Page 18 of Lion's Share
“We’ll figure it out,” Ben said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. “We have to.”
Sidney nodded, but he could see the worry in every line and curve of her beautiful face. And honestly, he felt the same way. So many strange things happening…and neither of them could say for sure whether they were even connected.
And because the footage they’d studied before they sat down to dinner hadn’t shown any sign of the black-clad stranger in the forest in the night before, he wasn’t sure what to think. Could it be that the man’s work — whatever it was — actually was done?
Again, they had no way of knowing.
Because Sidney looked so troubled, Ben took the risk of reaching out and covering her hand with his where it rested on the tabletop. For just a moment, she seemed to tense…but then she released the smallest of breaths and twined her fingers around his.
Her mouth curved ever so slightly.
“I’m glad you’re here, Ben.”
Chapter Seven
All morning, I kept thinking of the way Ben’s hand had felt when he placed it on top of mine during dinner the night before, the sudden rush of heat that had gone through my body. It would have been so easy to turn toward him, to move a little closer…to give the signal that I was finally ready to get out of the friend zone.
Of course, I hadn’t done any of that because I was a raging coward.
But I still couldn’t forget the pressure on my hand, the way the warmth of his fingers had felt exactly right. Was my body trying to tell my brain to get the hell out of the way?
Part of me sure thought so.
The bell on the door to the shop jingled, and I saw Eliza Cartwright come in, eyes shining and face full of stories she needed to tell.
Thank God. I needed the distraction right then.
“You look like someone put a nickel in you,” I told Eliza as she approached me, and she grinned.
“I guess they kind of did,” she replied. “I got those final nine signatures and took the petition to the town council. They need to verify all the signatures to make sure everyone who signed is eligible to vote in city elections, but it still looks like we’ll have a recall election happening by the end of the month.”
Not too shabby, considering that this whole recall drive had only started in mid-June. Well, when Eliza got the bit between her teeth, she didn’t let much get in her way.
“And…” she went on, then drew in a breath, “…everyone wants me to run to take over the job. Can you believe it?”
I totally could. She believed in Silver Hollow wholeheartedly…and was also the kind of person who knew how to get things done.
“What about the café?” I asked. While I knew Eliza would do nothing but good for Silver Hollow, I also doubted that anyone wanted to see her restaurant shut down while she was running things at City Hall.
She waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, I’ll keep that going for sure. Maybe I’ll hire someone to help out, but the thing is, being the mayor of Silver Hollow really isn’t a full-time career. It sort of morphed into that with the last couple of fat cats we elected to run things, but going back fifteen years ago or so, no one ever expected the mayor to give up their day job.”
I didn’t know that. True, when I was a kid, I hadn’t paid much attention to how the town was run, lumping it in with all the other adult stuff that older people needed to worry about but which didn’t affect me. And then I’d been occupied with school for so many years, first at Humboldt State and then at UC Davis, that the day-to-day operations of Silver Hollow had been one of the last things on my mind.
“Well, that’s good news,” I said, although I couldn’t help adding, “but you know Tillman is going to try to paint all this as a power play you made up so you could steal his job.”
“Let him,” Eliza replied, chin lifting. “I’m happy to show the photographic evidence of what Northwest Pacific’s people did to Welling Glen. It’s going to take years for that land to recover.”
I couldn’t help wincing. The glen was the place where that first unicorn had lain its head on my great-times-five-grandmother’s lap more than a hundred and fifty years earlier, and the mere thought that the beauty of the tranquil clearing had been brutalized in pursuit of the almighty dollar made me so angry that I could spit. I’d visited the spot about a week ago, and although grass and wildflowers had already begun to cover up the ugly tracks the bulldozers and trucks had left behind, nothing could replace the old trees that had been cut down. Even years from now, the trees that sprang up in their place would be much smaller and provide much less shade.
“Yes, Tillman needs to figure out that the people here in Silver Hollow aren’t exactly on the side of big business,” I said. “He’s going to learn pretty soon that we’re not fans of mayors who’re willing to sell us out to line their pockets.”
Of course, none of us had any hard and fast evidence that Northwest Pacific had been giving the mayor kickbacks to let them go in and clear-cut the forest where they weren’t allowed, but it still seemed fairly obvious — to me, at least — that’s exactly what had happened.
What Jim Tillman would do after he was ousted, I wasn’t sure. He wasn’t a native of Silver Hollow but had lived here for close to twenty-five years, so it wouldn’t be all that easy for him to pull up stakes and move somewhere else. Then again, he owned the only apartment complex in town — a cute place with garden-style units, all of them one-story with nice little yards — so maybe he made enough off the rentals there to keep his lifestyle going.
Or possibly Northwest Pacific had paid him so much that he didn’t even need to worry about money. Unfortunately, I doubted we’d ever get all the details as to how much cash they’d tipped into his bank accounts.
“I think he has an inkling already,” Eliza said. Her hazel eyes danced with amusement, and I could tell she wasn’t too worried about any trouble Tillman might try to send in her direction. “Anyway,” she continued, “I thought I’d stop in and give you the good news, but I need to go pick up Bethany from cheer practice. We’re headed over to Eureka — she needs some kind of special shoes that we can’t get online, but a store there carries them.”
