Chapter Three
After making our rounds to the rest of my customers, we end up on Main Street with an hour to kill before the meeting starts.
“You want to get something to eat while we wait?” Riggs asks, eying the diner.
I shake my head, walking toward the side of the street where there are three empty shops in a row.
I glance at the street lights as we pass, my eyes skimming over the missing persons posters plastered on them.
I stop at the shop on the corner, the largest of the three.
Riggs walks over to stand beside me and looks up at the building before turning to me. “I can see the cogs turning. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that when I came back, all I wanted to do was hide away on the ranch and leave the town to fend for itself.”
“But then you met some of the people, and now you realize not everyone is an asshole?”
“Something like that.” I huff out a laugh. I lean into him as he wraps his arm around me.
“Truth is, I could happily live out on the ranch as long as I have you, Shepard, and—” I suck in a sharp breath, realizing who I was about to say.
Riggs holds me tighter, refusing to let me fall apart.
I take a deep, steadying breath before I continue.
“I want more than that for Dawn and Hannah. For Sarah and Jackie, too, you know?”
“I get it. So…”
“So I think it’s time to move on from healing and start living, thriving even. This place would make a great store to sell my stuff from.”
“It would also give people who are willing to travel for your stuff a place to come to. And when they’re here, they might want to eat too, or even spend the night.”
“Exactly. This town can’t recover on its own. I know that now. I’m as much a part of it as it is a part of me. But there won’t be any big investors wanting to plow money into a town that looks like it’s about to fade off the map. I’m in a position to change that, or at least start a change.”
“Why stop at just that store? If you want to guarantee you like your neighbors, why not buy the other two buildings, too? You could keep them all or lease them to your friends.”
I look up at him with a grin, warming to the idea. The thought of being out here alone in semi-hostile territory wasn’t all that appealing, but having friends here with me…that changes things.
“If we made the one next door a florist, that would help with the basics for the more simplistic products, and also, who doesn’t love flowers?”
“True. Births and deaths are guaranteed even in a town like this, so flowers will always be popular.”
I nod.
“What about the third one?”
I bite my lip before a grin spreads across my face. Riggs catches it and chuckles before we both answer at the same time. “Pies and tarts.”
“You think she’d be up for it? I mean, she looks like a spring chicken, but running a store is demanding as hell,” I ask.
“I think she’ll jump at the chance. She’s always lived her life for others, first for her husband, then for her children,” Riggs explains.
“I think it’s time she got to do something for herself, and that woman loves to bake.
The beauty of that is that people need jobs.
I don’t think she’ll have any trouble finding people to hire who can help her out.
Same with you and any renovations you might want to do. ”
“It feels impulsive,” I admit, wringing my hands together.
“But does it feel right?”
I smile and nod. “Yeah. It does.”
“Then fuck it. Life’s too short, Opie, to worry about the small shit. Live.”
I get up on my tiptoes and kiss him before pulling back. “Let’s head to the bank before the meeting and see if we can catch anyone who can help.”
“Probably a good place to start. Alright, let’s see what kind of trouble we can get into before the meeting begins.”
Turns out quite a lot. By the time we left the bank, Jen, whom I called during said meeting with the bank manager, was wondering if I’d been body snatched.
“This is the same town you took me to? The one filled with empty shops and assholes?”
“One and the same. But if I do this, there will be fewer empty shops, and if I’m lucky, that will lead to fewer assholes.”
She huffs out a laugh. “Alright, as long as you’re sure. I’ll head over with all the paperwork as soon as I have reviewed it all.”
“Thanks, Jen. Sorry for springing it on you like that. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
“I figured, but hey, some of the best decisions I’ve made have been spur-of-the-moment. That’s how my one-night stand became my husband, after all.” She laughs as she hangs up.
“All good?”
I look up at Riggs and nod. “Yep. She’s going to go over all the paperwork when she receives it, and we’ll go from there.”
“You excited?”
“Yeah, but also nervous.”
“That’s to be expected. But babe, you’re forgetting one thing.”
“Oh, yeah, what’s that?”
“You excel at everything you put your mind to.” I blush under his praise, not sure if that’s true or not, but lord knows I’ve been trying.
We head toward the town hall, passing a man who hands a flyer to Riggs while scowling at me.
I look at the flyer and see the same face staring back at me from the most recent missing-person posters.
The guy is gaunt, his skin covered in pockmarks, and the flash of a gold tooth pokes out from his half smile.
“You know this guy?” Riggs asks me.
“No. You?”
He shakes his head. “Is it me, or does this town have a higher-than-average missing-person rate?”
“Can’t say I’ve really paid that much attention. But don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.” He grins, crumpling the paper of the smiling man with the gold tooth and tossing it in the trash can as we enter.
We’re right on time, but the hall is packed already, making me wonder how early some of these people got here.
I suppose for some, this is the highlight of their week, bitching and moaning to a room full of people who are forced to listen.
We slip in the back, in the empty last row, and take a seat as everyone talks loudly among themselves. A few minutes later, Jackie walks in. She scans the back, and when she spots us, she smiles widely before sliding in next to me.
“Hey.”
“Hey, yourself. I wasn’t sure if you’d come or not.”
“I almost didn’t. I got lost in pie-filling ideas,” she admits.
“I have something I want to talk to you about after this if you have time.”
“For you, I have all the time in the world.”
“Alright, let’s bring this meeting to order!” someone yells just as Shepard walks in. My body reacts to him immediately, my nipples hardening under my tank top. Glad I wore a padded bra today. He spots us and slips in beside Jackie.
“Oh, let me swap seats with you,” she offers. Before he can refuse, she gets to her feet and moves past him so he can sit beside me.
He looks tired, but other than that, he seems okay. “Poppy, fuck, I missed you,” he says, kissing me before pulling back and nodding to Riggs. “Riggs.”
We all turn to the front of the room when Harry Lowe, the chair of the town committee, calls for quiet.
As the noise dies down, a few people look our way, some with curiosity, some with open hostility.
I don’t let it bother me. I notice people seem to hate me a little less than before, or perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.
“To kick things off, Sarah would like to talk about the upcoming festival. We have a signup sheet at the back of the hall waiting for those who haven’t had a chance to put their names down yet. Sarah, you have the floor,” he tells her.
She smiles shyly before getting to her feet and moving over to the podium.
She scans the room, and when her eyes fall on me, she waves, making more people turn my way in curiosity.
She clears her throat before she speaks up.
“I’m sorry, I’m running a little late with organizing everything.
As I’m sure most of you know by now, I was involved in a rather unpleasant incident.
If it wasn’t for Calliope, well, I’m not sure I’d be standing here in front of you all right now. ”
I jolt at that, surprised to hear my name mentioned at all. People start talking as both Riggs and Shepard slide a hand over each of my thighs.
“I heard it was her fault to begin with,” someone rasps.
I don’t see who, but Sarah’s head whips in their direction.
“Then you heard wrong, not that it seems to matter in this town. Everything is always Calliope’s fault.
It’s funny, really, because she was lovely to me from the moment I met her.
She volunteered to help out with the festival by providing not just one stall, but two. ”
She takes a deep breath. “And when I was being attacked by a man I should have been able to trust, she protected my body by covering it with her own.”
The whole room goes silent as I reach over Shepard to grab Jackie’s hand.
“I’m not sure there is another soul in this room who would do that for a virtual stranger.”
Her gaze moves around the room. “There is a lesson to be learned here. People I thought of as friends, people I should have been able to trust, turned on me for their own personal gain. I grew up in this town, and even as it slowly withered and died around me, I still loved this place and believed in the people here. Right now, all I feel is naive and ashamed.”
The silence now is palpable, and I have to fight the urge to fidget.
“When I woke up in the hospital, the first thought I had was to run. To leave this town and just start somewhere fresh. What does this town even have to offer anymore? Certainly not kindness or safety. But then I thought of Calliope and realized that wasn’t strictly true.
Knowing what this place did to her, how it shunned her, turned its back when she needed you all most?
I have no idea how she found the strength to come back, let alone stay.
And you know what? If Calliope can do it. If Dawn can do it…”
Heads turn, looking for Dawn. I follow suit and see her sitting in the middle, head held high.