right in front of you. And look—here you are. If you didn’t care about this place, if you didn’t see something worth saving in Mimi’s, in something that’s been around longer than either of us, you’d just let it go.” He gave her a quick glance. “Honestly, I figured you probably would.”
Mae flushed. There it was, all he was going to say, probably, about the way she had left not just Merinac but him. And now he was giving her too much credit, damn him. Saving Mimi’s was not why she was here. She started to say something, but what would she say? Instead, she followed him to the counter, where he set their dishes in a tub, then glanced at his watch, a solid, fat anachronism of a thing. “This place is going to be jammed in a few minutes. I’ll let Patrick take over, walk you back to Mimi’s, maybe say hi to your mom.”
Mae accepted this in silence, smiling at Patrick as he came out from the back room, relieved when he didn’t press for conversation. As they left the Inn she looked sideways at Kenneth. She’d done her morning’s work with satisfaction, but the thought of watching other people take its measure didn’t feel as good as she thought it would, and especially not now. “You’re going to be surprised,” she said.
“By what?”
“I painted Mimi’s.”
Kenneth stopped short, then picked up his pace. “No way. That place hasn’t been painted in— Oh no, Mae. You didn’t.” As Mimi’s came into view, Kenneth gasped. “You painted over Amanda’s sign!” He looked like she’d destroyed an icon of their childhood, and maybe she had. “And it looks like crap! Mae, you didn’t even do a good job. It’s bleeding through.”
He was right. When she’d left it this morning, the sun hadn’t been fully up, and the wet paint had erased all traces of the painted chicken underneath it. Now, though, the original painting appeared in shadow form. Kenneth picked up the can of paint she’d used. “This paint is never going to cover that, Mae. You’ll need something oil-based, and it won’t dry fast enough. And why would you do it anyway? Amanda’s sign was great. Everyone loved it.”
It did look awful. Half-done at best and shoddy at worst. Seeing what she had done through Kenneth’s eyes—and seeing that she hadn’t even done it right—made Mae feel defensive. She took the bucket of paint from him angrily, as though it were his fault it hadn’t worked. “I can’t just put another coat on it?”
“It won’t look any better. It’s just not the right kind of paint, Mae. Why didn’t you ask someone?”
Because anyone she’d asked would have said not to paint over the sign, of course. Kenneth didn’t know how much Amanda deserved to be erased from the face of Mimi’s at this point. Nobody did. Mae could try to explain, maybe—but no one else would get why this made sense.
Had seemed to make sense.
And now it looked awful. She didn’t want Amanda’s sign. Amanda’s sign didn’t belong there anymore. But how could she have messed things up so badly? Tears came to her eyes. “I just didn’t.” She felt like a belligerent teenager with no way to excuse her bad behavior. “It’s done now, though. And you’re right; it looks like crap. What am I going to do?”
“Okay,” he said, taking in a deep breath and looking at the ugly wall. “I have an idea. Wait here.” Seeing her face, he smiled a little. “This was stupid, Mae. But I think we can make it better.”
He turned, heading toward the Inn, and Mae sat on the bench in front of Mimi’s. The sign wasn’t all she was upset about. Mimi’s had been around longer than they had, yes. So had Merinac. But if you’d outgrown something, there was no point in pretending otherwise, right? Maybe Kenneth wanted to tie himself to this place again. Good for Kenneth. But for Mae—wasn’t it enough that she was here now? Kenneth had his whole family to come back to—and he’d done what he set out to do when he left. She had a backstabbing sister and a mother who would never really change, a house she’d never enter again, and a whole lot more to lose. He’d understand, if he gave it more thought than he gave his annoying latte art.
She flicked her phone awake. Silence from Jay, which did not make her feel better. Instead of words, she sent him