Page 55 of Spicy Sapphic Christmas

“Oh well then, who am I to criticize?” Bunny smiled outright this time, and Bea didn’t care that Jo and Piper were still in the room. She couldn’t pull her eyes away from Bunny’s lit up face.

“Take a break, get some lunch.”

Jo’s easiness was so nice to see. Bea wanted to bask in it a little longer, so she pulled Jo toward her. It had been a while since the two sisters had given in to their sibling squabbles, and Bea missed the playfulness between them.

Things had been a little tense, more than normal. Ever since Jo went and begged Siena for a chance to represent them. And then to top that off, the secrecy about Mandy contacting her again.

They hadn’t spoken about it. Bea avoided the topic as best she could even though her worries gnawed at the back of her mind. Jo was her responsibility. She was the older sister, and she had to make sure Jo was safe, despite her seriously shit choices of women in the past.

Jo nudged Bea’s shoulder, and they smiled at each other. Bea’s worry eased a little, and she would make sure they got some time soon to really talk about what was going on with them both.

The way Bea felt right now, she might even be willing to tell Jo about Bunny.

Maybe.

SEVENTEEN

bunny

“We’ve got the finale songs figured out as well.” Bunny swallowed over the lump in her throat as Piper and Jo sat down, both sweaty and reaching for their water bottles.

They had all moved to the large dance room. Bea seemed as keen as Bunny was to see how the dance routine for Piper and Jo’s duet was turning out.

“That was fantastic. You weren’t kidding. The effect will be stunning, and your voices work beautifully together.” Bea rushed on with her praise before either Jo or Piper could respond to Bunny’s announcement.

Was Bea not as okay about the duet as she had told Siena? Truth be told, Bunny had only agreed to do the duet, she hadn’t even suggested it be the final set list. It didn’t sit right on her shoulders not to have the four of them signing together to wrap out the show.

She would talk to Siena about it later, and hopefully be able to convince Siena that all four of them should sing the final song, and it not be her reworked one.

“Are we all singing the finale?” Piper asked, her cheeks still red but her chest rising and falling a little slower now.

“Um, no.” Bunny would not show weakness or doubt about this. “Siena made the decision. The finale will be a duet between me and Bea.”

“Really?” Jo squealed and clapped her hands together excitedly. “Excellent. I was wondering why you two didn’t have a duet together.”

“We do. And we’ll be ending the show on it, apparently.” Bunny couldn’t look Bea in the eye. She distracted herself by looking at her cuticles.

“You didn’t ask for it to be the finale?” Bea asked.

Bunny shook her head, trying and failing to read the look that flashed over Bea’s eyes. “No, Siena makes all the final decisions on the set list. She has to run them by Allegra as well. So we don’t have much say ultimately.”

“So the order we’re practicing has already been approved?” Jo asked immediately. Bunny liked Jo. Despite the energy it took to put up with two high energy extroverts, she enjoyed seeing how quickly Jo’s mind worked behind the girl-next-door look. She couldn’t deny she had worried when they first met. Piper had a similar look, but with her long gangly height, Bunny had never mistaken her for an airhead. When she had first seen Jo, those thoughts had flitted through her mind, and they had definitely not been kind.

“The order of the first half has been approved. I’m waiting for Siena’s confirmation of the second half.”

“So we might not be the finale after all?” Bea asked, and this time the sadness in her eyes was obvious.

“Siena seemed pretty convinced that was what she wanted, but nothing is set yet,” Bunny answered, still trying to read in between the lines for what Bea wasn’t saying. Surely she understood that their time together was just that and nothing more.

“Can we hear you two practice it?” Piper asked, a far-too-innocent smile on her face. Bunny knew her too well, and didn’t like the look at all.

It’s a trap!flashed through her brain several times.

“Yeah! What song is it?” Jo asked, sitting on the floor crisscross applesauce, an expectant look on her face.

Bunny never supposed she would ever find another human being as constantly in motion as Piper, let alone another musician.

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” Bea answered before Bunny could, her gaze locked on Bunny’s face. They were trying to read each other, but they didn’t know each other well enough yet.

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