Page 40 of The Boyfriend Gamble

“As long as it’s not Tanner.” Nita winced. “Like I said, I love my brother. He’s not aforeverkind of guy. Tanner is.” She eyed me. “You are too—with the right person. I’m sorry, but that person’s not Josette.”

Cam excused himself so he could go grab a coffee before heading into the office. As he expressed his regrets at not being able to stay—which I questioned the sincerity of—I took advantage and slipped away.

Only as I was driving out of the parking lot, did I realize I didn’t have the coffee I’d meant to grab to take back to Jacob. I got into the line for Tim Horton’s drive-thru and ordered an extra-large coffee for him—double, double, of course. I ordered a large for myself since I’d dumped my half-drunk cup of lemonade in the garbage in my haste to get away from Nita. Then I ordered a mix of a dozen donuts so I could take it to the construction crew. Within just a few minutes, I was off again, this time heading back into the hills.

As I drove north, I parsed Nita’s words. Clearly, she thought I was gay.

Well, I wasn’t.

Because I hadn’t had gay sex. Hadn’t even kissed a man.

I winced. Yeah. But if one of the kids in sixth grade told me they were gay, even though they’d never acted on it physically, would I tell them they weren’t gay? That they had to wait to have sex with someone of the same gender to know for sure?

Of course not. One could be gay without having gay sex. And, frankly, gay sex didn’t weird me out like it did for some guys.

Also, I hadn’t kissed a woman either. Not Josette or any other female-identifying person.

And why is that?

Because I’m marrying Josette.

So maybe shouldn’t you, I dunno, kiss Josette?

Oh, shut up.

Yet as my car ate up the miles, I kept circling in my mind. What if Nita was right? I wasn’t afraid of being gay. I just had thought of myself as more asexual. I didn’t really think of anyonethatway. I guess I assumed, when the time came, that I’d find a way to make it work with Josette. Clearly this entire situation was a bigger problem than I’d imagined.

And I had no idea how to solve it.

Chapter Eight

Jacob

Felix’sarrivalthismorningbearing both the nectar of the Gods—coffee—and a pile of donuts, had me thinking all kinds of thoughts about him. Not sexual, of course, but of stuff like how generous he was. How he always thought of others.

How, to the best of my knowledge, he’d never made a move on my sister.

After our impromptu snacks, Felix tackled painting the master bedroom while Darah fixed the wiring in the kitchen, Agatha fixed the plumbing in the downstairs bathroom, Curtis did the drywall in the laundry room, and the rest of my crew—including myself—tackled the flooring for the upstairs.

We stopped for lunch, discussed appliances and whether the Vancouver Canucks had any possible chance of making the Stanley Cup next season, and then we got back to work.

In the afternoon, Gina worked with the HVAC guy to install everything needed so the house would have air conditioning with the heat pump. Seventy-some-odd years ago, when it’d been built, that hadn’t been a thing. Today? With climate change? British Columbia often baked during the summer. Even the northern parts were seeing hotter days. Down here, near Vancouver, there had been many temperature records broken over the past few summers. Scientists weren’t predicting we’d get cooler, or even go back to normal, so Felix needed his house to have air conditioning. And tomorrow we had a guy drilling a three-hundred-and-fifty-foot well in the back yard. The current one was too shallow and often ran dry in the hottest summer months.

And Josie. How could I forget my sister and her impossibly long showers? We were also installing hot water on demand so they’d never run out.

“Hey, boss, it’s quitting time.”

I glanced up from where I’d been laying the laminate floor to find Niall, Curtis, Agatha, Kris, and Gina all staring at me from the bedroom door. I surveyed the room, ensuring I hadn’t somehow screwed up. I hadn’t. “Yeah, sure. Thanks for today.”

“Felix got the master bedroom painted. Looks pretty good.” Gina yanked on her ponytail.

“He should be able to do this room tomorrow.”

“Wouldn’t it have been better to get him to paint before you put the flooring down?” Curtis snickered.

“Possibly.” More like probably, but we were plowing through this reno with breakneck speed. “Thanks. We’ll see you later.”

Kris saluted, then led my crew down the stairs. That was a job for tomorrow as well.

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