Page 95 of Shifting Gears

“One thing,” Dani says after a few moments of contented quiet.

“Anything,” Nora murmurs between the soft kisses she’s trailing up the side of Dani’s neck. “Anything you want.”

“Is this my flannel?” Dani’s dry hand plucks at the checkered fabric. “I’ve been looking for that for months.”

It’s the same one Nora has slept in almost every night since September. She’d thrown it on before leaving her apartment to make her feel brave. She hadn’t been expecting that to be what Dani noticed, but her distraction feels like a worthy challenge.

“I thought you liked seeing me in it?” Nora says, leaning back and shrugging her arms out of her coat. The shirt drifts open, and Dani’s eyes dart back down to where Nora wants them. “I’d argue it’s as much mine as yours.”

“You make a, uh—a very compelling case,” Dani says. She’s leaning forward now, drinking Nora in and considerably less distracted already. “I’m taking notes. Any other arguments to present?”

With a delirious laugh, Nora lays back across the seat, pulls Dani down with her, and gets to work fogging the windows completely.

They have a lot of lost time to make up for.

Epilogue

“Babe? You here?”

Dani’s voice rings out through the house, audible from the porch through the screen door. The clatter of her boots hitting the shoe mat is as familiar as Nora’s own voice—they moved together into Nora’s old rental house not long after Nora came back to Riverwalk, and even years after they decided to buy it, the routine of her coming home still makes Nora smile.

“On the deck,” Nora calls back, slipping a bookmark into her novel and settling more comfortably into the Adirondack swing Dani built last summer to let them look out at the water. Nora watched her put it together, plank by salvaged plank. It’s much sturdier than the structure it was created from—Dani harvested the best of the wood from the collapsed tree house not long after it fell apart, and this swing is the latest of a series of woodworking projects using the remaining materials.

Of all of them, though, this is Nora’s favourite. Specifically the large, gently curved plank that makes up the back of the seat, where everyone’s carved names are still proudly displayed. Dani cut it from the tree trunk herself and lacquered a protective coating over it to keep it safe from the elements, and Nora loves to run her fingers along the shiny grooves.

Footsteps thunder up the stairs inside. Nora takes a sip of her tea, settling back to wait for Dani to change out of her shop clothes and jump into the shower. The sun is just starting to turn the horizon pink—the trees are vibrant in their October reds and oranges, and their reflection on the still water makes for twice the beauty.

Nora pulls the blanket tighter around her legs, warding off the autumn chill that she’s sure Dani will banish with a warm hug once she gets here.

Dani emerges onto the deck with damp hair fifteen minutes later. Joggers and a warm sweater have replaced her shop coveralls, and the sight of her lights a warm glow in Nora’s chest that burns just as brightly as it did when they met.

“Hey,” Dani says with a grin, sitting down and tugging on the blanket until it covers them both. “Missed you today.”

“I missed you, too,” Nora murmurs, accepting Dani’s kiss and hooking a hand around the back of her neck when she tries to pull away. Dani grins into it, giving Nora the deeper kiss she’s silently requesting; for a few minutes, the porch is quiet but for the birds and the water and and Dani’s soft, happy sighs.

“How was work?” Nora asks when their lips finally part.

Dani smiles, settling in comfortably with Nora’s legs draped over her lap. “It was great! The afternoon shift at the shop is always quiet. I had time to finish that article about your new solar generator at the community centre.” Dani snags the mug of tea from Nora’s hands, taking a sip and humming with pleasure. She’s been splitting her time recently between the shop and the recently revived town newspaper, working part-time at both, but Nora ensures she doesn’t overwork herself.

Stepping down as CEO at CromTech and convincing the board to vote Kayla as her replacement is the best decision Nora has ever made. Selling her shares left her with enough capital to buy out the old warehouses in Riverwalk, retrofit them, turn some of the space into a small office, and do what she’d always been too afraid to try—strike out on her own.

It turns out that running her own small company, with her own goals and direction and full control, is a world away from being CEO of a major corporation.

Riverwalk has been shockingly receptive to sometimes being the test subjects for Nora’s new work, with Dani there to vouch for it. Anyone who signs up can trial her designs, and it gives Nora good data for proof of concept when she’s selling them. Even a small company like hers has provided a good number of jobs in the building and implementation of her prototypes, and with Ash’s help in marketing and securing new funding, Nora has settled into a comfortable niche by selling her designs to companies looking to branch into the environmental sector. CromTech is among her biggest clients currently, but she feels good in the knowledge that even if Kayla left the company someday, she’d still have enough of a foothold to continue.

Nora is infinitely prouder of her positive impact on the community than she ever was of her work as a CEO.

“How was your day?” Dani asks, handing the tea back. “You seem chipper.”

Nora sits a little straighter, still flush with happiness over her breakthrough this morning. “Actually, I finally figured out the water purifier I’ve been working on.”

“No kidding!” Dani says brightly, squeezing Nora’s hands in excitement. “That’s awesome! Did you call Kayla?”

“I did. She said the board is interested in buying the prototype again.”

Dani rubs her hands over Nora’s feet under the blanket. She knows they’re always cold, whereas Dani’s hands are so warm. “Of course they are. You’re brilliant.”

Nora smiles softly. It’s something Dani tells her all the time, but it never gets less pleasant to hear. “She and Ash are going to come down sometime next month to take a look at it.”

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