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The early November air is more bitter than ever. Jamie cheeks are a stinging red, the hole in her Doc Marten’s allowing for the cold rain to bleed into the bones of her feet.
She huffs her way over to the manor, squinting through the drizzle after deciding to finish work early for the day. The plants could use a little natural rainfall anyway.
It’s not raining heavily, but her jacket is soaked by the time she gets there, brown curls stuck to her face, hands stuffed miserably into her pockets. The smell of Owen’s garlic roast potatoes fills her nose and she feels a little better. Still drenched, though.
She slips a foot out of one of her boots in the foyer, her wet socks making it all the more difficult, but she knows the scolding she’ll get from Hannah if much more mud finds its way onto the floorboards. Has been on the receiving end of it before. And she’s not in the mood.
That’s how Dani finds her, with one boot off and droplets of water from her hair making a rather pathetic puddle around her. Jamie hadn’t thought her cheeks could get any more red.
“I thought I heard the door! Oh my god, you must be freezing!” Dani pads down the stairs, faster than Jamie thought her legs could carry her. Before she’s even got a chance to remove her other shoe, Dani is pulling off her coat. She throws it towards the coat rack. She misses. They watch the coat hit the floor with a wet thud. Dani waves a dismissive hand at it and turns to rub her hands up and down Jamie’s shoulders. It feels unnecessary, but it’s really fucking nice. “Why didn’t you come in earlier?” she chides, and Jamie feels a little like how the kids must feel when they’re being mischievous.
“A garden as beautiful as mine doesn’t grow itself, does it?” Jamie says. Her bravado is lost though, when she shivers. She’s left standing in just her white t-shirt, which she now realizes is becoming more wet and consequently, more see-through. She shifts uncomfortably, wonkily onto her squelching sock.
Dani bends down and starts undoing the shoelaces of her other boot, and Jamie wraps her arms around her torso. The heat from the house is starting to reach her head, and she suddenly feels very tired. Dani helps her remove her boot, gripping onto Jamie’s hand to help her balance with her free hand. When she straightens again, she doesn’t let go.
“C’mon, I’ll get you a towel before you get sick,” Dani says, trailing her up the stairs towards Dani’s room. Jamie’s not a fan of being told what to do, or being cared for in this way, really. But she’s seen Dani on a mission, and she’s not about to try and stop her. Not sure that anything could, once she’s started.
Plus, Dani’s hand is warm and she’s so cold.
Jamie’s been in Dani’s room twice now. Once, before Owen’s mum’s funeral, and once after – all the way until morning. It’s the latter that she’s reminded of when she steps in again. Dani is too, she thinks, by the way her breath hitches once the door clicks behind them. Their hands are still clasped between them. Dani turns around and gives her a bashful smile. It takes Jamie’s breath away, a little.
Dani squeezes her hand once, before walking over to the huge dresser in the corner and Jamie is acutely aware of the water that’s dripping from her hair into Dani’s carpet.
“Do you want a shower or anything? You can use mine,” Dani says, a thick white towel bundled into her arms. Jamie thinks, not for the first time, how sweet Dani is. Not tooth-rottingly so, but the kind that you can’t help but smile after tasting.
She clears her throat. “Nah, I’ll be alright. Nothing a hot brew won’t fix,” she says. Instead of handing Jamie the towel, Dani unfurls it and wraps the entire thing around Jamie’s shoulders, her hands clasped around the two edges at Jamie’s chest. Their eyes meet and it warms Jamie from the inside out.
“Let me just –“ Dani says, as she walks away again, back over to her dresser. Jamie grabs the towel before it slips over her shoulders and squeezes some of the rain out of her hair. Dani returns with her knit jumper. It’s Dani’s favourite, or at least Jamie thinks so by the amount of times she’s seen her in it. “Put this on,” she says.
“Not sure purple is my colour, Poppins,” she says, but she takes it anyway, trading it for the towel which Dani tosses to the end of her bed. She pulls the sweater over her head and it smells so much like Dani, like fresh flowers, wrapping around her in a warm embrace. Her hair, drying slowly, tickles at her cheeks. Dani reaches over and brushes it out of her face, a smile whispering at the edges of her lips.
“Suits you,” Dani says, her voice a hint thicker than it was a moment ago, like she’s been running somewhere. Jamie hopes it’s towards her. She tugs at the cuffs of the sweater, and Dani catches her wrists, tugging her ever so slightly closer.
“That good, yeah?” Jamie says, but the shake in her voice betrays her. She doesn’t care. Dani pulls her ever closer until their foreheads are touching, breaths blending in the small space between them. She feels Dani’s eyelashes flutter closed, feels her sigh more than hears it.
“Yeah,” she whispers. “Really good.”
With Dani this close, Jamie forgets any previous feeling of being cold. The back of her neck burns, Dani’s sweater too stifling. Without warning, Jamie snaps and pushes forward, pressing their lips together in a shared gasp. They both hum lightly, at the same time. It makes Dani laugh, and they break apart but Dani steps closer, hands moving from where they’re grasping Jamie’s wrists to her hips, just below the hem of her sweater.
Jamie slides her arms around Dani’s neck, brushing her hair back and twists it around her fingers. “Maybe I should wear purple more often.” She wants to kiss her again but Dani smiles, all teeth, and she can’t bring herself to get rid of it.
“It’s – yeah, you should,” she says, her hands sliding up under the sweater to rest warm palms on Jamie’s waist. “It’s mine,” she says, lamely, but her eyes drag down Jamie’s body slowly, purposefully. Jamie feels her fingers twitch against her, nails slightly scratching. She inhales, sharp, but Dani doesn’t seem to notice.
“It is,” she says, slightly breathless. She feels impatient. If Dani doesn’t kiss her again, in the next few seconds she might scream. She slides her hands from Dani’s hair to grasp the back of her neck, but they’re still icy cold and Dani gasps. That’s what does it.
Jamie feels her back thrust against the door as Dani’s pushes at her waist but there’s barely time to register it before they’re kissing again. The scent of rain, mixed with the sweet smell of Dani’s sweater, her breath ghosting over her face – it’s intoxicating, it’s almost too much. Jamie can think of nothing else as she slides her tongue into Dani’s mouth. They’ve done this quite a few times now, but Jamie still feels her knees buckle, wholly unprepared, when Dani whimpers against it, and she’s glad to have the door behind her to keep her upright.
Dani’s hand brush upwards, wrapping around her ribs while Jamie lightly scratches her nails down Dani’s shoulders, unable to stop the moan in her throat when Dani leans into her at the feeling. Their kisses get deeper, longer, and Jamie loses track of time. When they finally break apart for a chance to breathe, Jamie’s hair is almost completely dry.
“Shit,” Dani mutters, and Jamie bites her own lip, stifling a laugh. She’s still not entirely used to the sound of her cursing. Dani who always seems so careful with her words. She pulls away, leaving entirely too much space between them than Jamie is happy with. Dani moves to straighten out the sweater on Jamie, but not before slowly dragging her hands across her stomach. Jamie flinches and Dani smiles. “Sorry,” she says, looking the least bit apologetic. “I got carried away.”
Jamie’s hands come up to grab Dani’s elbows, just so she can’t stray any further away just yet. “Please, don’t apologize,” she says, then raises an eyebrow, ducking her head to catch Dani’s eyes. “Didn’t think wearing your clothes would make you want to get me out of them so fast.”
Dani rolls her eyes, but a grin spreads across her face as she grabs holds onto Jamie’s arms, swinging them a bit. “Yeah, me neither.” Jamie barks a laugh at her honesty, but Dani doesn’t shy away.
“Maybe you can do that properly, later? Once I’ve had cup of tea and got feeling in my fingers and toes again?”
Dani closes her eyes, and laughs, the exact same way she had when Jamie had told her she didn’t need to be her date to Owen’s mum’s funeral, although this time, with much less tension in her shoulders. She looked beautiful.
“Yeah,” she says softly, but when her eyes open again, they bore straight into Jamie’s, gripping hold of her like a vice. Unflinching, and full of promise. “Maybe I will.”