Mace
Ifelt bad about working so much. I promised myself that as soon as the launch of the gene therapy product was done and the Platinum Provisions factory was approved, I would spend more time with my little brothers.
But I was feeling admittedly less than confident about the marketing campaign since the meeting that morning. And as for the factory… as soon as I walked into the ornate meeting room in the city hall building, I could see that Meghan was not going to make it simple.
The meeting was open to the public, and it was a full house. Any time the Svenssons made any sort of change to the town, people wanted to know.
Mayor Barry Loring, Meg's great-uncle, was there. So were her two little sisters. They did not look happy to be there.
"This is a preliminary planning meeting for the proposed Svensson PharmaTech and Platinum Provisions research facility and factory," the mayor said. "Before we call this meeting to order, I'd like to thank Jack Frost for bringing refreshments." He held up one of the cookies.
Jack stood up, impressive in his dark-blue suit. "My girlfriend, Chloe, provided them from her bakery."
"We're all fans of the Grey Dove Bistro!" Mayor Barry said.
"Depending on how this evening goes, she might bring a franchise to Harrogate, or you could run us all out of town," Jack joked. The crowd laughed, and Liam gave Jack a fist bump.
"We have this in the bag," he whispered.
"Let's not confuse cookies with the fact that the Svenssons' new facility is going to tear up trees and destroy green space," Meghan said.
In a normal city, the lieutenant mayor wouldn't speak out against a particular project. But this was a small town, not New York City. Even though there had been growth, Harrogate retained the small-town anything-goes mentality.
Liam stood up and walked to the front of the room, where we had several site plans and renderings displayed.
"Obviously our company is very environmentally conscious," he said. "We are cutting down a minimal amount of trees, and anything that is cut down, we're putting in the new park we're going to build for all residents to enjoy."
There was a smattering of applause.
"While a pocket park is… nice, the fact is," Meghan stated, "that your property is not zoned for any more development. This town is surrounded by protected rural land. The voters and taxpayers bought land out here with the expectation that it would retain that character."
"Hear! Hear!" someone shouted.
"I birdwatch out there," an elderly man told us.
"There are native apple trees in the woods," a young woman complained. "I pick those for my jam business."
"We're bringing much-needed jobs to the area," Liam said, not losing any of his charming demeanor.
"Are you going to hire any of us old folks?" Ida countered. "Save Harrogate!" she started chanting, and the rest of the crowd joined it. The meeting went downhill from there.
When it was over and people were filing out, talking about plans to protest in front of our property, Hunter stalked over to Meghan. I hurried after him. The last thing we needed was for him to go off on his ex-girlfriend.
"You're doing this on purpose," Hunter snarled, shaking me off as I tried to pull him back. "It's like the cell phone law. You're hurting the residents of this town just to spite me. You know this research facility brings good jobs to the area. I can't believe how selfish you are."
"How selfishIam?" she spat. "I know those factories use mostly robots. You're not providing low-skilled jobs. You can't just walk in here with cookies and a sexy smile and expect people to fall over themselves to do your bidding."
"You certainly did," Hunter said. I winced. Meghan hauled back and slugged Hunter in the jaw.
"That's that, I guess," Liam said as we watched Meghan leave. "Pack up and find somewhere else for the factory."
We walked out to where we parked on the street. Hunter was rubbing his jaw, and Liam and Jack were arguing about alternative factory locations.
A thin woman with sunken cheeks stepped out of the shadows. Her blond hair, bleached from the harsh desert sun and years of hard living, was bright in the streetlamp light.
"Where is Henry?" Payslee said. She looked old—older than I knew she actually was. She was one of my father's younger sister wives, but I knew that after they had a few kids and the charm of being the newest youngest wife wore off, he neglected the poor women.
"You stole my boy," she said, pointing at me, jabbing a sharp nail in my direction.
