Page 31 of Love Fast

“You know, that doesn’t make me like her less. In fact, it has the opposite effect.”

Byron takes a forkful of egg but doesn’t respond.

“They must be really proud of you, though. The local boy who’s bringing jobs and tourists to the area.”

He takes a sip of his coffee. “They don’t see it like that.”

I wait for him to say more. I don’t want to change the subject this time.

“People in towns like Star Falls don’t like change.”

“You think they don’t like the idea of the Club? But you got the planning approvals and everything?”

“Sure. I’m bringing jobs and tourism to a part of the state that’s kind of been abandoned. And the building is respectful to the local area. The building materials have been chosen because they’re locally sourced and sustainable, and won’t detract from the beauty of the place.” He sounds resentful, like he’s trying to convince me he’s done something good. But I’m not the right audience for his argument.

“You’re getting pushback?”

He sighs. “We’re not seeing applications for jobs from townspeople like we thought we would.”

“I suppose people already have jobs.”

“Yes, but a lot of people have to travel to get work. When I was a kid, my best friend’s dad had to travel two hours to get to work. I’ve lost count of the number of times I heard people talking about Aspen and Vail, how the opportunities there sucked the youth out of the town. The Colorado Club is a couple of miles out of town. I’m giving people what they’ve been saying they wanted for decades. Now it’s here, and everyone’s acting like I’m taking something away from them.”

“Taking what away?” I ask.

“I don’t know. Jim says he wants to be able to walk his dog on Club land.”

“There aren’t other places in the area to walk his dog?”

He sighs, moving the food around his plate without taking a bite. “I’ve bought up some of the federal land. Members of the Colorado Club have high expectations around privacy and security. They’re not going to want to come across Jim walking his dog while they’re on a hike.”

“So people in Star Falls think you’ve stolen their land, while you’re trying to buoy the local economy and give people jobs.”

He goes to speak, but I interrupt him.

“You have two issues as far as I see it. First, you need to come to some kind of compromise around land access. There’s no way around it. You’re going to have to give Star Falls residents limited access. Maybe it’s the first weekend of the month or every Wednesday or something, but you’re going to have to let people inside the boundary lines.”

Byron shoots me a look like I don’t understand anything, but I get it. He needs to get his head around the facts.

“It’s not going to be as much of a problem as you think. If Star Falls is anything like where I grew up, it’s not reality people don’t like—it’s the idea that someone might be trying to take away their freedom. If you do open up the land in a limited way, people aren’t going to take advantage. I bet you Jim didn’t walk his dog up therebeforeyou bought the mountain. He just likes the idea that he can if he wants to.”

“But I can’t let Jim on the mountain. I just can’t. The members are paying?—”

“Hear me out, Byron.” I probably shouldn’t be interrupting my boss like this, but I don’t have much more to lose in this life than everything I’ve walked away from. And anyway, he’s short-staffed—he’s not going to fire me. “This is all about presentation. When I’d had customers on the phone asking me when their cars would be finished, I’d tell them it was taking a little longer than anticipated because we were detailing the car before it was returned to them. People stopped complaining.

“I think if you tell your billionaires and centimillionaires—thank you, by the way, for extending my vocabulary with that particular phrase—that you’re respecting local culture by giving Star Falls residents limited access to the land on these days, in these areas, you’re highlighting the Colorado Club as a company with a conscience. By extension, that means your members have a conscience, too. Your generosity and consideration istheirgenerosity and consideration. Your billionaires get something for nothing—a clear conscience. They don’t need to know it’s all a ploy to drum up local support, just like my customers at the garage didn’t need to know their detailing was included in the service price and only took twenty minutes.”

I hold Byron’s gaze as he silently stares back at me. I try and read his expression. Am I about to wear a face full of eggs? Is he going to leave?

“You’re really smart,” he says finally, and I feel a little glow inside me at his approval. “We need to sell it to members like it’s part of our offering. It could work if we open up the land on certain days, or certain parts of the land on certain days. During those times, we can just direct members to other areas. Or offer them additional security.”

“Exactly,” I say. “It’s doable.”

“I’ve got to sell it to Jim. He’s going to want access whenever he wants.”

“The limited access is the price they pay for revitalizing employment opportunities in town. If all the young people are leaving because there aren’t any opportunities for them, the Colorado Club gives them something to stay for.”

Byron nods. “It really does. Or it could.”

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