I shot her a glare. “I’ve met him all of three times, and I’m not entirely sure the first meeting counts because I was snot-sobbing.”
“And he quoted one of your favorite books to your face.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m not looking for any kind of romance right now.”
She pursed her lips. “How’s that working out for you?”
I sighed. “Oh, shush.”
Rob chuckled, but Gunter held up an imaginary bow and arrow and shot me with it.
It was dark outside,the streetlights downtown casting an orangey glow in the chilly air. I’d stopped working to feed Merry and Bright, but Ro soldiered on, getting through another box of books.
It was a tedious process at the start. Each book needed to be scanned and entered into the system, then shelved. Setting titles up in the software took a long time, especially to organize an entire store, but it was only because we were starting from scratch. Getting orders in the future wouldn’t be so tedious or time-consuming.
I watched the clock as it ticked down to seven o’clock, nervous for Deacon to arrive.
No, not just nervous.
I was excited too. The truth was, I liked him. And I didn’t want to like him. I had told myself I was coming to Hartbridge to leave behind the dating disasters. I didn’t want to get my hopes up only to have them trampled on again.
I was done with it.
I didn’t need it. I was too busy, too distracted, and too determined. This was a fresh start for me. I wanted to focus solely on my business and just enjoy small-town life without the pressure to conform to societal expectations that, as a gay man, I needed to date and have sex and...
Okay, so that wasn’t entirely fair.
Notallmen assumed that. Just the ones I’d chosen to date, apparently.
And I was done with that.
I didn’t want Deacon to have expectations I couldn’t fulfill. Not that I assumed he had expectations. I was getting way ahead of myself. He might not even be interested in me, despite what Ro had said about the way he looked at me.
I had to tread carefully to set boundaries so as not to confuse him or possibly lead him on.
Because Ididwant him as a friend.
I did like him, and we had a lot in common. And having good friends was all I needed.
Okay, so maybe some kissing and cuddling would be nice, but in my experience, that was always construed as consent for more. Even though it wasn’t. It was just better not to start something I was expected to finish.
So, platonic friends it was.
Someone to have coffee with, talk books with, that’s all I needed.
“Are you done overthinking everything?” Ro asked.
I startled, looking up at her. “What?”
She pointed to her forehead. “You get that line right here when you’re overthinking.” I scowled at her, and she laughed. “You’ll get wrinkles if you keep doing that.”
I gasped. “I will not.”
She chuckled. “I think little Merry is done.”
I looked down at the kitten on the bundle of blankets in my lap, who was milk-drunk and now looking for bed. I wiped his mouth and put him in the basket with his brother, just as there was a knock on the door.
“Oh, the reason for the overthinking is here,” Ro said.
