"It's like a painting," Hazel said. "You can't just slap paint on the canvas. You have to plan, think about where it could go wrong, and do it in stages."
I stole bites off the tray as I helped transport everything to the dining room, where my starving brothers waited. Hazel assembled the eggs benedict as each Svensson brother came up.
After everyone was served, I made mine and slathered everything in the creamy, slightly tangy hollandaise sauce.
"Is that really necessary?" Hunter asked as I slurped up a bite.
"Don't be jealous because my girlfriend can cook and yours hates your freaking guts."
"See, Hunter?" Garrett said, neatly cutting his food. Hunter looked up at the ceiling and silently counted to ten. "You could have been a nicer person, and we'd have good food and be able to talk on the phone and drive."
"Driving while using a cell phone is dangerous," a woman said.
Hunter jumped up, and several of the kids screamed as Meg walked into the dining room.
"Lieutenant Mayor Loring is here," Remy said, walking in behind her and making a beeline for the food. Meg's eyes narrowed when she saw Hazel spooning hollandaise sauce on Remy's plate.
"Breakfast?" I offered.
"No, thank you." Meg pushed an errant curl of her hair out of her face, and Hunter watched her like a parched man in the desert.
"You should really have something to eat, Lieutenant Mayor," I said. "Let your favorite Svensson brother fix you a plate."
"You are not my favorite Svensson if you're sleeping with my sister," she snapped. Meg turned to Hunter. "You better not let this get out of hand. Otherwise the popsicle lawsuit will be the least of your worries."
"He wants her to lick him like a popsicle," I sang softly under my breath.
Meg froze. Hunter growled and lunged at me. I screamed dramatically. "Meghan, save me!"
"You're all going to sober up once I tell you why I'm here," she said.
We looked at her.
"I have some bad news." She pulled out some paperwork from her bag. "You asked me to look into the strip mall site. I instructed Mrs. Levingston to do some research. We thought the city owned the site, as it has been abandoned since the last recession. However, it hasn't quite been long enough for the city to take it back through eminent domain. There were a series of shell LLCs that owned the property over several years' time. They were more than likely used to tax dodge. We finally managed to track down the owner."
"Great. So we'll buy it from them," I said.
"The owner is McKenna Madden." The room was dead quiet. I felt like throwing up.
"I hear you two have a history," Meg said.
"Can't you just, I don't know, not tell her?" I pleaded.
"I am legally bound to inform her," Meghan said, "but I'm telling you first as a courtesy."
"Guess you're not getting that conference center after all," Hunter said.
37
Hazel
Ileft with Meghan after she broke the news to the Svenssons. Archer seemed shaken, and the rest of his brothers were angry.
"I don't understand," I said as I got into my sister's car. "McKenna is a soul-sucking dementor, but she's also greedy. The Svenssons can pay her for the property. Problem solved. Why are they so upset?"
"Who knows?" Meg asked. "It's not your problem."
"I care about Archer, and I don't want him upset."
