Page 44 of Watching Henry

Henry pushed his own bottom lip out. “No.”

She took a breath, getting ready to explain to Henry why he needed to apologize, getting ready to crack a joke, to calm the situation. Then she thought again.

Henry was ten years old, he knew damn well why he needed to say he was sorry to his brother. He was just being difficult, testing his limits. And she'd had enough this morning. She was tired and aching and she could really do without dealing with this.

What had Florence said? Speak as though you know you'll be obeyed.

She took a breath, drawing in all she could and then lowered her voice. “Henry, apologize to Charlie now.”

Henry's eyes widened and he stared at her for a long second. She stared right on back, letting no emotion show on her face.

“Sorry, Charlie,” he mumbled eventually, dropping his gaze to the tabletop.

“Thank you,” said Hadley, secretly jumping around inside. She'd done it. Shown authority. And it had worked.

She grinned as she looked across the table at the two boys, both of whom shifted uncomfortably at her uncharacteristic strictness. “Want to hear a joke?” she asked.

Both nodded in relief, and by the time Emily appeared they were howling with laughter.

FOR THE REST of the long, hot day Hadley had the feeling that Florence was avoiding her. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing. Perhaps they both needed to think about what had happened the night before.

It was Sunday, neither of them worked at the coffee shop. Hadley took the children swimming, Florence took them to read quietly in the shade. Hadley had them build sand castles, Florence fed them fruit and cool water.

All day long they passed the children like a relay baton, barely speaking to each other, being forced and bright in front of the kids until Charlie cried and Emily's lip trembled and Henry yelled at everyone and stomped off to his room.

Hadley brought them pizza with her tip money and finally settled them down and by the time she came back downstairs she was exhausted.

“We should talk.”

The words came out of the hot, dark living room and she wasn't expecting Florence to be sitting in the shadow, so she jumped.

“Yes, “she sighed. “Yes, we should.”

She was too tired to worry about this, too tired to fight it. She would listen, see what Florence had to say for herself, and take things from there. It was only a kiss, she told herself. Only a kiss.

“That shouldn't have happened,” began Florence.

Hadley could feel eyes on her and was glad it was dark because she couldn't deal with looking Florence in the eye right now. Couldn't deal with the flood of wanting that came over her every time she saw the curve of Florence's neck.

“We're professionals, we have a job to do, that shouldn't have happened. It won't happen again.”

Florence sounded so definite and so right, so authoritative, that Hadley almost let things go, almost just agreed. Her heart beat in her mouth.

“Okay,” she said.

Florence got up, ready to walk away again and Hadley wondered just how long she'd been in love with this woman. Had it happened the first time she'd seen her in the driveway of the big house? Or that day in the lake when she'd almost drowned herself?

But it hadn't been instantaneous. It had happened so slowly over the last weeks that she hadn't even noticed it. Hadn't noticed that she turned to Florence to see her smile, hadn't noticed that she looked forward to her face at the breakfast table, hadn't noticed that a brush of her fingers against her skin could make her heart hammer.

What an idiot she'd been.

Now Florence was walking away again and Hadley couldn't just let it happen.

“Did you not want it?” she said, the question coming out awkward and unplanned.

“What?” Florence asked, turning back.

“The kiss, you didn't want it?” Hadley asked, the answer now terribly important.