Chapter 25

On the lastThursday of October, Mae sat alone in the ADU and opened her planner. The rainy claws of November and all the gloomy months to follow inched closer, day by day. Even the weekend whale-watching visitors to Greyfin Bay had started to lessen; the weekdays were even quieter. Folks in the IGA were starting to share holiday plans.

And Bae Books was ahead of schedule.

There was nothing truly holding Mae back. She still had orders she was waiting on—she'd learned each vendor and publisher had its own quirks, requirements, and wait times. She still needed to work on signage, still had gaps where she wanted to fit more local merchandise.

But the bookshelves were done. The repairs and major remodeling were done. Dell had a security system installed last week. She had a business license and an inventory system. She had a lawyer and an accountant. She had a business bank account and a credit card reader.

She knew she'd have to hire at least one or two employees, but there were still a lot of unknowns to fill there. She'd chatted this week with Liv about Karizma, a local high schooler who currently worked weekends housekeeping at the Fin Inn, who also found herself pregnant at seventeen. From what Liv knew, Karizma loved to read.

Mae thought working weekends and a few days after school at a bookstore would likely be less physically demanding than housekeeping for a pregnant person, so she hoped to meet with Karizma soon. Send out a wider call when she knew how much help she might actually need. But for now, as the off season loomed on the horizon, Mae thought she could handle a quiet opening on her own. She already spent all of her days at 12 Main Street anyway.

Mae examined her planner. Sipped from a mug of tea.

And eventually, finally, she clicked open her pink pen and circled a date just under a month away, right before Thanksgiving, before holiday shopping truly began.

"November 21st, Jesus," she whispered. "See you then."

* * *

On Halloween, Dell was carrying in Bay Books's mail when his phone rang.

Five seconds into the phone call, Mae thought perhaps they had both been transported to a movie set. An alternate dimension where everything happened in slow motion, a scene she must have seen somewhere else before: the way Dell's eyes went blank, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the phone. The way the flyers and envelopes fell out of his other hand, fluttering to the floor like a slow dance.

Mae was afraid to speak when he hung up.

"Georgia had a stroke," he said. And, before Mae could respond, blinking down at the phone in his hand: "She's alive. She's okay. For now." His eyes were no longer blank when he finally looked up at Mae, where she was barely breathing, frozen behind the counter. "My mom had a stroke."

On a Friday afternoon, three weeks before Bay Books's opening day, Dell bought a one-way ticket to Michigan.