Love Off Limits: A Lesbian Mother's Best Friend Romance

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Scarlet’s mom said with watery eyes and a watery voice.

“I’m glad too.” Scarlet stepped closer to the bed. She cleared her throat and smiled down at her dad. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you. Or to mom. I hope you’re both going to be okay.” She wasn’t just talking about blood pressure. She was talking about what her mom had said to her. How it might have been her fault for stressing her dad out with her divorce then again by coming out, then further upping it by telling them who she was dating.

Her dad smiled weakly. He looked tired, but at least his color was good, and he looked well. “Come here, sweetheart.” He held out his arms and Scarlet leaned over the edge of the hospital bed for a hug. She let her dad stroke her hair like he had when she was little. “I’m good. I’m going to be just fine. Don’t worry about your mom and me. We’re always going to be there for you, no matter what.”

Scarlet backed up and brushed at her eyes. There was so much she wanted to say, but her dad’s eyes looked heavy, and he probably needed to rest more than he needed to talk about things with her right that very minute. They would. She’d make sure they did.

“Why don’t you go get a coffee, Brenda?” Scarlet’s dad suggested.

Her mom straightened. “I might just do that.” She looked over at Scarlet, and it was clear that coffee was a code for something else. “Do you need one?” It was her mom’s way of offering that first step, that hand of understanding, that first plank in the bridge that needed to be reconstructed between them, and Scarlet knew that.

“I’d love one,” she said softly, her eyes finally starting to leak a little, but she was smiling through it all. “I’d really, really one.”

Chapter 19

Neera

Neera was washing the dishes, late because she’d just got home, while her mom had a shower after working an extra and unexpected shift at the bakery for yet another huge order. Even though dishes were Neera’s least favorite thing, she was taking one for the team after seeing how exhausted her mom was. Double shifts trumped even twelve-hour nursing shifts. Elodie got the shower first. Neera readily tackled the chores.

She almo

st didn’t hear the soft knock at the front door. Almost. Her heart did a bit of a skip and a jump, because only Scarlet ever knocked that way. Yes, after years, she knew the exact sound.

Neera set a plate in the clean bay of the double sink, rinsed off her hands, and grabbed a tea towel to dry them on. She realized she was holding her breath and that she wasn’t just walking. She was running to the door. She pulled it open and along with a gust of frigid, windy, snowy air, there was Scarlet, her hair windblown, her cheeks and the tip of her nose pink, and her arms full.

“I should have called or texted, but I thought the answer might be no, and I wanted to drop this off and say something, if I could.”

“The answer isn’t no from me.” Neera made a hand gesture, indicating the room. “Get in here. It’s freezing out there.”

“Tell me about it. I think I have a brain freeze that is going to last for the next century.”

Neera shut the door since Scarlet’s arms were full.

“Neera, who—” Elodie trailed off and Neera turned around to find her mom standing there wearing pink bathrobe over her pajamas, a fluffy purple towel twisted up around her wet hair. “Oh,” she said. She glanced at Neera like she wanted to know if she’d known that Scarlet was coming over, of if she’d invited her and said nothing, and of course Scarlet noticed.

“She didn’t call me. I came on my own.” She held out the box in her arms. “I wanted to bring you this.”

Elodie crossed her arms as the stubbornness set in. “I’m not sure that I’m ready to want anything from you yet.”

“Mom!” Neera protested.

“That’s okay.” Scarlet set the box down. She started pulling out items one at a time. “If you’re going to say this is a peace offering, you might be correct.” Scarlet produced a cheesecake and Neera could see from behind her that it was her mom’s favorite cherry flavour from a diner on the other side of the city. They weren’t cheap and the place wasn’t easy to get to from where they lived. Scarlet would have had to go way out of her way. She set the container on the floor and pulled out a six pack of canned tuna. “For tuna casseroles. Your other guilty favorite.”

“Gag,” Neera said, trying to ease the tension. “Ugh, so wrong.”

Scarlet pulled out a jar candle next, and it was also the one Elodie liked the most. She produced a box of microwave popcorn, but the expensive organic, lightly salted kind.

“Since you said that you never wanted to go to the theatre with me again, I already rented the movie. It just came out actually, and I know you probably haven’t gone to it yet. If you log into my account, then we can watch it at the house. Maybe. If you want to. When you’re ready. I have the rental for a month before it expires.” She kept going, pulling a bouquet of sunflowers out of the box. They were wrapped in cellophane to keep them safe from the elements, and those Scarlet handed to Neera. She almost couldn’t take the softness on Scarlet’s face. Neera wished that she could throw her arms around Scarlet and kiss her, but that wasn’t going to happen in front of her mom.

It didn’t stop the fact that in her pumps from work, her legs clad in black stockings, her shapely curves outlined by a black pencil skirt, and then her black dress jacket, that she was stunning, as per usual. Neera’s pulse thrummed wildly as her heartrate sped up. She couldn’t control the way her body wanted Scarlet. She’d barely controlled it before, but now, now that they were together officially, it was almost impossible.

Scarlet passed her over a clothespin next. An old fashioned wooden one. “That’s for you as well. For when your mom makes said tuna casseroles. You can escape the smell that way and it will be like they never happened.”

Neera knew it might be too much, but she couldn’t help it. Clutching the flowers, she stepped forward and hugged Scarlet. She brushed her lips over her forehead, which was still chilled from outside. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thanks for coming.”

Scarlet let her pull back, and her eyes were glistening. They both looked over at Elodie, who was still hanging back. Her expression was totally unreadable, but Neera was certain that she wasn’t disgusted, which was a major step in the right direction. She wasn’t protesting that hug or clearing her throat or calling Scarlet a daughter-fucker again. She wasn’t throwing that jar candle back at Scarlet. She was still distant, a few steps away from them, hanging back uncertainly, which sucked.

Neera walked over to her mom and put her arm around her shoulders. “I think Scarlet is waiting for you to say something.”