Kieran finished installing the last outlet as cheering erupted from the living room, where he'd fixed the first one which luckily for them was on a separate breaker. The Jets must have taken an early lead against the Knights, although he didn't imagine that would last.

People kept clapping him on the back, offering him beer, and calling him the hero of the night. They were all intoxicated, but he appreciated that over being harassed. As he packed his tools, he thought of Naomi and that harsh stare her guy had given her for recognizing him by name. It made him deeply uneasy, yet the next time he'd showed up she'd seemed relaxed making out with him in the office and again in the living room, though after several shots with Greg and his buddy. While he wanted to be happy for her, something churned in his stomach.

You've met this chick twice, and you have an issue of fixating on attractive women who are taken. It's just jealousy.

Footsteps padded into the kitchen, and the tall, thin source of his thoughts walked in but alone.

"Kieran," she whispered and giggled, stumbling against the counter. Was alcohol the root of her happiness, or was it her jealous lover?

"Naomi, we meet again. How are you doing?"

She grinned, and her brown eyes sparkled. "So good. Guess who has her very own pizza tonight," she sang the last word with a shoulder shimmy, which made her body harder to ignore.

That explained the giddiness. The thrill of a new future was an incomparable high.

"So you told him about being a—"

He froze as a soft finger pressed against his lips. It sent a jolt of electricity throughout him.

Her eyes widened, and she pulled away with her bottom lip slightly ajar.

"No." After her voice cracked, she cleared her throat. "Not tonight. Tonight's too perfect to risk it. But it's official, even with his ex stalking around. He's cool with taking things slow."

From what Kieran understood, slow and asexuality weren't great synonyms. Slow was a speed with a destination he knew made Naomi uncomfortable. A destination it looked like her jealous boyfriend wanted based on how he stared at her. But she was the expert, so he stayed quiet.

"I'm happy for you." He meant it because she deserved to have her dream.

She stood opposite him, hands on the island counter, and studied him, which convinced him to do the same. She'd released dark brown hair from its earlier ponytail and fell in soft waves past her shoulders. Her oversized off-white button-up tunic was rolled up at the forearms, fitted in the right spots and unbuttoned enough to look flattering over her black leggings. Those legs were something else, long, toned and athletic. 

Kieran reminded himself she was drunk and taken.

"I'm glad the universe sent you here tonight," she murmured.

He chuckled. "I would credit your guy's poor electrical maintenance for that more than anything."

She held her hands up in the air. "Thank you, Universe, for making Greg a cheap, unhandy bastard."

Kieran laughed again and couldn't stop smiling. "You have a way with words."

"Some call me the poet of my generation, but most say, 'Nomi, that doesn't make any damned sense.'"

His brother and Austin may have had a point. Even without romance on the table, spending time with Naomi was quite entertaining. "That sounds like Jake when I think I have a decent idea. But he's usually right that it's trash."

She grinned. "I like your brother. Smart dude."

Kieran returned her smile as his shoulders relaxed. "He is, and as much as he irritates me, so do I."

"He can only do that because you care about him."

"You're making plenty of sense to me."

She leaned back and sighed. Wherever her thoughts wandered left a slight pout on her lips. As the silence rested between them, Kieran felt compelled to ask again.

"Are you sure everything's alright?"

"Yeah, I just need..." she chuckled. "I can't remember why I came in here."

"Because I'm so ruggedly handsome you can't help yourself," he teased.

Naomi laughed along with him and leaned against the counter. It was good to see that smile return. "Yes, said every ace woman who doesn't experience aesthetic attraction ever."

"It's not unique to the ace ones."

"You have a cool vibe. I mean, I miss eyebrow piercing tonight, but you're kinda alternative, don't always follow the rules, I possibly still live in my mom's basement but also might play drums or bass in a rock band that does classic rock or metal covers."

"Which really works on women my age," he said sarcastically.

"Not every twenty..." She met his gaze expectantly.

"Six."

Her wide eyes almost seemed forced. "Really? Okay, old man."

Kieran chuckled as she looked not much younger, but maybe she had that older look.

"Twenty-six-year-old wants the same thing. I carpooled with my former teammate who I used to have a lot in common with, but now her life revolves around motherhood. I would pick this over that any day of the week."

He wasn't sure whether to be flattered she considered him superior to raising a screaming infant. She had admitted she liked his vibe and eyebrow piercing, possibly unintentional drunken confessions, but he welcomed them.

"I hear you. It is paradise to come home to a house where you don't need to take care of anyone but yourself, and Jake if he's deep into programming mode, though he's designed an app to remind him of all those things, which renders me almost obsolete. I delete the occasional reminder, so he falsely believes I'm useful."

Naomi laughed, a sound he could listen to all evening. "Is he your only sibling?"

Kieran nodded.

"Do you guys get grandkid pressure from the folks too? Mine's not too intense since my older sister has a couple of kids, but it pops up from time to time."

His mom had teased him and Katy about it. He'd tried to block that part of his life from his mind as dwelling wouldn't change a thing. 

"I used to a bit, but we haven't talked since I left Kingston."

"How long ago was that?"

"Two years."

Naomi's dark brown eyes widened. "Wow. Big fight?"

"Jake's idea. My life was in shambles when I left Ontario. He pulled me out and gave us a fresh start here. He left Kingston because of me, so I owe it to him to keep that promise."

Kieran still felt guilty that instead of reinvesting in his tech career, Jake had cleaned up his mess then bought the three-bedroom condo, something he'd expressed no desire for when they lived in Ontario. Jake shared no regrets, nor did he blame Kieran. He adapted and started fresh like it was normal.

"That's intense. You're probably one of the few who looked forward to moving to Winnipeg."

At the time, all he was numb. He and Katy had planned a move to Halifax for her new job when... his chest tightened, and his breaths grew harder to take in.

"Kieran," Naomi's soft voice got cut off by footsteps.

He exhaled until the shaky feeling inside him faded. Her boyfriend entered the kitchen with narrowed eyes until he noticed Kieran's gaze.

"Nomi, I wondered where you went." Greg wrapped a possessive arm around her shoulder.

Kieran cleared his throat and stood taller. This situation was much easier to navigate. "I'm finished with the job. I'll write up the invoice. Do you want a quote for the panel?"

"No, I'd rather have someone else take care of that."

Of course, he would, although Kieran didn't mind. He seemed like a problematic customer. "I'll write it up in the truck and send it by email. Our office staff can process the payment on Monday if you give them a call."

"That's perfect, man." Greg wrote his information on an old receipt and wasted no time handing it to Kieran. "Please, only bill me for the time you actually worked." An accusation lurked in that stare like Kieran was a polar bear outside a seal's breathing hole.

He wasn't used to the idea of an athletic and attractive man like Greg being jealous of him, but it must hit everyone regardless of appearance.

"Thanks for your help with the power," Naomi added with a smile, as Greg wasn't going to.

"It's his job, Nomi. We're paying him for it."

She tucked her hands and her pockets. 

Was being a dick a prerequisite for being in a relationship in this province? Between Greg and the guys Brinny dated, there wasn't a single one he enjoyed being around or seeing them with.

"Have a good night." He slipped away before he'd have to endure that guy for another minute.

***

Instead of driving home after his shift, Kieran headed North, unsure of his destination until he pulled off the highway near the floodway. It flowed strongly in the spring with the influx of excess water from the snowmelt travelling from the States and Southern Manitoba through the Red River. It was Winnipeg's middle finger to Mother Nature after the floods in the 1950s. If a river couldn't behave, they'd move an enormous quantity of land to channel it around the city for a few months a year.

Katy would laugh, claiming they were testing fate. She loved natural disaster movies where nature forced humanity to change. She also adored spending time near water, not necessarily in it, but beside it, listening to waves crashing onto the shore and whooshing back to the ocean with fingerfuls of sand. Seeing those glassy reflections on rare windless mornings and running to any river, lake, fleuve, or ocean they visited to stick in her toes or fingers.

Kieran would have spent a lifetime being her plus-one for those moments. His throat choked up, and as much as he knew he should redirect his thoughts to work, or Jake or even his bizarre evening, he let them wander for once.

If Katy were here, she wouldn't think much of this place, a muddy channel between a sloping grassy divide, but there was no ocean nearby, just big lakes an hour away, which seemed too far to drive.

Her deep resonant voice floated to him in the breeze. 

Why are you so far away from our home?

It hurt too much to be there without you.

He couldn't imagine living in that house without her. Instead, he'd let Jake sacrifice a career opportunity for a move to Winnipeg, where Kieran's life consisted of going through life's basic motions: eat, sleep, work, repeat. Brinny and Jake's presences broke up the monotony, along with occasional casual sex with strangers or acquaintances, but rarely did it feel more than a step above numb. 

Conversations with Naomi lit the only spark inside of him, but he wasn't willing to put her relationship at risk for some silly, selfish soul-searching.

Let her enjoy it. What if she was a stone on the path to your happiness?

He pulled his jacket closer as a breeze rolled by. While he laughed and joked with others, the sentiment never flowed through him like it used to. He kept things light and entertaining to put others at ease, and because he hadn't a clue what would escape if he didn't. Fortunately, Naomi's boyfriend had showed up to remind him of that. 

Headlights from cars passing over the bridge in the distance lit up the horizon.

After moving here, he'd mastered avoiding genuine connections, beyond his friendship with Brinny. If she hadn't been so insistent on dragging him on adventure after adventure, he would have let it slip away. But she worked herself into the fabric of his life, and he grew to enjoy being needed even if it meant being a shoulder a cry on or a person to confide in when she wanted a male perspective on her romantic life. She used to hint at a relationship with Kieran, but if he were to do that she would pressure him to open up and resent him for avoiding it. It had been easier to focus on her and leave his past to rest as no good would come from digging it up. 

But did he want to live like this forever?

Despite his initial relief, a small part of him was upset Greg had interrupted the conversation with Naomi. If he had told her more, what would have happened?

Perhaps Naomi's infatuation with love, her vulnerability, or his two years in this city, proving this life was no longer temporary, had left a void in his chest, growing deeper by the hour. However, he was so jaded and out of practice that he didn't know how to find anything meaningful to fill it.