Page 8 of Fight Or Flight

“Ethan.”

His thoughts stopped at his sister’s hesitant voice. He looked up at her. Her annoyance had given way to worry. “What is it?”

“I came to see you for a reason. Some things happened after you left.”

Ethan’s mind immediately went back to Lindsay. He’d broken up with her a few days before he left, and although he knew without a doubt that he’d made the right decision, he couldn’t help but wonder what had become of it.

“Mom wanted to come to tell you, but she was busy with the seamstress, and Dad couldn’t come because I sent him to the caterer, and I just got all the succulents delivered for the wedding favours, and I have to plant them all in these tiny copper pots Jaclyn picked out, and no one trusted Adam to tell you—”

“No one trusted me to what?” Adam asked, coming back across the lawn.

Amy waved a hand at him as if she were swatting away a fly, then took a deep breath.

“Elizabeth Monroe died.”

It took a minute for the gears in Ethan’s head to change directions, from his ex to the old lady whose land he’d been restoring. When it finally sank in, he was in shock. He made his way over to the front porch and sat down on the hot concrete step.

Amy and Adam followed.

“When?”

“Same day the trees got here,” Amy said.

Ethan closed his eyes and bent over, resting his dirty head in his dirty hands. Elizabeth Monroe, or Liz, as he came to refer to her, had become his friend. Three years ago, when he moved back home after completing his PhD, he’d been interested in taking on the ecological challenges of Mapleton to improve his hometown. He’d done an in-depth analysis of the entire Niagara region where Mapleton sat and found that the Monroe property was the crux of the area’s problems.

“I can’t believe this. How?”

“The obituary said she passed peacefully in her sleep. She was old.”

She had been in her eighties, but it was easy to forget it. She was sharp, funny, an avid gardener, and loved the idea of restoring the wetlands. It had taken very little effort to convinceher to convert the barren area back to a pond. And he’d worked tirelessly to see the plan through. He fundraised, applied for government grants, and even bribed his students with extra credit if they’d help. The pond was finally dug early that spring. He and his students had already planted over two hundred native grasses around it. The trees that were scattered across his lawn would go in next. After that, the wildflowers.

He planned to spend the summer at the pond, planting and tending to the trees and grasses. As an added benefit, he could avoid Lindsay.

But now . . .

“I’m so sorry, Ethan,” Amy said, moving beside him. She put an arm around him and bent her head toward his shoulder before gagging and standing back up. “Sorry, you stink.”

Ethan rolled his eyes and turned to Adam. He was, without a doubt, Mapleton’s biggest gossip. “Have you heard anything about the property?”

Adam shook his head. “No. The town is abuzz about it, though. The Monroe property is just so big. There’s a good chance it’ll get developed into a million cookie-cutter houses.”

Ethan bared his teeth. Adam’s family owned a contracting company that built custom mansions for filthy rich people. “You’re not touching it, right?”

He held his hands out in defence. “Easy. You know that’s not our style. Besides, no one knows anything for sure yet. I heard that Anne Monroe will probably inherit it.”

Ethan thought for a moment. Anne was Liz’s daughter-in-law and the mayor of Mapleton. Liz never mentioned her, so he assumed they weren’t close. Maybe they’d been closer when Robert, Liz’s son, had been alive. That was before Ethan’s time. But he knew Anne was running for re-election on the campaign promise of “Keeping the charm of Mapleton intact.” It was her campaign slogan last election, too. If she felt that stronglyabout preserving Mapleton, then maybe she wouldn’t sell to developers and his project would be safe.

“If Liz died three weeks ago, shouldn’t we know by now?”

“Well, I heard from Karen, who said she heard Warren telling Jacob that Elizabeth decided not to be buried in the Monroe cemetery. She was cremated and wanted her ashes spread on the property instead. Once that’s done, they’ll proceed with the will.”

“What’s the holdup?”

“They’re waiting for some distant relative to come and do it.”

“Hmm.” There was no point in worrying about it now. All he could do was carry on as normal with his project. The trees and the pond needed him. And it would be a nice way to honour Liz. She loved watching the project come together and was especially interested in the critters that came back to life.

Speaking of which . . .

---