Page 107 of Homecoming for Beginners

“There is, actually!” he said brightly. “Statewide, emergency response times are somewhere around the nine-minute mark. A little bit longer for rural towns, a little bit shorter for everybody else.”

Grocery Store Lady’s eyes went comically round. Ty would have bet half his fortune she’d done community theater and loved it. “Wow, so we’re almost twice as slow?”

Someone had fucking scripted this, Ty thought. And he had an idea who.

“Yeah. A year or two ago we would’ve gotten there faster, but that was before that sinkhole opened in Road 22. Now we have to go the long way around.”

Chiu sputtered. “There was no money in the budget—”

A murmur of disapproval rumbled through the room.

“Now wait a minute,” said a balding man Ty didn’t recognize, standing up in the middle row. “We’ve been talking for years about getting a fire station here in town. I have a heart condition too! You’re telling me I’m just shit out of luck if my heart stops?”

That—that actuallydidn’tsound scripted. Unless this guy deserved an Oscar.

Ty wished he had popcorn.

“Council voted 3–2 against the proposed new station—”

Behind Ty, Ollie stood up.

Ty didn’t turn around. He didn’t see it. But he could feel it happening, could feel Ollie pulling attention from everyone in the room.

Ollie didn’t call for attention very often. But he had the kind of bearing that people automatically paid attention to when he did. Maybe it was his military experience. Maybe it was the fact that he was the kind of handsome TV ads used to sell razors.

“Actually, Councilor, those votes are a matter of public record, so we know that you have voted against building the proposed new fire station at 17 Main Street.”

The rumbling went through the assembled townsfolk like a wave this time.

“What I’d like to know,” Ollie continued in his clear, calm tenor, “is why you didn’t recuse yourself from the vote, Councilor, seeing as you are the sole proprietor of the numbered company that owns the adjacent land parcel. Some people might question your impartiality.”

Now Tydidturn around—he had to. Ollie was having a whole hero moment, and Ty wanted to savor that even more than he wanted to watch Chiu’s bluster and confidence crumble into chalk dust.

Ollie lookedgood. Ty had been too distracted to notice before, but he’d gone shopping. He’d picked out a nice pair of well-fitted dark-wash jeans and a crisp dark green polo that brought out his eyes. He looked like the kind of guy you asked advice from at Home Depot. He looked like he could jump-start a car. He looked like a guy who’d aced his SATs.

He looked like he knew something Chiu didn’t want him to know, and damn if that wasn’t extremely sexy.

Ollie’s pronouncement had several members of the assembly room—which had filled completely while Ty was busy answering stupid questions and was now probably breaking some kind of fire code—jumping to their feet, shouting for Chiu to answer the allegation.

Mayor Atkins looked like she wanted some of Ty’s hypothetical popcorn. This time she did reach for her little mallet, and she whacked it on its stand several times until the volume returned to normal decibel levels. “This meeting will take a brief recess,” she announced into the microphone. Then she flipped it off, but Ty heard her say to Chiu, “Councilor, I’d like to see you in my office. I’ll be inviting Mr. Kent. I’d like to hear what he has to say.”

Ty turned toward Ollie, fully aware that he had hearts in his eyes. “Please tell me I can come too. And that I have time to get snacks first.”

Ollie smiled indulgently and picked up a leather shoulder bag that presumably held all the receipts. “You can be bitch-eating-crackers at home. Come on.” He caught his mother’s eye over Ty’s shoulder. Ty hadn’t even seen her approach. “Theo needs some Grandma time.”

OLLIE WOULDnot have said his time in the military focused much on planning strategy. That sort of thing was mostly above his pay grade. But he must have been exposed to enough of it to pick up a few things, because so far his plan had gone off without a hitch.

Alan Chiu was going to regret the day he decided to mess with Ollie’s man.

Mayor Atkins held the door to her office and allowed them all to precede her inside. Chiu was still red-faced and steaming mad, which didn’t flatter him at all. Ollie probably looked smug as fuck.

Atkins took the seat behind her desk and turned her cool gaze on Chiu. “Explain yourself.”

Chiu damn near exploded. “My interest in the property at 19 Main isnot relevant—”

“Except that you wanted to turn it into luxury lofts,” Ollie interrupted cheerfully. He withdrew a folder from his bag and handed the top few sheets, stapled, to the mayor. “Obviously the plans have not been filed or submitted to the town for approval yet, but they have existed for several years, as you can see from the date of the commission of this drawing.”

He didn’t really believe Mayor Atkins knew nothing about it. He figured all the council members had to be complicit on some level, whether via taking bribes to look the other way or through some kind of mutual back-scratching agreement. Probably none of them understood the scope of his scheming, though.

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