Page 69 of Tempting Frey
FREY
It was as I’d expected. By the time I walked into the meeting room on Monday, everyone knew.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” Jesse said somewhat stiffly.
“Um. Thank you.” Oliver gave him a neutral smile.
Morris fidgeted, red in the face. It must have been him who called around spreading the news, and he knew we knew he blabbed.
Then Monty crashed into the room, banging the door against the wall, late as usual.
“Ollie! What the hell? So you never even look at me, and then you take on this stuffed relic?” He laughed merrily and slapped my back so hard he sent me forward with the chair I was sitting on. “Kidding! Great news. You’re preggo, huh?” He winked. “Don’t be shy. Calvin got knocked up right away too.”
“Montgomery, control yourself,” Chickie thundered, sparing me from having to punch Monty.
“Oops. Didn’t see you there, chief. Sorry.”
“Sit down and be quiet for one second,” I growled.
“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be all happy and shit?” Monty hissed as he plonked onto a chair next to me.
“Yes, we’re mates, Monty,” Oliver stated calmly. “But the rest is too private for an official council meeting.”
“Pfft. We’re all friends and family here.” He spread his arms, almost poking Jesse in the eye. “I’m just happy for you, that’s all.”
“Thank you, Monty,” my mate said. “We appreciate it. Can we get to work?”
Monty gestured for us to continue as if he were the boss, and I suppressed an eye roll.
“So, I never heard back from the law firm that represented the new owner of the land Hughes sold,” Jesse began. “However, I received an application and a site plan from them this morning. Again, only the trust is named as the owner. It’s all fishy if you ask me.”
Oliver took the stack of papers from Jesse and spread them out on the table.
“They claim they only want to build three one-story cottages for private use,” Jesse continued. “Could they be trying to get a permit and then somehow work around it?”
“That’s not possible,” Oliver said, frowning at the papers. “The owner is simply not aiming for commercial use.”
“Oh? How do you know that?”
“We were up there yesterday morning,” I said. “We only met the staff, not the owner himself, but to simplify, the person lives in the public eye and wants to use the property as a private getaway.”
Jesse looked from Oliver to me and back. Monty leaned forward, his eyes on Oliver.
“And you know who it is?” Jesse asked.
“I do,” I said, figuring I’d better leave Oliver out of it. “They would like to remain anonymous for as long as possible. The fewer people who know, the better.”
“Surely, the members of this council shouldn’t be excluded from this information.” My deputy mayor sounded miffed. Too bad, because I wasn’t going to tell him.
“It’s not relevant for the decision we have to make. I can personally vouch for them. If the plans align with the zoning we’re developing for the area, we can approve them. Oliver? You’ve been talking to the architect, I believe.”
“Yes. With Mr. Masterson. The new zoning proposal isn’t ready, but the submitted site plan is so sensible and, frankly, modest that I believe we can let them move forward with it.”
Morris could be convinced, but Jesse took a while. He kept inventing new, more convoluted reasons why he had to know who the new landowner was. In the end, it was Chickie who drove the point home.
“Give it up, Jesse,” he said. “You’ll find out once the guy arrives.”
When the meeting finally ended, I was ready to wrap up and go home with my mate. Sadly, I had six more hours of meetings and actual work in front of me.
