Chapter 6 #2
Calvin brought homemade blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream, and we ate it sitting on my mattress on the floor. As housewarming parties went, it was tame, but my tiny new home couldn’t fit more people.
“How did you even get the mattress and dresser up here?” Calvin asked. “I’ve never seen stairs so narrow.”
“Through the balcony,” I said.
My friend glanced at the open balcony door and back at me. “How?”
“Monty parked on the sidewalk and stood on the truck bed. He lifted the mattress, and Jordy took it from him on the balcony.” I scrolled through my gallery and showed him the picture I took of the guys moving my few possessions.
Calvin laughed. “That’s so Monty somehow.”
I licked the spoon and began scooping another portion, equal parts of pie and ice cream. “People think he’s slow on the uptake because he speaks before he thinks, but when Monty actually thinks, problems get solved.”
“I like Monty,” Calvin said softly. “Jordy is scary, though.”
“Thing with Jordy is that even though he’s lived in Beauville for years, nobody knows all that much about him. He appeared one day, got into a fight at the pub, and Dad put him in jail overnight. In the morning, Monty picked him up and gave him a job.”
“There must be more to that story.”
“Probably. But I was just a kid, so nobody told me any details.”
“Barclay says he doesn’t know either. It’s weird that Monty, with his blabbermouth, never said anything about what went down.”
“You could just ask them.”
But Calvin shook his head. “Nah. They might have good reasons for not telling people. Anyway. What about work?”
I grimaced and shoved another heaping spoonful of goodness into my mouth. Thank heavens for ice cream.
“Uh-oh. In trouble already?”
I swallowed and confessed the embarrassing truth. “I had a shouting match with Frey today.”
Calvin looked horrified. “What? Frey shouted at you?”
“More like I shouted at him, and he growled back. It was my third day at work, dammit, and I yelled at the mayor.”
“But why?”
Where to begin? “He’s so frustrating! All these old-timers want to conserve Beauville and keep it like it was in the past, but in today’s economy, we won’t survive unless we open up to change.
Frey doesn’t get it. I mean, he does get that the town needs more jobs, but I don’t think he has a realistic grasp on what kind of jobs and how many.
My parents’ generation is all like ‘Why don’t the youngsters stay?
Why is everyone moving away?’ Wah, wah. Well, look around yourselves!
We have a grocer, a pub, one B&B, a minuscule pharmacy, one doctor—thank God for Hunter—and the lumber mill.
They’re talking about closing the post office. ”
“Phil says we have more kids than ever being born in Beauville.”
“And what will we do with those kids when they need to go to high school? My older brothers and I had to go to Green Peaks boarding school Monday to Friday because spending four hours a day on a bus wasn’t an option.
Half of my friends were home-schooled. A hybrid learning center would be ideal for high schoolers in Beauville, like online courses with some local supervision, but I don’t know what Frey thinks about my strategy.
Besides, that baby bubble is about to burst. Most of the bears work at the mill, but there’s nothing else.
Only a few have online jobs, and some poor souls commute all the way to Green Peaks.
If the parents can’t keep a job, the families will move away, like my brothers did. ”
“What about the repair shop and the bakery?”
“A few decades ago, a small business could survive with no customers outside of the town, but it’s getting more difficult. The diner is fine, and so is Jordy, but I spoke with both Vince at the bakery and Paulie at the shop. They’re barely making ends meet.”
“But surely if Frey could bring jobs to Beauville, he’d do it. Aren’t they installing internet cables all over town because of that?”
“That’s not going to be enough. Get this, every time someone visited town with the intent to invest and build, Frey chased them away.”
“But those were developers.”
I knew Calvin meant well, but I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Why do you people keep using the word as if it were a slur?”
“I get why the bears don’t want big hotels in Beauville like in Green Peaks,” Calvin said. “It’s bad for the environment, and it would ruin the town.”
“It’s the town that decides what’s allowed to be built within the town’s limits.
It’s what I’ve been trying to get into Jesse’s and Morris’s heads, and into Frey’s.
If we get investors to build small-scale facilities for high-cost but low-impact tourism, we get the money flowing in without turning Beauville into a gaudy resort. ”
Calvin frowned, his thinking face on. “What do you mean by high-cost and low-impact?”
“Beauville is the perfect escape, isn’t it?
We have people from the city owning cottages in the area.
They want peace and quiet, which they don’t get in Green Peaks.
If we had a couple of small B&Bs like Monty’s, well-maintained hiking trails, and one more restaurant, things would be happening.
Can you imagine a spa down by the creek with a small pool and a sauna?
Only one-story buildings would be allowed, with green roofs.
You could build little cottages with forest views and hot tubs, and people from the city would pay a fortune for a getaway like that. ”
“Huh. I’d never thought of it that way. When the guys mentioned developers, I imagined concrete hotels and ski lifts. But you’re right.”
“Of course I am! I had my dad on my side, and Monty looked like he got it, but then Hughes sold the forest, and we’re back to ‘I’m defending my town from sleazy money grabbers.’”
Calvin blinked. “Because of Hughes selling?”
“Yeah. You’ve heard? It was why Frey and I argued.
They all think the new landowners must be developers because who else would have a law firm acting in their name?
Nobody knows who the new owners are and what they want, but they’re planning how they’re going to chase them out of town in fur.
The first building contractor to enter Beauville will face an army of snarling alpha bears. ”
My friend went pale, his hand on his mouth. “Oh shit.”
“Yeah. They’re all puffed-up chests and clenched fists. And I feel like the only adult in a room of hormonal alpha teens when I ask if we could please sit down and talk to these people first.”
I expected Calvin to agree with me, but he rubbed his face with both hands. “Shit,” he repeated.
I observed him, confused. “I’m sorry. I was exaggerating. They won’t fight or anything. You don’t have to worry about Barclay.”
“No. That’s not… Shit.” He groaned and looked at the ceiling. His reaction seemed off.
“What’s going on?”
“I know who bought the land,” he blurted.
I gaped. “You do?”
Calvin came from an absurdly rich family, but he and his father were merely civil to each other. They’d barely seen each other since Calvin moved to Beauville. Could any of his father’s contacts be behind the trust?
My friend gave me a pleading look. “It was supposed to be a secret.”
“This is Beauville. A secret of this magnitude could cause an uprising. Who is it?”
Calvin winced. “It’s Laurel. But you can’t tell anyone.”
This was getting more surreal by the second. “Laurel Riley?”
The famous singer had visited Calvin in Beauville a couple of times, and it had been the talk of the town. I’d never met him because I was at college.
“Oliver, please, I promised him I wouldn’t tell. You can’t tell.”
“But why did you tell me , then?”
“You asked me! I panicked!” Calvin cried, exasperated. “I’m a wimp under pressure.”
I let out a small laugh. “Sorry, Cal. So, Laurel Riley bought the land. I’ll be damned. He’s not planning to build a ski resort, is he?”
“Lord, no. He likes it here. He wants something small and inconspicuous. A cabin.”
I shook my head. Celebrities. Wow. “Are you seriously telling me he bought thirty acres of forest for half a million bucks to build a cabin?”
“Well, yeah. He just wants privacy, you know?”
“I need to process this.” My mind went to the plans and ideas I’d had for working with the new landowners, then through the argument with Frey.
It was my turn to rub my face and groan.
“So this has all been for nothing. He’s not going to do anything with the land.
Just build a cabin, a big-ass gate, and a long winding driveway. ”
“Um. I don’t know,” Calvin piped up. “He’ll probably need staff. It might become more like a chalet? A few cottages around for visitors and his security. He only talked to me about it once or twice. He doesn’t have any specific plans yet.”
“Could I talk to him?”
“I… don’t know. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.
He’ll be mad at me. He just wants to be left alone when he’s on vacation, you know?
Everywhere he goes, people want a piece of him.
He has gotten it in his head that in Beauville, the bears will leave him in peace because they themselves want to be left in peace. ”
“Not if they’re afraid he might destroy what they think of as their forest.”
“When you put it like that…”
“Could you get him on the phone for me?”
“I mean, maybe? But he’s on tour in Europe now. Somewhere in Germany or Switzerland.”
I did some quick math in my head. “Damn. It’s like the middle of the night there.”
“I’ll message him, and I’ll try to explain the situation to him. Maybe you could, like, book a phone meeting or something.”
“That would be amazing. Thank you.”
“Just, please, don’t tell anyone yet.”
I blew out a breath. “I need to tell Frey, Cal.”
“Can you wait? I shouldn’t have said anything, but you were so upset, and… Ugh. Please, just wait. I’ll get Laurel to book a meeting with you, I promise.”
What would be the smartest thing to do? But if Frey were involved, he might go in with all that alpha energy, and we would alienate Mr. Riley from the start.
“I should tell Frey. But I guess I can wait for a day or two?”
“I’ll message Laurel right away. His schedule is crazy when he’s on tour, but hopefully, he can find fifteen minutes. I’ll explain to him it’s urgent.”
“Thanks.”
Calvin typed on his phone, then put it away.
“And what about Frey… you know, on a more personal level.”
I sighed. “I’m mad at him right now, which helps. Because otherwise, I want to climb him like a tree.”