Page 125 of Everything Has Changed
“Mary…” I warn as Bernie walks up beside her.
“She’s right, ya know.”
We both give him a playful glare. “Eavesdropping is not a good look, Bernie.”
He holds up his hands in surrender and chuckles. “It’s just so quiet in here today, I couldn’t help it.”
“Even though I know it’s true, what exactly am I right about, pray tell?”
Bernie nods toward me. “We do need you, Gwen. We’ve all been talking today,” he gestures toward everyone in the room. All of our local regulars sit around in deep conversation with each other.
“That’s scary,” I mutter playfully.
“We want you to lead the conversation between the Town Hall and us little people.”
“Me?” I almost screech, pointing at my chest to make sure I heard him right. “Why me? Aren’t there better people for that?”
I could easily name five right now if they need me to.
Both of them share a look before glancing back at me. “No, we want it to be you. We always knew you were meant to do big things, but after watching you blossom into the leader you were for the festival, there’s no better person than you. Besides, you do seem to have an in with the Spencers. It could only help us.”
“I don’t know, y’all. I think I burned that bridge.”
Well, Logan did, but I don’t feel like getting into it with everyone about my failed love life that isn’t supposed to even be public knowledge. Then I remember why I was used for leverage. Why Logan was playing double agent for weeks.
Because my shop and so many others were threatened.
I look from their expectant faces and track all the others behind them, sighing when I realize if I am who they want, then I will do it for them. And myself.
The two of them share a smile as they watch me come to the terms that this is really happening.
“What do we need to do?”
43
Gwendolyn
It takes a few days to get everyone on the same page within the town, and to do it without raising too many red flags.
Anyone working in town hall seemed to understand now is not the time to venture into town, because while usually any of them, the mayor included, could be found walking the streets any day, no one had been seen since the gala.
“Good,” Piper says when I bring it up to her on Thursday. “They should be scared the mob could be unleashed at any moment.”
She wasn’t totally wrong.
I took what Ophelia said to us to heart because she was right, something I made sure to tell her every chance I got, because she deserved it after the talk down we got on Monday.
Everyday this week, as if we had some secret club going on, more people would stop by The Willow Whisk for a cup of coffee and to let me know they were ready to back me up when I needed them. It should come as a surprise to no one that the whole town seemed to be against this overhaul Mr. Spencer had set us up for. And the more I looked into Triton, the more I realized Willow Grove was about to be in bed with some shady creatures.
The amount of towns they left as a shell of what they once were because of some luxury resort they attempted to fit into their area in their wake should be studied. All but one had epically failed. It all seemed to all hinge on the fact that every contract included a messy addendum that shut down all of the small businesses. The same businesses that built the very town they destroyed.
And we would not allow this to happen to us.
I hadn’t seen or heard from Logan since that night, mainly because I had not returned to my apartment aside from once to pack a bag of clothes and necessities. I was afraid of what would happen if I did come face to face with him right now. The chances were high of either slapping him or kissing him. No real in-between that felt right to me.
I never saw him around the cafe either.
It was weird. I went years without seeing the man, living a full life full of comfort and love. One month of him being back, and I feel like my heart is missing right out of my chest just after a few days of not seeing him.
