Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Preston
The community hall was packed when I finally slipped through the doors.
Half the town must have come out to the town meeting. I had no idea what I’d expected, but it wasn’t so many people.
I scanned the crowd and found Ethan and Grayson halfway toward the front on the right with a few empty chairs next to them. I muttered greetings and apologies to people as I squeezed past them to get through to my brothers.
“I thought I told you to be here at six thirty,” Ethan said the moment he saw me.
“Hello to you, too, brother.” I picked up the paper agenda that had been placed on an empty seat and sank into it. “I didn’t see the point in coming so early but…”
“Now you get it?” Grayson chuckled. “These meetings are pretty popular. If you want to get a seat, you need to come early.”
“Or, have brothers who come early.” Reid took the other empty seat next to me. “Hey, Pres. I heard a rumor you were coming tonight. I couldn’t miss it.”
“You don’t usually come to these things?”
Reid used to run a handyman service in town, but after marrying Avery in what turned out to be a marriage of convenience so she could keep her inheritance of the old inn, he had pivoted to a business of custom furniture building. And he’d also fallen in love for real.
Reid shook his head. “No way. This is Avery’s area. But she was tired tonight. Besides, I couldn’t believe it when I heard you were actually coming. I had to see it with my own eyes.”
My brothers all laughed, but I didn’t join in. “You think I don’t care about the town?”
“No,” Ethan said. “We think you don’t care about meetings and structure.”
“You’re not really the agenda type of guy,” Grayson agreed. “I’m pretty sure there’s a good reason why Brody takes care of the logistics in your shop.”
“Yeah.” I scanned the meeting agenda. “He’s better with people. Give me the backcountry any day over this chaos.” I spun around in my chair to take another look at the growing crowd. “Are all the meetings like this?”
Grayson nodded but didn’t have a chance to say anything else as Asher Carlson dropped down into the empty seat next to him.
“Hey, Lyons. Huge turnout tonight.” His gaze locked on me.
“Preston Lyons. What had to go sideways in your life for you to end up here tonight? I must admit, you are the last person I expected to see.”
“You and me both, man.” I shook my head, laughing. We’d grown up with the Carlson siblings, but Asher and I were about as opposite as you could get.
When we were kids, we all ran around the mountain together, but as we got older, Asher had spent most of his life working in the family business and eventually when his father passed away, he took over the running of Carlson Corporation, which owned and operated the lodge at the ski hill, a series of condos, and the world-class golf course.
When the mines shut down in Trickle Creek, years earlier, Michael Carlson had been responsible for saving the town by seeing the future in tourism, and thanks to his foresight, our quiet little town was now thriving.
Both a good and a bad thing, considering the reason I was currently sitting in the community meeting.
“You’re here about the new development, I take it?”
“Here to stop it.”
He nodded as if he understood, but I’d be very surprised if he did, considering everything Asher Carlson stood for was development and growth.
“It’ll bring in another good tax base,” he said, his voice low.
“But the proposal they showed me?” He shook his head.
“Taking out so much of our trail system? It’s not a proposal I’ll support. ”
My mouth dropped open. “Really? You’re not in favor?”
“Don’t look so surprised. I’m all for growth, but not at the detriment of our trails.” He crossed his arms over his chest and sat back. “That’s part of what makes this town so special.”
“I agree. And I’m really glad you feel the same way.”
I sat back in my chair as Asher started up a conversation with Ethan. For the first time since agreeing to come to the meeting, I felt a flicker of hope that there were more allies in the room and I might just have a chance at stopping things.
“Pres. Stop vibrating.” Reid glared at me. “Go get a snack or something if you can’t sit still.”
“There are snacks?” I spun around, and sure enough, through the throng of people at the back of the room, there was a table with platters and urns of coffee laid out. Never one to turn up free snacks, I was up and out of my seat. “Anybody want anything?”
I didn’t wait for an answer before making my way across the room, focused on what looked to me like a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies that were disappearing quickly.
I reached out to grab one of the last cookies left, right as a woman bumped into me. “Excuse me, I—oh.”
I swallowed hard to see Jess Anderson, standing next to me, holding a plate as she reached for one of the last cookies. I almost didn’t recognize her with her hair twisted up into an elaborate style and wearing thick eye makeup. She looked…well, she looked even more city than usual.
I looked from the plate in her hand, already with a cookie on it, back to the table.
“Go ahead,” she said with a little wave.
I didn’t hesitate, plucking up the baked good and wrapping it in my napkin. “A little dressed up for a community meeting, aren’t you?” I didn’t mean for my words to sound as harsh as they did, and I instantly regretted them. At least, until she fired back.
“How would you know?” She pressed her lips into a thin line. “I don’t think you’ve ever been to a meeting before, Preston.”
“Keeping tabs on me, Dots?” I pulled out the old nickname from childhood that never failed to piss her off.
Her face flushed. She swallowed hard, and her eyes narrowed.
Before she could say anything, I doubled down. “I didn’t realize I was so important to you, Jess.” I knew I was winding her up, and that was dangerous considering pissing off the enemy wasn’t likely to help my situation, but I couldn’t stop myself. Something about this woman just got under my skin.
“Right. Well, I hope you enjoy your first meeting,” she fired back. “If you can keep up, that is.”
Even if I could come up with something to say in return, I didn’t get the chance as she spun on her heel and slipped away through the crowd right as Tilley Beckett gave a five-minute warning from her spot on the stage and asked everyone to find a seat.
I was still fuming as I made my way back to my seat, the cookie crumbled in the napkin I’d clenched in my hand.
Our whole life, Jess Anderson had made me feel like a piece of shit who wasn’t good enough, but we weren’t kids anymore. And I wasn’t trying to impress her anymore.
I was trying to save what was important. And she wasn’t only part of the problem. She was the problem.
Jess
The community hall was packed. I’d attended a lot of community meetings over the years, and it felt unusual to have so many people packing the seats for a regular meeting.
“I can’t believe how many people are here,” I said to Trevor as I slid into the seat next to him.
“Not much else to do in this place.” He didn’t bother to glance up from his phone and whatever he was frantically typing.
“Do you want some cookie?” I held up the one chocolate chip cookie I’d managed to grab. Still, without looking up from his phone, Trevor snatched the cookie and, before I could say anything about sharing it, stuffed it in his mouth. I instantly regretted letting Preston Lyons have the other one.
Especially considering he’d been such a dick to me.
Not that I was surprised. There’d never been any love lost between us.
Even as kids, he’d had it out for me. I’d never forget the day he rode his bike through a mud puddle, covering me in mud and ruining the dress my grandmother had bought me for the spring concert at school.
He hadn’t even looked backward at me when I shrieked.
It wasn’t until I screamed his name that he bothered to turn around at all.
I’d run home completely devastated and insisting that I couldn’t possibly participate in the concert with my ruined dress.
But my mom wouldn’t let me stay home, and made me wear an old dress that was too small and clung to the tops of my arms oddly.
I’d been so mortified to stand on the risers with all my friends in their beautiful new dresses. It was the worst day of my young life. Especially when I saw Preston and the other boys laughing about it.
Replaying the memory from so long ago, my hand drifted to my hair and the fancy twists and curls Kat had piled on top of my head.
“A little dressed up for a community meeting, aren’t you?”
Maybe I should have pulled the pins out and tugged my hair into a ponytail before the meeting, but it seemed like such a shame to destroy all her hard work. Besides, I didn’t get dolled up very often, and I’d hoped Trevor would notice and let me know what he thought.
Of course, he’d have to look up from his phone for a minute. Another flicker of uncertainty flashed through me, but I pushed it away. I needed to focus.
“You don’t think all these people are here to object to the development, do you?” I put my hand gently on his arm, urging him to tuck his phone away and pay attention.
With a sigh, he got the message and clicked his screen off before looking at me.
“I’m not concerned,” he said. “People always tend to panic before progress. Especially small-town people,” he continued. “They don’t seem to understand the benefits of a project like ours. They can only see the negatives, and don’t stop to think about all the good it will bring. That’s our job.”
I bristled at the way Trevor always seemed to subtly put down the people of Trickle Creek, and by extension, me. “I don’t think that,” I said. “I mean, the people here aren’t sheltered or—”