Thank you for your responses and for your continued support. I appreciate it.
I do not own Glee or thr characters, neither do I own Head Over Heels.
"Anything worth taking seriously, is also worth making fun of."
Mercedes Jones
The next day, Mercedes gave a yoga class for one...Callie, and she never stopped talking the whole time...about the amazing burgers at the diner, seeing the new mysterious doctor at the liquor store, and how there was never a line at the post office here.
And apparently, she loved the people here, and wasn't sure she missed anyone from home.
They were still stretching on the beach, when Maylene and Noah pulled up to the inn.
Maylene started to get out of the Jeep, but Noah drew her back, buried his hands in her hair, and kissed her.
"He's going to inhale her right up," Callie noted, sounding a little wistful.
"They're getting married. I think all almost-marrieds act like that," Mercedes said, then winced as soon as she said it, remembering why Callie was here. "I'm sorry, Callie. I..."
"No. Don't be sorry." Callie sat Indian style on the mat and stared out at the water. "I can't hide out from it forever."
"I know you've been in contact with your family. Have you called your fiance at all?"
"No."
"I know it's not my place, but...don't you think he deserves a call? At least to know you're okay?"
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
"I made a mistake, Mercedes. A big one. Things got intense before the wedding. There was so much to do, and everyone was trying to be involved..."
She shook her head. "I lost sight of what I was doing, and why...and then I ran..."
Mercedes held out her cell phone.
"Here. You don't have to tell him where you are or..."
Callie snatched the phone so fast, Mercedes' head spun.
She rolled up her mat and moved towards the inn, to give her some privacy, but before she'd gotten out of earshot she heard,
"Baby? It's me." And then Callie's breath hitched audibly. "I'm so sorry...in some Podunk little place called Port Townsend. Really? You will? You'll come?"
Sam knocked on his father's door, and wasn't surprised when no one answered.
For three days now, it'd been the same story, and worried, he let himself in and dropped the two bags of groceries he'd brought with him on the kitchen table.
From somewhere in the house, he heard a toilet flush, and then his father shuffled into the kitchen, scowling.
"Nice knock," he grumbled.
"I did knock. And I called, too. You're avoiding me," Sam said.
"I was on the pot."
"I've been calling all week. I wanted to help you fix the gutters."
"My boy did it."
Last Sam checked, he was Dwight's boy...not whoever he kept referring to.
"I would have..."
"I hate carrots," his father said, nosing through the bags. "And blueberries. Christ, this is fucking sissy food."
"It's good for you."
Sam eyed his father. He was clad in a white wife-beater, dulled by years of washings, and dark blue trousers hitched up, to just beneath a beer belly.
"You need to eat healthier," he added.
"I've eaten how I want for sixty years," Dwight challenged.
"Yes. Hence your health problems."
"Goddammit!" His father waved a hand and knocked the bag to the floor. "It's my business, not yours."
Whether he'd accidentally hit the food or not, it pissed Sam off.
He could handle drug dealers and gang-bangers without losing his cool, but five minutes with his father and his temper was lit.
"Listen..."
"No, you listen," his father snarled, spitting out his words like venom. "Where in the hell do you get off telling me how to run my life?"
"Since your doctor said you were going to die if you didn't change!"
"Well, fuck the doctor!" Dwight bellowed. "He's a twelve-year-old, skinny-ass punk kid."
"The doctor is my age," Sam stated, keeping his voice quiet and controlled with great effort. "He and I went to school together."
In fact, the two of them had spent many, many Saturdays in detention together, driving the high school teachers insane.
"You mean you were good-for-nothing thugs together," his father snapped.
"Whatever he was, he is a doctor now. And a good one," Sam said. "Jesus, Dad! You can't hold his past against him."
But then, he let out a short, mirthless laugh.
"What am I saying? Of course you can hold his past against him. You do mine."
Dwight Evans jabbed a meaty finger at the door.
"Get out!"
"Gladly." Sam strode to the door. "Tell your perfect little gofer boy that the porch light is out."
As exhausted as she was, Mercedes did a happy little dance around the sun-room...the Port Townsend Day Spa.
Well, it was almost a spa anyway. But, it was at least finished enough, to have provided a short menu of services for the family of sisters, who, as of two hours ago, had checked out after a long weekend stay.
The week before, Noah had thrown together a changing room, hooked up the plumbing, and painted the last of the trim, an hour before the two massage chairs for pedicures had been delivered, along with the shipment of towels and robes.
She'd already had a portable massage table, so that hadn't been an issue.
There was still more to do to make it a full-service spa, but she had made it work for now.
Grinning, she spun in a circle and collapsed onto a cushy chair.
The important thing, was that the weekend had been a huge success. And fun.
It'd been a team effort from the sisters, with Tessa making No-Guilt-Here foods and Maylene introducing 'chick night' events, complete with knitting sessions and tissues-required classic movies.
Mercedes had given facials, mud skin treatments, and massages, along with yoga classes.
And every single one of the guests had not only re-booked for other treatments, but had bought gift certificates for friends and family.
She was extremely aware of how much she'd enjoyed the weekend, and exactly what she was giving up to have, hopefully, many more.
She knew offers like the one she'd had from the San Diego spa didn't grow on trees, but she felt committed to this town...to being here. And to her sisters as well.
Her heart wanted to add Sam to that list, but her brain reminded her, that although he was fun and heat and magic, he hadn't exactly shown any signs of wanting more.
'Neither have you,' her thoughts screamed.
She leaned back in the chair and sighed.
It was nine o'clock at night, and for the first time in days, she was all alone. Blissful, she put up her tired feet and closed her eyes.
"Aw, look at her, all plum tuckered out. I guess, taking people's money is hard work."
At Tessa's soft teasing, Mercedes opened her eyes and found her sisters standing in the doorway.
"Hey. I thought you guys had left."
"Not yet, sugar," Tessa said. She was carrying a bottle of wine in one hand, and three glasses in the other.
She set them down on the low-lying counter that Mercedes had just cleaned, then plopped onto the spa chair and stretched out her long legs.
As always, she was in heels. But she kicked them off and wriggled her toes.
"Lord Almighty, I should have done that about four hours ago," she said, thoughtfully, studying the rack of nail colors.
Maylene sat, too.
"Long weekend." She smiled at Mercedes. "I had a very lovely time just now, adding up all the receipts. You've made our bank account very happy."
Mercedes wanted to ask 'And how about you two, are you happy?' But she didn't. She was afraid of the answer.
"I took a booking for six girlfriends for next weekend. Seems we're going to be known for the girls' weekend out sort of thing," Mercedes said.
"There's worse things to be known for," Maylene said, covering Mercedes' hand in hers. "Heads-up...mushy alert warning."
"What? No, I..."
But before she had finished sputtering, Maylene reeled her in and hugged her.
"Tell her you love her, May," Tessa said, still prone on her chair. "It'll make her as wild as a peach orchard hog."
Mercedes, laughing now, tried to escape, but Maylene squeezed her tighter.
"I lurve you," she said, with as much sap as she could.
Mercedes' only action, was to stick her finger into her mouth and then stick the wet digit into Maylene's ear.
Maylene collapsed in laughter, while screaming "ewww" and dropped to the floor.
"A wet willy," Tessa said, nodding. "Nice tactic."
Mercedes brushed her hands together and smirked down at Maylene.
"Round two?"
Maylene rolled to her belly and cushioned her head on her arms.
"Hell, no! I'm too tired."
Then, she crawled to the spa chair where Tessa was still sprawled and pulled herself up, curling in to share the space.
Maylene too, eyed the nail colors, then picked out a baby blue and a siren red.
She looked at Mercedes speculatively, then grabbed a metallic silver, and then also a solid black.
"Can you open the windows, Merce? It's not so cold out, and you'll need fresh air for this."
Dutifully, Mercedes opened the windows.
"Now sit," Maylene said.
Which Mercedes gladly did, since she was exhausted.
Maylene pulled Mercedes' feet into her lap.
"Nice toes. You got them from Mom."
She proceeded to paint Mercedes' big toe the metallic silver, then painted every other toe before filling in the opposite ones, with the black.
"Silver and black?" Tessa asked, amused. "Different. But it suits her."
"Yeah, I thought so, too. You're getting red, by the way," Maylene said, and proceeded to switch to Tessa's feet. "And you have pretty feet too, you bitch. Pour the wine."
Tessa arched a brow in Mercedes' direction, but she obeyed and poured three glasses of wine, handing one to each sister.
Finally, she took her own and lifted it.
"To a hell of a day and a very pretty bottom line."
Tessa and Maylene drank deeply to that. And Mercedes watched them, an unexpected warmth spreading inside her chest.
So much had changed, and so quickly...Tessa and Maylene, Jackson and Noah, the spa, and of course, Sam, who'd made an indelible mark on her life, more than anyone else ever had.
She still didn't know what would become of them, and imagining, that someday he'd tire of her, hurt like hell. So she let her thoughts spin back to her sisters.
They would always be here for her.
She knew that now.
It wasn't just a concept anymore. It was a fact.
They were her anchor, in a lifetime spent free-floating.
Mercedes set aside her untouched wine.
She wanted a clear head for this.
But more than that, she also wanted to be able to drive herself to Sam's later tonight.
Thanks to their very busy schedule, it'd been six nights since she'd last been in his bed, naked in his arms, panting his name, letting him take away everything, but what they gave each other.
It was so strange, she'd gone a whole year without sex, and now, six days was too long. Or was it simply Sam himself that she missed?
"I can't believe it, really," Maylene was saying.
"What?" Mercedes started guiltily.
She noticed that Maylene began to paint her own toes with the baby-blue polish.
"How far we've come. I can't believe it," Maylene said.
'Okay, good. They weren't talking about my sex life,' Mercedes thought.
Tessa nodded.
"Do you realize, that we've each managed to bring a vital part of ourselves to the inn?" she asked.
Mercedes stared down at her sparkling toes.
"Is that it?" she asked. "Or is it, that this place has given each of us something we needed?"
When nobody spoke, she looked up and both her sisters were staring at her, with moist eyes.
"Oh, shit!" She sighed and grabbed some napkins, shoving one at each of them. "I swear, if either of you cries, I'm giving out more wet willies, followed by wedgies. I mean it."
"I have a better idea." Maylene stood up. "Our first night here together, we stayed up all night decorating our poor Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Do you remember?"
"Hard to forget," Tessa said. "Merce turned our faces and hair green with her facial and conditioner masks, remember?"
"Hey," Mercedes said in her defense. "It improved your skin, didn't it?"
"Excuse me." Maylene tapped a fingernail against the wineglass to get their attention, then cleared her throat dramatically. "I'm trying to recount our adventures here, so pay attention. And I do have a point."
"You going to get to it anytime soon?" Mercedes asked.
"Do you, or do you not remember, when we decided to make this place a B&B?" Maylene asked. "We..."
"We?" Tessa interrupted, laughing. "If we're remembering, then let's remember how it really happened, shall we? We didn't decide anything, Maylene. You two corralled me into the B&B thing, specifically the chef part. And you did it by dangling Jackson in front of me."
"Oh, and that turned out so awful, right?" Mercedes responded dryly. "And let me guess...you hate being your own boss. You hate ordering us around in the mornings to do your bidding. Is that what you're saying?"
Tessa smiled.
"No, I really like that part. A lot."
"Hello," Maylene said sternly. "I'm talking here!" She paused for dramatic effect, but when her sisters just rolled their eyes, she sighed. "Don't you get it? We need to do something. We need a ceremony for this milestone!"
"It's too early for a Christmas tree," Mercedes said.
Maylene tossed up her hands.
"Something new! Something unique. To celebrate you," she said. "To celebrate the spa thing." She scrunched up her face to think, then grinned wide, and then slumped. "I had something. But I forgot."
Mercedes laughed.
"That cheap date thing must be hereditary."
"Yeah," Maylene admitted with a laugh. "Half a glass and I'm gone. Wait, I think I remember. Maybe."
"Uh-oh," Mercedes said to Tessa. "I feel something inadvisable coming on."
"Well, sugar, if anyone's going to recognize it, it'd be you."
"Recognize this," Mercedes said and flipped Tessa off.
"We need to mark this milestone," Maylene insisted.
"We can go to the mud baths," Mercedes said, knowing damn well that they'd both shoot her down, and tell her she was crazy. And then she could finally go jump Sam's bones.
And he had such fine bones, too...
"That's brilliant!" Maylene stood up and grabbed them each by the hand. "We're going to the mud springs!"
"Wait...what?" Mercedes asked.
"It's a great idea," Maylene said, tugging them both along.
But Mercedes dug in her heels.
"Hold up."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because first, you're drunk. Second, I was totally kidding."
"Tell me that it wouldn't be the perfect thing to do." Maylene let go of them, to clasp her hands together and jump up and down. "Oh, come on! Do this for me and…and I won't make you get me a present for my wedding shower!"
"But it's pitch-black outside," Tessa said.
"Actually," Mercedes said, "It's a full moon."
She clamped her mouth shut, but it was too late.
'Dammit!' she thought. She had plans for Sam and his sexy naked body beneath that full moon.
"Yeah," Maylene said to Tessa. "It's a full moon, pansy ass."
"You know what?" Mercedes shook her head. "I don't think it's a good idea."
"You suggested it, genius," Tessa reminded her.
"Yeah, but I was joking." She was met with disappointment shining in Maylene's eyes, and it killed her. "Okay, don't do that. Not the Bambi eyes."
"I thought you'd appreciate, the fact that I'm willing to do something that's so you," Maylene said. "After all, the spa was your baby."
"Yes, and I do appreciate it."
And only a few weeks ago, Mercedes would've been the first one out the door, not sitting here considering, the fact that it was late and not altogether safe to be slipping and sliding around the springs.
She glanced at Tessa, then back to Maylene, and sighed.
"Fine. Why the hell not?"
"Yay!" Maylene polished off her wine, grabbed another bottle, then pulled them through the inn to her car, tossing Mercedes, the only sober one, the keys.
Mercedes thought for a second, then ran back inside for everything she'd wished she'd had the first time...towels, three spa robes, flashlights, and even though it took another trip, she hauled out three big gallons of fresh water to clean off with.
When she returned, still laughing at herself a little, for being the only grown-up of the bunch, she found Tessa still standing outside the car.
"Did she really call me a pansy ass?" she asked in a hushed whisper, that the people of China could have heard.
"We have to get her a present for her wedding shower?" Mercedes whispered back, as she tossed the stuff into the trunk. "Because, I thought the wedding shower was the present."
The sisters got to the trail-head just after eleven, and Mercedes felt like a pagan witch, leading her sisters up the trail by flashlight.
Once at the mud springs, they had no trouble seeing, because, the moon had cast the meadow in a pale blue glow.
Steam rose off the mud into the night, but Mercedes shivered.
"I don't know..." she started.
"And you call yourself the wild child," Maylene chided, then stripped down to her tiger-striped panties and bra. "I think we should switch monikers. You be the mouse. I'll take wild child, thank you very much!"
At that, she dipped a toe into the mud, then holding the bottle of wine like she was of the highest royalty, waded in up to her waist and sighed in bliss.
"Mmm...warm."
"Since when do you have tiger-striped underwear?" Mercedes asked and Maylene blushed, her face heating up significantly.
"They were a present from Noah. Isn't it gorgeous out here, all silvery and mysterious? You can almost see the forest fairies."
"Okay, no more wine for you," Tessa said. She eyed the mud and sighed. "I must be insane." But she followed suit and stripped.
Though, of course, she took the time to carefully hang her dress over a branch.
Her underwear was not tiger-striped, but a pale, silky cream and lace, that screamed sophistication and elegance. Or at least, as much as one can scream sophistication and elegance, while standing in your underwear in the woods at eleven.
Mercedes stood with her hands on her generous hips staring at them.
"For the record, I have never called myself the wild child."
"Come on in, Mouse," Maylene called.
"Nor did I ever call you the mouse."
'At least, not to your face,' Mercedes thought, as she kicked off her shoes. "Though, I think we should call you Queen Bee-yotch. Damn, it's cold out here!"
"Only until you get in," Maylene promised, tossing back some more of the wine right out of the bottle, before handing it over to Tessa.
Mercedes wriggled out of her jeans, then hesitated there in her panties and sweater.
She wasn't wearing a bra.
Tessa made the sound of a chicken, but she rolled her eyes and tore off her sweater.
When she was up to her chin in the mud, Tessa grinned at her.
"You took out your nipple ring."
"Last year," she said, watching, as Maylene snatched the bottle of wine back from Tessa.
"Really? Why?"
"I don't know. But it kept catching on my bra."
Which was true, but it'd been more than that.
Somehow, at some point, she'd realized she'd outgrown the need to be so wildly different.
It'd been, right about the time that the three of them had agreed to stick together and renovate the inn.
They'd been halfway through the renovation, when there'd been a bad fire, forcing them to start over. The fire had been devastating in many ways, but by some miracle, they'd survived.
And it'd been that night, lying in the ER, suffering from a smoke-induced asthma attack, with a sister on either side of her, that she had known.
She'd been nearly singed to a crisp, lost everything...including the clothing on her back, but it hadn't mattered, because she had her sisters and she loved them.
"I do," she said softly to herself, nodding. "I really do love them."
"You believe in fairies?" Maylene asked, confused.
Tessa took the wine from her.
"Shh, sugar. I think Miss Wild Thang's having an epiphany. Let's leave her to it."
Mercedes stared at them.
Tessa was in the middle of carefully streaking the mud on her jaw, in order to get the maximum benefit from it. And Maylene had done her face already and looked like a zebra.
And just like that, Mercedes felt a smile bloom, both in her heart and on her face.
"To us," she said softly.
"To us," Maylene said, and drank to that.
Sam got the call from the forest service about midnight. It was Josh, reporting, that flickering lights had been seen on the trails out at Yellow Ridge.
He was on Mt. Jude, the far side of the county, a good hour away, and couldn't respond to the call.
"I'm contacting you," he said, "Because, the caller gave a description of a hopped-up shiny black truck going off-road, and it sounded like Trent's. I know you're watching him. I can call another ranger, but it might be morning before I can get anyone out there, and as you know, those trails are supposedly closed at nightfall, thanks to the fire season."
"I'll go," Sam said, already in his truck, knowing this was it.
If he caught up with Trent, he'd catch whoever he was working for.
It was the break they were looking for.
He was already on call twenty-four seven for the DEA, until they closed in on their drug case, which, most likely involved Trent one way or the other.
Twenty minutes later, Sam was shining his flashlight on the car in front of the mud springs trail-head, shaking his head in disbelief.
it was Maylene car.
'What the hell is she doing up here?'
He spotted his flashlight in the window and saw a purse on the passenger floor.
He thought maybe it was Tessa's. And there was a phone on the backseat. He was pretty sure it was Mercedes' iPhone, which explained why she hadn't picked up any of his calls.
"What are you three up to?" he murmured.
No doubt the three sisters would have an explanation that would make him dizzy.
Mercedes might just be the most impulsive person he'd ever met, but she was also one of the sharpest. She had a reason for almost everything she did, although sometimes, the reason was to turn the world on its ear.
But Tessa and Maylene?
He'd have figured them more sensible than to follow her up here.
Hell, it was fall.
Bears were on the hunt to store up their winter fat.
Coyotes were doing the same. Not to mention, that in spite of the combined efforts of the forestry service and his own county department, there'd been plenty of illegal camping and hunting going on during this long, late Indian summer.
He needed to let it go.
They were three grown women and could handle themselves.
His job was Trent.
If he was out here, he was up to no good, but the demands and conflicts of his job, had never been stronger, when he caught sight of the iPhone in the backseat of the car.
'Fuck!'
He eyed the trail-head, and the sign there, posted by the forest service.
TRAIL CLOSES AT NIGHTFALL.
Swearing beneath his breath, he headed up the path.
There were several forks, but Sam methodically worked his way along each, until twenty-five minutes later, he came to a clearing and stood staring in utter disbelief.
Three heads appeared to be floating, disembodied in a mud spring by the light of the moon.
"Hey," he said to the three sisters, hands on hips, "If it isn't Curly, Larry, and Moe."
The three faces grinned.
Sam had long ago schooled himself to be braced for surprise, trouble, danger...anything. And he had a really good blank, cop face. He knew this because, it was that face that allowed him to whip Noah's and Jackson's asses in poker every single time.
But it was a struggle to stay blank at the sight before him.
Far above them, the moon's glow gave off an unearthly feel, and with nothing surrounding them but isolated wilderness, the three women might have been ancient Indians in their war paint.
The tallest one narrowed her eyes and spoke with a Southern accent.
"We were thinking more along the lines of Sex and the City than The Three Stooges," she drawled.
The next one squealed with delight at that.
"Oh! I want to be Carrie! I've always wanted to be Carrie!"
The petite, curvy one, just studied Sam meditatively.
"I think we should make him join us," she said, her expression angelic, her voice pure mischief. "He doesn't always wear underwear, you know."
At that, six eyes swiveled to his crotch.
'Hell!'
He barely resisted cupping himself.
"Come on in, Sheriff," the little minx called softly. "We don't bite."
"You're drunk," he said. 'Perfect.'
He should arrest them for all for public intoxication and public nudity, not to mention, being out here on closed trails, but hell if he could make himself do it.
Where was Mavis when you needed her? This was the perfect social media photo op.
He pulled out his cell phone, Tessa gasped.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Getting a shot for Mavis. You're going to be even more popular than the new doctor."
Maylene and Tessa squealed and immediately gave him their backs.
But Mercedes held her ground, watching him.
"You wouldn't," she said.
"I should."
"Come in."
"Not gonna happen."
If she'd been alone, he'd have been tempted. Which was a sorry thing. Because, before she'd come along, the thought not only wouldn't have entered his mind, but would've appalled him.
Sam pressed the button on his phone, to check for calls from Agent Fletcher before he remembered there was no service up here.
"Okay, everyone out," he ordered.
He held out his hand to Maylene first, because she was finger-painting Mercedes' face and looked to be the most gone.
but she didn't come out.
No one did.
Tessa was gathering the hair off her neck, her skin gleaming and smooth beneath the moonlight.
Maylene finished Mercedes' face and began humming a song to herself, while doing some sort of dance.
But Mercedes grabbed her, before she could dance her way farther into the shadows.
"Whoa there, Pocahontas," she said, snagging her sister by the arm, surging up out of the mud to her waist to do so.
Seeing as she wasn't wearing a bra, Sam swallowed hard.
"Mercedes..." he started.
She sent him an innocent smile and pulled both sisters out of the mud, wrapping them each up in towels, before reaching for her own towel.
Sam, at once, turned his back and stared hard up at the stars.
He tried a few multiplication tables, but it couldn't hold up against the images of three gorgeous women covered in mud, washing each other off...especially the bra-less one.
By the time Mercedes came up to Sam's side, cleaned and grinning, he was sweating.
"You can look now," she murmured.
They were all dressed.
'Thank God!' He could stop picturing Jackson's and Noah's women, nude by the pale moon's glow.
But he didn't have to stop picturing Mercedes.
They all walked together down the path, making it in twenty minutes back to Maylene's car.
He then followed them down the road to the highway in his truck, getting out, when Mercedes pulled Maylene's car over to the side.
"I just wanted to say thanks for checking on us," she said, when he'd walked up to the driver's door.
His phone beeped, as his cell service kicked in, and he realized he had messages. And from where he stood, he could also hear dispatch trying to get him on his radio.
'Shit!'
He listened to the first message on his cell and his blood ran cold.
"Sam?" Mercedes' smile faded. "You okay?"
He held up a hand, listening.
Dispatch had been trying to reach him.
Agent Fletcher had been trying to reach him.
Everyone and their mother had been trying to reach him.
In the forty minutes he'd been out of range, all hell had broken loose.
There'd been a reported drug deal before the DEA could mobilize. They had a witness...a hiker...who claimed that he'd seen the whole thing, but by the time the authorities had arrived, everyone had scattered.
And it'd been only a few miles from here.
The DEA had gone to Trent's place, only to discover, that not only had they missed whatever had gone down tonight, he had cleared out entirely, and was probably holed up, waiting until the heat was off.
No doubt, thanks to Sam going to him, trying to interrogate him about his drug source and offering him a deal.
Instead Trent had packed up his shit and vanished.
"Sam?" Mercedes said, a little worried.
"I've got to go."
He strode back to his truck, vibrating with anger.
Jamming his key in the ignition, he tossed his cell on the seat, then peeled out of the parking area, furious at himself.
He knew he was the only one on the DEA task force, actually stationed in Port Townsend, and he also knew better than to be out of cell service that long.
But as always, being anywhere near Mercedes stole his good sense.
It wasn't her fault, though.
Nope, this one was all on him, and it'd been at the expense of the job that meant everything to him.
Stay safe!