She woke up wondering if she was in some kind of time loop. Every morning seemed the same; she woke up way before she wanted to. "Five more minutes," she grumbled, refusing to open her eyes. "Need more sleep."

"No one's asking you to get up," Rachel grumbled, sliding an arm around her back and drawing her closer. 

Lauren felt her lover's skin against her cheek, smelled her Amarige by Givenchy, burrowed her way down her chest and sought her nipple like a newborn babe. 

Rachel purred sleepily. "Babe," she said, "the kids will be awake soon. You don't want me shrieking like a banshee right now."

"Just bite into a pillow," she said.

"Sweetie, we're pushing our luck just with my being here. The kids might have been okay with it when I was healing up, but I haven't been back here for a couple of weeks. They'll at least wonder why."

Lauren sighed. "Fine. I guess what we did last night will have to suffice."

"And what we did last night was pretty damned nice."

Lauren looked at her, pouted and said, "I feel sorry for Al, two floors below us, sleeping alone."

Rachel smiled sardonically. "I know what you're doing."

"What am I doing?" she asked with mock innocence.

"Guilting me into inviting him up here one night."

Lauren chuckled throatily and burrowed deeper into Rachel's neck, kissing all the places she loved. "The bed's enormous. It'll fit three."

"You know why we're doing this, babe. You need to get your husband free from Joanie's clutches. Al understands it has to be this way. He let me come up here knowing he'd be down there. Unlike some people, we tell each other who we're having sex with."

Lauren was glad Rachel couldn't see her face right now, or she'd see her self-satisfied smirk. She was now certain Al hadn't told her about Friday, and that he'd let her come up here out of guilt over what they'd done. The memory of it made her shiver with pleasure, and Rachel took that to mean she was turning her on, because her hands found Lauren's breast and ass and began squeezing. 

"I thought the kids will be up soon," Lauren purred.

"Your fault. I can't resist you when you're pressed into me."

They were quick about it, and while Rachel worked on Lauren she kept remembering how she and Al fucked in that shower, the fear of being caught only enhancing the experience for her. What would the bigwigs at VPL have thought if they'd caught the head of their newest security contractor in flagrante with one of the staff on the first day of the new contract? It had been the stupidest risk she'd ever taken, maybe stupider than taking Al up to his room at Harrison Hot Springs and then hearing Joe pounding on the door, seconds away from murdering him; it was one thing to destroy her home life, still another to ruin her reputation and tank her company. So, why had she done it? It wasn't that Al was so irresistible that she'd been willing to take the risk. Did she get off on the adrenaline rush? Was that the reason she was risking her marriage? It had been the same when she'd first seduced Rachel, and neither Al nor Joe had known about them yet. Maybe confessing to Al about them had been the wrong thing to do, because it had dispelled that frisson of risk, and she'd immediately begun looking for ways to get it back, and she'd settled on Al. If she'd just been content sneaking around with Rachel, Joe might still be in the house.

Wait. No. That wasn't true. Joanie had been in the picture even before Lauren had confessed to Al and set all the dominoes tumbling. She still would have found those texts and had to confront Joe about them, and the rift still would have opened. Or she could have just ignored them and witnessed Joe's slow descent into adultery, because she was sure it would have happened eventually. All she'd done was give it her blessing.

"You better get dressed and sneak downstairs before they get up," she said when they both were satisfied.

Rachel kissed her once more, hard, giving her some tongue, before coming up for air. "What is it you do to me, Lauren?" she breathed.

"Go," she urged, giving her a gentle shove.

Rachel threw her nightgown on, peeked out the door of the bedroom and crept out into the hall and down the stairs. Lauren gave it a good ten minutes before she dressed in her sweats and crept down the stairs herself, where she noticed Logan still asleep on the couch. She wondered when he'd gotten in last night. Only a seventeen year old boy could find this couch bearable after a night out with his friends, and he'd been doing this ever since they'd rescued him from his kidnappers back in August, which was months ago. 

As much as she enjoyed having Rachel, Al and their family here, and as much as their presence filled the hole in Lauren's heart that Joe left with his absence, she knew they couldn't stay forever. It wasn't fair to Logan, for one thing; the boy needed a room to sleep in, a place to hide the things he didn't want his parents to see. And as much as Emma and Naomi loved sharing a room, and as much as Emma was an angel for comforting Naomi through the duration of Joe's absence, practicalities would soon threaten their arrangement; because they'd lost almost everything in the fire that had taken their house and forced them to move in here, Emma only had a few clothes in the room and nothing else. Eventually Emma would accumulate things, and Naomi would grow to resent the incursion on her space.

The insurance payout could not have come at a better time, therefore, and they were actually going to an open house for a place nearby today. Lauren, perversely, wanted to have input into the place they picked, since she would still be carpooling with them in the mornings and didn't want to have to drive far to pick them up.

She didn't want to start breakfast before Logan woke up, afraid of the noise she'd make getting pans and utensils out. She did pour herself a cup of coffee from the coffee maker she'd set the night before. She sipped her coffee while leaning against the kitchen counter, staring out at the quiet, open plan room, Logan's soft snores the only sounds to be heard. 

One advantage of them all being here was that Logan accompanied Emma and Naomi to Burnaby North Secondary, the high school they all attended now. That just left Tosh going to St. Helen's, and her mom and dad drove him there in the morning, or Lauren did before they left for work if he didn't mind going early. Once they were gone, Grandma and Grandpa would have to take Tosh and Naomi, and make two stops. She didn't like imposing on them now that they were older, but what other choice did she have? Joe's parents were even less able to take on the responsibility, and they were the last people she wanted to ask, anyway. She'd have to talk to them, for one thing, and she didn't want to hear their questions about Joe's whereabouts or why their grandkids never came around anymore. It was like walking a tightrope, keeping their separation a secret from them. Johnny knew, of course, because Joe worked with him, but he swore he'd never tell, and so far, it seemed, he hadn't.

An idea came to her as she sipped her coffee, and she picked up her phone. She checked MLS listings for New Westminster, and typed a name in the search box for the agent.

Well, well, well.

She heard and then saw Al and Rachel, fully dressed for the day, climbing the stairs from the basement that was their makeshift bedroom. They'd bought a bed to replace Lauren's and Joe's air mattresses, and the bed would move with them into their new place. It was the open house that gave Lauren the idea.

Lauren beckoned them over and said, in a low voice, "Birinder Sandhu is giving an open house today."

The two of them blinked at her for a second. "You mean," Al said, "the guy who's married to the woman Jordan was looking for?"

"Exactly. I was thinking we could go to one more open house today."

"The property he's showing," Rachel said, "is it in New West?"

Lauren looked at the details. "Yes. Connaught Heights."

"Isn't that a little far away for us?"

Lauren said, "No, you goof, I didn't mean to suggest we go looking to buy. I mean we go there and scope him out."

Al smirked. "Are you going to interrogate him at his own open house? He'll love that."

"I'll chat, but I'll keep it friendly. I just want to see him for myself and get a feel for him. All we have is Jordan's word that Naira's missing, and that Birinder might have had something to do with it. For all we know he might be perfectly fine, and heck, maybe Naira will be there with him."

"Or," Rachel said, suddenly excited, "maybe that other woman is."

"And which will be the more interesting situation?" Al asked.

"So..." Rachel said, "From your suggestion, Lauren, it seems you haven't entirely written off Jordan's case."

Lauren sighed in resignation. "I know. It's not like I need any more unpaid work in my life, but something about that whole thing last night was fishy, and I can't relax until I know what's really going on." 

"What about Sunny?" Al said. "He first brought Jordan to you. Maybe he should be there."

Lauren snapped her fingers in excitement and said, "Yes. Yes! We should bring Sunny there. More importantly, we should bring Tej with him! She's a real estate agent too, and she could pretend to be ours."

"Ours?" Rachel asked, one side of her mouth curling in a smirk. "What are we, one big happy polygamous family?" 

Al blushed, and Lauren took both their hands and whispered, "Polyamorous, you mean. Al's not a creepy patriarch, and we're each other's wives as we are his."

Rachel's eyebrows rose. "I'm sorry, did you sign any license to that effect? I don't remember signing any."

"I just mean figuratively."

"What about Joe?" Al asked, dispelling the sudden tension between the two women. He always wanted everyone to get along. 

Lauren flinched as if she were splashed with cold water. "What about Joe?"

"Should he come too?"

"No."

Rachel and Al looked at her quizzically, wondering at the firmness of her answer.

"I just mean," Lauren explained, "that he has to bring Naomi and Tosh to church today, and that falls around the time for this one in New West. We'll probably be less conspicuous if we show up without him. He's quite memorable."

"You're probably right," Rachel said. "Why don't we leave Emma and Logan here while we go do our sting on Birinder Sandhu, and when we're done, we'll come back and get them for the open house for the property we really want this afternoon. Also, by that time, Naomi and Tosh will be back, and they can come with us then if they want. Heck, even Joe can come too if he can stand being around Al for that long."

Al rolled his eyes and quietly got to work making breakfast. Apparently he wasn't as concerned about waking Logan as Lauren was. It was a testament to Logan's teenage capacity for slumber that he didn't even stir when Al made noise.   

"I better call Sunny to see if he's actually available," Lauren said. "He might not be able to come."

"If he isn't, do you still want to go?" Rachel asked. 

"Hell, yeah," Lauren said, grabbing her phone. 

Thanks for reading this far! For those of you who read the previous books in this series, you'll notice, at the beginning of this chapter, the tongue-in-cheek reference to the fateful chapter in "Rude Awakenings," about the day leading up to the party and Lauren's drugging, resulting in Lauren and Al waking up together in Al's apartment with no memory of the night before. If you liked what you just read, hit the "Vote" button to send this title up the ranks. As always, leave a comment, I'd love to know what you think!

To read on and see what Sunny thinks of their plan, hit "Continue reading."