Page 7 of Love in Mission City: The Shorts

My parents were, of course, incredibly supportive.Possibly a little miffed it took me so long to come out, because they’d suspected since I was in my early teens.

Sun had been sure, of course, but hadn’t breathed a word.

“Slim pickings these days.”Sure, gay guys lived in Mission City.I even knew a few, including a realtor and a counselor up at Sunshine’s sister Kennedy’s counseling center.Cadence and Justin were nice guys.They were also…not my type.

Both were around my age, both were very handsome, and both were very much tops.

And since I was as well, the compatibility hadn’t been there.Had I been tempted?Sure.But why start a relationship knowing certain things would never work?

“Well, your perfect companion is right next door.”

“Sun.”I injected as much menace and warning as I could into my voice and her response was, of course, to laugh.

“I’m finished for the day.”She leaned down to scoop Ari into her arms.

The cat purred and head-butted her neck.

“Want to come home with me?I’ll miss you.”

Sun had kept Ari for the past week, but I’d missed my little one.Well, at nearly twenty pounds, she wasn’t that little.Once, I could hold her in the palm of my hand.Not so much these days.

My errant employee dropped said deadweight onto the counter, and Ari immediately bolted for the keyboard.

I held it up and away, but it was a near thing.

Sunshine laughed all the way out of the store.

Crazy woman.How she could be so happy, given her nine-month marriage ended last month, was beyond me.Or maybe that’s why she was happy.I liked Colton Pritchard just fine, but he wasn’t the right man for Sun.The serious RCMP officer had recently been promoted to a corporal in sex crimes.

Sun was a woman who radiated warmth and goodness.

I think she believed she could lighten up the man.

Well, it hadn’t worked.Now she was alone again.Barely twenty-seven, and two disastrous marriages she needed to put in the rearview mirror.

She had shadows, of course.

Logan, her first husband, had been a stand-up guy.Lots of fun.Then he joined the army, and after a harrowing overseas deployment, had come home a different man.

She tried to buoy him, but he’d wound up taking a swing at her.

He’d left, and despite my general empathy for those serving our country, I’d been happy to see his ass departing.

Then she married Colton before the ink was barely dry on her divorce.Another dark man.She had a type, and it didn’t suit her.

Was Spike my type?Sun knew my preferences, of course.We’d had a way-too-frank discussion not long after I came out.She’d been curious, and I’d just broken up with a guy because of our sexual incompatibility.I would’ve loved to blame it on booze or pot or some other mind-altering substance.The truth?My heart had broken.I really loved Isaac.My first, and if I’d had my way, my only.

Alas, after our experimentation phase ended, we discovered a lack of compatibility.That and he had to go back to Whitehorse when he graduated, and no way was I moving to the Yukon.So I came home to Mission City with the focus of taking over my parents’ shop and the vain hope of putting Sunshine in her place.

I’d succeeded in one of those things.

Ari sat on the counter and blinked lazy eyes up at me.

“No, you’re not getting treats.”

Another blink.

“All right.But just one.Dr.Zephyra said you’re a little heavy, and it’s hard on your joints.”

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