He stiffly joined them at the kitchen counter, breathing heavily through his nose and staring at the glass his wife had poured for him.
“How is it?” Alice asked.
Cheyenne feigned hesitation and turned toward Sir.
“Oh, be honest.” Alice chuckled and sipped her wine. “There aren’t nearly enough people in this world with the gumption to tell my husband the truth. Honestly, I don’t see why everyone seems so scared of how he’ll react, but he needs it, Cheyenne. Trust me, you won’t hurt his feelings.”
Sir picked up his whisky, looked from the amber liquid to his wife, and smiled. “You make me sound like some kind of dictator.”
Alice’s easy laughter drowned out the sound of Cheyenne choking on her next sip. The whisky fumes burned up her nose before she swallowed. Still worth it.
Sir shot her a scathing glance and took a huge gulp.
“Honey, you know that’s not what I mean.” Alice waved him off and leaned over the counter splitting the kitchen down the middle to share a conspiratorial glance with Cheyenne. “Honestly, I think I’m the only one who ever questions him, and I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“Well, you should count yourself lucky.” Cheyenne lifted her glass to toast the woman again. “At least he’s his best self around you, if not everyone else. Some people don’t treat their family any differently than their coworkers, and that can be difficult.”
Alice blinked in surprise, and her smile grew with her admiration for the young woman standing in her kitchen. “I don’t usually ask people this the first time I meet them, Cheyenne, so I apologize in advance.”
“Don’t worry about it. What do you want to know?”
“How old are you?”
Sir rolled his eyes and took another huge swig of whisky.
“Twenty-one.”
“Really? And you landed a job in Guy’s department already?”
“We’ve only been working together for…what is it, Guy? Two months?”
He grunted. “Something like that.”
Alice shot her husband a playful frown. “Did he hire you personally?”
“He sure did.” Cheyenne grinned at Sir and raised her glass. “Picked me right out of a crowd, didn’t you? And you know what, Guy? I still haven’t asked you what made me stand out above all the other applicants.”
“Oh, yes.” Alice turned toward her husband too, her eyes wide with interest. “I’d love to hear this story.”
Sir blinked furiously beneath both women’s gazes, smacked his lips, lowered his glass to the counter, and shot Cheyenne a quick glance. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t do that.” Alice sipped her wine again. “We both want to know.”
“I liked her style. I guess.”
Cheyenne had never worked so hard in her life not to break out laughing. Somehow, she managed to keep it all filtered into a grateful, composed smile. “That’s so sweet.”
He grunted again.
“Sweetheart,” Alice said as she gently rubbed her husband’s back and gazed lovingly at him, “it is. And Cheyenne, I don’t mean for this to come off as offensive in any way, but we can talk all we want about how important it is not to assume things about people based on how they dress.”
“Never judge a book by its cover,” Cheyenne added.
“Exactly. It’s so great to see young people like you following your dreams, applying to work in a high-level department like Guy’s and still freely expressing yourself in a way that feels right to you.”
“It is a nice story, isn’t it?” The halfling wrinkled her nose in pretend glee and raised her glass toward Alice again. “Your husband didn’t care one bit about the way I look. He’s one of those open-minded, inclusive, forward-thinking people, you know?”
“Oh, Guy.” Alice leaned toward her husband and placed a lingering kiss on his cheek. Then she gave Cheyenne a coy smile and a playful shrug. “That’s one of the things I love most about this man.”
“Among many others, I bet.” Cheyenne smiled sweetly at Sir and batted her eyelashes. I can go on like this all day, Major. Your move.
He thumped a fist on his chest and grimaced. “We still have Tums in the cabinet, don’t we?”
“Should be right next to your other meds, yeah.” Alice watched him walk away, then fixed Cheyenne with a secret smile. “He gets embarrassed so easily.”
“I would never have guessed.”
“I know. Under all this pressure at work and the constant responsibilities. He’s been in that department for about as long as you’ve been alive. Ha. Isn’t that funny?”
“Just coincidence after coincidence.”
“We’ll give him a minute. Oh. I want to show you something.” Alice stepped away from the counter, took a long drink of wine, then leaned over to set her glass down before heading into the hall again.
His footsteps pounded across the hardwood floor from the other side of the house, and he skidded to a stop in the hallway, his eyes wide. “Alice. What happened? I swear, if she—”
Alice frowned at him and pointed at the charred hole in the wall. “What’s this?”
“Electrical shortage.” Cheyenne stopped in the door of the kitchen and leaned against the frame, sipping her whisky. Alice turned toward her, and Sir scowled at the halfling behind his wife’s back. “I saw a few loose wires in there when I walked by. Looks like something chewed through, maybe shocked itself. You might wanna check the place for rodents. You know,” her gaze darted toward Sir, and she raised her eyebrows, “rats.”
Alice glanced into the charred hole. “Honey, you still have the number for the exterminator we used last spring?”
“I’m sure I can find it.” A vein throbbed in the major’s temple.
“We should call them tomorrow.” Alice glanced at her wristwatch and jumped. “Oh. Here we are chatting away, and I still have to get the steaks out of the marinade and put the rolls in the oven.”
“Steaks.” Cheyenne nodded. “Very nice for a Monday.”
“It used to be almost every day of the week. I finally convinced him of what the doctors have been telling him for years. Less red meat. More greens.
