Page 43 of Spicy Sapphic Christmas

“I want to increase the tempo during the middle section of the song. Let me know if it gets too fast,” Bunny interrupted before Piper could respond.

“Okay,” Piper and Jo spoke at the same time.

“What was I looking at?” Jo asked again.

“Really?” Piper’s mouth dropped open a little, incredulous that Jo couldn’t see it. But when she looked at Jo’s face she saw a twinkle in the woman’s eyes and a huge smile on her face.

“You already noticed something, huh?” Piper guessed.

“Only yesterday.” Jo shrugged, and the two took their starting positions. She lowered her voice to barely above a whisper, “You’re only just noticing it now?”

They smiled as they danced, going through the routine with a familiarity that dance partners normally wouldn’t have had until they had been dancing together a lot longer than a handful of rehearsals.

“Something’s going on between them.” Jo seemed to be as intrigued as Piper was with how well Bea and Bunny were working together. Piper had even noticed several other little touches and blushing cheeks between the two of them. She wanted to know more, but pinning Bunny down to get actualanswers was next to impossible. She always found out after the fact what Bunny had been up to or who she was interested in.

They had managed to hit the new tempo with every step on the third time through. “Something’s there, but I can’t figure out exactly what it is,” Piper murmured as they stopped, her breath heaving from the exercise. She wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to keep moving like this. Her age was wearing on her in ways it hadn’t before.

“Something is definitely going on.” Jo nodded in agreement.

“Bunny isn’t exactly thesomething is going ontype.” Piper half-hated herself for the words that had already passed her lips and looked to be on her way to full hate as she couldn’t stop the rest from coming out. “She doesn’t do relationships. The closest she’s gotten to one is a few hours.”

Minus Piper’s sister-in-law. That had been years worth of infatuation despite the feelings not being reciprocated, which only added to the problems. Piper had hated every moment of watching Bunny go through that.

“A few hours?” The line between Jo’s eyebrows deepened as she tilted her head.

“Um, yeah.” Heat spread over Piper’s face as she kept her eyes on Bunny and Bea as they laughed about something Piper couldn’t hear. “About the time it takes for… um, her and the hookup to finish.”

“Oh.” Jo’s eyes widened, and she laughed. A moment later her face fell, and this time the word carried deeper thought than amusement. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Piper wanted to ease Jo’s concern, if that’s what it was. But she had to know exactly where she had traveled to from one thought to the next.

“Bea hasn’t dated for a while. She said she never wants to date again.”

“Okay.” Piper still wasn’t sure where this was leading.

Jo’s face scrunched up as though she were working through a database of evidence before she committed herself to words. “Okay, thinking about my sister like this is just wrong, but I mean look at them.”

Piper smiled, a small chuckle escaping her lips. “You’ve got to fill in the gaps. I don’t understand.”

“All right.” Jo nodded, as though resigning herself to an annual exam. “She said she never wanted to date again. I just thought that meant until she was ready, but maybe that isn’t what she meant at all.”

“You mean she’s ready to date now?” Piper asked, still unsure as to where Jo was going with this conversation.

“No, definitely not.” Jo shook her head. “But maybe she’s looking for exactly what Bunny is willing to offer.”

“Oh.” It was Piper’s turn to let the information wash over her. She didn’t want Bunny to be stuck in the perpetual hell of never finding love or a deeper relationship. Piper still wanted that proverbial break she was always whining about. “Well, I think maybe we all deserve some relaxed time off together.”

“Another karaoke night?” Jo all but bounced beside Piper.

“Nope.” Piper couldn’t hold back the laugh. It was loud and bounced around the room. As the echoes came back, Bea and Bunny’s eyes followed the sound to Piper.

“I want to go through the final song one more time before we call it quits for the day,” Bunny called out to them, no doubt trying to interrupt whatever she thought was going on over there. Bunny had never had a subtle bone in her body.

“Shall we?” Piper offered Jo her elbow.

Jo laced her hand through the gap and rested her fingers softly on Piper’s forearm. The touch sent a shiver through Piper’s body, turning to heat as it settled in her lower belly.

“So if not karaoke…” Jo asked as they walked toward the two at the piano. “What then?”

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