Getaway - SF7 Read Free

her head was short, but permanently tangled from sleeping on her back, and it was clear that Annie had declared the area a total loss. Very long strands of golden hair grew from the crown of her head. They were not bad looking, but they were uneven and they blew around Caitlin’s head in the smallest breeze. The worst part of the cut, however, were the very short, annoyingly uneven bangs that zigged and zagged haphazardly across her forehead, looking more like they had been chewed than cut.
    "Da has a set of clippers at the house," Ryan suggested, seemingly in earnest.
    Jamie’s eyes grew round as saucers, as she stared at her partner in horror. "Absolutely not!" she cried. "Neither of us knows how to cut hair with a clippers! I will not have this adorable child look worse when we’ve finished with her."
    Ryan scratched her head pensively, shaking it slowly. "I don’t think she could look worse, Honey."
    "Ryan, the child needs a good haircut, and she’s going to get one." With that, the determined woman strode across the pool deck, baby in her arms.
    I do believe this is one of those, "Give up, Ryan" kinda days , the brunette mused as she watched the blondes head for the house.
     
    Ryan sat at the kitchen table, watching her partner make arrangements to take Caitlin to Giancarlo for her first official haircut. "Three o’clock is fine," she said into the phone. "No, just a cut. Great. See you then." Turning to Ryan, she announced, "Let’s go home, get packed up and then head over to Berkeley."
    "Okay. Let’s go tell your mom."
    Catherine was pleased with the plan, and she offered to take the baby separately so that Jamie and Ryan could get packed up more efficiently. That settled, Ryan decided that she needed a little lunch, so they repaired to the kitchen for the noon meal. The day was getting away from Ryan, and she knew that she had to talk to Jamie, but she found herself trying to think of another reason to delay. Deciding that she was just making matters worse by waiting, she sat down at the table with the baby and cleared her throat. "Um…Jamie?" she said, getting a questioning glance from both mother and daughter. "I mentioned this to your mom last night when you were gone, but I’ve been putting off telling you something."
    "What is it, Honey?" the smaller woman asked, pulling up a chair right next to Ryan.
    Taking a gulp of air, Ryan said, "The morning that you left for Rhode Island, your dad came to our house in Berkeley."
    Just that much of the story caused Jamie to clench her fists, her mouth a grim line. She said nothing, but it was clear that she was expecting the worst.
    "We had words," Ryan said, cutting to the chase. "Mostly about money, of course. The um…bottom line, Honey, is that he told me that I had to move out."
    Catherine cast a worried glance at her daughter as the young woman rose from the table, muttering a tense, "I’ll be back," before stalking out of the room.
    Ryan sighed heavily, shaking her head as she watched her partner depart. "Well, that went well," she said ruefully.
    "Why did she leave?" Catherine asked.
    "She doesn’t like to yell at me, so when she’s really angry she likes to be alone to blow off some steam," Ryan informed her. "I guess she also didn’t want to start hollering in front of Caitlin."
    "But why is she angry with you , Ryan?"
    "Because I didn’t tell her when it happened," Ryan said, having known the entire time that she was doing something her lover would be hurt by. "She hates to be treated like a child."
    "She always did," Catherine mused thoughtfully, "even when she was one." She looked out the large window, just able to make out her daughter’s shape in the distance. "You know, Ryan, I think that’s one of the reasons that I never took her to places like Disneyland. She never seemed like she would enjoy those child-centered places. Even at Caitlin’s age, she was rather serious and quite somber."
    Ryan sighed again, realizing that she had made a