Page 7 of Wildly Yours
“Ever since you settled down you think you’re the King of Mature Relationships. You would have done the same thing if you were in my shoes. And you know what?” I shake a wrench at him. “Laugh all you want, but if I don’t fix this, tourism is going to tank in this town. And then Mom will be pissed about her boat festival numbers, and every retiree in this town with an apartment above their garage is going to be wondering where their summer income went.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Some jackass decided to re-open the mines on Mr. Miller’s land. Turns out there might be some scarce minerals that they need for clean energy production up there.”
“You’re a biologist trying to save animals with your research. Don’t you support clean energy production? Isn’t that your thing?”
“At what cost, Caleb? Dirty rivers and wells? Noise pollution? Mountaintop removal? More mosquitos in the summer because all the bats and birds that eat them are gone? And for what? So a couple of tech bros can drive electric cars in Los Angeles? This whole mess could pit half the town against the other half. And they don’t even know if there is any molybdenum up there. It’s just a hunch.”
“So what are you going to do about it?”
“I need to talk to Serena. There’s gotta be some way we can expand the park to include Mr. Miller’s land. That way they can’t mine for the molybdenum.”
“Expand the park? How are you going to do that?”
“Buy him out and grandfather his house into the deal. He can keep the house but the land around him is officially owned by the city.”
“With what money? The city just spent its rainy day fund on the new library. The piggy bank is empty.”
I feel my body deflate. I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know what I’m going to do. But everything I know, everything I’ve built up there, is falling apart.
The parts guy pulls up to deliver whatever Caleb has been waiting on. He walks out to get the box and signs the receipt.
“Wanna replace some rotors with me?”
I pull on some coveralls and get to work, trying to rehearse in my head exactly how I’m going to talk to Serena after I hurt her years ago. I have never stopped thinking about it, but I’ve neverlet myself be in a situation where I needed her. Where I needed to explain why I did what I did all those years ago.
And now I’m regretting letting the wound fester for so long.
Chapter Five: Serena
After locking up, I drag my feet the four blocks between the store and Town Hall. I’ve never wanted to avoid my official duties more than I do today. Seven years have passed since I last had a real conversation with Cody. Seven years since everything fell apart between us—since he broke us.
My stomach is churning as I walk through the front door and greet Meredith. She’s our new administrator and we seem to be developing a good rapport.
“Chocolate cake?”
“What?”
“Want a piece of chocolate cake? I baked it last night.”
My stomach says no but my heart says yes. I try to smile at her as I accept a slice.
“We got a records request today from Blake Johnson. He’s digging into your use of funds for the library.”
“Why does that man hate libraries so much?”
“I heard from a lady in my choir that he thinks it was an abuse of funds.”
“Abuse of— you know what, I don’t want to talk about it. Thank you for letting me know about his request. He’s welcome to read every transcript of every meeting we had, every email we sent. I hope he finds that we did everything by the book. Beyond the book if you ask me. Do you know I held extra public hearings, beyond what is required in the local statutes?”
Meredith shrugs as she hands me a stack of messages. I carry them to my office and try to stay focused on my job, but my mind keeps wandering back to Cody. What on earth could he want to talk to me about? He stays up on the mountain and I stay down here. Besides a few awkward encounters when I've hung out with his family, we've managed to keep our distance all these years.
I hang up my coat, tuck my cake into a drawer for later, take a quick look at my hair, and straighten up my desk. Keeping my hands busy is an attempt to keep my mind from going too far down some dangerous rabbit holes.
Rabbit holes like thinking of the night he said he was going away for a little while, without any mention of where, with who, or for how long.
Rabbit holes like the dark and twisty one that has played no small part in my revenge fantasies, where I kidnap him and get answers to what happened all those years ago.
