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The next morning, Spencer made pour-over in his Chemex, and then Ian kissed him up against the front door before heading home to get ready for work. By the time he’d showered and eaten a hastily thrown-together breakfast, he had a text waiting for him. Made it home. Let me know when you want to show me your favorite Pittsfield attraction.

“What do you think, bud?”

Spencer looked down into Norman’s dark, wet eyes. “Is this a good idea?”

Norman cocked his head like he was considering it, but that was just one of the three facial expressions he had.

Maybe it was how understanding Ian had been the night before, the way he’d held Spencer and listened to him and offered validation instead of pity. Or maybe it was just the oxytocin swirling around in his brain, but he typed back, When are you free next weekend?

A rare weekend without a shift actually. Name a time.

Spencer googled quickly. Friday at 8.

See you then.

Before he could get too caught up in whether this was actually a terrible idea, he grabbed Norman’s leash off the hook. “Come on, bud. Let’s go for a walk.”

———

Spencer sat on Cat’s patio, watching the sunset and nursing a beer. Cat’s yard was a postage stamp of concrete with a slightly larger patch of grass where Norman and Penny were currently playing with Hector’s dogs.

“So are you telling us about your date or what?”

Cat had her feet up on one of the patio chairs.

“You went on a date? That’s great, man.”

Cat knew about Spencer’s ex because she was his best friend. Hector knew about Spencer’s ex because the first year he’d lived in Pittsfield he’d had a panic attack after convincing himself that his ex would show up at his door, and Hector had slept on his couch for the night. Hector was a giant teddy bear, but no one would know that just looking at him.

“We went to Dairy Cone.”

Spencer looked off into the distance, not wanting to see what his friends’ faces were doing.

“Dairy Cone?”

Cat asked skeptically.

“Shut up,”

Hector said. “That’s adorable as fuck.”

Spencer laughed despite himself. “It kind of was, yeah.”

“Who is he? Do I know him?”

Hector was holding a bag of pretzels in one of his massive hands and trading off eating out of it and holding it out for Spencer and Cat to eat from in turn.

“He owns that house on Brown Street we just started,” Cat said.

“Oh, his plumbing is a mess.”

Cat almost fell out of her chair laughing.

“Holy shit, that’s not what I meant!”

Hector’s face went bright red.

“I know what you meant,”

Spencer said diplomatically. He knew better than to fuel one sibling’s teasing of the other.

Cat sucked in air. “How is his—”

“Don’t.”

Spencer stuck a pretzel in his mouth. “The date was nice.”

“That’s all the detail we’re getting?”

To Cat’s credit, Spencer was generally a little more forthcoming about the activities that went on during his hookups. Nothing too graphic, but he’d never much cared about his dates’ modesty after the fact. This time, though, he wasn’t sure how much he wanted to share. If Ian ever met Cat or Hector, Spencer didn’t want them to have any reason to picture him naked. He stopped, another pretzel halfway to his mouth. Was he really thinking about the potential of Ian meeting his friends?

“Cat, he went on a date. It sounds like the date went well. Let him live,”

Hector chastised.

“Okay, okay. Are you going to see him again?”

“I’m going to take him to that outdoor-movie thing in Clapp Park on Friday night.”

“Oh my god, Spence, you’re, like, legit good at this.”

Hector shoved his shoulder playfully, but it rocked his whole body.

“Um, thanks?”

“Maybe I need to move back to Pittsfield. Everyone I take out in Great Barrington wants me to spend two hundred dollars on dinner on Main Street.”

“Maybe that’s an indication of the quality of person you take out.”

Cat held her hand out for the pretzels.

“Speaking of, how’s Rae?”

Cat launched a pretzel at Hector’s face, and the sound it made hitting the concrete beckoned all four dogs to sprint up to the patio.

“Do I need to sit between you two?”

Spencer asked, sipping his beer. He really didn’t want to get up.

“No,”

they said in unison. They started bickering in Spanish as though he couldn’t hear them if he couldn’t understand.

“I’m ordering the tile for Tyler Street tomorrow and sending it here,”

Spencer said, trying to divert attention away from Cat and Hector’s squabbling. The client had picked a perfectly fine white tile for the backsplash in the kitchen, but they had nowhere to put it. They tried not to store anything of value on worksites. It was more best practice than anything—they had never been robbed, but they often went days at a time without visiting a jobsite, leaving the house clearly vacant.

“Will you please get an office?”

He and Cat had had this conversation approximately a million times. Spencer needed a space that was more permanent than his storage unit and more professional than his apartment. “You’ve seen the same listings I have. Nothing out there works for what we need while also being a good investment. I don’t want to pay rent on a warehouse space.”

“You guys are welcome to keep stuff in my workshop. I can set you up a corner,”

Hector offered. He and Cat could bicker all they wanted, but Hector was always the most generous person Spencer knew, especially when it came to his little sister.

“I don’t want to drive down to Great Barrington every time I need some tile,”

Cat pointed out.

Spencer could see his diversion tactic hadn’t worked. “What time is it?”

“Uh.”

Hector checked his phone. “Six thirty.”

Spencer got up and tried to get Norman’s attention. “I have to go call my parents. I promise I’m looking, okay?”

“Uh-huh.”

Cat waved him off.

Spencer hugged Hector goodbye and headed home.