Page 50 of Thirst For Me
“I wouldn’t say I’mrunning—”
“Is this what you really want? You want to stay in that cottage any longer than necessary?” She raises a silvery eyebrow at me.
“Uh . . .”
“We’ll be fixing that roof soon enough.”
“Right. Thank you. I appreciate it. And I can promise you, in the time that I live here, no matter how long it is, I will fix it up. If you’ll let me. I really love that kind of thing, and it will be my way of showing you that I’m a great tenant.” Stoned Sierra is really running her mouth now, and trapped deep inside, sober me is unable to stop her; I just hope she’s not writing checks my ass can’t cash.
“Fix it up . . . how?”
“Well, it could use some fresh paint inside. Something brighter. Maybe some updates to the furniture? I’m a fantastic thrifter. You must have some cool yard sales and second-hand stores around here somewhere.” Why am I sounding so excited about this?
Because I’m excited.
Maybe I’m just looking for more ways to fill up every second of my day so I don’t have to think about the meme or the look on Kyle’s mom’s face on that video call or that time Kyle invited his best friend to my birthday party and kissed her on the forehead right in front of me.
June eyes me, considering. Or maybe trying to decide if this is all just the marijuana talking.
“So, what do you say? I’ll make the Cozy Cottage even cozier for your next guest? And maybe you consider keeping me a little longer?”
“I’m not prepared to promise you anything, Sierra,” she says. “It may surprise you to learn, since it came so easily to you, but Pier Seven is quite a landmark. It has history in Orchard Cove. You’re not the only one who wants that building.”
Damn. “You’re talking about Mason Grant?” I was kind of hoping he’d realize that he was being unreasonable, and just find some other location to run a pop-up restaurant. And, you know, maybe he could go back to not hating me.
“It’s no secret that the Grant family has been wanting to buy that building for decades,” June says.
“Wow.Decades.If they want it so bad, why haven’t they bought it?”
June seems unusually hesitant, like she’s selecting her words carefully. “I’m not one to indulge in gossip.” She levels me with a steely look, like,You better not be, either. “But I’ll tell you this because it’s fact. Mason’s parents died last year. It was a car accident. Very tragic. Maybe they would have bought Pier Seven, if they could. But the thing is, it wasn’t always for sale.”
I take this in, the weight of the discovery settling uncomfortably in my chest. The knowledge that Mason suffered such loss, and so recently, tweaks my empathy. For his whole family.
But it feels wrong to ask questions of June about something so tragic. I’m not keen to gossip, either. Not about something so painful.
We’re both silent for a moment, sitting with it.
“But now, Pier Seven is for sale?” I ask tentatively.
“Why? Wouldyouwant to buy it?”
“Oh, no. I’m not in the market to buy a building.”
“Why not? I heard your smoothie bar was very busy today. I’ve been seeing those obnoxious Cutie Fruitie cups all over town.”
At this point, her criticism of my business just rolls right off. I actually think it might be praise in June’s grouchy old way. “Honestly ... I was going to buy a building. At the end of summer. But it didn’t work out.”
“Well, maybe it wasn’t the right building.”
“I guess not.”
“Why didn’t it work out?”
“Is it the small town in you that makes you so nosy, June?”
This seems to catch her off guard. “I don’t know. I never really thought about it before. I’ve always lived in a small town.”
“Food for thought.” I am on a roll, planting these little guys. It’s so satisfying, pressing them into the soft soil. “What can I say? I put a lot of faith in someone I probably shouldn’t have.”
