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“I thought you just did it because of your friendship with Sam.”

“Well, yeah. I mean, that’s part of it. She’s my best friend. But that wasn’t why I went originally.”

“Why’d you go?”

“Because I found out that there’s such a thing as gay and lesbian romance books. I had to believe that kind of love existed for me. Y’know?”

“Believe it now?”

“Mm.” She smiled at me, her face taking on a dreamy fairy-tale quality as she leaned back against her seat. Her head lolled in my direction, and loose blond tendrils of her hair fell over her shoulders. “I believe.”

“Alright then. Let’s get this show on the road. Let’s go make our lesbian dreams come true.”

“You got it.”

She put the truck in gear, and we headed off.

“Isn’t that Dan?” I asked, watching Deputy Draven as he looked at a display in the front bookstore window before he moved down the sidewalk toward an outdoor sale table.

“Huh,” Abey said. “He told me he wasn’t a reader.”

“Maybe he wants to join book club too.”

She snorted. “He’d have to fight Cal DuBois to gain entry. She wouldn’t stand for a man in book club.”

“That could be fun to watch,” I said, laughing.

“Oh God. She’d kill him.” She rolled down her window, tapping her horn and waving to Dan and Aubrey when she stepped out of her store.

Rye rounded the corner of Washington and Main, and he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Aubrey swatting a hand in our truck’s direction. She blushed, but when she turned, she caught sight of Rye, and all the color drained from her face.

Aubrey stood in the middle of the sidewalk between a frozen Rye and a clueless Dan. Both men looked at her, but no one said a word.

“What was that about?”

“Uh. I have no idea, but you better believe I’m gonna bring it up at book club.” Abey snorted. “I’m freakin’ excited I finally have some gossip and somethin’ to poke fun at her about! You think it’s a love triangle?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head, but I turned in my seat to look out the back window as Aubrey fiddled nervously with books on the outdoor display in front of the bookstore. I’d walked by the display earlier in the day on my way from Coffee Shot to my mom’s studio next to Red Wild, so I knew exactly what was on that table, and it was all romance. Pink, swoony, cartoony romance. I couldn’t picture Dan getting into that. Like at all.

I’d only met him a couple times, but I was fairly certain he wouldn’t be caught dead reading that kind of book. I knew Rye a bit better. We’d never talked about books, but I would’ve bet money if he were reading one, the title would be something like Monster Trucks: A Way of Life or Building 4-Wheelers for Dummies.

When Dan finally noticed the invisible tension between Aubrey and Rye, he straightened and stiffened, then tipped his hat toward Aubrey and walked away quickly. Rye fled in the opposite direction, leaving Aubrey standing in front of her store alone. She threw her hands up in the air, rolled her eyes dramatically, and stomped back inside.

“Oh my God!”

Abey’s head ping-ponged back and forth from the road in front of her to my face. “What! What’d you see?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, giggling. “But whatever it was, it was weird.”

* * *

“Whatcha think?” Abey asked, standing behind me with her arms wrapped around my middle as we looked out at the mountains in the distance. She tucked her chin into the crook of my neck.

Snow had already fallen on the tallest of the Tetons’ peaks, and it made the dark rock all the more rugged and stark-looking.

The spot she’d chosen on her family’s land was beautiful. Surrounded by evergreen trees and tall field grasses, it was less than half a mile to the lake she’d taken me to on our ATV date but set back into the rise of a small hill. There was plenty of room for a two-stall barn and a small CSA garden.

“I think we’re lucky to get to look at that view.” I turned in her arms. “But I like this view better.” I kissed her chin. “You sure though? I mean, I know technically I’m homeless since my mom shacked up with Red, but that doesn’t mean you have to house me. I could get an apartment in town.”