‘I’m going up to Idyllwild from here,’ she said, ‘Monday night. They got a weird little open mic on TikTok. It’s vibey.’

They’d reached the stables. Penny, the copper-brown Quarter Horse, was standing at her stall door. In the pasture beyond, Bella was exercising Nickel. 

‘Wanna ride tomorrow?’ said Bette. ‘I can’t go, for obvious Corsairian reasons, but there’s lots of other people around to go with you.’

‘Hmm. Adunno.’ Shane stroked the horse’s neck. ‘They’re really big.’

Bette laughed and plucked a handful of hay from a nearby bale to feed to the horse.

‘Anyway, I wanted to ask you . . . I was thinking about getting someone else in. For A&R. Help with the travel.’

‘Sure, we can do that.’

‘It’s okay?’

‘Why wouldn’t it be?’

Shane shrugged. ‘Someone who didn’t know Kit.’

‘Well, they’ll get to know her, through you.’

The relief in Shane’s smile was touching. But then, almost instantly, she looked troubled again.

‘Hannah’s asked me to move to BC.’ 

Bette’s heart sank. She stroked Penny’s muzzle. ‘Are you minded to go?’

‘Adunno. I’m pretty sure if I move up there she’s gonna want to be closed, and I’m . . .’ Shane looked away, to the distant grey-blue mountains. ‘That’s never really been my thing.’ 

Bette had to stop herself from laughing at the understatement of the century.

‘Maybe that won’t be what happens,’ she said. ‘Maybe she wants to be open but just closer.’

Shane wrinkled her nose. ‘How ’bout you? How’re you and your lady?’

Bette got more hay. ‘We’re fine,’ she said, carefully. 

‘She looks great.’ 

‘She does.’

‘Shiver me timbers, right?’

Bette laughed, despite herself. 

‘Makes it all the more frustrating that we’re not setting the bedsheets alight,’ she said, with a sigh.

‘That sounds dangerous, anyway.’

‘I just . . . I don’t know why it disappears on me.’

‘You . . . y’know?’ Shane indicated downwards.

‘Porn?’ 

‘Yeah, jerking off.’

‘No.’

‘Wow.’

‘I know, right? It’s just fucking fucked off somewhere!’

Over Shane’s shoulder, Bette saw Bella glance across at the raised voice. She gave a friendly wave and calmed herself.

‘You’re probably tired, man.’

‘No shit.’ They laughed, but then Bette got tearful. ‘I worry she’s losing patience with me, not just in bed, the whole thing.’

‘You talk to her?’

‘Honestly, that’s all we do sometimes.’

The two old friends stood in silence for a moment, watching Penny eat. Presently, Shane got out an e-cig and took a puff.

‘I remember talking to you about this a few years back,’ she said. ‘You had a cane or something.’

Bette remembered. A talk beside Shane’s jeep, outside the LA house. She had a sprained ankle from a bike accident right here, in the vineyard.

‘You were in your head and all, like, psychology.’

Bette smiled. ‘I think your exact words were, “Sex can get very fucked up if there’s feelings.”’

‘That sounds right.’

‘I got it printed on a tea towel.’

‘Really?’

‘No.’

They both laughed hard. Shane took a puff. 

‘Well, I guess it’s just how it is,’ she said. ‘Cuz for you, with Tina, there’s always gonna be feelings.’

Bette stroked the horse’s neck. Shane was right. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.