Liv’s mouth tilted at the corner.
“Has it been a month already? Congratulations, darlin’.”
Mae felt a rush of a half laugh escape her throat, a smile curve her cheeks. She thought Liv was maybe making fun of her, a little. Or maybe she wasn’t, but suddenly Mae wanted to be made fun of. For making such a big deal out of thirty measly days. There were so many things she wanted to be able to laugh about.
“Yeah. So, I went over to Dell’s, to see if…he wanted to celebrate with me.” A blush crept up Mae’s cheeks; she stared at the tabletop to avoid Liv’s eyes. “And he didn’t answer at the workshop door, where you were the other day, so I walked around and knocked on the sliding door by the deck. But after I knocked, he came out and he…” Mae bit her lip. “He was so angry, and yelled, and threw this mug at me, and…”
Mae leaned back in her chair and met Liv’s eyes again.
“When you just said that, about seeing a ghost, I realized that’s exactly what he looked like. I could tell he wasn’t himself, but it was still…disconcerting.”
Liv leaned back too, bringing her crossed arms to her chest. A serious crease lined her forehead.
“And what happened then?”
“Oh, I ran away,” Mae said with a shrug. “And then I called you.”
Liv nodded, thinking this over. “Right. Good call there.”
“Was it, though?” Mae turned her head to look out the window, which looked over the wetlands. “Do you think he’s okay?”
Liv released a small puff of air.
“I think it says something about you that a person throws a heavy object at your head and you’re here wondering ifthey’reokay, but…” She leaned forward again. “Listen, Mae. It’s not my place to reveal Dell’s confidences, all right?”
Mae quickly shook her head again.
“No, of course not; that’s not why I?—”
Liv held up a hand. “I know. I know. But if you’re living up there—and I do think it’s a hell of a thing, that Dell McCleary is allowing you to live on his property—then you should know that something awful happened to him before he moved here.”
And Mae remembered, then. Liv telling her, that first day at the IGA, that Dell had been through something. But?—
“Wait.” Mae frowned as the extra detail Liv had just mentioned slotted into her brain. “When’d he move here?”
Now that she thought about it, the fact that his mom lived elsewhere, that he didn’t seem to have any family around, already signaled that maybe his roots weren’t directly from here. But heseemedlike such a local that she’d never really considered it, the fact that he could’ve lived somewhere else.
Liv took a sip of her coffee.
“Few years ago now. Three, I think. Give or take.”
Mae’s jaw hung open until she snapped it shut. It made sense, when she thought about it. Lord knew the ADU looked brand new. So did his house. Had he built that, too? Three years ago?
“Where did he move from?” She knew she was contradicting herself, being a nosy Nancy, but couldn’t stop the question from escaping.
“Where does anyone move here from?” Liv brought the mug to her lips again. “Portland. Same as you.” And then, after a second’s consideration, “Well, at least he wasn’t from California.”
Mae’s mouth unhinged again.
“Dell is fromPortland?”
Liv laughed at Mae’s expression.
“And let me tell you, he fuckinghatesit when you give him a hard time about it. One of my life’s greatest pleasures. Except…” A frown passed over her features before she sobered back to neutral. “Maybe it shouldn’t be. Because like I said, some bad shit happened to him there before he left. Even I don’t know the full details. I doubt even Luca knows the full details. But I know it was bad. There’s a reason he doesn’t like the city. As opposed to, you know”—Liv waved a hand again—“most of the assholes around here who just want to be assholes.”
Mae clutched her plastic water glass, trying to wrap her head around all this.
“Who’s Luca?”
