Finding Home

Riley Chen stood in the doorway of Turning Pages, her mother's bookstore, and wondered when everything had gotten so complicated. Three months ago, she'd been living in San Francisco with her girlfriend of four years, working at a tech startup, convinced she had her life figured out. Then Melissa had sat her down one Tuesday evening and casually destroyed everything.

"I'm not attracted to you anymore," Melissa had said, like she was commenting on the weather. "I think I might actually be straight. Or at least, I need to explore that possibility."

Riley had moved out two weeks later, crashed on her best friend's couch for a month, and finally admitted defeat when her lease came up for renewal. Now she was back in Cedar Falls, Oregon—population 15,000, one stoplight, and approximately zero queer visibility—helping her mother run a bookstore while she figured out what the hell to do with her life.

"You're staring at that door like it personally offended you," her mother said, appearing behind her with a box of new releases. "Are you coming in or just blocking the entrance?"

"Coming in," Riley muttered, stepping aside to let her mother pass. At thirty-two, moving back home felt like failure. But rent in San Francisco was impossible on her savings, and her mother had been asking for help with the store for months.

"Good. Because we have a lot of work to do before the renovations start next week." Her mother set down the box with a satisfied grunt. "The space next door finally sold, and the new owner is turning it into a wine bar. They're doing construction, so we'll need to reorganize the whole back section."

"A wine bar? In Cedar Falls?" Riley couldn't help her skeptical tone. "Who's going to—"

"Sam Morrison. Moved here from Portland about six months ago. Very nice, very professional." Her mother gave her a meaningful look. "And single, before you ask."

"I wasn't going to ask." Riley moved to the box, pulling out books to avoid her mother's knowing smile. "And I'm not dating anyone from Cedar Falls. I'm only here temporarily."

"Mm-hmm," her mother said, in that tone that meant she didn't believe a word. "Well, Sam will be here tomorrow to discuss the shared wall. Try to be pleasant."

Riley had no intention of being anything but professional. She was done with relationships, done with women who suddenly decided they weren't gay after all, done with getting her heart broken. She was going to help her mom with the bookstore, save some money, and figure out her next move.

Dating a small-town wine bar owner was absolutely not part of the plan.

Sam Morrison showed up the next morning at exactly nine AM, wearing Carhartt work pants, a flannel shirt with the sleeves...