to be orderly and liked things a certain way.
Lacey hadn’t known the woman long, of course, but that part had been easy to tell.
When Kennedy had started talking about the house they’d bought together, it had been clear to Lacey that she’d been the one in charge of planning and decorating it, and that kind of take-charge attitude was intimidating and sometimes off-putting to Lacey when it meant that someone else didn’t get the game room they wanted in their own house.
Lacey had tried to put all of that out of her mind, though, and acted as normally as she could.
After dinner, they’d gone outside briefly but had really only looked out at the water for a few minutes before Jessie had yelled something about not having the right lights for this and had asked them to go back inside.
They’d sat around the living room then, with Cameron and Kennedy on the couch and River and Lacey on the other sofa.
What had struck Lacey as odd was that Cameron and Kennedy hadn’t been touching.
They had sat about a foot or so apart from one another and hadn’t even held hands at all since they’d arrived, from what she’d seen.
Lacey had looked over at River, who’d also been about a foot away from her, and she hadn’t been sure they’d touched all that much or at all, either.
They hadn’t been out there all that long before Jessie had suggested that they all get settled into their rooms, and they’d obeyed like she was their chaperone for the prom, asking them to stay in the ballroom and not run around the hotel.
After that, things had gotten stranger somehow.
They’d essentially been dropped off, and Lacey had watched after Cameron as she’d disappeared into her own room with Kennedy.
Lacey’s stomach had churned thinking about how she hated the idea of Cameron going to bed with Kennedy, and it had been even worse because she hadn’t really wanted to go to bed with River, she’d been the one to tell River how much she’d wanted them to reconnect on this trip, and then she hadn’t been able to even think about having sex with her own girlfriend because she’d been wondering if Kennedy and Cameron would be doing the same thing.
“Kennedy was all about the fudge I brought with me,” River had said excitedly as she’d stripped out of her clothes to take a shower, letting them fall on the floor, but only temporarily until she’d picked everything up and put it in the trash bag she always brought with her when she traveled in order to keep her dirty laundry separate from her clean stuff.
“She asked me about my rum fudge, too, and I think I got in some good comments about the shop when the cameras were on me. Do you think they’ll cut that stuff out or leave it in?
Cal said it would be a good idea to bring it up to try to get some publicity. ”
“Cam said that?” she had asked as she’d kicked off her shoes.
“No, Cal.” River had turned to Lacey, naked and clearly excited about something, but Lacey had known it hadn’t been about the prospect of them having sex. “Cal, my business partner and best friend. Since when do you call Cameron Levine Cam?”
“She told me to,” Lacey had defended and decided to ask, “Want to shower together? It’ll be quicker.”
“Um…” River had taken a long moment to respond, and, to Lacey, it had seemed like she had needed to process a lot of information or maybe even feelings at once. “Sure,” she’d finally said.
Lacey had stripped, but she would’ve been lying to herself had she thought that this would help them reconnect as a couple. She’d only asked to change the subject off Cameron whom she’d just called Cam like they’d known one another long enough to use nicknames.
They had climbed into the shower, which wasn’t overly large but still bigger than either of their own, and had washed themselves.
At some point, she’d thought that River had been reaching for her waist to pull her in, but River had only been going for the shampoo behind Lacey, and that had been the closest they’d gotten in that shower.
They’d dried off after, changed into pajamas, and climbed into bed.
River had continued to talk excitedly about her business and how she had hoped this thing helped both little kids with cancer and her candy shop, which, Lacey supposed, had been… interesting.
“Hey.”
Lacey realized she’d been zoning out. River must have woken up when she’d been thinking about Cameron’s arms being raised in the air after scoring a goal, and specifically, that glimpse of skin Lacey had gotten between her jeans and shirt when Cameron had done so.
“Oh, hey. Did I wake you?”
“No. What time is it?” River asked, rolling over to reach for her phone. “I slept until eight? Damn. I never sleep in.”
“I like that you think eight in the morning is sleeping in,” Lacey replied with a smile.
“It is for me.”
River’s phone ended up on her stomach, and she rubbed her hands over her face.
“Did you sleep well?” Lacey asked.
“Uh… Yeah. Like a baby. You?”
“Yeah,” she lied. “I think breakfast is at nine. Want to get a little more sleep, or maybe…”
She placed her hand on River’s stomach, trying to hint that she could move her phone.
“Shit. I told Cal I’d check in.”
River went to lift her phone instead, and Lacey moved her hand away, giving up almost as quickly as she’d put in the effort.
“I’m going to the bathroom,” she said.
“Okay.”
Lacey stood up, stretched, walked to the bathroom, and spent a very long time brushing her teeth and putting her hair in a messy bun because this weekend was supposed to be at least somewhat relaxing, and she wasn’t about to dress up even if Kennedy freaking Gannon was a beautiful movie star who looked perfect without any makeup on.
Lacey cleaned her face, splashed more cold water on it for good measure, finished up, and, hoping she’d delayed enough, she went back out to the bedroom, where she found River sorting through her bag.
“Should we wear suits? I don’t know if we’re swimming today. Not sure I even want to. This place doesn’t have a pool, and I don’t like swimming in the ocean.”
“I don’t know. Whatever you want to do is probably fine. And there’s a hot tub, if you’re interested in that,” she replied and walked to her own bag, where she pulled out her bathing suit, which was a red bikini with white flowers.
She’d bought it for cheap at a department store because she didn’t have a ton of time to go swimming in the first place and didn’t need anything expensive.
“You know I’m not a fan of hot tubs. That’s just sitting around in people’s sweat while you sweat, too,” River told her as she pulled out underwear and a sports bra.
“Romantic, River,” she said sarcastically.
“What? It’s true. I’m going to pee and stuff. Be right out.”
“Okay,” she replied.
Lacey dressed while River was in the bathroom and decided not to wait for her girlfriend, whose mind was elsewhere already today, and it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet.
She opened the door and looked down the hallway toward Cameron and Kennedy’s room.
Turning her head the other way next, she was surprised to see the hallway empty, so she padded down shoeless until she hit the living room and was met with Kennedy Gannon sitting on the sofa, drinking coffee and staring down at her phone.
“Good morning,” Lacey greeted.
“Morning,” Kennedy said, looking up at her from her phone. “Early riser?”
“Um… No. I like to sleep in as late as I can whenever I can, but River usually is, so I tend to wake up with her. She woke up later today, so we’re just starting to move now.”
“Cam’s like you. She sleeps in whenever she can. I’m usually up by six at the latest.”
“Is that because of work?”
“I got used to early call times when I was younger, yes, but I also like it. Sometimes, I can catch the sunrise. Other times, I get more time to adjust to the new day.” Kennedy held up her phone. “Check out what’s going on in the world, respond to notifications and messages, that kind of thing.”