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She took her time getting the perfect bite with crust, pie, and the meringue topping.

“Oh, that’s good,” she said. “So is the strawberry, but the lemon is better.”

“You should get another piece. I’m going to.”

She hesitated and I watched her have a little internal fight with herself.

Then she nodded. “Okay.”

Hunter

If you told me that morning that I was going to end up eating two slices of pie at a diner with the firefighter who carried me out of a building last month, I would have said you had the wrong woman.

Pie wasn’t really my thing, but she’d been so earnest about it when she asked that I couldn’t find it in me to refuse.

Sure, the pie was good, but sitting across from her and getting to see all those upper body muscles on display was better. Not constantly staring at her as she talked and moved and existed so close to me was a challenge, but I was up for it.

There was a brightness about Stace. I’d never seen someone who smiled and laughed so freely. Like she’d been born with sunshine in her veins. Maybe she had been. Created by the same force that nestled a dimple in each one of her cheeks.

For someone who had such massive arms, her hands were surprisingly graceful as she wielded her fork.

While she told me more about her family, I was content to listen and observe.

It wasn’t hard to tell what was important to Stace. In case you thought about asking her, she’d tell you before you even got the question out.

“Hey, you might have actually seen my brother, Torrin,” she said after an anecdote about how close the two of them had been growing up.

I nodded slowly. “I did meet Torrin. He intervened when a random guy was being unpleasant.” That was the mildest way to put it.

Stace grinned. Wasn’t she tired of smiling so much? Didn’t her face hurt?

“Yeah, Tor told me about you. I mean, I didn’t know he was talking about you, but he said he’s gotten into yoga. He’s a good guy.”

I finished my second piece of pie and almost thought about getting a third, but if I really wanted something else, I could have cookies at home.

“He’s been a gentleman,” I said. “Those are pretty rare these days.”

“Single too. In case you were wondering,” she said, the smile not leaving her face, but shifting. Becoming a little more tentative.

“Oh,” I said. “I’m a lesbian so…” I trailed off.

Stace’s smile shifted again, making her eyes crinkle up and her dimples pop. “Me too.”

“I didn’t want to assume, but…” She burst out laughing.

“Yeah, I’m not exactly hiding. You’d think I was the first person in my family to come out, but Torrin beat me to it. He started saying he liked boys and girls when he was ten. I didn’t come out until the ripe old age of twelve.”

So they were both queer. Interesting.

“How did your parents take that?”

Stace snorted. “They started their own chapter of PFLAG in our town. I’m pretty sure no one in history has had it as easy coming out as me and Tor. That sounds like bragging, but I know how lucky we were.”

Of course, her parents had been wonderful. Stace was one of those people you just knew who had been raised by loving parents by looking at her for five seconds.

“I’m guessing it wasn’t like that for you.”

I’d just talked about this to Eloise. How my parents had not been supportive and ready to wave a rainbow flag.