Page 132 of Friends Don't Kiss

Lynn addresses Kiara directly. “Have you looked at the Potters’ cottage?”

“That’s for young families,” Owen cuts in.

“And?” I ask him before Kiara has a chance to say anything.

He spreads his hands. “Is there something you forgot to tell us, Harper?”

“Ohmyfuckinggod!”

We all turn to the audience, stunned. We’re not prudes, and this isn’t church. But an F-bomb during a Select Board meeting? I don’t think we’ve heard one of those since the Airbnb debates.

Kiara is standing, flushed, fists clenched down her sides. “I’m withdrawing my application. No need to get angry or waste everybody’s time. I get it. I should look for another place.” She stomps to Ms. Angela and extends her hand.

“What, dear?” Ms. Angela asks her.

“I’d like my application back.”

“Uh, sure.” She shrugs, giving her a file. “That’s not really how it works, but… sure.”

“Just making sure he doesn’t change you guys’s minds,” Kiara says, pointing at me. “He has a way with words.”

Lynn smiles at Kiara. “He does, doesn’t he? Never heard him talk for so long, and I was quite impressed.”

“Ditto,” Cassandra says.

“I have it all written down.” Ms. Angela beams. “On the record,” she adds with a contented sigh.

“Are we done here?” Owen grunts.

But my eyes are on Kiara as she struts out, her shoulders square, her spine straight, the file tucked under her arm.

Everyone thinks this was cute and shit, but I can almost feel the tears she’s holding in choking my own throat.

Fucking hell.

When I see Owen’s sister Maddie follow Kiara out, my initial instinct is confirmed.

There’s no way Owen didn’t set this up, or at least heavily influence his sister into convincing Kiara she could operate a pastry shop in an agricultural zone. What pisses me off, is that he and his sister manipulated Kiara, hoping to get my vote for another project, and I didn’t see it coming.

Between the vote on George Richardson’s request for a variance (denied), Declan’s report on the egg bombing and the painting of Daisy (none of which have any resolution), the events’ committee’s request for an emergency approval of two hundred dollars’ worth of pink balloons for Valentine’s Day Festival, it’s another hour before I can run out of the meeting and make it to Sunrise Farms.

But Kiara isn’t there.

forty-nine

Kiara

Igetintomycarand slam the door. I need a few minutes to calm down, but when I see Maddie come out of Town Hall, I start the engine and pull from the curb. I don’t need to hear her bullshit. I’m not going to blame it on her, although she did tell me getting a variance was just a formality.

Clearly, it’s not.

And clearly, being a realtor, she should have known.She knew.

I don’t care what her reasons are. As upset as I am, I’m not forgetting about my friends, getting high at Mollie’s.

Maybe that’s what I should have done, I think as I round The Green and come back down toward the river, making a left toward Easy Monday. Let them debate my application without me. At least it would have saved me the public humiliation of Colton singing my praises.

I mean, it was really, really nice. The things he said. I’m ashamed he felt that he needed to support me in such a way. He doesn’t need to do all these things for me.

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