Page 20 of Shifting Gears

“Do you usually get called to intervene?” Eleanor asks.

Naomi laughs, accepting the beer that Dani pours her from the pitcher on the table. “More to treat the injuries afterwards. But it’s always nice when my services aren’t needed.”

Another ruckus erupts from the pool table. It looks like Sarah has won the game after all, and Owen seems to be taking his loss with grace. He shakes Sarah’s hand, clinking his beer bottle with hers.

Eleanor is then shocked to see the moment punctuated by Ryan planting a big, definitely-not-platonic kiss on Owen’s mouth as consolation.

It must show on her face; while Naomi goes over to congratulate Sarah on the victory, Dani nudges Eleanor with an elbow. “Never seen a couple before?”

Owen and Ryan are now wrapped in an intimate hug. How on earth Eleanor didn’t notice the fact that they’re clearly together is beyond her, but now it seems ridiculously obvious.

“I won’t lie. I’m a bit surprised,” Eleanor admits.

“Are you?”

Eleanor lowers her voice. “They’re an interracial gay couple in a small town. Don’t they get harassed?”

“Nah. Not with us around,” Dani says with an easy wave. She leans back in her chair until the front legs leave the ground but maintains her balance. “They got a bit of shit for it when they first got together, but we all made sure that wouldn’t be a problem again. There’s been no issues since.”

The idea of a town this size being so accepting of difference seems impossible, but here Eleanor is, sitting in a rural bar with a group that’s more racially and sexually diverse than her boardroom at CromTech.

“I guess I shouldn’t have assumed,” Eleanor says, casting her eyes around the bar as Owen puts a hand on Ryan’s lower back. Nobody gives them a second glance.

“There are some idiots, just like anywhere. But not everyone here has a backwards mentality. We’ve all worked hard to make this place different. I wouldn’t live here otherwise. Besides, it’s not just Ryan and Owen.”

“Your cousin, right?” Eleanor says, nodding in Sarah’s direction. Sarah is currently sitting on the edge of the pool table, celebrating her victory with two shots of tequila while Naomichats with her brother. “I suppose I didn’t think there could be more than that in a town like this.”

“You could say it runs in the family,” Dani says.

That single sentence derails any other thoughts Eleanor might have had. Dani is casual about it, still leaned back and balancing her chair on two of its legs, but the fact that Eleanor now knows without a doubt that Dani is both painfully attractive and definitely gay is doing things to her psyche.

“…you?” Eleanor asks. There’s a definite croak in her voice—she clears her throat, and Dani flashes a knee-weakening grin.

“You didn’t guess?”

“I suspected. I didn’t want to assume. Not everyone is so open about it,” Eleanor says. The table is shaking a little, and Eleanor realizes belatedly that it’s because she’s been jiggling her legs so aggressively that she’s making the beer bottles rattle. She crosses them tightly instead.

Eleanor isn’t usually one to shout her preferences to the rooftops, but that instinct is being challenged by the much more powerful need to have Daniknow. She’s just not sure how to drop it into conversation naturally.

“Yeah, I came out in high school and never really looked back,” Dani says, shrugging. “I’ve never been good at hiding it.”

Eleanor nods. She swallows past the lump in her throat, and she blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. “It took me a lot longer. To…do that.”

Dani doesn’t seem surprised by Eleanor’s disclosure, but her reply is gentle. “Not so open about it, huh?”

“I’m notclosedabout it,” Eleanor says. The conversation feels easier now with Dani smiling at her so softly like that—Eleanor relaxes a bit, leaning back in her chair until she can feel the warmth of Dani’s arm against her shoulders. “It just isn’t anyone’s business.”

Eleanor doesn’t mention any of the other reasons she’s tended to keep her sexuality to herself: the fear of ending up in the public eye hanging over her head; her father’s quiet disapproval, gone now but still lingering in the corners of her mind.

“Makes sense. Nobody is entitled to know anything about you,” Dani says.

That gives Eleanor pause.

It has continued to be genuinely surprising to Eleanor that, after almost a month in this town, nobody seems to have gone out of their way to look her up. She’s not difficult to find. Her online presence was practically nonexistent before she took over as CEO, but her ascension had been documented in the media. A simple search of her first and last name would reveal that Eleanor heads CromTech, and yet Dani has never treated her any differently than she did when they met.

Maybe Eleanor really can have a summer of anonymity.

“I wasn’t open about it for a long time,” Eleanor admits. She stares down at the table, picking out each individual piece of graffiti scratched into the bumpy surface. “A few years ago, I thought that maybe it was about time I did one thing for myself.”

---