Page 4 of The Turning of the Tables

He wasn’t wrong, although I don’t think I’d have called it that without him suggesting the term. “There are a lot of storefronts like that in Richmond,” I replied.

“Very old-school Main Street,” he observed, then shot me a funny look when I laughed.

“It’s… literally on Main Street,” I replied.

His lips quirked. “Ah.”

We drove the rest of the way in silence, although he thanked me when I pulled up at the hotel and helped him get his stuff out of the back. I watched him walk into the lobby, bag over his shoulder and tool-case in his hand, and reminded myself very firmly that I was not going to get involved with this guy. I wasn’t even interested.

Have I mentioned that I lie to myself a lot? It’s one of my more problematic flaws.

2

ELLIOT CRANE

May I ask a favor?

SETH MAYS

Ask away.

Can I beg a ride to the hardware store?

I know there’s a little one not far from here, but I’d rather go somewhere else.

And that requires a car.

When do you need to go?

Anytime today would be great.

I can come get you at 5:30.

Perfect. I’m at BTV.

TakingElliot Crane to a hardware store wasn’t something I’d been expecting to do today after work, but it wasn’t like I had any other plans. I didn’t really have much of a social life these days, and I kinda didn’twant one. Something about most of your supposed friends still being friends with your ex makes you not terribly inclined to want to hang out with them. Which I suppose means that they were never actuallymyfriends.

Usually if I had something social on my calendar it was either work people or Noah, and I see them all the time.

A trip to a hardware store was peak excitement for a Thursday night.

I left work right at five, oddly excited to be able to do anything other than go back to an empty apartment that wasn’t even mine. It clearly had nothing to do with the fact that I found Elliot physically attractive. I wasn’t looking for a relationship, and he didn’t even live here. Nothing was going to come of that.

He was a friend of Hart’s—that was all. I liked Hart, so I was willing to do Elliot a favor.

I was also assuming that Elliot would have asked Hart to take him to a hardware store if Hart hadn’t been up to his eyeballs in media and dead senator’s wives. I wasn’t sure what Taavi was doing, but I figured if he’d been free, Elliot would have asked him.

I pulled up in front of Beyond the Veil, and there was actually a spot that I could park in on the street for once. They had a little parking pass inside the back door for those of us who were semi-frequent visitors to snag and hang from our rearviews, but if I didn’t have to go around back, all the better.

Through the front window, I could see Elliot inside, talking to Mason. The giant orc was explaining something, and Elliot’s expression was thoughtful and attentive. He had on a different flannel from yesterday, this one a light blue and dark green, and a navy t-shirt, along with a pair of jeans.

I found myself—annoyingly—staring at the chiseledlines of Elliot’s face, his strong jaw, sharp cheekbones, wide nose…

Goddamnit, I was not going to go all swoony over this guy. Not because he wasn’t swoon-worthy, but because there was nopoint. He lived in Wisconsin, I lived in Virginia. I also had no idea whether or not he was even into guys at all, much less an overgrown Southern country boy like me. Non-starter.

I texted him.Here when you’re done.

I saw him reach into his back pocket and pull out his phone, then glance over at the window, a small, slightly lopsided smile shooting across his lips for a half-second.