“Come in,”Luca called when he heard the knock at the door two days later. He was getting two beers out of the fridge when, for the first time in over a year, Dell walked into his cabin.
“Hey.” Dell shoved off his shoes.
“Hey.” Luca placed the beers on the counter. “You want one?” He didn’t know if it was weird to offer, to initiate the same routine they always used to do.
“Sure,” Dell said with a grin, and Luca’s chest eased.
He cracked open the cans. Handed one to Dell, being careful not to brush fingers.
“So,” Dell said after he took his first sip. “You had a real estate question?”
“Yeah.” Luca exhaled and propped his palms on the counter.
Dell McCleary specialized in real estate. Specifically, buying up places in Greyfin Bay that needed saving. Waiting until he found the right buyer, someone who would help conserve it or keep its integrity. Someone who actually cared about the future of the town and the ecosystem that surrounded it.
Hardly anyone in Greyfin Bay trulyknewDell, with the exception of Mae and possibly Liv. But even though he wasn’t a Greyfin Bay native, he’d become somewhat of a local legend within a few years of him living here. Everyone respected what he did. Everyone was grateful for it.
“I’m thinking of selling this place.”
“Damn.” Dell put his beer down and shook his head. Looked up at the ceiling, turned his head to look at the rest of the space for the first time since he’d walked in. Toward the bed where he and Luca had fucked for two years. “I was worried that might be the case when you texted, but I didn’t want to fully believe it.”
“Yeah.” Luca crossed his arms over his chest. Now thathe’d gotten over the first hurdle of surviving seeing Dell here again, the reality of the rest of it sunk in, a complicated swirl in his gut. “I know. Let’s talk a little, maybe.” He motioned toward the glass door at the end of his kitchen.
“Yeah. Let’s.”
They settled into the cheap plastic chairs on Luca’s deck, facing the Pacific.
“It’ll only really be worth it,” Luca started, “if I can make a decent chunk of change on it.”
When he’d thought about selling his cabin before, when his reservations had started decreasing, when he’d first started to freak out about the farm in a serious way. Maybe it was because he’d neveractuallycontemplated selling; maybe it was because he didn’t know anything about real estate. Maybe it was because he had just never been that smart. But all Luca had been able to think about at the time was the loss of rental income. He hadn’t contemplated that he could maybe make a significant amount of money from the sale until he’d shown the cabin to Emerson a week and a half ago and had explained—had remembered—how he’d lucked into it, how he’d probably gotten it at a steal.
“How much did you buy it for?” Dell asked.
Luca told him. Dell made a small hum.
A hum didn’t really tell Luca anything. Maybe he hadn’t gotten it at a steal. Maybe he still wasn’t that smart.
“I heard you’d been renting it out,” Dell said next. “You’re living at Short King Farms?”
“Yeah.” Luca shifted on his chair, ran a sweaty palm down his jeans. “Most of the renters have been good. A few have fucked up some shit, some scratches in the floor, things like that. Hopefully that doesn’t affect things too much.”
“No, cosmetic stuff isn’t a huge deal in inspections. What’s the plan then? Move onto the farm full time?”
“Yeah.” Luca cleared his throat. It was easier talking likethis, both of them able to stare at the dunes and the waves. “I sort of fell in love with a farmer, so.”
Dell huffed a breath. Yet another noise Luca couldn’t interpret.
And maybe Luca shouldn’t have said that. Considering he still hadn’t said the words to Emerson. It had just…come out.
It was less scary, somehow, saying it to someone else.
“Damn,” Dell said again, and took another sip of his beer. Luca didn’t really know what else to say, other than,so do you think I can make bank on this place or not, and he didn’t want to be rude. So he waited until Dell put down his beer and said, “I mean, I’m fucking jealous. Emerson, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Lucky guy.”
Now Luca huffed, crossing his arms over his chest again.
