Page 47 of Silver Linings

“No,” Sidney shot back, “we’re concerned citizens. Mayor Tillman made it very clear at our town hall the other night that he was waiting to gather input from the residents before any logging was allowed to happen here. It’s already pretty obvious that no one wants Welling Glen to be clear-cut, so you need to stop right now.”

“Get an injunction,” the man drawled. “Otherwise, we’re going back to work.”

During this exchange, the worker driving the bulldozer — along with the two men handling the enormous chainsaw, one clearly designed to cut down the tallest trees — had paused what they were doing to watch the show. Now their foreman gave them an irritated wave of one hand.

“Get moving!” he barked. “I’m not paying you to stand around.”

The man in the bulldozer nodded and put the vehicle back in gear.

It seemed pretty obvious that intervention by concerned citizens wasn’t going to be enough to get them to back off.

Well, desperate times called for desperate measures.

Without stopping to think, Ben ran toward the tree that appeared to be the bulldozer driver’s destination and thrust himself between the vehicle and the huge pine.

At once, the bulldozer ground to a stop. The foreman cursed, but Sidney hurried over toward Ben and knotted her fingers in his.

“Are you going to commit murder just to knock down one tree?” she demanded.

The foreman stalked over to where they stood, wearing the expression of a man who would have cheerfully hit them both over the head and dragged them out of there if he thought he could get away with it. Ben tensed, wondering if this was going to turn into an actual physical altercation. Back in college, he’d broken up a drunken brawl between one of his friends and the guy who’d been running around with said friend’s current girlfriend. Sure, he’d managed to keep them both from getting arrested, but he’d ended up with a bruised cheekbone and a pretty impressive black eye for his trouble, and he’d prefer to avoid that kind of violence if at all possible.

The foreman hesitated, though, as if weighing the possible repercussions of getting physical with a couple of unarmed people, one of them a woman. Before he was able to make a decision, the cell phone clipped to his belt rang.

He took it off his belt and put it to his ear, his face looking even more sour if possible. Then he said, “Okay,” and returned the phone to his belt.

Without saying anything to either of them, he turned and gestured toward the guy in the bulldozer. “That’s it,” he called out. “Pack it in.”

At once, the bulldozer began backing up, and Ben permitted himself a small breath of relief. He hadn’t really been looking forward to being run over by the hulking vehicle.

The foreman swiveled back toward him and Sidney. “But don’t think this is a done deal,” he snapped, then all but stomped toward the other workers, also waving at them to let them know to shut everything down.

Ben didn’t move, though. No, he was going to stand right there until he knew they were all gone, no matter how long that might take.

He realized then that Sidney’s fingers were still twined with his. They were slender but warm and strong, and seemed to give the signal that she appreciated what he’d just done.

It probably took a full five minutes for all the workers to get their equipment together and leave the job site. During that time, Ben and Sidney remained in front of the pine tree that had been slated for destruction, hands clasped.

The lights shut off abruptly, and overhead, the stars leapt out with astonishing brilliance, so many more of them than he’d ever seen while growing up in Orange County, where the glaring lights of the suburbs washed out everything except the brightest constellations. He remembered when he’d gone on his first dig out in the desert when he was just a freshman in college, and how astonished he’d been to see how many stars truly shone in the night sky.

It was a sight he never tired of…just as he thought he would never tire of the feeling of Sidney Lowell’s hand in his.

But then she let go, if gently, and gazed up at him with new respect. “That was incredible.”

“Well, I wasn’t about to stand there and let them knock down this tree,” he replied, and switched on his flashlight so they’d at least be able to see where they were going. Standing there in the starlit darkness with her was undeniably magical, but they still needed to get back to town in one piece. “Especially since what they were doing was, if maybe not technically illegal, then at least highly unethical,” he added.

“That’s for sure,” she said. Her brows were drawn together, and Ben guessed she would have a few choice words for Mayor Tillman when she saw him the next day.

Because he had absolutely no doubt that she’d be marching over there just as soon as City Hall opened for business.

“Anyway,” she went on, “let’s take a look at the damage they caused and get some photos. I know they won’t be the best because it’s so dark, but I want to have some evidence of what the work crew did.”

“You don’t think Tillman already knows about that?”

“Of course he does,” Sidney replied, her voice now grim. “But I want to show Eliza and everyone else who was on board with posting those flyers so they can see what kind of garbage we’re dealing with. Because the mayor went around us, we might have cause to sue for damages.”

Ben wasn’t sure if that was exactly how these things worked, but he held his tongue. It did seem that Mayor Tillman had made some sort of verbal agreement that no clear-cutting would be performed out here until all of Silver Hollow’s residents had been given a chance to weigh in on the issue, and that sure as hell hadn’t happened.

Welling Glen — he assumed that was where he and Sidney now stood — hadn’t escaped unscathed. A rough dozen trees had already been cut down, and, as he’d noted earlier, the grassy earth was scarred and rutted by the passage of all that heavy equipment. It would bounce back, though, something he couldn’t say for the trees that had been lost.

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