Page 17 of Lonely Beard
She’s been so happy, she’s been floating everywhere instead of walking. Even her rants about her boss have been delivered with a smile.
“Did something happen?” My stomach drops at the thought. The mountain can be dangerous, especially in the colder months. Did her match have an accident? “Nina?”
“It’s him,” she hisses, digging her fingers into her hair. Her messy bun lists even further to the side. “You matched me withhim. How could that happen? Did you know?”
“Know what?” I glance at Aiden and he shrugs. Okay, so this is confusing as hell for him, too. That’s a relief. “Who’s him?”
“My boss.” Nina drags both palms down her cheeks, stretching her face out with frustration, and I’d laugh if she weren’t so distraught. “You matched me with my boss! We’ve been messaging, Grace. I told him things! Private things! I even bitched about my work, and I confessed all these secrets, and now I—”
Nina clams up, bright red with mortification. There’s a long pause, and then Aiden slides off his stool.
“I’ll, uh. I’ll give you two a minute.”
I glare at his broad shoulders as he pushes through the crowd. Traitor.
When I guide Nina onto the empty stool, she lets out a wobbly sigh. At least she’s still here, right? Talking to me? And I can fix this. Not for my record—for my friend.
“I’ll match you with someone else,” I say in my most soothing voice. But Nina’s face crumples, and she shakes her head fast.
“No! No, I don’t want anyone else. I just… I wish none of this ever happened. This is so humiliating.” She collapses onto her folded arms, black bun flopping forward. “He was so different in his messages,” she says, voice muffled. “Like a whole other man. So kind and funny and interested in me. For a second there, I thought…”
My mouth twists as I rub her shoulder blades. Nodding at the bartender, I call for another orange juice and the beer Nina likes. Traitor McRae can order his own.
“I’m so sorry, Nina. But this will be ancient history soon, I promise. And if your boss is weird about it—”
“He doesn’t know. We haven’t exchanged real names yet.”
“Then how—?”
“He sent a photo of his desk and the project he’s working on. I recognized it. There’s even the World’s Worst Boss mug I gave him for the holidays last year.”
I open my mouth, then close it again. Nope. Not going near that.
“I want whatyouhave,” Nina grumbles, sitting up when her beer arrives. “You and Aiden. I want the fairy tale, you know?”
“Sure.”
And I really do. Some days, I can’t believe how good things are. I wake up beside my gorgeous, bearded husband in our cozy cabin and pinch myself to make extra sure it’s all real.
“You’ll find that.” I try to sound confident, even though my record is officially no longer perfect. “I have good intuition about this stuff, and you’re going to find love, Nina.”
She swigs from her beer bottle, her expression sour.
A warm hand settles against the small of my back, and some of the tension bleeds from my body. I lean into my husband, offering him a quick smile.
“You girls got it sorted?” Aiden’s watching Nina with concern.
“We will,” I say quickly. “It’s going to be fine. Right, Nina?”
She shudders out a long breath and nods, then starts peeling the label off her beer. Her eyes are bright, like she’s trying not to cry.
Aiden leans in, his lips grazing my ear, and speaks low so only I can hear. “Fuck, I’m glad you broke down outside my cabin. I forgot how brutal it is out there.”
Tell me about it. I nod and press a quick kiss to Aiden’s scarred throat, thanking all my lucky stars for that well-timed storm and that shitty rental car. Then I start to chat with Nina, trying to draw her onto nicer topics, but all the while I lean back on my stool until I’m sealed against Aiden’s chest.
He warms me.
Anchors me.
