CHAPTER 3

Bette sipped her ice water and glanced over at the door in anticipation of her lunch date.  She was a little earlier than she had thought she would be which was convenient considering she was able to reserve a table with little to no trouble.  She unlocked her blackberry and scrolled through her messages.  She had received 65 emails in the four hour block of time spent at the courthouse.  Her job was going to kill her.  More importantly, the time spent away from Tina was going to kill her.  The brunette was always rushing off to meetings and consultations; the agent’s schedule combined with Tina’s erratic hours was starting to take a toll on them both.

Coming across Tina’s name, she smiled at the familiar roll her stomach took every time she thought of the fiesty blonde – the one woman who had completely and totally captured her heart.  She felt horrible having had to lie about lunch, but it had been necessary to avoid any questions she was not yet prepared to answer.

"Are you ready to order?"

Bette looked up to see an attractive waitress leaning over to get the brunette’s attention.  Bette quickly transferred her gaze from the woman’s well-endowed chest to the menu. 

"I’ll have a glass of Chardonnay, please."

"Anything else?"  The waitress asked suggestively.

"No."

"Actually, you can make it two glasses"

Bette looked up and smiled at the new addition to the conversation,

"Katherine!" she immediately stood and held the elder Kennard in a tight embrace. "Thanks for rescuing me," she whispered.

Kate laughed, "Women are a bit forward today, aren’t they?"

"I’m afraid I don’t really pay much attention."

"How could you not?  That woman’s chest was practically in your face."

"She has nothing on your daughter."  The declaration was out before she could stop herself.  Bette blushed furiously, "I mean…"

Kate held up her hand, "Relax, Bette.  So…to what do I owe this lovely invitation to lunch?"

"I knew you were in town clearing up some stuff with the will so I thought we could spend some time together.  I also wanted to see how you were doing.  I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you guys yesterday."

"Oh, Bette, don’t worry about yesterday.  It was actually nice spending some time alone with Tina."