“Sounds like heaven to me.” Annie put her arms around Jane. “I’m here if you want to talk about this more. Thus far, I’ve been the menopause expert in this marriage. I’ll happily share my first-hand knowledge with you.”

“Just hold me for a while longer.” Jane exhaled, then breathed in Annie’s scent, the warm comforting smell of her wife, and despite the subject of their conversation, she was grateful for the moment.

Chapter Thirteen

Annie couldn’t believe she was sitting across from Caitlin James. She had shown her around the shop and stopped at the mini-display of her books they had put up, to which Caitlin had reacted with a pleased groan.

On top of that, Kristin was sitting at the table with them as well. Mere months ago, Annie had been considering selling her shop to Pages, and now here she sat, talking about a Caitlin James reading in her shop with the woman she had a benign crush on—that was how she had relabeled it in her head after her conversation with Rita. Because it was benign. Annie loved and was devoted to Jane. And Annie used the same logic that Rita had applied when she’d rationalized her own past crushes. Annie’s infatuation with Kristin had, in essence, nothing to do with Jane.

This reasoning also allowed her to imagine Kristin having the same sort of benign crush on her. It didn’t matter that it was pure fantasy. They both felt the same but couldn’t possibly let on, which didn’t mean they couldn’t privately indulge in their separate fantasies. Annie was certain of one thing: how she felt about Kristin was miles away from how Jane had felt about Beth Walsh. This was no threat to Annie’s relationship with her wife at all. And Jane need never know.

Meanwhile, Annie would just enjoy it as guilt-free as she possibly could. As she did now, watching Kristin gesticulate with those measured hand movements of hers. Nothing Kristin said or did was ever too much. She was so elegantly restrained in her tiniest gestures, with the emphasis on elegant. Someone else might call it uptight, but to Annie it was pure grace in motion. Kristin was perfectly aware of her boundaries and never even came close to overstepping them.

Caitlin’s phone started ringing. “I’m so sorry.” She looked at the screen. “Jack again.” She shot Kristin a look, as if Kristin knew all about Jack.

“He keeps asking Caitlin to take over The Zoya Das Show. I think he’s pretty close to convincing her,” Kristin said.

“That show ended when Zoya emigrated to France, didn’t it?” Annie spoke as if she knew Zoya Das personally, even though she had never met her.