Hard Landing Ch 04

*** This series was awarded

Best Lesbian Story

, as well as

Most Literary/Genre Transcending Story

in the

2019 Reader's Choice Awards

. Thank you to all who voted. ***

Welcome friend, to Chapter 4. If you haven't read Chapters 1-3, you'll be lost. So very lost.

As usual, I've updated the Spotify playlist found in the contact tab of my author page with the songs from this chapter. Shout out to those who've given me a "like" on that.

Many thanks to my editor,

ThisNameIsntTakenYet,

whose excellent work made it possible for me to get this up with far fewer typos.

~~ Ocean City, Maryland ~~

JO

She woke to the cry of a seagull outside. Opening her eyes, she saw the curtains gently swaying in the breeze coming through the window they'd left open last night. Blue was behind her with one arm thrown over her waist, and she could feel warm breath on the back of her neck.

True to her word, Blue had taken her to bed last night and simply held her and stroked her hair until she'd fallen asleep. Jo hadn't even thought about doing more. She'd needed exactly what Blue had given her. She didn't cry last night, she never cried, but the way she had curled up and held onto Blue last night... she sighed.

I really gotta get a handle on what the fuck is going on with me and this chick,

she thought.

Is it some kind of pheromone thing? I mean she always smells like vanilla, maybe that's it. Why do you keep splitting open like an old melon and letting all your rotten shit fall out, Collins?

She grimaced at the visual in her head.

She reached out and picked up her running watch from the nightstand. "

After eight, Collins. You're getting fucking soft,"

Little Voice chided her.Carefully, she eased out from under Blue's arm, gathered her running gear from the pile of clothes in the corner and slipped into the bathroom that separated the two bedrooms to get dressed. Not wanting to wake her, she exited to the living room through Blue's door. Looking up she saw Larry, Suzanne and Jack in the kitchen, drinking coffee.

"Hey Jo, morning," Suzanne said as her eyebrows tried to crawl up her forehead into her hair.

"Morning." Jo said, closing the door behind her. Oops. "Going for a run, anybody up?" No one would say yes. No one ever did. She got impatient and left anyone behind who tried to keep up after a mile or two.

"Uh, no..." said Jack. "Listen Jo, hang on a minute. Look, I'm... I'm really sorry about last night." He looked a little green, and Jo guessed he was sporting a whale of a hangover. "I know I was..."

"It's okay, Vance," Jo said. "You were drunk, I'm uptight. Sorry I shoved you into the beach, I was out of line. Today's a new day, so let's try and forget about it. We cool?"

She held out a fist and bumped Jack's on the way by as he stammered, "S-sure, cool Jo...'

"See you guys in an hour or so." She slid the patio door shut behind her and trotted barefoot across the deck and down the steps to the beach. There were several seconds of silence.

"What," Larry said, conversationally, "the fuck?" He'd frozen like a statue with his mug halfway to his lips the moment Jo had emerged from Jill's room and hadn't moved.

Suzanne looked over at Jill's door. "I think maybe someone is a good influence on our girl. After last night I expected her not to talk to you the rest of the trip, Jack." She took a sip of her coffee.

Jack swallowed, looking less green and not just a little relieved. "Did you guys know about..." He tilted his head towards Jill's room.

"Nope," Larry said, "Seems like the potential for drama on this trip has gone up a bit, don't you think babe?"

Suzanne tilted her head, looking out back out towards Jo as she reached the hard-packed sand on the shoreline and started running south. "I'm not sure," she mused. "Five minutes ago, I would have said yes, but after that unusual display of equanimity from our little powder keg..." She looked back at Jill's door again. "I wouldn't have put money on Jill coming back in one piece after she chased after Jo last night either. I think it's going to be interesting to watch."

~~ En Route to Virginia Beach, Virginia ~~

JO

The band had done a small show at the national park in Chincoteague, Virginia, then camped in the bus that night. Jack had made noises about setting up his hammock outside, but the mosquitoes seemed thick enough to carry away the small wild horses that lived on the island. Steve and Sara had claimed the bedroom this time. Larry and Suzanne grumped, but they had gotten the first shot on Friday night. Larry had asked Suzanne if she wanted to climb into a twin bunk with him, but she had just looked up and down her husband's six-four frame and laughed at him.

Jo knew she and Blue would have fit just fine in a twin together. The two times they'd slept in the same bed, they had curled up tight next to each other all night. But she didn't think Blue would've wanted it to be so obvious that something was going on, so she'd said "I'll take the couch," completely missing the look Blue shot at her.

The next day as they drove leisurely down Route 13, Jo was sitting at the kitchen table on the bus, working on her mandolin. After the beach jam, someone had picked it up off the sand for her, shaken it and put it back in the case. She'd remembered that she probably should clean it and was working on it with a toothbrush and soft cloth. It was kind of amazing how much sand she'd dislodged so far. "Stupid fuck," she mumbled to herself.

"What?" Steve asked. He was sitting across from her, reading.

"Nothing."

"Huh, 'cause it sounded like you think dropping a fine hand-crafted instrument into the sand wasn't a good idea." He was grinning at her.

"Dude. Get off me."

"I'm not on you Sis, just poking the bear."

"Well this bear isn't up for poking. That couch is lumpy." She had a stiff neck from sleeping on it.

"You know..." he trailed off.

"What?" Jo continued brushing out sand.

Steve looked around. Larry and Suzanne were in the bedroom watching a movie, while Sara was up in the passenger seat talking to Jack. Blue was in one of the bunks napping.

He lowered his voice "No one's going to care if you and Jill want to bunk up."

"What? What are you talking about?" She looked up with a panicked expression on her face.

"Jo, c'mon, it's obvious. You two have been thick as thieves all week and it's not like I don't know about you coming out of her room yesterday morning. You think Larry wouldn't tell me about that?"

Jo flushed bright red. "Keep your voice down!" she whispered.

"My voice is down, Jo. It's just us talking. I'm just telling you, it's cool. You're an adult, she's an adult and you guys are obviously getting along great."

Jo looked around to make sure there was no one else paying attention.

"I don't know what's going on Bro." Jo whispered, hunching her shoulders and looking down at her mandolin. "I have no fucking idea what's going on. I just... I..."

"Jo, unclench. You like her. She clearly likes you. Roll with it, Sis."

Jo looked over her shoulder at the bunk area. "But I'm deploying at the end of October. You know what that means."

"Oh, for fuck's sake Sis, are you still on about your stupid 'rule'? You've got to let that go, it was years ago. You and I both know that the problem wasn't you having a girlfriend while you were over there. The problem was that Amy was a crazy bitch."

"That's what Blue said."

"My god Jo, you

told

her about Amy? You don't do that! You have a pet name for her! I can't remember the last person you didn't call by their last name besides dad or me. It's obvious this is a thing!"

"I can't, Steve. I just can't and I already told her that."

"Fine. Whatever, I take it all back." He looked over his shoulder to see that Jack was pulling off the road for a pit stop. "If you're gonna get all Jo Collins on her, then you probably should back off. Because she's a nice girl and if you pull your typical moves where you get scared and run, you'll hurt her."

"I don't get fucking scared!" Jo hissed furiously.

Steve leaned in and looked her in the eye. "Maybe you can get away with that bullshit with everyone else on the bus, Big Sister," he whispered. "But I see through you. You're scared. So, are you going to be the bad-ass-basic-training-bitch who kicks the ever-loving shit out of anything they put in your way when they tell you that you'll never fly the Blackhawk? Or are you going to be scared, little Jo who runs away to hide in a war when she's afraid of getting hurt?"

Jo just stared at him, seething, as Larry and Suzanne emerged from the bedroom.

"Your call, Sis." Steve got up, gathered Sara from the front and they went out with Larry, Suzanne and Jack to check out the tourist trap they'd pulled into. Jo sat there, staring out the window.

"Hey, want to go check this place out?" Blue said from behind her. Jo turned. Blue was standing there in one of her usual sundresses rubbing one eye. She started putting her blue hair back into a braid. She leaned down to look out the window. "It says three t-shirts for $5. I want to see what kind of treasures we can get for that.

Jo forced a smile. "Sure."

"You ok?"

"I'm fine Blue. Let's go."

JILL

Jo seemed off for some reason I couldn't figure out. I had dragged her around the tourist trap shop looking at all the little tchotchkes and terrible t-shirts that could be had but she wasn't joking around with me like I'd come to expect.

"What do you think?" I asked, holding up a knock-off My Little Pony t-shirt in front of me.

"I'd go with something more like that," she said, pointing to an obvious bootleg Wonder Woman shirt.

"So, you think I'm more of an Amazon than a pony girl? I mean I have the mane." I flicked my blue braid with my hand.

She looked up at me. "You're tall enough for an Amazon."

"What's your shirt size? Medium?" I said rummaging through a rack.

"Yes. Are you buying me clothes now?" she asked.

"Yes, in fact, I am. I like this but the color doesn't work with my hair." I pulled an olive colored t-shirt of the rack that said "CHIPS & SALSA" across the front in yellow letters.

She snorted. "Really?"

"Yes. I think it's hilarious, but I can't wear it, so I'm going to dress you in it for my enjoyment." I batted my eyes at her with my best innocent face.

"Does that mean I get to pick out something you have to wear for me?"

"Absolutely," I said, deciding I was going to up my game to try and shake her out of her funk. I stepped closer to her and whispered in her ear "Too bad they only have t-shirts," I said, and walked away swinging my hips. I turned and found her staring at my ass. She looked up and saw I'd caught her. I laughed and went to pay for my found treasures.

The Air-BnB in Virginia Beach was a bit of a let down after Ocean City. It was a four-bedroom house, three blocks off the boardwalk. No ocean views, no beach. But at least it had a nice pool.

As we filed into the living room, Steve said, "Ok, there's a master bedroom on the first floor and another master and two more bedrooms upstairs. How are we splitting this up?"

Jack looked over at Jo and said "I can take the couch tonight if you want. You did your turn last night."

I couldn't understand why everyone was tiptoeing around this, especially Jo, but it was making me angry. Sara already told me everyone knew that Jo and I had stayed together in Ocean City. Then Jo had done that stupid 'I'll take the couch' move on the bus last night, which had irritated the hell out of me, but I'd had no opportunity to talk to her about it. Did she think I was embarrassed? Was she embarrassed? Was this her way of distancing herself from me? I really didn't care. Time to take the bull by the horns.

"No need, Jack. We're good." I reached over and grabbed the strap of Jo's backpack and tugged at her. She was pulled off balance, then caught herself and followed me as I dragged her into the bedroom off the kitchen.

Larry said, "Wow. Cool, so you're...

oof

!" as I heard Suzanne elbow him and whisper "Dude!"

"Blue, what—" Jo started as I closed the door, but I wasn't ready to let her talk yet.

"Look, you and I both know that everyone knows that

something

happened between us in OC. I don't care what they think it is or isn't." She opened her mouth to respond, but I talked right over her. "And you and I both know that we both liked sleeping together. Not sex! Or yes, okay sex, sex is a possibility that remains to be worked out. But the two nights we've curled up together were the best nights of sleep I've had in months and I don't want to pass on a chance for some more of that action because of what everyone thinks. Ok, now you can talk."

She had a little frown on her face. "I didn't know if you would want people to know we'd... you know."

"Technically, we haven't 'you know'. I mean, I guess I've 'you know-ed' you, but all you've done to me is bite me. Which, thank you very much, I did appreciate that, but that's not really 'you know-ing'. And I'm pretty certain everyone has assumed something's up since you started calling me Blue instead of Doran."

"Probably," she said.

"So, the question is; do you not want to share a bed with me? Are you embarrassed of me? Embarrassed about yourself? Do you feel like you need to sleep elsewhere? Because if I'm making you uncomfortable, that's your problem, but I don't think it's fair for you to make Jack sleep on the couch because you're all twisted in a bunch."

"You're pretty fierce when you want to be, aren't you?"

"Damn right," I said, staring into her eyes. She looked almost... cowed by my vehemence. That couldn't be real, could it?

"I'm cool with it, Blue. I mean, I will be. I'll try to be. I'm sorry if I was being a bitch."

"Okay, glad we got that straight." I leaned down and kissed her. It wasn't the passion we'd had standing out on the beach or the heat we'd had lying in bed. But it was really... good.

"Okay," I breathed and stepped back. "Okay." I looked around and saw there was a small bathroom off our bedroom.

"Okay. You go get our suitcases and bring them in here. Then I'm going to go in there and put on my bathing suit. You'll have five minutes to get your suit on before I come out. Then we're going swimming. Got that, Chief?"

"Yes Ma'am!" she smiled at me and snapped off what I assumed was a perfect Army salute. I mean, how was I to know what one looked like?

JO

The show that night was in Norfolk, about a half hour drive from Virginia Beach, in a bar near the naval base. Expecting the crowd to be mostly off-duty sailors, Jo had naturally replaced her usual Rotors hat with a black baseball cap that said Army Aviation on the front, and her Fort Bragg 10-Miler t-shirt. She received some good-natured boos and hisses from the Navy folk as the band took the stage, but she quickly won over the crowd, starting with the solo intro to AC/DC's

Shook Me All Night Long

to start the show

.

It seemed classic rock was a preferred flavor for the military crowd. Larry came in behind her with a thumping drum beat, while Steve put on his best Brian Johnson voice.

After the unexpected dressing down she'd received this afternoon, she'd decided to follow Blue's lead and try to quit worrying about what everyone else thought of what was going on between them, just figure out her own shit and enjoy the time they had together. She still was certain it wouldn't be longer than the end of the trip, but the decision had lifted a weight from her and it showed in her performance that night.

When Suzanne had asked before the show if they could do

Go Your Own Way

tonight, Jo had been more than happy to throw down on that. Blue and Sara were over in front of Suzanne's side of the stage dancing up a storm, so during the first chorus, she crossed over behind Steve. She turned and leaned back-to-back on Suzanne playing her Telecaster, while Suzanne plucked out the funky bass line and did her best Christine McVie into the mic with a huge smile on her face. Steve was feeling the lyrics too.

You can go your own w-a-a-a-a-y! Go your own way!

You can call it another lo-o-o-o-n-e-ly d-a-a-y! Another lone-ly day!

The song had one of her all-time favorite guitar solos too, a Lindsey Buckingham classic, running around the tune for the last half of the song.

Fuck it,

Jo thought.

Steve got to be a rock star for his girl in OC, my turn.

"

My girl? Is that what she is now Collins?"

asked Little Voice.

For the next six days, Little,

Jo thought.

"

But after that, you know what's gotta happen."

As she came to the solo, Jo jumped off the low stage in front of Suzanne into the crowd. Landing in front of Blue and Sara she started playing the rock star, showboating for the girls and the crowd around them, hitting the solo like she was in a music video. Blue loved it, playing air guitar and swinging her blue hair around her head in front of Jo, while the crowd around them danced and sang along with Steve and Suzanne. After the song, she got a dozen or more high fives from the crowd before she made her way back up on stage. She saw Blue wave both her hands at her face and say something to Sara who bent over laughing. Jo could swear Blue's nipples were standing up too, poking through her dress.

Well, that was a good call,

she thought to herself as she called out the next song to the band.

It was a humid night, and Sara convinced everyone they should jump in the pool when they got back to the house. Jo was floating in the deep end, holding a beer in one hand and the side of the pool with the other when Blue came out of the house. She'd seen Blue's navy-blue one-piece a couple of times earlier in the week, but tonight she was wearing a bikini the same color as her hair. The bottoms had wide silver metal rings on each hip holding the front and back together, showing... A

lot

of skin.

"

Whoosh!"

said Little Voice.

You're goddamn right, whoosh,

Jo thought. She looked down into the water at her own outfit, black boyshort bottoms and a short-sleeved yellow and black Body Glove surfing rasher. It was the only swimming outfit she owned.

I'm outgunned here,

she thought to herself.

Blue gracefully jumped in the water, making a tiny splash, and sank to the bottom before surfacing next to Jo. "I love night swimming," she said, looking up at the quarter moon as her hair spread out into a fan in the water behind her. They'd left all the lights from the house off with just the dim underwater pool lights providing illumination. She reached out, took the beer out of Jo's hand and took a drink before handing it back.

"This is just what I wanted tonight," agreed Sara. Steve was standing chest-deep at the lip where the pool sloped off to the deep end, holding up Sara under her shoulders as she floated on her back in front of him.

Jack had gone to bed, rather than swim. Jo suspected he was still embarrassed about having drunkenly mouthed off during the beach jam, but she was enjoying just having the three couples (if she and Blue could be considered a couple) floating quietly in the pool together.

"Look!" Suzanne exclaimed pointing up. "Shooting star!"

"I think we're at the start of the Perseids meteor shower window," Larry said. "It lasts like a month. We'll probably see a few more if we wait long enough."

After twenty minutes and three more meteors, Larry and Suzanne called it a night. Fifteen minutes more, they only saw two more shooting stars, and Sara and Steve decided to head in.