Page 37 of Grit
The corner of Stu’s mouth turned up. “That girl does like her goats.”
Cary’s gut told him Stu Hagman was a good man who’d made his mistakes, but he’d paid his debt and was working on redemption. He wouldn’t be a threat to Melissa, Abby, or Joan. He was probably too grateful to even consider putting them at risk.
He was also pretty sure that Melissa didn’t know a damn thing about the man’s record.
“Mr. Hagman,” he said, “I don’t have anything against you. None of this is personal. I’d run a background check on anyone I didn’t know who moved onto Melissa’s property and lived within spitting distance of that little girl, because I’m a suspicious asshole who doesn’t trust many people.”
Stu nodded. “I understand that.”
“Did you tell her anything? Does she know even a little bit about the drugs and the assault and the prison time?”
Stu hesitated before he shook his head. “I told the Bradys. They sent Leigh a little money when we were trying to get back on our feet, so they knew.”
Cary didn’t believe in secrets. Secrets were a killer, even when intentions were good. “Did the Bradys tell younotto tell Melissa?”
“They didn’t. But they didn’t include it in the letter either.”
Cary nodded. “I didn’t go to her with this. I came to you because you need to be the one to tell her. She may decide she’s fine with you staying on. She may decide different. But she needs the information. You living here without telling her where you’ve spent the past ten years is as good as lying if you ask me.”
“I see.” Stu cleared his throat. “She doesn’t know you ran that background check, does she?”
“No, she does not.” Cary tried not to visibly cringe. “And you probably know her well enough by now to know how she’s going to react to my butting in.” Cary shrugged. “But it wasn’t really a matter of choice for me.”
Stu nodded.
“I’d like you to tell her. Doesn’t have to be today, but it better be soon. If you don’t, I will, but it’d be better coming from you.”
Stu took a deep breath. “Felt wrong not to tell her, but…”
“I expect it’s not an easy thing to talk about, but think of it this way. Life’ll be a lot less stressful if you don’t feel like you’re hiding your past, don’t you think?”
He opened his mouth, closed it, then nodded. “Yeah.”
Cary stood and held out his hand. “Mr. Hagman, you seem like an honest person and you’ve paid your debt. But Melissa has a right to know.”
Stu stood and took his hand. “And I understand why you’d do the background check. We protect the people we love.”
Cary shook his hand and released it. “Well, I’m glad you understand, because she’s going to be mad as hell.”
Chapter Nine
Melissa was sobored her eyes were starting to cross. She’d agreed to be on the Committee to Save Jordan Valley, but so far the co-chairs were disorganized and didn’t know quite what they wanted to accomplish.
Did they want to stop the Allen Ranch development from putting two thousand houses on one of the prettiest stretches of the Jordan Valley?
Definitely yes.
Did they want to stop all development of the property? Even a smaller number of houses or small ranches? Keep it ranchland? Push for a conservancy?
No one quite knew that part, and plenty of old-timers were very wary of telling anyone what to do with private property other than making it clear that two thousand houses on one piece of land was not acceptable.
Joan and Melissa were sitting in the back, listening to the debate while Abby sat next to them, drawing her favorite subject—the new baby goat—in her drawing pad. She’d finished her homework and was probably bored. Unfortunately, the meeting showed no signs of ending.
“I think we should approach it from a conservation perspective.” Sherry Granger, one of the co-chairs, was speaking. “We don’t have the water for that many people. It’ll push down air quality. A lot of people in Oakville are here because the air is better than in the valley.”
Melvin Raphney, one of the oldest members of the committee, grumbled. “I want to know what it’s gonna do to the roads. We already have park traffic. That’s bad enough.”
“Do we know that’ll change with more houses?” someone asked. “Wouldn’t they have to build roads if they build houses?”
