I close my eyes. I know she doesn’t mean it, but it kills me. I know I’ll hear the words in her voice for as long as I live.
“Addie, you have to understand—”
“What? What do I have to understand?”
I don’t know how to finish the sentence. I look skyward, unsurprised that the heavens are mad today as well. The dark clouds rolling into Beaver Creek confirm everything I’ve ever thought about superstition. I focus on the yellow siding of her house.
“Addie, please,” I say, then spot Lucy at the door. “Willow’s gone.”
“Fuck,” Addie says. She fully deflates and sits down on her stone steps. “Fuck her. Iknewshe was doing something. I figured it out today: she’s doing everything in her power to make you leave because she knows I’ll go with you. She wants the house.”
“Even now?”
Addie laughs, sadly. I join her on the step and she moulds herself against me.
“I’m not sure I’d want to stay here without you,” Addie admits. She turns my hand over and runs her fingers along the lines along my palm, like she’s reading my future. “This house is so big and empty. In my dreams of the future, it’s filled with you and us and Lucy and, I don’t know, whatever else comes along. If she got her way, I’d leave because this place would be forever tainted.”
“But it’s not.”
“No. And we have a fight to win.” She stands, pockets the offending USB stick, and holds out her hand.
I take it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Zander
Everything moves like a whirlwind after our fake fight. I simultaneously feel like I’m walking on air—becauseshe believes me!!—and am about to fall headfirst off a cliff. I’ve never been to a town meeting before. My parents thought they were bullshit. I’m inclined to believe they’re correct on this one thing.
“What’s the plan?” I ask as Addie parks down the street from the town hall.
She drums her fingers along the steering wheel and shrugs. “I’m pretty sure our part is just busting down the doors.”
“Dramatic.”
“Peggy can trust me with that, for sure.”
We exit the car. I grab Lucy from the backseat. She’s not used to Addie’s car and seems miffed about the lack of space, but wags her tail in large circles once she’s on the ground. Addie checks the parking metre and grumbles.
“Of course the meeting’s during paid parking hours.” She fishes in her tote for her wallet, then digs around for some change. “Do you have a loonie, by chance?”
I pat my pockets. All I brought from the house was Lucy and my empty wallet. I raise my hands, palms up.
“Great.”
She stuffs many coins in the metre until we have an hour counting down. She hesitates, then adds even more.
“I think two hours is enough.”
“You never know,” she says but puts her wallet away.
I sigh deeply as we get closer to town hall. The red brick building looms in the distance, conveniently covered by a big, black cloud. My stomach twists enough that I’m convinced I’m going to shit my pants. My very nice grey slacks I wore specifically to make a good impression.
On the steps of town hall, Addie faces me. She straightens the collar of my blue button up. Only now do I realize it’s the exact same shade as her eyes. She runs her hands down my chest, then grabs my hands.
“Let’s burn it down.”
I laugh at the fire in her eyes, the devilish smirk on her lips. She links our fingers and drags me up the steps before I have time to let my thoughts linger. In addition to never going to a town meeting, I’ve also never been inside town hall. Or maybe I have on some long-forgotten field trip. The columns outside give way to a wooden interior. There’s a grand staircase that rivals the Titanic at the centre that splits off to either side upstairs, and doors, I presume, that lead to different meeting rooms.
