Page 47 of Unbelievable You

I still went to the library when I could and borrowed ebooks like it was going out of style.

“Your mom and everyone else’s mom. Well, except mine. She doesn’t really read anything that isn’t a legal brief or court documents.” Hunter made a face.

“Sounds riveting,” I said in a deadpan voice.

“There are many reasons that I didn’t want to go to law school and having to read pages of legalese was one of them. I do have to read a lot of loan documents, but those aren’t as bad for some reason.”

I couldn’t imagine. I wouldn’t last a week in law school. I’d been lucky that so much of my animal science degree hadn’t been in a classroom. My school had a working farm on campus, and I’d gotten pretty good at milking cows when I was half-asleep and tending to chickens and goats.

“Yeah, give me a romance any day of the week. I think I’ve read Eloise Roth, but I gravitate more toward queer books. Wonder if she’ll write any of those now.”

Hunter snorted. “My friend Jo asked her about that and Cade got mad, but I think it’s an interesting question. I’m not saying that she has to or anything, but I wonder if someone like her, with her huge name and brand, decided to write queer books, if her readers would stick with her. Probably not.”

“Some would. But yeah, I think a lot would bail. And she’d definitely get backlash. I wish it wasn’t that way, but…”

Hunter nodded. “I gave Eloise a hard time about bringing Cade on tour and if she was going to pretend that Cade was her assistant or if she’d publicly claim the relationship. I was worried for Cade, but I was kind of an asshole about it.” I was surprised that she was admitting this to me.

“Wait, are you telling me that you’re not perfect? This is news to me, Hunter. I think I need a minute to sit with that.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits and I thought she was going to throw her tea at me, but she just kept glaring.

“Oh, come on,” I said, gently hitting her arm. “You were looking out for your friend. I get it. What did Eloise say?” Talking about Eloise Roth as a regular person was a weird adjustment.

“She said that she loved Cade and wasn’t going to hide her. And that she’d protect her. But can she?”

The look Hunter gave me was anguished and I wanted to give her a big hug and tell her it was going to be okay. Hunter probably wouldn’t like that, though.

“She can’t. She can do her best, but there are people in this world who hate us. Who hate the way we live and love. What has Cade said about it?”

Hunter sighed and picked up an apple slice only to stare at it instead of eating it. “She’s anxious, but I don’t really think she’s prepared herself for what could happen. At least she listened to me when I told her to lock down her social media accounts.”

That seemed wise.

“I just wish she’d thought everything through before getting into the relationship.”

Something other than her friend being hurt was behind this and I didn’t quite know what it was yet.

“You don’t really sit down and make a pro and con list before falling in love. At least in my experience.” Hunter met my eyes.

“Do you fall in love a lot?” she asked, and this conversation had veered in a completely personal direction.

“Not as a general rule, no,” I said. I had been in love before, a few times. Nothing like my parents kind of love though. That was something on a different level.

“Well, I don’t,” she said.

“Don’t fall in love? You mean you haven’t.”

She shook her head. “I mean I don’t.”

That didn’t make sense. “That’s not really something you decide, I feel like. It can happen to you anyway.”

Hunter let out a frustrated sound and finally ate the apple slice. “I don’t want to talk about this. The point is, I just want Cade to be okay.”

She pulled her knees up and set her chin on them.

“Have you told Cade any of this?”

“A little bit,” she said. That meant not really.

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