“How’s my favorite niece?” I stopped short of offering her a hug. At thirteen now, Quinn bounced between being a little girl and being a too-cool-for-her-uncles, or anyone else, teenager. I never knew what version I was going to get.
“I’m your only niece.” She wrapped her arms around me, and I happily accepted the hug. “Where’s the puppy? Dad said you got a puppy.”
“I did. He’s super cute, and you’re going to love him. But I left him at the shop with Brody for a bit.”
Her face fell. “Man. I wanted to meet him.”
“You can,” I told her. “He’s literally across the plaza.” I pointed behind me and laughed. “But first, you can help me find a spot to hang this.” I handed her one of the posters I’d been carrying around.
“Teens in the Trails?” She scrunched up her nose as she read the information. “Like, you hang out in the trails?”
“That’s exactly what we do.” I chuckled. “You should come check it out. I think you’d like it.”
“Yeah.” She gave me the kind of look that only a thirteen-year-old girl could give an uncle who clearly had no idea what he was talking about. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, Uncle Pres.”
“And why not? You might like it.” I knew I was pushing my luck, but I also knew that Ethan would love it if Quinn got involved with something like my group. She was a great kid, and she stayed out of trouble more than any other teenager I knew. Certainly more than her dad and uncles had at her age. But spending time outdoors was good for any kid.
“Do you read books?” She lifted the paperback she held in her hand.
“We do, actually.” Her eyes widened and immediately lowered into a scowl when I added, “Map books and guides to identify different types of edible plants.”
“Pass.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are we passing on?” Delaney joined us from the back room, her arms full of books that she balanced around her growing belly.
I rushed to relieve her of the books and set them on the front desk that Ethan had commissioned our brother Reid to make especially for her. “Quinn here has decided that, without even checking it out, my Teens in the Trails group isn’t for her.”
“It’s not happening, Uncle Pres.” She grabbed the roll of tape from the counter and moved to the window, where she quickly slapped up the poster. “But I am going to go meet your puppy.”
I waved her away and waited until she flew out the shop door, headed straight across the plaza, before turning to Delaney.
“I heard you adopted a puppy,” she said. “Summit?”
I nodded. “I don’t know about adopted. It’s more like I saved him. But either way, it does look like I have a dog now.”
“Right.” Delaney moved to the other side of the counter and started to organize the books she’d brought from the back. “I heard something about how you went rogue on a rescue mission.”
I didn’t bother responding to that. It wouldn’t matter. Instead, I turned to look out the shop windows at the plaza, my eyes catching immediately on the garish purple and gold signage. “Can you believe that?” I hooked a thumb in the direction of the offending sales office. “It’s like they’re trying to be obnoxious.”
Delaney shook her head. “Do you really think affordable housing is a bad idea in this town, though?”
“I don’t.” I sighed. “But I think there are about a million ways they could go about it without being obnoxious or destroying the best trail access we have.”
She left the books and looked up at me. “So, is your main objection how obnoxious it is? Or the location?”
“I just can’t believe that Jess would?—”
“Or is it Jess?” I shot her a look, and she laughed. “Ethan mentioned you two havehistory.”
“I wouldn’t call ithistory,” I grunted. “We were twelve. And she…well, it doesn’t matter.”
Annoyed all over again, I shook my head and looked out the window at Jess’s new office space. With a snort, I looked away.
“Look, Preston. If you’re really upset about it, why don’t you come to the community meeting and present an official objection?”
That was the first reasonable thing I’d heard. “You can do that?”
