“Sounds good. I know Hannah will be interested in grabbing a beer one time. It helps her put faces to names.”
I glanced down at her hand, noticing a wedding ring. “Hannah’s your wife?” I hedged. It was rare I’d come out with such a question, as shit as that was. Still, in the single hour I’d spent with Brie, I’d already figured she was liberal as well as smart, so if I was wrong, I didn’t imagine her being offended, and if she was, I’d totally read her wrong and wouldn’t even give two shits if she was an arsehole about it.
“Yeah. She’s an office manager. Has just started work for a local cabinetmaker.”
“Really? Bright & Sons?”
“That’s the one. How’d you know?”
I chuckled, giving Brent, Katie, and Lisa a small wave goodbye as they packed up and clearly wanted to get out of here. While Nick gathered his belongings, I didn’t pay him any attention. “There are a couple of cabinetmakers in the area, but Bright & Sons is the only place big enough to need an office manager.”
“Gotcha. It’s her first day today. They’re not a bunch of arseholes there, right?” Humour lit her words, and genuine curiosity shone in the depths of her eyes.
“Nah. They’re good blokes and women. There’s a couple of female fitters who work there too.”
Surprise lit up her features. “That’s refreshing.”
“It is. Plus, Dan, my boyfriend, works there.” A flash of pleasure raced along my skin when I said the words. It was heady and totally bloody awesome that I could finally say that about Dan—long gone was my awkward embarrassment when I’d said the same thing to Alec a few hours earlier. Even better was that saying the words to the woman before me came with no ill-ease or sense of dread and wonder at their reaction.
“Dan. Got it. I’ll make sure Hannah knows, though I expect she’ll already be knowing everyone’s business by the end of the week.” She grinned widely, and a shared understanding passed between us—that camaraderie, that sense of family that I still only experienced with others who identified as queer.
It was refreshing, not quite a relief, as that didn’t seem like the right word. Since my family was incredible, and I had the hottest boyfriend imaginable, I felt supported and was absolutely loved, and that was the case at work, too, for the large part. But the LGBTQ+ community in our immediate area wasn’t all that visible. While I could travel forty-five minutes south and find a very different, more vibrant community, the idea of having something similar here was kinda nice.
“Shit, I have a department meeting in ten minutes. I need another coffee before that happens.” With a parting wave over her shoulder, she raced away in a flurry of flowery perfume, leaving me with a smile.
Shuffling behind me made me pause.
I frowned and turned around to see Nick standing by the table. He seemed to hesitate, his gaze flashing at mine as he twisted his lips before his expression smoothed out.
“You all right there?” I asked, pleased as punch at my steady, couldn’t-give-a-rat’s-arse tone. “Don’t you need to be dashing off?” I raised both brows at him, leaving no doubt that his earlier interruption was at the forefront of my mind.
“Yeah.” He paused before he burst out with “I didn’t know you worked here.”
I arched a brow at him, my face beyond that one movement carefully neutral. “I clearly do.”
He nodded, the gesture appearing uneasy. Colour hit his cheeks, surprising the crap out of me. Nick Smith flustered? Holy crap, hell had frozen over, apparently.
I’d seen Nick red-cheeked a time or two, but always with the high of being a mean son of a goat.
“Yeah, that’s good. I’d better get going.” With an abrupt turn, he hightailed it out of the library, leaving me bemused and eager for the day to already be over.
I wasn’t a fan of the memories or feelings Nick evoked. The meeting, him being here, left me rattled. I just needed to find a way to deal with the uncertainty edging into my mind. Anxiety wasn’t my friend. The last thing I wanted was to relapse into a version of myself I didn’t like.
