Page 34 of Beautiful Dreamer

“I’d say you’re pretty great at it. You are, aren’t you? You cansay yes.”

The side of Devyn’s mouth tugged. “A lot of people think so.”

“I’m more interested in what you think.”

Devyn didn’t hesitate. An easy smile slid onto her face. “I thinkI’m damn good at my job. Just hard to do it remotely.”

Elizabeth came farther into the room and pointed at the desk whereit had all just gone down. “I have evidence that says otherwise. You sold me onthat penthouse just now, and I’m not even in the market for one.”

“Then I’ll send over the paperwork immediately,” Devyn said.

“As for working remotely, maybe you should move back to the Bayand find out officially.” Why the heck did that just come out of her mouth? Hereyes fluttered closed as she attempted to recover.

Devyn, however, did seem to notice, as she laughed at hersuggestion and began to stack the file folders on the desk.

“What? I’m serious. Who wouldn’t want the best of both worlds?Small-town charm. Big-city job. Sounds awesome to me.”

“Not sure I would survive that,” Devyn said flatly. The sentimentstung, because it was a hit on the place she loved most, and Elizabeth had ahard time letting it slide. In fact, nope. She wasn’t going to.

She advanced on Devyn, who straightened and powered down herlaptop. “What is it about this place that you hate so much?”

“I don’thateit here.”

“You give off that vibe.”

Devyn sighed and leaned back against the desk. “Well, for one, notmuch happens. Ever.”

Elizabeth’s jaw dropped. “What are you even talking about rightnow? We have the silent auction soon, and goat yoga just started on theoutskirts of town. Goat. Yoga.”

“Well, you have me there,” Devyn said sarcastically.

“What else is a problem for you?”

Devyn tilted her head side to side. “In my experience, the peoplehere are laser focused on each other. They nitpick. They scrutinize and findfault.”

Something occurred to Elizabeth in that moment. Like a reallyinformative lightbulb, she understood one of the reasons Devyn might have a badtaste in her mouth as far as Dreamer’s Bay went.

“You’re doing it wrong,” she said. “That’s totally and completelyit. Think about it.”

“Okay, but I’m not following.”

Elizabeth tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her brainfiring. “Most all of your experiences have happened alongside who?”

Devyn stared at her in confusion, not coming up with the answerquick enough for Elizabeth.

“With Cricket and Heather and those other girls from school, whoareawful.”Hearing herself say that out loud, she quickly covered her mouth. “I didn’tactually mean that. They’re not awful, they’re…not as nice as they could be. Inthe scheme of things. It’s likely they mean well.”

“No, they’re awful,” Devyn said, dividing her attention betweenElizabeth and a file folder in her hand. “Last week at Roo’s pretty muchconfirmed it.”

“Okay then,” Elizabeth said, running with the new consensus. “So, maybeyour entire experience was colored a little bit by the company you kept back inthe day?” She shrugged in slow motion. “Just maybe?”

Devyn met her gaze. “I suppose there’s an outside chance that Iequate Dreamer’s Bay with my adolescent experience, which was, admittedly,pretty shallow and laced with judgment. The end result? Ignoring who I was foryears.”

“Ouch,” Elizabeth said, wincing. That sounded horrible and prettyhard to come back from.

Devyn raised a finger. “And let’s be clear, I can accept my shareof the blame. I was no peach.”

“Then maybe you need to see this place through new eyes.”

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