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Alissa sighed and put her drink down. Johanna hadn’t been outright rude—she engaged in conversation and drank her cocktail without complaint. But the tension between her and Dane, and by extension, Alissa, was thick and heavy. Every interaction oozed of disapproval, even if it seemed like she would have enjoyed what they were doing if it were in the city. Johanna just wasn’t a fan of Blueberry Bay or Alissa, period.
But Johanna did love Dane, so Alissa didn’t blame her for wanting the best for her son. But that didn’t make Johanna’s disapproval hurt any less—it was all because she lived in a small town. If Alissa had met Dane in a city, would Johanna have approved of her?
Alissa shook off those thoughts before they sent her anxiety spiraling out of control and focused on her first task: outlining an article for the magazine on the changes in the business landscape in the region. Just as Alissa got her thoughts in order and started jotting down notes, she heard Johanna’s now-familiar voice in the front room. Her whole body tensed and her heart dropped.
She crept toward the door of her office and peered out. Johanna was chatting with Josie, a pleasant smile on her face. It wasn’t nearly as tight as the ones she gave Alissa, though few would call it warm and friendly.
Dane peered out of his office as well, his eyebrows raised.
“Mom, you’re here?” Dane said, coming out of his office. “I thought you were going to sleep in today.”
“I felt restless.” Johanna shrugged, her gaze finding Alissa, who was still halfway in her office.
Alissa stepped out from her office, her cheeks hot. “Hi, Johanna.”
“Hello.” Johanna looked back to Dane, lifting an eyebrow expectantly.
“We’ll give you a tour,” Dane said, glancing back at Alissa. Alissa followed him into the small lobby. “You’ve met Josie, of course. She keeps everything running smoothly.”
He walked them over to the opposite side of the office, where their office printer, supplies, and storage were.
“We have all the back issues of the newspaper in here,” Alissa said with a smile, opening one of the cabinets. She had frantically reorganized it in anticipation of Johanna’s visit. Johanna looked the closet up and down, her arms crossed over her chest, and kept wandering.
“And we keep the issues of the magazine in this smaller one,” Dane added, opening it. He pulled the latest issue out and extended it to his mother. “This is our latest one. We had to give it another print run since it was so popular.”
“Hm.” Johanna thumbed through it for a moment, hardly scanning any of the articles.
“There’s a feature on the history of a lighthouse over in Whale Harbor. It’s not too far from here,” Alissa said. “It’s more surprising than you’d think.”
Johanna only nodded. Alissa swallowed hard, only comforted by Dane’s hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s keep going,” Dane said, steering Alissa out of the storage room.
They went to Dane’s office next, which Johanna showed some vague interest. Her eyes narrowed slightly at the photo on Dane’s desk of him and Alissa at the luau, but she didn’t outright say anything. But the look was slowly breaking down Alissa’s cheerful facade.
“And here’s Alissa’s office,” Dane said, pushing Alissa’s door open.
Johanna peered in, but didn’t step inside. The silence was killing Alissa second by second.
“I’m working on an article about the business landscape in town for the magazine,” Alissa finally said to break the quiet. “It’s something a little more serious, but our audience responded well to some shorter pieces in that vein.”
“It’s fine for small town amusement, I suppose,” Johanna said, not even looking at Alissa.
Alissa blinked, tears abruptly welling up in her eyes. The magazine and paper were “small town amusement”? It was so much more than that. They’d built it from the ground up, finding stories that people hadn’t thought to tell before. Finding all of those stories had revived Alissa’s love for her career, which she thought she’d lost her love for.
And people loved her work and the publications overall. It was already profitable and their orders grew all the time.
Plus, it felt like a representation of her and Dane—they’d spent hours together, raiding her desk’s candy drawer and bouncing ideas off of one another. If it wasn’t for The Outlet, they wouldn’t have ever met. This whole era of her life wouldn’t have happened. Who knew where she’d be? Back in Denver, grinding out at another job that sucked out all of her creative energy?
No, she couldn’t take a comment like that from Johanna. It was a step too far.
“We’re very proud of it,” Alissa said, her voice wavering. “And if you can’t appreciate anything about it, then there’s no point in trying to convince you.”
Alissa left the room before the tears spilled over, grabbing her purse off the hook near the door. She couldn’t stay here for another minute, so she rushed outside, brushing her tears away behind her glasses. After that outburst, she was sure she’d ruined everything with Johanna.
* * *
Dane stood stunned as the door clicked shut behind Alissa. Part of him couldn’t believe it had happened, but another part of him did. His mother’s dismissal of the thing that they’d built together must have been a knife in the heart to her. And it was to him too.
