Page 21 of Destiny

“Okay, sounds good.”

“Oh, green now,” I comment after seeing her friend’s head pop out from behind an aisle.

“Yep. Don’t get too attached to it. The next time you see her, it’ll already be changed.”

“Remind me to never let the girls around her. I don’t want them getting any ideas.”

We laugh.

“You know, it’s funny. One of my friends was just asking me if you had any friends I could set him up with.”

“Well, Micky is exclusively poly, so . . . wait! You told someone about us?”

“I—uh.”

“No, it’s totally fine. I’m not upset. I’m just surprised.”

“Really? Why?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t sure if you wanted people in your circle to know.”

I grab her hand. “It’s only the girls that I’m hesitant about finding out.

“And like I said, I totally understand that.”

I notice that she seems particularly giddy as she takes her next bite.

“What?”

She shrugs. “It’s just nice to hear that you think this is actually something between us. Not just a bunch of random hookups.”

I feel so bad that I ever made her feel that way. “Of course, it’s more than that. I mean, it is for you too, right?”

“It is.” She looks up at me and has a beam in her eyes.

“Good. Although, there is one thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, Justin, my client, and friend, was telling me about how your father has the reputation of being very protective of you.”

“Oh.” She puts her food down and wipes her hands together. “His bark is bigger than his bite. Trust me.”

“Okay. I was gonna say that he seemed perfectly level-headed when I was around him. But there was mention of a shotgun.”

“It’s an old rifle, and that thing hasn’t had ammunition of any kind in it since our great-grandfather used it in the Civil War. Well, at least that’s where Daddy tells people it came from. I think he just got it at a rummage sale or something.”

“Either way, I’d prefer not to have a weapon pointed at me.”

“Well, you won’t need to worry about that unless you go breaking my heart.”

“I’m certainly not planning on it.” Like with my daughters, the thought of intentionally hurting her in anyway almost makes me feel ill.

“Good to hear.”

“Hey, Bea. Sorry to ruin your little date,” Micky comes in and says.

“No, that’s fine.”

---