CHAPTER ELEVEN
When she isn't fixing up the house and its furnishings or sewing herself a more suitably fitted wardrobe, Maura spends her afternoons working on the final sketches for the miniature golf park with the children.
Jane already had a section of Phillips Park earmarked for the tourist attraction, a section that nobody ever used. It was overgrown and neglected to the point where the town council had said years ago that if anyone came up with a suitable development idea they were open to suggestions. That had been Jane and Barry's kick starter, if only a pipe dream at the time; something to bring in visitors and their money to their sleepy town.
Now the brunette is hopping around the lounge, trying to get her heeled boots on, when Maura grasps her by the shoulders, stilling her nervous hyper activity.
"I forgot to give you this," the blonde say softly.
It's a tie. It is very elegant, slim, and attractive in color and design, but Jane still scrunches up her face. "What have I got to put on airs for?"
"Oh, stop fussing." Maura smoothes out the lapels of Jane's suit jacket as she presses up close. The grey blazer is a new look on the brunette, a good one. It quickens the blonde's pulse a little if she's honest, makes the black-brown of her loose, thick curls even more striking. "You look great," she smiles, looking up into deep brown eyes that stare back, pulling her in and rooting her to the spot all at once.
"Well," Jane says with a sharp inhale and then a cheeky smile, "they all put their panties on just like me - one leg at a time." The joke breaks the tension and Maura helps Jane with fixing her tie and folding down her shirt collar.
Maura is helplessly giddy as her wife turns to pick up a folder and grab her keys. "Now, don't be nervous, okay? If you don't get it, so what?" Jane leans down and pecks her cheek before heading to the door. She keeps talking even as her heart skips a beat, watching Jane wave absently from the doorway. Putting everything she has into being the embodiment of support and encouragement, she's on the doorstep as Jane's truck pulls away. "We've been through tougher times than these before," she calls, scratching her head and turning back inside, "I think."
oOo
Seven men and one woman look decidedly out of place in their smart suits as they sit around a table at the Filthy Skipper.
Barry had thought it the best place for a meeting and asked Korsak to reserve them a large table as a favor. His idea that the familiar surroundings would help them both feel less nervous turns out to be wrong. He is so nervous he feels nauseous though he imagines Jane is doing slightly better. She always did have a stronger constitution.
Having laid the groundwork between the investors and town council members, all Barry really needs to do is make introductions to get them started. Jane will take over from there and he will chip in with information from time to time. This is the skeleton format they agreed to beforehand. His hands are shaking as he takes a sip of water, hoping it goes to plan.
Angela delivers the last of their drinks order to the table. She's super professional, addressing the group of men with kind greetings instead of the usual slapstick banter she plies on her customers. Jane had given her a stern warning on the way in, which seems to have been heeded, but then Angela winks and throws the pair a double thumbs up as she retreats.
Jane rolls her eyes and mouths 'go away' as Barry pulls himself together. He takes another sip of water and stands. Here goes nothing.
"Gentlemen, this is Jane Rizzoli," he smiles, gesturing at his friend. Lifting a brochure from his placemat, a brochure that sits in front of every person at the table, he displays the cover with its logo. "What we're here for this evening is this, the Wonders of the World miniature golf course."
Barry feels a blush when Jane locks her gaze onto him. Encouragement and praise are as clear as day in her eyes, 'you're doing great, partner'. It's the silent boost he needs.
"If you look at these pictures," Barry says as he opens the folder and begins to flick through the pages, "you can begin to sort of feel what we're trying to do. We want to bring some of this outer world here into Swampscott."
Hushed voices murmur around the table as the men spend long minutes looking over every drawing, discussing, comparing, and pointing every time something catches their interest or raises a question.
When they start to quiet down, Jane clears her throat. She sounds a little more confident than Barry but much less than she feels. "It's not just about the golf holes. We'll have landscaping, integrated interactive fountains, concessions stands. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, for instance, will double as a pizza stand." That gets a chuckle from a few of the men and she breathes hard in relief. They seem to like it so far, so she ploughs on, providing specifics on costs, timescales, technology. "That sort of gives you an idea of where we might go in the future..."
Barry is beaming. He never thought they'd ever get to this point after all these years but here he is. It's surreal. He thinks a cold bucket of water might be needed to bring him back down to earth, but then the cold glass of water he accidently knocks onto the man next to him as he sits does the trick.
"Oh, shit, I'm so sorry," he whispers, dabbing at the man's leg with a napkin. Panic sets in immediately. If this scuppers their chances Jane will murder him in his sleep and no one will ever find his body.
"Angela!" he shouts, frantically waving the woman over from another table.
A few hushed words are exchanged before the woman kindly leads the gentleman away from the table to the restroom. She brings Barry another glass of water, patting his shoulder reassuringly, before quickly wiping down the chair and table. He'll buy her a drink later, he decides, no matter what Jane does to him in the meantime.
His sigh is heavy as the man returns to his seat, dried off and smiling tightly. Barry hopes his charm can rescue him from this situation before the younger Rizzoli finds out what happened. "Have you ever been nervous in your life?" he whispers as he crosses his fingers under the table.
oOo
Maura is occupying the rocking chair on the front porch as Jane pulls up in the driveway. She thinks perhaps the blonde has nodded off, enjoying the night air. She daren't hope that Maura was out here waiting for her to get home.
Stepping out of the truck, she closes the door quietly and slings her suit jacket over one shoulder. The night is still warm but breezy, and she swipes lazily at several strands of hair that blow across her face.
Maura stands and takes a step forward as Jane stalks closer. Maybe she wasn't asleep, or maybe Jane's arrival woke her, either way the brunette only really cares that she's there. She marvels at how the dim porch light somehow makes Maura's hair shine like spun gold. She's barefoot, wearing Jane's comfy jeans and a t-shirt again. Simple but so very sexy.
Swaggering more deliberately than normal, Jane reaches the porch steps, looking up at her wife with a straight face. "Go ahead, ask me if we got the money."
"Did you get the money?" the blonde asks quietly. Clearly she's still nervous about the outcome, and as much as she'd proclaimed the opposite upon Jane's departure, the outcome did matter. To both of them.
Jane pauses for as long as her excitement will allow, which isn't long and she squeals, throwing her arms into the air. "We got the money!"
"Oh my god!" Maura shrieks, leaping into strong arms. "That's so great!"
In an instant, the blonde is wrapped up in Jane's embrace, just like she's wanted for days. She squeezes her waist and luxuriates in the bodily warmth beneath her palms. Spinning, she sweeps Maura entirely off her feet as the blonde's face is buried into her neck. "Can you believe it?!" she breathes, shoving her own face into golden hair where an ear lies beneath. She plants a kiss in that hair without thinking, just like the kiss from earlier, totally unplanned, but she can't bring herself to regret it.
"We did it," she says, setting Maura down on her feet.
"You did it," Maura beams, her gaze flicking from brown eyes to full lips to open shirt buttons and back again as her hands rest on Jane's biceps. There's a moment between them, perfect silence except for their labored breaths until the blonde speaks again softly, "Now the hard work begins."
They fall together in laughter. It hasn't escaped either woman's notice that nothing has been exactly easy up to this point.
As irony tickles at their funny bones, Jane wraps Maura up in her arms once again, lifting the woman like a rag doll as she giggles uncontrollably. Jane's smile couldn't get any bigger as she climbs the porch steps and carries Maura into the house.
"I'll show you hard work, woman," she teases as Maura squeals once more.
oOo
Jane's been working for days, through all available hours of daylight, while Barry pops in and out depending on his primary workload. She peers into the guts of a half constructed Egyptian Sphinx, hands resting on her tool belt, as he points out the finer points of the hi-tech organs within.
"Once the ball goes in, the randomizer selects the output direction and fountain spray. The early holes have two or three exits, the later ones have four or five. Makes it a bit harder to guess, y'know."
She smiles and nods. It all makes perfect sense just so long as he doesn't go into too much detail of how the actual computer chips do their business. It's strictly need to know and she's certain she doesn't need to know.
She got done working on the pipes and water supply of this mid course hole a day or so ago, and with the fiberglass now taking shape it's the first one to be almost complete.
They move back around the front, standing on the brand new green, and Barry slings a ball into the hole to make their very first test run. "So she rolls up here... and now..." It disappears into the contraption so they turn around quickly, watching for the ball's reappearance, "Here it comes..."
Anticipation builds, excitement buzzing through Jane's veins as the ball pops back out onto the green in a random spot. It's something they both wanted, to keep the players guessing, and it works perfectly. Jane's idea to have a water feature at each hole then comes to fruition a half second later as they get lightly showered from various hidden spouts. It's the perfect addition for summer and something unique to their park.
The smack of their high five is drowned out by 'it works!' and 'alright!', but Jane's smile drops off far too quickly for Barry's liking. Something's been weighing her down for days now and he suspects it doesn't have anything to do with miniature golf.
"What?"
She wants to be excited at their achievement, is excited, but she's having a hard time concentrating on what they've accomplished when it's mostly down to one person, that person's enormous brain and brilliant ideas.
"I gotta tell her," Jane breathes, visibly deflating. Her eyes move along the ground and she waves her hands about as she talks, likes she's not convinced and is trying to talk herself around. "I gotta tell Maura the truth. In the beginning, it was kind of okay because it was part of the joke. But now it's more like outright lies and I..."
The weight on her shoulders has done nothing but increase every day since she brought Maura home. It's reached unbearable and her month is already up. Being torn between enjoying her life exactly as it is and freeing the woman as per the original plan is eating her up inside.
Barry's hands are on his hips and one eyebrow is cocked when she focuses. "I know what you're thinkin'."
"Hey, I'm not thinkin' anything," he dismisses, shaking his head and trying not to smirk.
She's not fooling him and she knows it. Paired with the conscience screaming inside her head it's very annoying. She growls before storming off, pretending not to notice him smiling as she passes. "Yeah, you are and I'm gonna tell her. I know it's time to tell her!"
