Beautiful, like the sweet and sour lover right next to her.
Hmm, that gave me an idea.
I took a seat right next to Rhea as Tanner took one on my other side, and we all scooted closer to each other, hidden away and in our own little world.
Rhea picked at a napkin lying on the table and muttered, “I feel like I’m going to fall off it.”
“Off what?” Tanner asked, placing his hand on hers, stilling her fidgeting fingers.
“The pedestal.” Rhea said, looking up at him with stormy green eyes.
“There’s nothing wrong with letting people idolize you a little for a bit,” I reminded her, even though she had discussed why she hated being the center of attention like she currently was.
Rhea’s past left her with a seriously troublesome fear of being inadequate. She was nearly crippled by the fear of letting others down, or of being found lacking. When she went about her normal life, without the microscope hovering over her, she was fine.
But with things as they were now, she knew it was only a matter of time before the world found her weaknesses and realized she wasn’t perfect.
Which, obviously, was fine with Tanner and me. No one was perfect.
But for Rhea, she couldn’t stomach being anything less than flawless.
“Do me a favor,” I said, cutting through whatever rebuttal she was going to throw my way and worked on my plan to distract her. Because if I knew anything about Rhea, it was that she performed best with a task. And being the town hero was not the task she wanted. “Tell me the truth about the fire department’s opinion on gay male members.”
She snorted at the hard right turn our conversation took, and even Tanner scoffed with a smirk on his face, running his fingers along my neck as he leaned back in his chair with his arm over the back of mine.
“The what?” Rhea stammered.
“Are there any gay firefighters?” I pushed and then giggled. “Besides you, obviously. But I’m asking specifically about the men.”
“Want to let us in on why you want to know that?” Tanner urged, pushing his fingers up the back of my nape and into my hair.
“In a moment,” I winked at him and groaned softly when he went deeper into my updo to massage my scalp. “Careful, I might fall asleep if you keep that up. I didn’t seem to get enough rest last night.” I said pointedly, and he gave me his signature golden-boy grin, not apologizing for waking me up three times last night to share me between him and Rhea. They were both searching for something deeper, her with purpose, and him for something else I couldn’t identify yet, but I would. As soon as we fixed this little hero complex problem Rhea was facing.
Oh, and the fact that some corporate penguins in suits were trying to ruin our quaint little town by running the honest hard-working locals out with mysterious fires, floods, and accidents that we all knew were done deliberately, even if we couldn’t prove it.
Focusing back on Rhea, even as Tanner kept his fingers running along my scalp, I waited for her to answer my original question before diving deeper into the why behind it.
“Uh,” She shrugged before leaning forward on her elbows, thinking on it. “I don’t know of any out in the open, except for Elliot. But he’s technically bi, if that makes any difference.”
“And he’s married.” Tanner added, “I don’t know if that makes a difference to the research you’re doing in that pretty little brain of yours, Goldie. But thought it was worth mentioning.”
“It does, actually.” I beamed up at him. “Because people tend to ignore things if people make it seem normal.”
“Why are you asking?” Rhea asked, eyes slightly squinted in wonder.
“Perhaps there was a firefighter on the squad, or team, or whatever you call it?—”
“Crew.” She smirked slightly, the corner of her lips lifting just a little. It was the first genuine show of mirth I’d seen from her, and I tried to focus on the task at hand and not how that small, insignificant little muscle contraction made a whole slew of muscles in my core contract.
“Crew. Right, got it.” I cleared my throat and bit back a groan when Tanner hit a really good spot under my hair. “Um, if someone on the crew was gay. Would they be safe coming out?”
“Safe?” Rhea’s brows furrowed over her eyes, and she cocked her head. “Are we talking about retaliation?”
“If someone is retaliating against a firefighter for being gay, that’s not only an ethical problem, but it’s also a legal one.” Tanner added, tensing next to me.
“Down boy,” I patted his thigh with a wink and clarified. “This is a hypothetical situation only, I don’t have any knowledge of someone on your team being gay, closeted or not. So don’t worry.”
“Crew.” She repeated and relaxed again. “But hypothetically, if there were, you want to know if they’d be safe?”