Page 143 of Crazy Thing

“We’re not perfect, but we’d like to try,” her father mumbles. He glances at his wife before reluctantly adding, “We’re proud of you.”

From Ziggy’s wide-eyed expression, I can’t tell if she’s about to cry or if she’s about to call bullshit. All I know is, with the mood she’s in today, it’s my duty to protect her. I don’t want anyone showing up here and upsetting her even more. That’s why I step in.

With a pasted on smile, I hand Mr. Beaumont a poop scooper and a doggie bag. “Well, nothing says ‘I support you’ like shoveling deer poop, and there’s a lot of it around here.” I give him a pat on the shoulder. “Thanks for your help, sir.”

The man looks like he’s about to pop a vein.

Ziggy snorts back a giggle before she thanks her parents for coming. Then she makes an excuse about having to ensure that all the volunteers are hydrated. She hustles off with her basket of snacks in hand.

By evening time, the volunteers are exhausted and getting ready to leave for the night. Nolan declares that everyone can stop by The North Node for one drink free on the house. That gives the crowd something to cheer about again.

Felix snatches a discarded sheet of newspaper off the ground. His expression collapses in disgust. Edison Astor Sinclair’s ugly mug is splashed across the page with the captionBozo-in-chief?printed at the bottom in bold red letters.

Archer sneers at the page as he passes by, pushing a wheelbarrow full of tools to be returned to his new hardware store. “I hope they lock his ass in jail and toss the key in the waterfall.”

“I know, right?” Ronan mumbles, carrying a tall paper bag overflowing with dead leaves. “He definitely deserves it after that stunt he tried to pull.”

My private investigator was able to get to the bottom of what has been going on at the mayor’s office.It turns out town officials had accepted bribes from Edison to push through the waterfall deal. It’s with the help of those crooked insiders that Edison was able to locate the mysterious waterfall owner in the first place.

When the judge blocked the original sale agreement, the mayor sent his building inspectors to my place to dig up dirt on me and try to sabotage the deal I was trying to put together with Ross.

Now, the whole situation is under investigation and Edison’s face is splashed across the front of the local newspaper for being the bozo that he is. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.

Revenge is sweet.

Felix aggressively crumples the newspaper into a ball. When he attempts to toss the paper into a recycling bin, Ziggy stops him with a hand on his shoulder. “No!”

My brother pauses, looking at her questioningly.

“I know the rule is that the garbage stays separate from the recyclables,” she says to him with a smirk, “but in this case, we should make an exception.”

“Um, okay…” My confused brother chuckles as Ziggy grabs the newspaper from his hand.

She rips it to shreds and merrily tosses the scraps into the garbage bin, leaving the memory of Edison right in the trash, where he belongs.

The crowd cheers again.

Felix drapes an arm around Daphne. They snicker to themselves as they follows our neighbors who are trudging back up the hill, away from the falls.

Chuckling, I wrap my arms around Ziggy from behind. “So I see that you’re in the mood to boss everyone around today?”

The clouds are so dark and heavy. It feels like it’ll start raining any second now.

Dropping her sunhat to the ground, she turns around to face me.

“Just so you know, as soon as we get home, you’re the one who’ll be getting bossed around,” I warn her playfully.

“Mmm. You know I like that.” She grins softly at me.

But I see something shadowy behind her eyes. And she looks even more exhausted now than she did mere minutes ago. It worries me.

I grip her waist. “What’s wrong?”

She chews on the corner of her lip. “There’s something I need to talk to you about. I’ve been holding it back all day and I can’t wait any longer.”

“Of course.” I grab her hand and lead her down the path, opposite from the direction the crowd is moving in. I want to give her the privacy to speak freely.

Ziggy lowers onto the riverbank, sitting cross-legged on the ground and I sit beside her, stretching my legs out in front of me.

---