A lesbian couple's new life may be threatened by the return of one woman's ex-husband.
This is a sequel to the "The New Softballers" series. It's my first story with entirely new characters, although I might have a couple of characters from patricia51's "To Serve and Protect" series make cameo appearances. As with all my stories, these are plot-driven to the max and you may want to look elsewhere for lots of sex scenes.
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"Hi honey, I'm home!"
Sarah Yearwood let herself into the small house with several bags of groceries, staggering a bit under their weight. She sighed as Beth Garner wasn't in the front room to help her with some of the bags. But Beth had had a lot of trouble with her knee in the cold, damp Western Washington winter, their first together. Beth some days could only walk with a cane.
The two women shared a house on the west side of Puget Sound in a rather laid-back community. Thank goodness, because you don't see gay lovers in every household. They had taken the jobs of head coach (Sarah) and pitching coach (Beth) for the women's softball team just now beginning at Western Washington State University in Olympia a few months back. They had elected to move up the coast to less-populated areas in order to keep down the rent on the house. Beth was studying for an education degree and considering teaching in high schools in order to boost the paycheck.
As Sarah struggled into the kitchen, exaggerating her load for effect, she saw why Beth hadn't come to help out. The other young woman was having an animated telephone conversation. Sarah's eyes widened as she realized who was on the other end of the phone.
"Are you sure? Wow, Katherine! I've never met him. Uh-huh. Uh-huh?"
Beth looked up and mouthed the name, that of a booster-club president at a college in Georgia where she and Sarah had met. Sarah mouthed a question. Beth quickly turned back to the phone.
"Katherine, Sarah just walked in the door. If I can get this damn speaker attachment to work, I'm sure she wants to talk to you too."
The speaker did work. Beth made her way over to Sarah and took the grocery sacks from her, moving toward the pantry.
"Hi, Katherine!" Sarah said cheerfully. "You know, I can't get used to calling you by your first name after all this time."
"Hey, Sarah, remember, it was only about 10 years ago that I was an ordinary homemaker. I got called Miz Wheeler so much that I was ready to scream. Now people only call me Miz Wheeler when they want to kiss my ass."
"I'll bet at least one person will do it and still call you Katherine, won't she?"
"So long as I kiss hers and lick her β¦ God, I can't believe I'd say all this to anybody," the centi-millionaire replied. "But enough about me. Are you two settling in okay?"
"God, it gets so dark so early around here in the winter!" Sarah replied. "And rain, cold, damp rain. If you saw the Seattle weather stations telling how the rain's going to dump on the Olympic Peninsula, you'd think you'd died and gone to Hell. Thank God they have places where you can go and sit with special lamps for three-four hours a day. And really toasty blankets."
"Well, let me tell you what I just told Beth. Did you know Jonathan graduated early? Just before Christmas. And the U of Washington accepted him to grad school in the theater program!"
"My God, Katherine, that's wonderful! All of your kids were smart, but I think he was your favorite."
"You should have seen him when he was young. The baby of the family and the hell-raiser. But incredibly loyal to Mom and Dad. And especially to Mom. But now it's time to cut the apron strings, at least sort of. He's moving clear across country and going into graduate theater, and I was wondering β¦"
"Wondering what?" Beth asked, having come back across the kitchen and leaning on the table.
"If you two could take him in while he looks for a place of his own in Seattle. He has a job lined up and he could pay one-third of the rent. I've told him about your relationship and he's said no problem, but I really want him to find out how to live with women and not interfere with their private lives."
There was a long pause between Beth and Sarah as they digested the information. Finally Beth spoke.
"You know that I'd do anything for you and Tawny, but it'll take some getting used to having a man around the house. It's pretty small; we'd have to clear our office stuff out of the spare bedroom. And you know, we'd have to really think about privacy issues. We don't think anything about closing the bathroom doors or the bedroom doors unless that cat's around. The cat's still pretty skittish and she doesn't even have a name yet."
"All noted," Katherine replied. "Jonathan's really been supportive about his mom being gay, but he's never seen me with Tawny since we became lovers. And you know he's been missing a male influence in his life ever since β¦. If you know anybody around town who seems nice enough to go out with, maybe you could set things up."
"Don't know yet," Sarah said. "We did find a lesbian bar where the ladies are pretty nice. We might ask them to let him in as our guest one night and let him get used to women all around. A lot of them have gay and straight guy friends who might want to take him places. As long as he keeps his hands to himself, he ought not to mind."
"Well, I'm not asking you to be his sisters," Katherine replied. "Just tell him he has to live within the rules and respect you, and I think he'll be fine."
Then Katherine paused. The two women on the other end of the line heard talking from Katherine's end, presumably with their former coach. Katherine came back online, somewhat breathless.
"Anything wrong?" Beth asked with some concern.
"I'll leave it to you to decide," Katherine replied. "Tawny just passed me a note. At Major League Baseball's winter meetings, they just announced a series of trades with the Devil Rays. The Mariners sent one of their big hitters there for three minor leaguers." Pause.