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“Yes,” he said. “I was gonna try to keep it quiet since none of us guys are supposed to know.”

I looked behind him at Henry, Dean, and Theo. None of them were sitting still.

That familiar wave of discomfort washed over me at the idea of people knowing, but I pushed past it.

“No one else does. So, we’ll have to be careful that people don’t overhear this.” I looked around the room. Everyone else in town was watching me out of the corner of their eyes, but they weren’t close enough to hear. Still, I wanted to be careful.

“Got it.” Cain nodded. “But I did wanna say thank you.”

“Yeah, thank you.” Dean rushed forward, holding his hand out too. “We haven’t met officially, but I’m⁠—”

“Dean Briggs. You own your own electrical company and are with Grace. I’ve been in the Facebook group, so I know everything that’s happened.”

“Everything?” Henry asked. “I . . . I mean, hi. It’s nice to meet you in calmer circumstances.”

“You too. And yes, everything. Even what Hugh did.”

“And you still did all that?” Cain asked. “You’re a better man than me.”

“And me,” Theo added. “But there’s a lot I couldn’t have done. So, I do owe you one.”

“More than one,” Cain said.

“Don’t worry about a thing. I really didn’t do any of this to get praise or anything back.”

“Really?” Henry asked. “You own so much of the town.”

“That’s only on paper. I would never sell it or develop it.”

Their shoulders all sank in relief. I could tell this had been weighing heavily on them. Was it weighing heavily on the rest of the town too?

“Okay, boys,” Jade said. “Your emotional circle jerk is over. The meeting is starting.”

Cain blinked. “Emotional . . . what?”

“You heard me. Now pair off.”

Our group dissipated. I stood next to Jade while Cain went with Mollie. Henry found Wren and put in earplugs. And Theo made sure no one would get too close to Piper.

“Settle down, everyone!” Kerry walked to the front of the room. “We need to get started on our meeting.”

“You of all people are telling us to stop talking?” From the crowd, Tammy laughed.

“We need to plan!” Kerry said. “We have to save the spring.”

That got everyone to focus. Jade bit her lip, clearly lost in thought. I knew that she cared about this more than anyone.

“Do we have any updates?”

Jade spoke up first. “Kevin is questioning the validity of the historical trees.”

“Fucker!” Hugh yelled.

“That’s going to take a while. There’s a hearing process. But he’s definitely wanting to take those down to develop the land. He can’t use the spring without it cleared.”

“So, we need a backup plan for when he finally gets past that registration,” Kerry said with a sigh.

“Yep,” Jade said. “If we bother him enough, hopefully he’ll sell to the right buyer.”