Page 30 of Just For Her

“Thanks for the reminder. I had completely forgotten!”

Thomas slapped his hand over his forehead. “What I’m trying to say is that there’s a reason our distant cousin Gareth left town when he got with that guy from Klamath Falls. Kiersten was so livid that he…”

The man didn’t have to finish, because Tove already knew the rest of the story. “Called him a bunch of lovely homophobic slurs. Yes, I was at the Hood River family reunion when she said that in front of God and everyone. You think I’ve forgotten? That was the day my dating life officially died.”

“I mean, maybe it won’t be so bad for you because you’re a woman and Aunt Kiersten is the type to think it doesn’t ‘count,’ but…” Thomas leaned forward on the desk. “She’s barely in her thirties. That’s a big enough age gap to send the family into a tizzy.”

“Thank you,I’m aware.”

“Also, to be frank Tove, Oskar and I were having beers a couple of nights ago and we agreed she gave us gold digger vibes.”

Tove lost her vision to the back of her hands. Her elbows marked their territory on her desk. As her rolling chair squeaked against its plastic carpet protector, she muttered, “Shut the fuck up.”

“I’m just sayin’! Bend’s full of ‘em now! She was flirting with me the whole time I was taking her here and then to Oskar’s. Even Oskar agreed that she would have been more all over me if she wasn’t playing the injured damsel.”

“You’re preposterous. She’s told me she’s not even interested in men.” Kaylahadsaid,“I’m bi, babe, but right now I only have eyes for women. Men are in the past. I just won’t deny I’ve been attracted to them.”Good enough for Tove, who only cared that her girlfriend was present in the here and now. “If anything, we’ve talked about how fortuitous it is you hit her with your stupid car. Otherwise, we might not have ever met, and she’d be a single queer woman in a small town. Trust me, it’s an awful feeling, even if you shut down that side of yourself.”

Those were the first words to get Thomas to back off. “You feel that way, huh?”

“What?” Tove snapped.

“That you completely shut yourself down?”

Having her words said back to her made Tove look away, one hand fidgeting on her desk while the other patted her cheek. “Maybe. It’s not like I’ve had a ton of dating opportunities in this town since I moved back. Twenty years ago, I might add. Don’t forget that I’m older than you. You were in college when the whole drama with my ex happened. The family never let me live it down. The only way to redeem myself has been to ingratiate into the Fredriksson lore. Bonus points for being a freakin’ CPA who can manage people’s money and taxes.”

“I get it.” Thomas was uncharacteristically empathetic when he rounded his cousin’s desk and awkwardly smacked his hand on her back. Tove nearly choked on the breath she was about to exhale. “Not everyone is a Gustav.”

There was the Thomas she recognized! “Not everyone is directlydescendedfrom Gustav like you, either. Your father is the oldest son of Gustav’s oldest son. Must be nice.”

“Eh, has its perks, but trust me, it’s a lot of pressure. I’m lucky my older siblings took the brunt of the family work and child-having. Nils has had two sons and Klara has had a whole brood with that Canadian timber heir. All they need of me is to not blow it all.”

“Isn’t Elias engaged, too?” Tove referred to Nils’s oldest son, who had fallen in love with an outsider while attending Willamette University’s business school. It had been a mild cause of duress in the family since every outsider looking to score with the Prince William of the moment had to pass Kiersten Fredriksson’s tough muster.If they’re openly engaged and I haven’t heard any raging, she must have passed.That meant the girl was two things: pretty and from a good family. Preferably one of Nordic descent like the Fredrikssons, although Kiersten’s generation didn’t completely turn their noses at those of German, French, and British ancestry.I wonder where Kayla’s family is from…Tove hated that the only reason she wondered that was because of the prejudices ingrained into her since birth. Her mother may have done her best to undo it, but the Gustav Fredriksson line had its claws so deep in Tove that Kayla might have seen the scars on her girlfriend’s back.

“Yeah, Elias is as good as engaged,” Thomas said of his nephew. Nils and June are over the moon, but everyone is keeping it hushed until the family reunion this spring. Big announcement, blah blah blah.” Thomas held his finger up to his lips. “Keep it quiet, huh?”

“I will if you don’t go blabbing about my relationship. It’s hardly serious. That was one of the reasons I didn’t want our aunt to find out about it. The last thing I need is for Kayla to get the full Fredriksson treatment.”

A shadow lurked outside the window. Tove’s one o’clock peered through the glass and briefly waved at her. She gestured that she would only be a minute.

“You need to get ahead of the surprise,” Thomas said, while his cousin prepared for her client. “Aunt Kiersten will start whining about it any day now. If not to you, then behind your back. Now’s your chance to direct the story to the rest of the family. Don’t worry, Oskar and I won’t tell anyone the truth about how you guys met. The last thing I need is people knowing that I almost killed a random on the street.”

Tove sat in meditative silence while Thomas prepared to leave. “You think it’s going to be that bad, huh?”

“Oh, yeah.” He lingered by the door. “Like, take her to the country club bad.”

Tove winced. “No…”

“Yessss.”

Her cousin opened the door. Tove pressed her fingers against her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. “I’ll text you!” she shouted before Thomas disappeared. “Because you owe me!”

He poked his head back inside her office before the client could enter. “I think I paid any debts I owe you in the form of personally delivering a hot young woman to you.”

Unfortunately, the client had heard that. Fortunately, he did not bring it up as he entered, said hello, and sat down. Tove in turn softened the blow of the thirty-eight thousand dollars he owed the government that year.

Just a drop in the bucket for the people her family knew.

Chapter 9

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