* * *
“Can I ask you a question?” Mae asked an hour later as they headed south on 101, the bed of Dell’s truck full of red alder and remainders.
Dell was in the middle of muttering, “You’re gonna ask me anyway,” when Mae said over him: “Freddy Hampton.”
Dell glanced her way.
“My neighbor. Owns the bar. What about him?”
“He’s yourneighbor?”
“Well.” Dell raised a shoulder. “So much as I have neighbors. He lives down the road.”
Mae mumbled an unintelligible something under her breath.
“Has he ever seemed…homophobic to you?”
Dell frowned as he thought it over.
“Not really. At least…not outwardly, I guess, to me.” By which he meant, Freddy had never given him shit about his nails. But then again, Dell didn’t interact with the man much. A dark bar on Main Street that had to be half filled with tourists most of the year wasn’t Dell’s idea of a good time. And other than a passing wave out the truck window, he didn’t talk much with the other folks who lived along his road. It was possible Freddy had never gotten a good look at Dell’s nails. “But I’ve learned to never fully trust anyone I haven’t at least shared a meal with. And I’ve never broken bread with Freddy Hampton, so.”
He shrugged when he felt Mae staring at him.
“He do something to you?”
She shook her head, breaking her stare.
“I mean…if you countgiving off vibes that he really fucking hates the flags in my windowas doing something, yeah.”
Dell blew out a breath. He tried to figure out what to say to that, but found he didn’t have anything. If there was anyone who was going to change a person’s views on something like that, it wasn’t a Portlander with pink hair who liked being incongruous. That was just the truth of things. And Dell simply didn’t have any interest in talking to bigots, so he wasn’t going to sit Freddy down to parse out his views, either.
Unfortunate his bar was right next door, though.
“If he threatens you,” he eventually said, “let me know.”
Mae rolled her eyes. “I don’t need you to protect me, you big burly man. I was just…curious.”
Dell frowned deeper at that.Big burly man. He didn’t like her thinking of him that way. He was big, yeah. But the rest rubbed him in all the wrong directions.
“I wasn’t protecting you,” he said, a bite in his voice he couldn’t hold back. “I just like to know who the assholes are.”
They stared out the windshield in silence. Dell was about to turn up the music when she spoke again.
“Speaking of assholes. I have to talk about the candy store.”
Somehow, a surprised laugh huffed out of him.
Sometimes, people were so hateful, all you could do was laugh.
“Oh, yeah. The Millers. They are ugly people.”
“Thank you.” Mae threw up her hands. “But they own acandy store. It just…”
“Feels wrong?”
“Yes! I fucking love candy! I live onthe coastnow. I should be able to get some salt water taffy if the mood strikes me without being assaulted with aGod made two genderssign!”
“They switch up the signs, sometimes.” Dell’s smirk grew. “I never step foot in the place, to be clear. But Liv sends me an update when they put up a new one.”
