Mae, meanwhile, plugged away at putting up the wallpaper while he worked outside. He had to admit, the pattern was classier looking than he’d expected. A mostly white background with subtle gold accents and an occasional sage-colored leaf. It would look good, Dell thought, next to the bookshelves. The wood warm, the walls clean.
“Well. Just wait until you see what I have planned for the bathroom,” Mae had said with a wiggle of her eyebrows, when he’d ill-advisedly decided to give the walls a compliment.
It had altered his daily routine, spending most of the day on Main Street instead of at his house, but it’d been okay. Good, even. It was peaceful in the quiet of the shop’s back deck, in the muted world of his headphones and the whir of his circular saw.
He took a sip of his coffee, tapping awake the laptop that lived on a side table just off the kitchen. He’d spent the morning back in his workshop with one of the pieces of reclaimed wood they’d brought back from Tillamook for floating shelves; it only required some sanding and prep for the wall mount. Maybe he’d install it today before he got back to work on the larger shelves. Might be exciting for Mae, to actually get something on the walls.
Opening his emails, there was only junk on the personal and real estate side, and one custom order from the online shop. He’d make time to fit that in over the weekend. Shutting the laptop, he took an extra second to rub the velvety pittie head of Nash, who had wandered over to rest his jowls on Dell’s thigh.
The dogs had been a touch clingier, confused at Dell’s days away from home.
“We’ll go on a run tomorrow morning, all right, boy?” he murmured, giving Nash’s head another pet, taking another sip of coffee, before moving to stand.
And that was when the shots rang out.
nine
Mae clutchedthe neck of the bottle of champagne, standing on Dell’s deck, staring at her reflection in the sliding glass door in front of her.
It was October first.
She’d officially been in Greyfin Bay for a month.
It had been, simultaneously, the longest and shortest month of her life.
And now that she’d reached this anniversary, now that she was allowing herself the first day of complete rest since she’d moved here…
She’d been running on almost complete adrenaline for thirty days. Had accomplished more than she’d even hoped for at this point. She had swung by the IGA last night just before it closed to grab this champagne, in anticipation of being lazy and triumphant today.
But when she woke a few hours ago, she’d only felt melancholy.
She’d dwelled in those unproductive feelings for a while, until she found herself here. In front of Dell’s sliding glass door.
The only other person she truly knew in this town was Liv, and even that was still a developing friendship. The only other people she knew on the coast were her parents and the folks in her small business class at the community college in Newport. And while she’d loved getting to know her classmates—people young and old, from all walks of life, with such diverse goals and dreams, such a different experience from undergrad—Mae was still, on the whole, more alone than she’d perhaps ever been.
Even the messages in the group chat had started to make less sense. Stories Mae hadn’t been there to witness, to fully understand. Vik still reached out regularly, but the others already felt so far away. The list of everything she missed from the city had started to become a physical ache, a quiet pain constantly present.
So she’d taken to spilling all of her thoughts to Dell.
Dell was just…always there.
Mae knew, logically, that Dell was likely only interested in monitoring how his property was coming along. Because she acknowledged, begrudgingly, that it was still his property. But if hetrulyhated listening to her talk, she could only imagine he would eventually stop walking through the door.
It was possible her landlord—her landlord twice over, really—had somehow become her closest friend here.
And his land, nestled in the foothills, her safest space.
No matter how hard she’d tried to ignore him. No matter how she’d pretended, in the beginning, that she was looking for another place to stay.
And his truck was still in the drive, so she knew he was here. Even if he hadn’t answered her first knock on the door that led to his workshop, on the other side of the house. Mae had still never actually been inside Dell’s house, but she’d gotten a peek one night a week or so ago, when Liv had come out of the workshop door as Mae was returning home. “I take care of the dogs when Dell visits…a friend,” Liv had said with a smirk, which was impossible to not interpret as Dell having a fuck buddy. Which, well. Good for Dell. The idea hadn’t made Mae’s thighs clench at all.
Point was, his non-answer at the workshop door had made her come around here, to the deck. The deck where he played his quiet guitar with his rumbly voice.
She readjusted the champagne bottle in her hand, taking a deep breath before she knocked again. She’d already tried once, softly, nervously, but to no avail. Maybe he was watching her through the glass from the other side of the room right now, purposely ignoring her. All she could see was her own reflection, the misty morning behind her. She hadn’t asked for permission to come over. Maybe it really was silly, asking Dell McCleary to share a mimosa with her.
Whatever. Whether he ignored her or laughed at her, she hadn’t let Dell slow her down yet. She’d ask, and then retreat to the ADU to commence her celebratory day of rest by herself. Which was just fine. She was fine. There was no reason for her palms to be sweaty, for her pulse to be hammering in her throat.
With forced confidence, she raised her fist and rapped her knuckles against the glass once more.
