Lea tensed so much Jewel thought she might break something. Everything in Lea’s body froze. Jewel reached delicately under the table where the man on the other side of her wouldn’t be able to see and squeezed Lea’s knee.
“We’ve been best friends for about five years.”
At his confused look, Jewel didn’t elaborate. It took another thirty seconds for Lea to move again, but she popped a bite of vegetables between her lips, remaining absolutely silent.
“Oh, I thought…you’re not partners?”
Again Lea tensed.
Jewel debated whether or not to lie or just spin the truth and somehow change the subject. They hadn’t defined anything at that point. “I met Lea years ago when I did my student teaching. She was already on staff, but she showed me the ropes and the town. It’s hard to come into a new town for only a year and not know what’s what. It was so kind of her to do that when she didn’t have to—we teach radically different subjects.”
“But you’re not together?” he asked again, his wife hissing at him and sending him a glare.
Jewel grabbed the wine glass in front of her. “We’ve been best friends since then. I was so happy when the opportunity came up for a job in the district, and I applied for it right away, mostly because of Azalea.” She remembered at the last minute to use Lea’s full name. “If she hadn’t been so kind and welcoming, I may never have taken that chance.”
Lea stiffened, but Jewel had a feeling this time it was for a different reason. She’d never fully explained why she’d applied for the job out there, but Lea had played a good role in it. That would no doubt come up again in some way, probably because Lea would insist on talking about it.
“But—”
“Jacob,” Mrs. Robinson warned.
“I’m sorry. I just thought.”
“I think at this point we all know what you thought,” Mrs. Robinson bit at her words, still glaring at him.
Luckily he backed down at the chastisement from his wife. Eli glanced at Jewel from down the table, raising a questioning eyebrow in their direction. Jewel gave the smallest of shrugs, no idea what Eli was thinking in that moment other than curiosity. A silence fell over the dinner table, but it didn’t last long as the kids got to talking about some big project they had going on at school. It reminded Jewel that she was far behind on her final plans for the spring concert.
That was the worst part about being the only music teacher in the school district. She had double the concerts. From the elementary school to the junior high and high schools, concert season was no joke, and it took just about everything out of her each year. She’d allowed herself to take the break because of Brady, but she was going to have to dive headfirst back into life when they got to town tomorrow.
The meal finished without another incident, and Jewel and Lea helped Eli to clean up before they all went their separate ways. Something quiet had fallen over Lea, and Jewel wasn’t quite sure what to do with it or what it was. They barely talked before they headed upstairs to their room, getting ready for bed. Jewel was already under the blankets when Lea climbed in.
“Thanks for earlier.”
“For what?” Jewel asked.
“For answering Mr. Robinson. I had no idea what to say to him.”
Jewel pressed her lips tightly together. “He was being rude.”
“Yes, he was.”
Lea fell silent again. Jewel stared at the ceiling as she listened to Lea’s breathing, the gentle rhythm as it softened and evened out. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand, surprised to find over an hour had passed and Lea was fast asleep. She wasn’t quite sure what, but something felt like it had changed, and it didn’t feel good. It was as if the questioning at dinner had called them back into the reality of living in western Kansas as a lesbian couple, although he hadn’t seemed too antagonistic about it all. The fear was still underneath it all. Maybe it was because Jewel had skirted around it instead of just being forthright about what she and Lea were doing.
Reaching for her phone, Jewel checked her messages and emails. She’d ignored the ones from her parents, giving them quick updates when she could but not diving into a lot of detail. She’d wanted to take the week for what it was, a break from normalcy. Not to mention, she wasn’t sure what to tell them about what was going on in her life. What would they think about her and Lea? What would they think about her jumping into a relationship so soon after breaking up with Brady?
She sent off some more short replies and opened the book app on her phone, reading for a bit. She turned this way and that in the bed to try and get comfortable but for some reason every position she tried felt wrong and she found herself needing to move again. Jewel tried to do it without waking Lea up, wanting to at least allow her to get some rest.
At midnight, she shifted again. Her eyes were dry as she blinked, attempting to read the next paragraph in her book, but she was pretty sure she’d already attempted to read it three times and had gotten nowhere. Sighing heavily, Jewel closed the app and set her phone on the nightstand, but it crashed to the floor. The noise echoed through the quiet room, and Jewel cursed under her breath. When she turned to glance at Lea to see if she’d awoken, she wasn’t surprised to see those dark, concerned eyes open and staring back at her.
“What time is it?” Lea murmured, her voice barely above a whisper and still filled with sleep.
“A little after midnight. Go back to sleep.”
Lea twisted onto her back and rubbed her eyes. “Why are you awake?”
“Couldn’t sleep.” Jewel bent over the side of the bed, grabbed her phone, and plugged it in, this time managing to get it on the nightstand without it falling. “Seriously, go back to sleep, Lea. There’s no reason for both of us to be awake.”
The slow drag of breath should have been her warning, but it wasn’t. Lea moved so slowly but so precisely. She turned on her side, her hand settling on Jewel’s arm, her fingers so hot from sleep that they nearly burned Jewel’s skin.