"When I get upset..." He paused, fighting a smile when she leaned forward. "My skin turns green."
Her expression morphed from expectant to skeptical. "You're pulling my leg."
Clay frowned. "No. Where do you think the idea for the Hulk came from?"
With a laugh, Dylan shook her head. "Stop teasing me."
He sighed. "I'm really not. When I get upset, I turn green and I get bigger. That's part of the reason trolls have such a hard time finding partners outside of their species. Everyone's afraid their kids will turn out green or have tusks or weird ears like that ogre in the movie that came out a while ago."
"Can any of that happen?"
"Sometimes our trollings will stay green for a few days when they're little. It's cute. And sometimes during puberty. That's about it. The trolls in the stories were cursed to look that way. Not born."
"Good to know," she said, going back to her work on the laptop.
Clay moved over to sit at the table next to her and glanced at the screen. "What are you doing? That's not Facebook or Instagram or whatever they're called."
"No, it's not. I'm designing a logo for you. Something simple."
"Clay's Creations?" he asked.
"Don't like it?"
"Not really."
She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "You don't?"
He shook his head.
Her eyes fired but she only asked, "What name did you want?"
"Dugan's Duds."
Dylan rolled her eyes. "Don't be an ass."
"Okay, okay. It's just that Clay's Creations sounds a little like a bakery or something like that."
To his surprise, she actually seemed to pause and think about what he said. "You have a point. And you don’t exactly come across as the artsy type.”
He laughed. "Ouch."
"You know you're not. You're more like a sexy lumberjack who chops wood in tight jeans like that guy on TikTok."
"What?"
"Never mind. Let's see Dugan's Wood Work..." She shook her head. "What you do is more than woodworking. You make lovely furniture but you do so much more than that."
He'd never much cared if anyone approved of his work, but her obvious appreciation of it meant something to him.
"Dugan Furniture and Wood Crafts," he said. "It wasn't quite what I decided on before, but it's close."
"Before?"
"When my mother was harassing me about doing this a few years ago."
Dylan laughed. "You refused to do this when your mother asked, but you're doing it now?"
"Yeah, don't tell her or she'll never forgive you."
