“What’s not to like?” Miri growled like a mama bear whose cub had been attacked.

Her instant defense warmed Anja despite the cool January wind. She wrapped one arm around her friend and squeezed while they continued to walk. Despite their height difference, their steps matched, probably because they had done this same walk around the lake almost every evening for the past fifteen years.

Anja lowered her gaze to Miri’s favorite salmon-colored sneakers that were practically glowing in the dark—probably just like her ears. “She thinks I’m not comfortable around gay people.”

“You?” Miri shortened Gino’s leash for a second as they reached the end of the bridge and someone on a bicycle whizzed past them. “Why would she think that?”

“Long story.” After the day she’d had, Anja didn’t have the energy for long explanations. “She misunderstood the way I looked at her when I found out who she was.”

“So if she took it personally, I take it she’s part of the rainbow family?”

“Yeah, out and proud, according to Nobby. Having a lesbian niece is probably part of why he took it so well when I came out as bisexual to him.”

Miri let out a low whistle that made Gino bark once. “So she’s hot and gay.”

“Forget it,” Anja said forcefully.

“What? It was just an observation.”

“Sure. Just an observation. Like that time you tried to set me up with the guy from the ice cream parlor who thought being bi meant I’d be eager to have a threesome with him and another woman.”

“Hey, how was I supposed to know he’d be such a creep? He seemed nice.”

“Well, Susanne Wolff is anything but nice, so forget it.”

Miri laughed. “Her name is Wolff?”

“What’s so funny about that?”

“Wolff…Lamm…wolf…lamb…” Miri pointed back and forth between Anja and some imaginary person. “Don’t you get it?”

“Yeah, well, this lamb is not going to get eaten by the big, bad wolf.” Anja kicked a piece of wood out of the way and watched as Gino chased after it until the leash reined him in.

“I want you to know that I’m heroically abstaining from making a suggestive joke about what you just said.”

Anja’s cheeks heated. She hadn’t even realized the double meaning of her words. “Thank you.”

“But seriously, you should be more open toward meeting new people.” The humor was gone from Miri’s voice.

Not this again. “I’m meeting new people in the store every day.”

“I’m not talking about customers. You need more than Paper Love. You haven’t been on a date, much less had a relationship since the Stone Age. There’s this woman I’m friends with on Facebook who—”