of him.
Clara glances at me from the corner of her eye. It’s one of her friends, probably. A native Sunrise Bayer who can’t bear to see the girl be tortured into handling this complicated situation herself, no doubt.
“I’m fine with that,” Clara says.
“We don’t even know for certain what the building is worth,” I interject.
Clara huffs, but I ignore her.
Mr. Lawson nods. “I’m sure you looked over the paperwork I gave you yesterday. The appraisal came in at a hundred fifty thousand. The third party is offering a fair amount of a hundred twenty-five thousand. They’ll take it as-is, so the two of you don’t have to worry about anything. Other than a lot of papers pushing around, which you could do from Connecticut,” he says to me. “And Clara, I know you aren’t interested in the building.”
“Yeah, I’m good with the sale,” she says again.
“I hate to be the stop sign here, but how do we even know if it’s a fair offer? Someone might offer us more on the open market. Plus, what if I want to keep it?”
Clara whips her head in my direction. “You can’t be serious.”
I turn toward her, and I’m struck by how similar we look now that I’m this close to her. Yeah, her hair is dark brown, the color mine used to be before I began dying it blonde. But our skin tone is the same, as are our lips. Having someone share the same characteristics with me after growing up with no one sharing any feels weird.
“I am serious,” I say.
“You want to stay in Sunrise Bay? Is this because of Cade Greene? Because you’re wasting your time if you think you’re going to ride off into the sunset with him.”
I throw my hands in the air. “What are you talking about? And how do you know about anything to do with me and Cade Greene?”
I’m used to gossip. Hell, I grew up in high society where the gossip isn’t just that someone asked someone else out. It’s that her dad embezzled from the company, or her dad is sleeping with his mom, or the business isn’t going well and they’re going to lose everything. And most of those are shitty lies made up to hurt someone.
“Isn’t that the whole reason you’ve been showing up around town? To ignite rumors?”
I stand, unable to sit next to her anymore. “Ignite rumors? If you’re going to be mad at someone, be mad at your mother. She didn’t have to drag me back here, then write some letter about how she wants me to have a relationship with you. I think you have enough people in this town who have your back.”
Clara flies up from her chair. “And they should. I’m from here. I was raised here.”
“Well, I don’t want to be here anyway.” I grab the envelope on the desk with the keys to the store. I rip it open and take out one. “But this is mine. And you don’t have a say on whether or not I accept an offer for the building.”
“Oh please. What are you going to do? Open up a high heels shoe store? Because this is Alaska and I hate to break it to you, but you’re going to fail.”
I groan, open the door, and walk right by that Xavier guy waiting in the reception area for his darling Clara.
“Presley,” Beth says.
But I fly out the door, heading right to the store as if I’m going to squat there and prevent anyone from buying it. I’m fully aware that I’m allowing my damn stubborn side to take over, but right now, I can’t find it in myself to care.
The bell attached to the door rings as I step into the space. It’s dirty, dusty, and cluttered. Three rows of sewing machines sit on tables, and the walls are filled with spools of thread, bins of rolled-up fabric under them. Books of patterns are stacked on a table in the corner.
Sitting in one of the chairs, I dial up my mom, happy that with the time difference, it’s later in the morning there.
“Presley,” she says. “What did the lawyer say?”
I called Mom last night after Cade canceled and I bought a new outfit. Not that Mom wouldn’t have called me—the woman probably has a tracker embedded in me somewhere. My mom takes the word overprotective as a compliment.
“There’s a third party who wants to purchase the building.”
She lets out a long, relieved breath. Just like she did when