She unconsciously tugged on her right ear, which I knew was a nervous tic of hers and as much as I wanted to point and say, “Ha! I already caught you!”, another part of me was profoundly disappointed she felt she needed to hide this HUGE part of herself from me.

I said, “Fun.” Because what else could I say? Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do? I was pretty sure they already had.

Then I left them alone with a friendly wave.

Sure enough, I found Arthur in the library window seat, reading some paperback book with a centaur on the cover.

Closing the door behind me for privacy purposes, I had initially intended to ask him about tonight’s plans, if there were going to be any, which I hoped there would be.

But instead, I did that blurting thing I sometimes do.

“Is your aunt gay?”

Arthur glanced away from his book in surprise and blinked at me. “I’m sorry?”

“Your aunt. Is she gay?”

He sat up straighter and put his bookmark in place. “I believe the preferred term is ‘lesbian.’ Gay seems to be used more for men, though I don’t know if there’s any degree of exclusivity on—”

“Arthur!”

“Yes. She is. Lesbian.”

I came closer to him. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“It was never germane to any of our conversations.”

Sure, he had a valid point, but I still shook my head in amazement and plopped down beside him on the window seat.

“I thought she had a crush on my dad.”

That earned a full chortle. “Wrong member of the family.”

“Yeah, apparently.” Then I realized, “You knew?”

“That my auntie is smitten with your grandmother? Yes. I thought it rather obvious.”

“No. Well, I mean, yes. In hindsight.”

“It was a contributing factor to why she was amenable to changing our plans so last-minute.”

I backhanded his upper arm. “Shut up!”

“Ow!”

“How?”

He rubbed his upper arm and frowned at me. “The inn’s website. When I mentioned my suggestion about coming to Christmas, and the Hoyden in particular, she read some article on the site about the inn having won some prestigious award.”

“ ‘Best Boutique Inn in Oklahoma—2016’ from OK Visitor Magazine.”

“If you say so. It has photos of your grandmother, who, it goes without saying, is absurdly pretty.” I glared at him and he cocked a brow. “Well, she is.”

“Okay, but how did your aunt know Grandma Jo would, you know . . . like her back?”

“I don’t think she did. Until she got here and they hit it off at the jump. I suppose it was a chance on her part, really. Or she just got lucky.” He cleared his throat. “So to speak.”

“Huh.”

His eyes narrowed at me. “Does that bother you?”