All right, then. Guess she was ready to open up about Becks, but not Jesus. Which was no skin off Dell’s back. Why was he wanting to ask all these things anyway?
Because the jurywasstill out. It was possible Mae was crafting a fine store, a place he’d like to hang out in, something Main Street even possiblyneeded. Not just a bookshop, but a bookshop made by Mae. A store where people would know they were welcome, with certainty, in a way no place else on Main Street offered.
But none of that changed the financial reality of owning a small business in Greyfin Bay.
Mae would likely still be back in Portland in a year.
“Yeah,” he said.
“And she’s still refusing your request to move from the UP to Greyfin Bay?”
Dell sighed. “Yeah.”
“I always wanted to visit,” Mae said after a moment. “I went to school in Madison, but never made it up.”
“A Badger, huh?”
“Yeah. And you’re a Wolverine?”
“Never actually went to college, but my mom was.”
“What brought you out west?”
Dell rubbed a hand over his face.
“Well, now it’s time for my story of dumbass things you do in your early twenties, I suppose.” He trailed off, though, having a hard time pushing the words out. Probably because, if he rarely thought about Lauren, hereallybarely thought about Naomi. It truly felt, sometimes, like he was a whole other person. He barely recognized that other kid.
“Moved out here for a girl,” he finally forced himself to say, just as Mae was pouring herself more champagne. He watched her lips twitch into a smirk.
“You and Olive,” she said.
“What?”
“Nothing. Didn’t last, I take it?”
“Not even a month.” He found himself smiling at the ceiling as Mae resumed her position on the floor. Or, rather, she returned to the floor, but he was pretty sure her position had shifted. That she was closer now. He could smell grapefruits.
“But you stayed. In the big evilPortland.” And before Dell could even roll his eyes again, she retracted the tease. “Sorry. I should stop giving you shit. Something fucked up happened to you there. I get it. I mean, as much as I can. I just mean I’ll stop.” A pause. “Unless you don’t sell me the building. Then I’ll keep giving you shit forever.”
Dell’s mouth curved even deeper.
“I’d be disappointed, at this point,” he admitted out loud, perhaps foolishly, “if you didn’t.” He added a minute later, his grin finally sobering, “But yeah, I stayed, because Oregon sucked me in. I’ll always stand by the UP being one of the most beautiful places on earth, and it was honestly a great place to grow up. But the Northwest felt like home real fast. I know Georgia would love it, too.”
He stared at what he now considered his corner of the chandelier.
“And look. I don’t hate everyone who’s from Portland. Okay? But…you’re far enough south here that a lot of the locals? They don’t just hate Portland. They hate thenorth coastbecause they think it’s too much like Portland.”
“I know,” she said softly.
“I know you do. But…” But what? What was he trying to say here? Blending in with the locals had never been hard for Dell because, well, he mostly didn’t give a shit, especially that first year, about anything other than his house and his dogs and getting to see the ocean. But he also didn’t have pink hair and a full sleeve of tattoos. He had never been interested in opening a shop on Main Street. “You have to watch out for yourself,” he finished.
“I know,” she said again.
And that was officially enough Portland talk for Dell for, oh, the next year or so. He pushed himself off the ground with a grunt.
“I think you’re missing out,” he said as he refilled his own mug. “Orange juice is delicious.”
Mae wrinkled her nose. It was fucking cute, and Dell cursed himself for being upright enough to see it. “Too acidic.”
