Now, they’re working on a billboard—a huge, back and front invitation to the store that’ll perch on the corner of Highway 40 and Lakeview Drive, mere yards from the parking lot at Sunny’s. We’re still working on the exact wordage, but I predict that adventurous families looking for a diversion will bypass Sunny’s for the G&G if we play our cards right. All we need is the right incentives. What they will be, I’m still brainstorming.

Regardless, I’ve charted our course directly into the bloated hull of the Sullivan Cruise Liner.

I don’t really expect to dent Sunny’s success. They’ve been here for decades. Sunny’s will always have us on size, offerings, and location. I only want to rescue the G&G and make it the best it can be. With customers streaming in, our plans are working.

The only downside to our glorious progress is that the one person I want to share it with isn’t into sharing anything with me. That’s not true for the rest, though.

Wade confided in me about Maureen. That man grieves her every day.

Christie told me about his vicious ex-wife, who belittled and mistreated him until he found the courage to leave. He said he couldn’t have done it without Wade and Roy’s support. Wade even offered him the trailer for next to nothing to give him and Wren a safe place to go.

I knew Wade was a secret softy.

Even Roy divulged his devastation over losing his job as a power lineman to one bad move that left him with a bum hip and a slight limp. The work he loved best was traveling to areas hard hit by storms and restoring their power. It always made him feel like a hero. Now, he feels he has nothing. He’d built his identity around his job, only for it to be taken away.

I relate to that and all of them in strange, beautiful ways. My unlikely associates are becoming my dear friends. They prove, once again, that everyone has a story, stories that should be heard.

I wonder about Grady’s story.

30. Grady

CHAPTER THIRTY

Grady

The door chimes my arrival, and all eyes turn toward me—I’ve interrupted something. Marina stands at the counter (now in the center next to The Canteen), holding up a rumpled manila envelope while her other hand is attached to her hip. Wade, Christie, and Roy stand in front of her as if on the receiving end of a lecture. Wade rubs the bridge of his nose. Christie shakes his head, flapping his dangling earrings. Roy looks aghast.

“I stand by it,” he says, hands splayed over his protruding belly. “I don’t get what the big deal is.”

Marina sighs, returning her attention to them. “The big deal is that it’s completely and utterly inappropriate.”