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Frank Donnelly came out of his hardware store as we approached, arms crossed, expression suggesting he’d been watching for us. “Cole.”

“Mr. Donnelly. I wanted to thank you for your time last night. Your questions about the renovation timeline were helpful.”

“I didn’t ask those questions to be helpful. I asked them to find holes in your plan.” He blocked the sidewalk. I would have to go around him or through him. “You’ve got Nora walking you around like you’re a visiting dignitary. Don’t think that means people trust you.”

“I don’t think that.”

“Good.” His attention turned to Nora. “You know what he’s doing, right? He’s gathering intelligence. Learning our weak points so he knows where to push.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Nora said. “And I know the difference between gathering information and honest curiosity.”

“There’s a difference?”

“The difference is what happens after the questions.” She stepped closer to Frank and rested a hand on his crossed arm. “Griffin asked me to show him what his spreadsheets miss. I’m giving him the chance to mean it. If I’m wrong, we’ll deal with it then.”

Frank looked at me, then at Nora, then at the hardware store sign above his head. “My grandfather built this place,” he said, and his voice had lost some of its edge. “He cut the lumber himself on the old Miller property, carved the sign by hand, and kept the store open through three recessions.” He kept looking up at it. “I sold it in oh-nine to a management company in Portland and I’ve paid rent on my own family’s floorboards for sixteen years. So when you ask why I don’t like a man who buys buildings, that’s why. I already met him. He just had a different name.”

I didn’t have an answer for that. The Portland company had raised his rent nine percent every year and never sent anyone to inspect the roof.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Don’t be sorry. Be different.” Frank uncrossed his arms. “You know what Nora did when Pearl’s bakery was going under? She organized the whole merchant association in forty-eight hours. Got commitments from every business owner on this street. Made a presentation to the town council showing how Pearl’s failure would cascade through the local economy. Convinced people who’d been feuding for years to put aside differences for someone who needed help.”

I looked at Nora. Her face had flushed pink, and she was studying the sidewalk with intense focus.

“She doesn’t like talking about it,” Frank continued. “Says it was just neighbors helping neighbors. But it was more than that. It was leadership. Business school and consultant training don’t teach that.”

“I believe that.”

“Do you?” Frank stepped closer, his voice dropping. “Because from where I stand, you’re studying this town. Nora is protecting people she loves. Don’t confuse the two.”

He retreated into his hardware store without waiting for a response. The bell chimed behind him, leaving me alone with Nora on a sidewalk that felt colder than it had a minute earlier.

“He’s protective,” she said.

“He’s right.”

That stopped her. “About what?”

“About that.” I put my back against the brick because I wanted something behind me. “I’ve spent twelve years studying towns like this. I know how to find the problems and run the numbers. I don’t know how to belong to one.”

Nora studied me. “Then stop studying us from the outside.”

“My father built strip malls.” I hadn’t planned to say it, and I didn’t like hearing the words on a public sidewalk. “He built forty-one of them. He would’ve looked at this street and seen an assemblage opportunity. He would’ve been right about the numbers. I’ve spent twelve years proving I’m not him by moving more slowly.”

“And?”

“And Frank just described my method back to me and I didn’t recognize it until he finished.” Somewhere in the middle of it I’d started looking at the hardware store sign instead of at her. “I don’t know what to do with that yet.”

The bank clock read one forty-two. Nora had checked it twice without cutting the conversation short. “You could learn,” she said. “If you wanted to.”

“I don’t know how.”

“You start by staying.” She stepped toward me, closer than the conversation required. “You sit through long meetings. You show up when nobody invited you. You listen even when the answer makes no sense to you.”

“That sounds inefficient.”

“It is.” She was almost smiling. “People notice who stays after it stops being convenient.”