“Or, have brothers who come early.” Reid took the otherempty seat next to me. “Hey, Pres. I heard a rumor you were coming tonight. I couldn’t miss it.”
“You don’t usually come to these things?”
Reid used to run a handyman service in town, but after marrying Avery in what turned out to be a marriage of convenience so she could keep her inheritance of the old inn, he had pivoted to a business of custom furniture building. And he’d also fallen in love for real.
Reid shook his head. “No way. This is Avery’s area. But she was tired tonight. Besides, I couldn’t believe it when I heard you were actually coming. I had to see it with my own eyes.”
My brothers all laughed, but I didn’t join in. “You think I don’t care about the town?”
“No,” Ethan said. “We think you don’t care about meetings and structure.”
“You’re not really theagendatype of guy,” Grayson agreed. “I’m pretty sure there’s a good reason why Brody takes care of the logistics in your shop.”
“Yeah.” I scanned the meeting agenda. “He’s better with people. Give me the backcountry any day over this chaos.” I spun around in my chair to take another look at the growing crowd. “Are all the meetings like this?”
Grayson nodded but didn’t have a chance to say anything else as Asher Carlson dropped down into the empty seat next to him. “Hey, Lyons. Huge turnout tonight.” His gaze locked on me. “Preston Lyons. What had to go sideways in your life for you to end up here tonight? I must admit, you are the last person I expected to see.”
“You and me both, man.” I shook my head, laughing. We’d grown up with the Carlson siblings, but Asher and I were about as opposite as you could get.
When we were kids, we all ran around the mountain together, but as we got older, Asher had spent most of his life working in the family business and eventually when his fatherpassed away, he took over the running of Carlson Corporation, which owned and operated the lodge at the ski hill, a series of condos, and the world-class golf course.
When the mines shut down in Trickle Creek, years earlier, Michael Carlson had been responsible for saving the town by seeing the future in tourism, and thanks to his foresight, our quiet little town was now thriving.
Both a good and a bad thing, considering the reason I was currently sitting in the community meeting.
“You’re here about the new development, I take it?”
“Here to stop it.”
He nodded as if he understood, but I’d be very surprised if he did, considering everything Asher Carlson stood for was development and growth. “It’ll bring in another good tax base,” he said, his voice low. “But the proposal they showed me?” He shook his head. “Taking out so much of our trail system? It’s not a proposal I’ll support.”
My mouth dropped open. “Really? You’re not in favor?”
“Don’t look so surprised. I’m all for growth, but not at the detriment of our trails.” He crossed his arms over his chest and sat back. “That’s part of what makes this town so special.”
“I agree. And I’m really glad you feel the same way.”
I sat back in my chair as Asher started up a conversation with Ethan. For the first time since agreeing to come to the meeting, I felt a flicker of hope that there were more allies in the room and I might just have a chance at stopping things.
“Pres. Stop vibrating.” Reid glared at me. “Go get a snack or something if you can’t sit still.”
“There are snacks?” I spun around, and sure enough, through the throng of people at the back of the room, there was a table with platters and urns of coffee laid out. Never one to turn up free snacks, I was up and out of my seat. “Anybody want anything?”
I didn’t wait for an answer before making my way acrossthe room, focused on what looked to me like a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies that were disappearing quickly.
I reached out to grab one of the last cookies left, right as a woman bumped into me. “Excuse me, I—oh.”
I swallowed hard to see Jess Anderson, standing next to me, holding a plate as she reached for one of the last cookies. I almost didn’t recognize her with her hair twisted up into an elaborate style and wearing thick eye makeup. She looked…well, she looked even morecitythan usual.
I looked from the plate in her hand, already with a cookie on it, back to the table.
“Go ahead,” she said with a little wave.
I didn’t hesitate, plucking up the baked good and wrapping it in my napkin. “A little dressed up for a community meeting, aren’t you?” I didn’t mean for my words to sound as harsh as they did, and I instantly regretted them. At least, until she fired back.
“How would you know?” She pressed her lips into a thin line. “I don’t think you’ve ever been to a meeting before, Preston.”
“Keeping tabs on me, Dots?” I pulled out the old nickname from childhood that never failed to piss her off.
