The worst part was that she didn’t look surprised by my reaction.
She’d looked prepared for it.
I shook my head and turned away from Chase.
“You coming back in?” he asked after a moment.
“Does it matter?”
“You know it does, Preston.”
He was right. No matter how this vote went, I needed to make my point clear. I owed it to my town to fight for what was right.
“Just give me a minute, okay? I’ll be right there.”
Chase nodded and walked away, leaving me there to collect myself.
I stayed outside until I trusted myself to hold it together.
When I finally pushed the door open and stepped back into the meeting, Jess looked up.
Our eyes met.
And it was clear. Whatever it was that was sitting between us now was bigger than a simple vote.
Jess
The vote passed.
It wasn’t unanimous, of course, but no one expected it would be. Still, our little committee didn’t have any other choice but to recommend to the council that the development move forward. With our recommended changes, of course. The environmental buffers and trail protections were written into a revised proposal instead of being treated like an afterthought.
Chairs scraped back from the table. Our little group was quiet, the easy camaraderie we’d created out on the trails shattered by Preston’s earlier outburst.
Not that I’d been surprised. Maybe I should have given him a heads-up about my decision. But it wouldn’t have changed the outcome.
Across the table, Preston had only looked at me once since he’d returned to his seat.
Our eyes had met briefly, and then he’d shut me out completely.
After that, his focus stayed fixed on the coffee he hadn’t touched.
Not even when Chase summarized the outcome of our vote, and Tilley announced with a flourish that our committee was disbanded.
Not once.
Obviously he wasn’t going to be happy with how it went, but I hadn’t expected him to be so closed off and angry. I hadn’t expected him to shut me out so completely.
It hurt, even if I couldn’t fully explain why.
“Preston?” I stepped closer to him, lowering my voice.
He froze, as if he were trying to decide whether he should acknowledge me at all. Finally, he looked at me.
The hurt in his eyes landed harder than his anger from earlier.
“I thought maybe we…” I stopped myself, unsure how to say what I needed to. “I should have said something to you,” I tried again. “Before the meeting, I mean.”
He nodded. “Yeah.” He shrugged. “Maybe.”
