Chapter 36
“Do you think she’ll get a statue made for her?” Jasper asked, and I rolled my eyes. “What?” He complained as I sidestepped him to roll out the dough in the other direction. “She’s a town hero.”
“I know that.” I huffed, blowing my bangs out of my face. “Believe me, I know that. But she hates it. So, drop it. Don’t let her hear you gossiping about it or I won’t protect you when she kicks your ass.”
He snickered, grabbing a tote of cinnamon. “Oh, stop it, she loves me. It’s in the rules.”
“The rules?”
“Yeah. Unofficial gay bylaws. I run my mouth, get myself into trouble, and a terrifyingly competent lesbian shows up to save me. Everyone knows lesbians are the emergency response team of adultier adults. It’s a system. We don’t make the rules, but we follow them.”
I scoffed at him and pushed him aside with my hip. “I thought you were going to say it was in the rules of being my best friend, but that was pretty accurate too. And she’s not a lesbian, she’s bi, just like me.”
“Babe.” He crossed his arms, watching me. “She may have feelings for Tanner, but I’m sure he’s the only man who can match her head on. She has big lesbian energy. And she has to love me, regardless, because I’m your bestie.”
“These rules are bizarre, and I don’t agree with them in the least.” I said.
He chuckled again. “Gotta play by the rules, nonetheless. Speaking of which, rule number two. This one is in the rules of dating my best friend.”
“Oh God,” I groaned, “What’s that?”
“Tanner needs to put in a good word for me with that sexy firefighter friend of his.”
My hands paused mid-toss of seasoning, and I scowled at my perplexing best friend. “Huh? Who?”
“Thomas.”
I snorted, picking up the sugar shaker. “Uh, your radar is off on that one. He’s not gay.”
Jasper scoffed, “Trust me, he is. And he’s interested in me. He’s just too shy to make a move.”
“Thomas?” I stammered, “As in Thomas Briggs, the guy who works with Rhea and went to school with Tanner?”
“The one who lingers here at the bakery whenever I work. The one who shows up at town events and peeks up at me from under his to die for sexy black lashes with his perfect crystal blue eyes. The one who has enough muscles to pick me up and bend me up into a sexy twisted pretzel and salt me with his—”
“Okay!” I yelled, cutting him off with my hands up in the air and my eyes screwed shut as I tried hard not to envision what he had just described. “I get it. I got it. Thank you. Please stop.”
He chuckled again, grabbing pans from the rack as I started rolling the dough into a twist. “My point is, as your best friend, I’m privy to such perks of your relationship with not one, but two very hunky dominant lovers.
” He deadpanned with a serious look. “Access to their equally hunky dominant friends.”
“I can’t deal with you.” I chuckled, slicing the dough into medallions and passing them to him to put on the pan. “If you think he’s interested, why don’t you just make a move? I’ve never known you to be shy before.”
“Because he’s shy.” Jasper shrugged. “He’s into me, but my guess is he’s never been with anyone like me.
I don’t even know if he’s out publicly. Chances are he’s locked away because of where he works, and that’s why he won’t make a move.
But if he had some encouragement from someone like Tanner, whom he respects and trusts,” he paused. “Maybe he’d take a chance.”
“Hmm.” I hummed, considering it all, and instantly feeling icky that if Thomas was in fact gay, he felt he had to keep any of his true self hidden because of the fire department’s opinion. Or was it maybe because of the small-town opinions?
Cedar Bluff was slowly getting with the times, but even my relationship dynamic was proving difficult for people to grasp completely, even if they liked the three of us individually.
“Hey Goldie,” Tabby, one of my employees, popped her head into the kitchen door. “Rhea and Tanner are here.”
“Thanks!” I called out, handing the slicer to Jasper. “Don’t cut these into weird shapes this time. Okay?”
He snorted, pushing me aside as he started slicing them exactly as I had. “The heart shape cinnamon rolls were a hit.”
“Yes.” I agreed, wiping my hands on my apron. “The penis-shaped ones were not.”
He cackled behind me as I walked out. “They were supposed to be sticks! Cinnamon sticks!”
I left him to it and walked out into the bustling bakery shop, spotting my two lovers instantly amidst the fluster of mid-morning chaos.
They were both in uniform, competing professions while standing in unison, side by side.
My heart raced in my chest as Tanner nodded to me over the heads of the crowd forming around them. Townsfolk were approaching Rhea and congratulating her, shaking her hand, giving her their well wishes after the excitement of the news broke from yesterday’s fire.
We all knew it would happen; Rhea had been hard-pressed to even get out of bed to go to work this morning, trying to avoid it altogether. But her ethics wouldn’t let her hide.
I didn’t doubt that Honey & Hearth was strategically picked as her public debut to face the masses.
“Alright!” I called out, waving my hand towel around in front of me like I was fanning away smoke from a burnt pie.
“That’s enough, move along. You got it out of your system.
” I said, moving deeper into the crowd. “We all know Rhea’s fantastic and incredible and all the other things, but move along and let her in for breakfast! ”
The crowd moved aside, going back to their tables and lines, waiting for their own food as I stepped into the hero’s personal space.
Rhea all but yanked me into her, sliding her hand over my back as I stuck to her side.
“Thank you.” She whispered, kissing my temple as Tanner took the gap in the crowd and started leading us all toward a quiet corner with a table for three.
“Jesus,” Rhea sighed, throwing herself down into the corner, hiding as best as she could behind a lemon tree I had planted years ago and grown into the beauty she was today.
Beautiful, like the sweet and sour lover right next to her.
Hmm, that gave me an idea.
I took a seat right next to Rhea as Tanner took one on my other side, and we all scooted closer to each other, hidden away and in our own little world.
Rhea picked at a napkin lying on the table and muttered, “I feel like I’m going to fall off it.”
“Off what?” Tanner asked, placing his hand on hers, stilling her fidgeting fingers.
“The pedestal.” Rhea said, looking up at him with stormy green eyes.
“There’s nothing wrong with letting people idolize you a little for a bit,” I reminded her, even though she had discussed why she hated being the center of attention like she currently was.
Rhea’s past left her with a seriously troublesome fear of being inadequate. She was nearly crippled by the fear of letting others down, or of being found lacking. When she went about her normal life, without the microscope hovering over her, she was fine.
But with things as they were now, she knew it was only a matter of time before the world found her weaknesses and realized she wasn’t perfect.
Which, obviously, was fine with Tanner and me. No one was perfect.
But for Rhea, she couldn’t stomach being anything less than flawless.
“Do me a favor,” I said, cutting through whatever rebuttal she was going to throw my way and worked on my plan to distract her.
Because if I knew anything about Rhea, it was that she performed best with a task.
And being the town hero was not the task she wanted.
“Tell me the truth about the fire department’s opinion on gay male members. ”
She snorted at the hard right turn our conversation took, and even Tanner scoffed with a smirk on his face, running his fingers along my neck as he leaned back in his chair with his arm over the back of mine.
“The what?” Rhea stammered.
“Are there any gay firefighters?” I pushed and then giggled. “Besides you, obviously. But I’m asking specifically about the men.”
“Want to let us in on why you want to know that?” Tanner urged, pushing his fingers up the back of my nape and into my hair.
“In a moment,” I winked at him and groaned softly when he went deeper into my updo to massage my scalp.
“Careful, I might fall asleep if you keep that up. I didn’t seem to get enough rest last night.
” I said pointedly, and he gave me his signature golden-boy grin, not apologizing for waking me up three times last night to share me between him and Rhea.
They were both searching for something deeper, her with purpose, and him for something else I couldn’t identify yet, but I would.
As soon as we fixed this little hero complex problem Rhea was facing.
Oh, and the fact that some corporate penguins in suits were trying to ruin our quaint little town by running the honest hard-working locals out with mysterious fires, floods, and accidents that we all knew were done deliberately, even if we couldn’t prove it.
Focusing back on Rhea, even as Tanner kept his fingers running along my scalp, I waited for her to answer my original question before diving deeper into the why behind it.
“Uh,” She shrugged before leaning forward on her elbows, thinking on it. “I don’t know of any out in the open, except for Elliot. But he’s technically bi, if that makes any difference.”
“And he’s married.” Tanner added, “I don’t know if that makes a difference to the research you’re doing in that pretty little brain of yours, Goldie. But thought it was worth mentioning.”
“It does, actually.” I beamed up at him. “Because people tend to ignore things if people make it seem normal.”
“Why are you asking?” Rhea asked, eyes slightly squinted in wonder.
“Perhaps there was a firefighter on the squad, or team, or whatever you call it—”