Her Pretend Christmas Date: A Lesbian Christmas Romance

“Yes,” Laney groaned. “Whatever you have in mind. You find the place. You have my schedule for the next few weeks, so you know what nights I’ll be here and when I’m free. Let me know what you need to make it happen. I have lots of friends and contacts who could lend us what we need.”

“Even their editing skills?”

“I’m pretty good with editing.” Laney’s hand trailed up Morgun’s thigh. “In fact, I’m pretty good with my hands in general. My lips too, come to think of it.”

There was no way Morgun could argue that. Instead, she let Laney stroke and caress her. She melted into her touch, her kiss, and the pleasure of just being with her again after time spent apart. She’d get excited about the photos later. Their project. At the moment, she was more than excited enough to focus solely on Laney and the plans she had for the rest of their night together.

Chapter 22

Laney

Not many things could make her feel ridiculous after two years of doing all sorts of different and often off the wall photography, but she had to admit she felt strange with her hair done up half in braids, half down in the tightest, frizziest crimps. Her face was stark white with dark makeup around the eyes. She drew some funny looks in traffic. Morgun, at least, had the advantage of having her hair up and woven with pearls. Her makeup was made to look totally natural. She didn’t look like she was getting

ready to go do some pagan ritual.

It was better out of the city. Once they got past the clogged streets, it was tough for people to ogle Laney while going at higher speeds. If they were looking, they weren’t doing it for long as they zipped past.

“So, this farm…”

“It’s an orange grove. The guy was nice enough to let us do the shoot there and he only asked for two hundred bucks. I was willing to go to five, but he just asked for two. We’ll only be there for a couple hours, I figure, maybe less. It seems private. And the orange trees will make for something different. He says there’s a big old barn and an ancient old farmhouse on the far side of the yard, just past the orchard, so I thought that would be pretty cool too.”

“It sounds like the perfect setting.”

“Thank you for doing this!” Morgun had been so excited all day, since early this morning when Laney picked her up to get their hair and makeup done.

It felt weird to think of herself on the other side of the camera, but she reminded herself that it was just for fun. She’d be photographing Morgun too, which excited her. She remembered wanting to do it since the first time she viewed her message and checked out her profile.

How was Christmas only a couple weeks ago? It felt like a thousand years had passed between then and now. Not in a bad way. Laney was used to time disappearing because she was always working. She never felt like she had enough of it. Often she’d dig in, and when she came up for breath, she couldn’t believe that sometimes a month or two was just gone. Evaporated.

This was different. She realized that she might be happier than she’d ever been. It’s funny, how a person can walk around for years and years with this giant emptiness inside themselves and not even know it’s there. Even though her mom was pointing it out to her just about daily, albeit in a very annoying way, Laney had never stopped to consider that there might be something more for her than just her career. Or that she could be happy doing both and that one or the other didn’t have to suffer for it.

So far, with Morgun, she was making things work. Morgun accepted that Laney’s work schedule was completely crazy. When she had to travel, Morgun didn’t give her a hard time about being gone. Morgun didn’t ask for terms or labels or demand that they spend every second that they weren’t working with each other. Laney felt like she could breathe. She didn’t feel stifled. She felt kind of wonderful.

“Laney?”

“Oh. Of course. I want to. I’ve been thinking about it, and it’s something different. I appreciate that.”

She should just tell Morgun that she’d been dying to photograph her, but she couldn’t. There were still so many times when she struggled with her emotions. She allowed herself to feel them, but emoting them? That was always the hard part.

Laney had a whole day free and so did Morgun. Today was the natural choice and Laney was glad that she’d dedicated her one day off for the next three weeks to Morgun’s project.

The outer edges of the city gave way to orchards and landscapes that were green and lively. It was much different than the concrete jungle. Beautiful in a different way. Laney loved the city. She would never pretend otherwise. She’d done the occasional outdoorsy stuff and enjoyed it, but she also liked her condo and the way a city seemed to have a heartbeat, like a real human body.

Who was she kidding? She liked the convenience. She hated having to drive for long periods of time. It was fine once in a while but commuting for long stretches every single day would get pretty old pretty fast.

Eventually, Laney consulted the list of directions and pointed to a turn well up ahead. They’d driven past the orchard for the past couple miles and it wasn’t hard to spot the blue farmhouse on the corner or the massive, weathered old barn behind it.

Silas was the old man’s name. No one else came out to greet them and Laney wondered if the elderly man lived alone. He was indeed elderly. He had a mane of white hair and a bushy white beard that went halfway down his chest. He kind of looked like Santa, and she wondered, glibly, if he played the part at Christmas in the mall and gave out the very oranges that he grew to kids.

Silas wore a set of ancient overalls that were worn, but clean, and a plaid red shirt below. He smiled a toothless grin, and his eyes lit up to see them.

“Whooo, you girls look strange.” He directed that mostly to Laney before pointing out the barn, which rose above the farm like a gray wood mountain before explaining to them that they had the run of the orchard as long as they didn’t harm the trees.

Laney wondered what harm they could do, but then maybe Morgun had mentioned something about sparklers, and so she assured him that they wouldn’t harm anything. Photos were mostly about the subject, who looked and never touched.

“Well, I’m mighty happy to have you. First request of the kind I’ve ever got.” Silas grinned again. He kind of looked like a happy pit bull, how their whole face basically turns into a gummy mass of pink lips and wrinkles. Laney happened to think that pit bulls were adorable, and she thought of Silas the same way. “When you’re done, you should come to the house for some coffee and oranges.”

“Mmm.” Morgun licked her lips at the thought of the fresh fruit. “Will do. I have to pay you too.” She grabbed her purse, which she had draped over her shoulder, but Silas waved a gnarled hand in the air.