And what was all that stuff about me being prettier? She’s clearly gone blind.

Jade stumbled to the sofa. Meanwhile, the group of women Rian had been with saw her just as she as making her way to the door, and brought her along with them to the temporary bar that had been set up, noisily chatting about the songs Teri had performed tonight.

Bette and Tina joined Jade in the sofa, each of them taking a side so that Jade sat in the middle.

“You look like you have your hands full tonight!” Bette teased her, and gently nudged her ribs.

“Bette, don’t encourage her,” Tina admonished her beloved, but then pursed her lips when the memory of what had happened with Scott flashed.

“Everything’s good when it’s all just fun and games, so be careful, alright?” Tina asked Jade with some intensity.

Jade swallowed and took a deep breath, summoning an inner poise she didn’t know she had.

“It was just a dance, don’t worry cuz,” she said, and smiled at Tina, leaning back against the sofa, and then drawing her arm around her cousin’s shoulder.

“Yeah, T,” Bette added. “I think Jade knows her limits.” There is a definite connection there with Rian, though. Even Tina could sense something going on, without having spoken to Jade about it. Think I need to help young Jade keep her wits about her tonight, before anything happens.

She pretended to yawn, and rubbed Jade’s thigh lightly. “Maybe we should pack it in?” she asked Jade. “Especially if we want to run tomorrow morning, like we’d planned to?”

Jade unconsciously scanned the room to look for Rian before responding to Bette.

Their eyes met, and Rian gave her a small smile. Jade smiled back. Now I know for sure that we have something between us. I have more confidence now than I did this afternoon while we were in the lake that she will wait for me, and that we’ll find each other like she hopes, when I grow enough to reach that point. When I’m ready for her.

Then she turned to Bette, “I think you’re right. We can go. I didn’t have much to drink tonight and didn’t take any of those brownies so that I won’t have a problem tomorrow — I should be alright for the run, if we’re still doing that?”

Bette nodded and stood, silently marveling at their young friend’s powers of recovery. She’d seen how closely she and Rian had been dancing in a dark corner of the dance floor, and how emotional Jade looked while they were dancing.

As they headed out of the lodge, walking slowly up the outdoor path to the row of rooms they’d been given, Tina looked slightly up at the upturned face of Jade, smiling as they listened to her young cousin whistle the re-arranged Phil Collins song. Jade was fairly bouncing and skipping along the path as they walked.

“Jade, honey, I think I’m liking this emerging confident, happy girl you’ve suddenly transformed into, at least for tonight!” the blonde exclaimed.

“Well, Tina, for the first time in a long time I can’t wait for my future to start!” Jade answered with a whoop. “Just you wait! I am going to find myself the partner you found in Bette, and you will like that me even more, I promise you!”

Then without warning she ran down the path with a loud howl to the moon, all the way down to the last cottage on the road, sprinting past her room and Bette and Tina’s room, to surprised laughter from Bette and Tina.

“I think she’s more drunk than she let on,” Tina said with a sigh, shaking her head.

Bette chuckled, “Uh huh. Drunk on love. Or something.”

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