Chapter 5
BILLIE
“Billie, I’m supposed to be meeting with the man later this afternoon.”
“I don’t care!” I slam my fists on my thighs in frustration.
Mayor Briggs is a good friend, a great man, and a guy who’s known me since I was born. None of those things stop him from being an idiot sometimes, though.
The second Willow told me the news about the billionaire prick, I marched straight to the town offices with her and demanded a meeting.
All the staff and admins know me well, so they let us straight in to see Briggs. I don’t think they realized quite how upset I was going to be.
Would our mayor really sell us out to some rich guy who doesn’t care about us or about our community? To some guy who sees us as an annoyance on his island. “You know, he’s planning to evict us all.”
Briggs’s silence says it all and my stomach flips, blood rushing cold through my chest.
“You knew?” I choke. “You knew, and you’re letting him do whatever he wants? You’re letting him take everything?”
“I’m simply hearing what he has to say, Billie,” says Briggs with a sigh. “Nothing more. Nothing is certain yet. Besides, when a very wealthy man asks to meet with you, you don’t say no.”
“Yes, you do!” I yell. “You make a stand! You protect what’s yours. You don’t roll over because some money is waved in your face. I can’t believe you would do this to us.”
“Nothing is certain yet,” he repeats, trying to calm me down.
But it won’t work. I refuse to be consoled about this. “I’m not having some rich guy come into my town and steal away everyone’s livelihood. People who’ve lived here, worked here their whole lives — you want them to lose that like it was nothing?”
“Of course not, Billie.” Briggs sighs again, his bald head shining with sweat. No doubt our being here is putting him under stress.
Willow puts her hand on my shoulder in some subtle attempt to calm me down.
It won’t work.
“She’s right,” says Willow, always on my side. At least I can rely on someone, always. “What does this guy want with Havenridge so bad that he wants us all gone?”
“The land,” says Briggs. “He wanted to talk about the land.”
“Development? No way. Can you Imagine this place full of condos and rich guys?” I shake my head, the vision too terrible to bear. “Havenridge is our home. Everyone we know and everyone we love is here. And you would spit that right back in our faces. Let him trample all over us like we were dirt?”
“Billie,” says Briggs firmly. “I know that asking you to calm down will have no effect. It might even make you angrier…”
“It will,” I huff.
“But I need you to think about this from other points of view. Can you do that?”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“Don’t act like a child then.”
Willow tenses beside me, and I see her lean forward like she’s ready to restrain me if I take a swing at Briggs. Which I won’t. I might be furious, but I’m more likely to burst into tears than fight.
Briggs continues, “I think your passion might be getting in the way of what’s really happening here.”
“What is really happening here? If it’s not him stealing, then what?
What’s really happening here, other than all the residents of Havenridge losing their homes and their livelihoods?
Some rich asshole stealing our lives for his holiday home and rich friends?
Is that the kind of place you want Havenridge to be? ”
Briggs wavers at my outburst. He’s a good mayor, but I guess he’s also the kind of person who would sell out for the right amount of cash. It’s almost funny. It’s not the kind of person I ever took him for.
But we’ve been going round and round in circles about this for a while now, and neither of us is budging on our stance.
“No,” he says at last. “Of course, it’s not.”
“You love this town as much as we do, don’t you?”
He fixes us both with a stern look. “You know I do.”
“Then help us call a town meeting,” says Willow, getting to the point of us being here. She’s always been so much more levelheaded than me, so much more willing to listen to the other side and debate it rationally.
“What if this man’s already set his mind on Havenridge?” Briggs asks, like he’s trying to paint a portrait of him as a helpless buffoon, someone with his hands tied. “What if he’s already signed the paperwork and he’s here for PR?”
“Then we’ll stop him,” I say, clenching my fists.
Briggs looks at me sadly and I know what he’s thinking: Look at this poor, deluded girl who thinks she knows how the world works.
He’s always thought I’m naive. I know this.
Maybe I am, but I’ve always cared about this town.
I’ve always worked like hell to make it a good place.
It’s who I am. I’m not giving it up as easily as this.
For a long moment, nobody says anything.
The old clock in the corner ticks ominously, like a countdown, like we’re all waiting for something.
Eventually, it’s Willow who breaks the silence. “Mayor Briggs,” she says, giving him a gentle smile. It’s the smile that’s won me over a hundred million times.
Willow has this magic power about her. She’s persuasive and charming and impossible to say no to in the end.
“What Billie is trying to say is that we want to talk with him. We want to know what he’s going to do with our island.
We don’t want to see this place turn into yet another resort for rich people.
We don’t want the island’s nature to be ruined, our houses to be demolished.
We care about the people here. And we know you do too. ”
Briggs nods slowly, the information sinking in. Willow said exactly the same things that I did, but trust her to say it in a way that he could understand. She’s so much more articulate than me.
That’s why we’re a great team.
We often joke that I’m the muscle and she’s the brains, though that’s not really true for either of us. We both do our parts, and we know each other so well that we can lean on and support each other without even needing to say a word. She’s a one-of-a-kind best friend.
I take a deep breath and say, “Do you remember two years ago, the fishing commission? How hard we had to fight to stop those big trawlers ruining our seas.”
Briggs nods again, and Willow shoots me a look that says, Good job, we’ve got him.
I keep pushing. “We protested for days, remember? Weeks. We read every report, argued every case. We showed up again and again, and eventually we were listened to. It’s not easy, but we can resist change.
Maybe we can make some deal with this guy.
I don’t know what he wants, but we can’t let him evict us all.
He can’t throw us all in the trash like we’re wet paper towels. We can’t let him win without trying.”
Briggs takes a deep breath, the crease between his eyebrows deepening as he thinks. “I suppose you’re right,” he mutters. “Though I don’t think talking to him will make a difference. In all of the messages he sent to me so far, he has seemed adamant that the island will be his and his alone.”
“We’ll talk to him. We’ll compromise,” says Willow. I bite my tongue to stop myself from saying We’ll do anything it takes to stop him. I don’t want Briggs to get a vision of me launching for this billionaire’s throat, even if I really, really want to. I can hold myself back. Usually.
For a heartbeat, Briggs hesitates, and I think he’s going to say no.
Then he sags back in his chair, buttons straining on his jacket, and sighs. “Okay, I’ll have my meeting with the man. Then I’ll tell him that we’ve requested an emergency town meeting to discuss his proposal. I’ll tell him that the deal’s off unless he attends.”
“Good,” says Willow. “Everyone will be with us.”
“Of course they will,” I add. “Nothing good can come from us losing everything. Nothing good for anyone except for those with the power.”
Briggs swallows hard, but I can see his resolve cracking. He is a good man. He always has been. Sometimes he needs a little bit of persuading.
And I know that he loves this town as much as we do.
We will make this right. I know we will. There isn’t any other option.