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“You’re right about that,” Phil added. “We haven’t had a big macho man fight in town since Doug Morris went to prison. We’re due.”
“And guess who gets to plan it,” Aislinn complained. “That’s right. Me.”
“You work at Ace’s House, Aislinn?” Roxanne asked.
“No. I live and work at Cade Ranch. I run the office. But my brother is the director of Ace’s House, and he’s hopeless with that kind of stuff if I’m not helping him.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Billie said. “He organized it the last two years, but it gets bigger every year, and Theo knows how uptight and obsessive Ace can be, so he’s putting her to work.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Aislinn said, “and already things are getting out of control. Do you know how much work goes into shutting down an entire downtown area? Plus, there’s the food and town-wide decorations. What the hell do I know about all that stuff? But Theo’s in his last year of graduate school now, plus running the center. He’s really stressed out.”
Yeah, and it probably didn’t help that his assistant director kept landing herself in my jail.
“I told you I’d help, Aislinn,” Sam said.
“Yeah,” Billie added, “and you know Evvie and I will help, too, Ace. Complain some more, why don’tcha.”
Aislinn crossed her arms, but she conceded. “I know. Thank you. Oh, and Abey,” she said, turning her body in the direction of my voice, “you and I should sit down soon. We’ll have to block off roads that day so no one parks on Main where we’re going to set up the dance tent. I’ll need you to decide the boundaries.”
My first thought was, Why are you asking me? But then I remembered that I was in charge. “Sure thing.” Guess it would be up to me now to enforce things like that.
“Oh, Theo?” Roxanne asked. “I think I met him this mornin’.”
“You did,” I confirmed. “Theo is Aislinn’s brother. And the other guy you met at the center, the one with long black hair?”
Roxanne nodded, and that look I’d seen on her face earlier appeared again, after her hope about Theo being single had been dashed.
“That’s Brady,” Aislinn said, “his man.”
“Oh.”
I smiled apologetically. “Brady is Theo’s partner. They live above the center in the attic apartment.”
“Right,” Roxanne said, and she deflated and slumped back in her chair.
“What does that mean?” Aislinn asked, though it sounded more like an accusation. She was ready to jump down the throat of anybody who dared to criticize her brother or Brady.
“Nothin’!” Roxanne said. “It’s just that, I mean, if someone asked me to imagine the perfect guy, I’m pretty sure I’d conjure up your brother. It’s too bad he?—”
“You got something against gay people, Roxi?” Billie asked, slinging her legs over the arm of her chair. “Too bad he what?”
Roxanne straightened in her chair. “No. I do not. In fact, to answer your earlier question, MM is my favorite sub-genre of romance. It’s hot. I was only gonna say that it’s too bad he doesn’t have a straight twin brother. If he did, I’d be in love.”
Billie relaxed and laughed.
Carly squealed, and our resident romance author, Juneau Moonlight, clapped her hands together.
“Ooo, now she’s fitting in around here. G’on, girl. We all loved the MM book we read last month.” Juneau wiggled her eyebrows in Cal’s direction. “Even Cal!”
Cal shrugged, and Roxanne laughed.
It seemed like Roxanne had caught on that we were a pretty inclusive group and had relaxed. She had no idea just how inclusive. “Alright,” she said, “well, if Theo and Brady are taken, and there’s no evil twin ready to sweep me off my feet, who else you got for me? This ol’ girl’s been in a bit of a dry spell, and I need to break free.”
Cal tsked again at the impropriety, and Phil laughed. “Give us some time,” she said. “We’ll think of someone.”
“Guys, are we ever going to talk about books?” Sam almost whined her question, holding up a dark-red hardcover book with lots of swirls on the front and dramatic gold lettering, but she should’ve known better by now. Roxanne was fresh meat.
“You’re about my age,” Aubrey said and winked. She was a few years older than Roxanne’s “almost forty.” “Let’s do lunch. I can give you the lowdown on the available guys in town. But be prepared—there aren’t many. Where you stayin’?”
