22. Devon
DEVON
“Oh, come on. This is ridiculous!” I snap.
Mom frets over her lip. “I’m not happy about it, but I’m in a difficult place. I’m here to uphold the laws of Harvest Falls, and he can prove that it is a law.”
I’m not mad at her, but I can’t hide how pissed I am that Nichols has stepped out of place and is doing this to Ember. Bright Ember who only wants to make Harvest Falls a better place.
I know I don’t need to say that to my mom though.
“Since he’s suddenly starting to enforce this law, then surely, she should get a warning this time, Mom. They can’t just decide to do something that’s always been there and expect people to know what’s happening because past practices say differently.”
“I tried to talk to him about that, but he sees it very differently. As you know, Jim Parsons died before Ember got here, so he hasn’t changed his practices in her presence, and he can’t answer to what Jim did.”
I blow out a big breath, trying to tame the angry beast inside me. I don’t just see an injustice, I see this as picking on someone I’ve grown to care very much about, and I’m livid.
“Do some mayoral decree or something.”
She sits back in her black leather chair, surrounded by dark wood bookcases and the enormous desk that takes up most of her office.
Her eyes tell me how troubled she is by this information, too.
“Devon… I can’t just make an exception for Ember because you care about her.
If I speak up and do something, this is going to be brought up by the next Nichols who decides they want to run against me for mayor.
I can’t play favorites, and I read the code myself. That’s what it says.”
“This might ruin her. She might have to leave. Sell the house.”
A soft smile claims her lips, but I don’t say anything because I know it’s obvious to everyone now how much I really do care about her. “I’m happy to hear that you’re more interested in her than the house.” She takes a tissue and blots at her eyes. “My hands are just tied.”
“I can’t have her be disillusioned with the place before she even really settles in. What does Nichols get to decide next? Can he stall her requests? Can he deny her any improvements she wants to make?”
Mom leans forward in full mayor mode now.
She puts on her glasses and flits through some paperwork on her desk.
“The code is very clear on what she can and cannot do. As long as her requests keep with the historical nature of Sleepy Hollow Manor, everything should be fine. And trust me, I will be watching him like a hawk. If he wants to enforce every little thing, I will, too.”
She clicks a few screens on her computer and prints out the entire historic place code for Harvest Falls. It spits out on her printer in the corner of the room.
Mom motions toward the chair opposite her side of the desk like she wants me to sit.
It’s the last thing I want to do because I just want to go find Nichols and punch him in the face.
Squirrelly little rat. But since it’s my mom, I do as she asks and sit.
“I don’t want to intrude, but how’s it going with Ember?
You really do seem to care about her a lot. ”
“She’s an impressive person. I just had to get out of my own way before I saw it.”
“And she thinks you’re…?”
It’s hard to have these conversations with your mother. I certainly can’t have the same one with her that I had with Trav. “She likes me, too.”
Mom claps her hands. “Oh, I’m so happy. I should have you two over for dinner soon. What’s her favorite meal?”
“I don’t know yet, but you’re also assuming she’s going to be around to ask over for dinner. Ember doesn’t have a lot of money, and I don’t think she has enough to pay the fine.”
“She’s resilient. Plus, there’s nothing in the code that says she has to pay the fine all at once.
Nichols should work with her, and if he won’t, I’ll write a proposal that says fines can be split into payments.
We just never had to worry about this sort of thing with Jim.
It’s like the Nichols do everything in their power to rid Harvest Falls of its very essence. ”
“Which is why you always win when they run against you.”
She knocks on the desk. She’s a superstitious lady, so she needs to complete the “knock on wood” adage before continuing on. “So far, I’ve been lucky.”
It was never luck for my mom. It was always hard work and determination.
“Sorry I don’t have better news for you. You might want to tell Ember first before Nichols shows back up. He’ll be less than friendly, I’m sure.”
I swallow. Things were going so well, too.
I got her to forget about this mess. We went on a date, and I crashed the sleepover with Bea.
The look on their faces when they didn’t know who it was coming through the front door was priceless.
Ember’s round eyes might forever be singed on my brain now.
It actually made me feel a little bad for scaring her.
I only wish she’d taken Bea up on the offer to leave.
She and I need to have a conversation about what’s holding her back.
We both feel the same way, everyone can tell, so why is she putting up blocks?
I can tell by the way she kisses me it would be easy to take the next step.
Not that I want to hurry her in anyway, but I also want to make sure we’re on the same page.
None of that seems to matter now that I have to tell her about Nichols.
She’ll be so distracted and worried. My stomach twists.
What if this is another reason for her to put up more barriers?
Why would she start something with me if she has to worry about losing the manor? She already said she’d have to go home.
I can’t let that happen. She said Harvest Falls is her dream, and right now, I want that more for her than accomplishing even my own dreams.
I suck in a breath. The well.
Maybe it’s time for me to introduce it to her.
I say goodbye to my mother, telling her I’ll have a conversation with Ember first thing, and I immediately drive out to the manor. When I get there, though, I spy the code enforcer’s truck already parked on the street.
Son of a bitch.
I pull up to the curb in a hurry, the truck tires squealing as I put the brakes on. I jump from the cab and hurry toward the door only to have Nichols come out of it with his stupid suit and tie. “You jackass.”
“Just doing my job,” he monotones as he walks past me on the very porch that I put my blood and sweat into.
I don’t bother confronting him because it’ll only look bad for my mother. Even though I wish it wasn’t true, she can’t treat Ember any differently. I knock on the front door and let myself in. I just step into the foyer when Ember throws her arms around me.
“I know,” I tell her before she can even get a word out.
“You know that it’s real? I have to pay the fine?”
I nod, and she holds me closer. “This is just the worst news. I don’t know what I’m going to be able to do.”
“Well, we have the $800 from the tip jar.”
She shakes her head. “That’s supposed to go toward renovations. I’m not going to lose everyone’s trust by using the money for something it wasn’t intended for.”
She’s right. That was just my desperation coming out to try to fix the problem. “I want you to know my mom tried hard, but her hands are tied.”
“I know. Your mother is a good one.” Ember steps back and wipes her eyes.
I want to make it all better. I want to soothe every worry she’s ever had.
“Can I show you something?” I check my pockets for change and come up empty. “You’re going to need a quarter though. Do you have one?”
She eyes me. “This is a change in topic I was not expecting.”
“Just trust me.”
Ember goes to the bench to get her purse. She pulls out her wallet and fishes out a quarter. After putting everything back where it was, she holds up the quarter as she walks toward me. I reach for her hand, and then we step out onto the porch.
I’m about to go to the well for the first time in a long time.
“My grandfather actually showed me this,” I start the story.
“Old Man Lewis used to talk about it all the time. It held such a mystical quality that I was always intrigued. Then one day, I was pretty down. I was just a kid, but apparently, I was having an existential crisis. I think it was soon after my dad left.”
As I tell her the story, I walk her through the side lawn, then out past where Old Man Lewis used to mow.
The line is divided naturally. Overgrown grass gives way to a forest of trees.
I never knew why he didn’t make a bigger deal out of the well when he loved it so much.
It seemed to me it should have its own path and a plaque placed there.
It wasn’t even that he wanted to keep it to himself because he used to tell people to drop a coin in there all the time, but over the years, the well has largely become forgotten.
“Where are we going?” Ember asks as I move a branch out of her way. The forest floor is littered with rotting stumps and years’ worth of decayed leaves and other tree refuse.
“You’ll see.”
Up ahead, I spy the well. It’s like a gut punch when I see what shape it’s in. Moss grows over half of it. The bucket that used to hang there is gone. The rope that held it up is frayed and laying off to the side. It’s not the reveal I saw in my head as we approached it.
“What’s this?”
“This is Harvest Falls’ Wishing Well.”
She gasps. “The wishing well? Are you kidding me? The same from the story?”
“The very same.”
“So the story was real?” she asks excitedly.
“That’s what was told to me.”
“But it didn’t work for the young woman.”
I rub the rock face, pushing off bits of twigs and leaves. “My grandfather said that the well works in mysterious ways. We don’t know in what way it made her wish come true, but I believe it did, whether we can point to exactly how or not.”
She turns toward me. Her face is still red tinged with baggy eyes. “I’m guessing you’ve wished for something here.”
“Twice,” I tell her. “And both things came true.”