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“It” was one of the shows we had both seen that had killed off the lesbian character because queer women weren’t allowed to be happy apparently.

Why are you doing that? It’s only going to make you mad and send me a million ranty messages in the middle of the night.I responded.

One thing about her, she’d go off at any time of day. It was so funny when I’d put my phone away while I was serving customers or working on the farm and I’d come back to a string of messages from her about something completely random. I loved getting them, even if I had no idea what had set her off. More often than not they made me laugh. Her sense of humor was dry and could be biting, but she didn’t hold herself back with me. At least, I didn’t think she did. It wasn’t like I could know for sure.

You like my ranty messagesshe said.

It was true. I did. Bibliofile was pretty much one of my favorite people in the entire world. I had a few friends that I hung out with, but my duties toward my family and the farm meant that social time was put on the back burner more often than not. Besides, I felt like my life was different than a lot of people my age. I had the farm, and my siblings, and I hadn’t been able to go away to college. My parents had encouraged me, but the reality was that someone had to keep everything together. Not to mention the money. I didn’t have enough in my bank account and financial aid wouldn’t have covered everything. It wasn’t even worth trying to go for something that was so far out of reach. So I’d taken classes online and learned on my own.

It was easier to not even think about college as an option than to entertain it and then be disappointed.

I’d been scrappy and motivated and done everything on my own. I mean, my parents hadn’t known shit about owning a farm when they’d bought this place. The previous owners had died, and the place had been pretty much abandoned until the bank took possession. Using inheritance money from my mom’s parents, they’d turned the place around and decided to focus their time and energy on bees.

Bibliofile interrupted my ruminating.

Do you ever get annoyed by someone but you can’t put your finger on why? They haven’t done anything, but they just rub you the wrong way.

I smiled.

All. The. Time. Literally all the time. Usually I find out that there was a reason for my initial feelings, and they’re validated in time. For a long time I didn’t trust my instincts about people and I made a lot of mistakes.

That was for sure. My only relationships and the subsequent breakups had been complete and total disasters. Epic and embarrassing disasters. That was one of the things that I hadn’t told Bibliofile, because it was on the “too personal” list.

That’s true. I guess I just haven’t figured out why she’s bad news. I’ll keep you updated. Good mice.

That made me laugh. When we’d first started talking, we’d signed off for the night by telling each other goodnight, but an autocorrect one late night had given us “good mice” and it had stuck.

Good mice to you too.

Chapter Three

Bren

“This is new,”I said, pointing to the sparkly dildos that I hadn’t seen last time I’d visited Between the Sheets, a romance bookstore in the city.

The new products were located in the back behind a folding screen which pissed me off, but I understood why Larison, the owner, had made the choice to put them back there.

Delaney, one of the booksellers poked her head around the screen and smiled.

“Aren’t they fantastic? I can’t decide if I want to use them or decorate with them. My boyfriend would have a fit either way.”

“Use them, definitely,” I said, snorting. A lot of them were actually pretty. So many toys were a little too realistic for me. I much preferred a fantasy with wild colors and shapes. These were absolutely my kind of thing.

“Aren’t they great?” Larison said, coming around the corner. “I’m just glad that my daughter didn’t open that box when we were doing inventory and pull them out. I wasn’t sure how to handle the dildo conversation with her.”

I almost choked. Larison’s daughter, Juniper, was often in the shop when she wasn’t in school. I couldn’t imagine having to have that talk with her.

“You’re going to make me have that conversation with her, aren’t you?” Larison’s fiancée, Jo, said as she came out from the back room with a box of books.

“Maybe. I think you’d do it better.” Jo rolled her eyes behind her clear-framed glasses and blew some curly blonde hair out of her face.

“Figures,” she said, setting the box down and wincing.

“You’ve got to stop carrying those. Use the dolly,” Larison scolded as Jo dug her fingers into her lower back.

“I know, I know. It was just a few, though. And now I have an excuse to book us a massage.” She wiggled her eyebrows and Larison grinned.

“You are positively diabolical, baby.” She crossed the space and pulled Jo into her arms as Delaney sighed happily.