The town hall was packed to the rafters with townspeople wanting to know the same thing we did about the development. There were also some faces that I recognized, including my buddy Deacon and his brother Joe, who was Sheriff of Clementine Hill. No sign of Cassidy, though.
“Deacon is here,” I told Nash, ignoring the rolling of my belly.
He looked over. “There’s a few faces I’ve never seen before. I spoke to Calvin, and he said that the front row are all from Sweet Maple Falls.”
“We’ve got five minutes, let’s go and see what Deacon knows.”
Nash followed me over, greeting locals as we passed. More than one of them asked what he planned to do about the development, like he was the Mayor and not Calvin. I wasn’t surprised because he’d always given off an heir of responsibility. He’d been captain of every football team he’d played in, spokesperson for all his friendship group whenever one was needed. He was our cheerleader when we needed it and the head of our family, even before Dad turned to the dark side and got sent to prison.
“Hey guys.” Deacon lifted his battered old cowboy hat and grinned. “Great turn out.”
“Shows you how much it’s not wanted.” Nash held his hand out to Joe. “Been a while, Joe. How you doing?”
“Good, thanks, Nash. As long as my brother doesn’t lose his cool tonight.” He gave Deacon a skeptical look.
“Which I will if they can assure us that fucking monstrosity is going nowhere near anyone’s land. Especially people with animals.”
I slapped him on his shoulder. “Appreciate you, because it’s too damn near my horses for comfort.”
“There’s only us here from Clementine, because even though it doesn’t affect us yet this thing is only going to get bigger. So, I promise you most of the town is against it.”
“Most?” Nash asked.
Joe rolled his eyes. “There’s the odd one or two in Mayor Rogers’ pocket, but that’s another story.”
“Hah,” I scoffed. “We know that feeling, don’t we brother?”
Nash sighed, his frown a window into his own thoughts of our dad. “I guess we do.” He patted my back. “We should go and take a seat. Great to see you guys.”
“You too,” Deacon replied and then held up his phone. “Oh, and I have a guy who I think would be a good fit as architect for your construction projects. I’ll send his number over.”
“Great, thanks buddy.” We shook hands and then Nash and I went and took our seats.
“This could get tasty.” Nash nodded over to a group of people standing at the side. In the middle of them was Dudley Granger, local busybody and owner of Dud’s Marvelous Motors. I’d had one of Dud’s motors when I was eighteen, let’s just say they were more duds than marvelous.
“You think he’s for or against?” I asked, leaning forward to look down the row of people.
“Knowing that bastard he’s all for the development. Think of all the new residents that could buy one of his shit vehicles,” Nash replied wryly. “Plus, I do believe he’s been having sexy times with Mayor Rogers.”
“How do you know that?” I glanced over at Sweet Maple Falls Mayor, sitting on the stage reading through something on her phone. Her long legs were crossed, tucked in next to each other and pointing away from her body like she’d been to etiquette school or something. It couldn’t be further from the truth, seeingas her dad and brothers were well known, blatant cattle rustlers. Word was not one of the cattle on their ranch had their brand, and if they did then the original one had been burned off. She was a year into her first term and had already caused friction by handing her dad a large portion of town land. She’d done it under some bullshit excuse about incorrect town rezoning years before.
“How do I usually get my info’; Peggy.”
I laughed. Lily’s grandmother liked her gossip and was rarely wrong. “Think you’re right, Nash, things could get tasty.”
The buzz of conversation continued around us as I scrolled through my phone and Nash chatted to the guy on the other side of him.
“Quite a crowd.”
The soft voice startled me. I whipped around to see Cassidy settling in the seat next to me. She was wearing her glasses, and her hair was up in a high ponytail. With the soft gray sweats that she was wearing she would have easily passed for a high school senior. Her face was clear of makeup, except for some shiny stuff on her lips. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it. Couldn’t stop wondering what it might taste like.
“Surprised to see you here.”
Cassidy frowned as she dug her hands deep into the pockets of her sweats. “Why?”
I shrugged. “Would have thought you’d welcome the development. Seeing as you like the big city life.”
She rolled her eyes and turned to face the stage. “You talk so much BS it smells like your ranch in here.”
