Page 65 of All Mine

“I never said I was staying here permanently or led her to think that.”

“Yeah,” Jonah picked a pencil up off his desk and fiddled with it.

“Why is she so determined to keep those old run-down houses standing?”

Twenty-Five

Lauren

“Did you sleep at all last night?” Lucy asked. She wore her vote no button on her Lou’s Lakeside uniform shirt. Adrian hired both the twins for summer servers. For the last two weeks before the vote, I didn’t sleep and barely ate. My life was consumed with baking or campaign strategizing.

“Yes,” I lied, frothing the milk for her cappuccino. “I slept like a baby.”

“Does that mean you were up all night crying?” she asked, arms folded over chest.

“No.”

“Uh, huh. Sure.”

“I’m fine, Luce.” I poured the steamed milk into the espresso. “There’s no reason not to be.”

“Your friend possibly agreeing to build the new shopping center?”

“Jonah has to do what is best for his business. He has a lot of tradespeople to employ, and I’m not about to begrudge that. I’m excellent. I promise. And when we win, it won’t matter.” We would win. We had to.

“I thought that with today being the vote, and you’re going against your hot former lover—”

“Shh, don’t say things like that.” I glanced around the bakery. “You’ll get this town into a tizzy.”

“You two had a pretty big fight in the middle of a town hall meeting.” She picked up her to-go cappuccino. “Your spat is literally up for a vote by the town today. I think that cat’s out of the bag now.”

“It’s about my livelihood, not about him at all.” I wiped up the coffee machine.

“Sure. Sure.” She blew into the drinking hole in the lid. “Did you know he released artist renderings of what the new building would look like?”

My jaw clenched. “When?”

“Within the last couple of days, and from what I hear, the building is nice looking.”

“Well, good for him. He’ll have to find somewhere else to build it.” I turned my cleaning to the counter before any more customers arrived.

“I hear he rented out a conference room at the town hall so anyone can come by, look, and ask questions before they vote.”

My heart stopped. “Oh my god. No. That’s brilliant. Why did you bury the lead? I have to get down there.”

“You have people there, right?”

“Yeah, outside. But, I didn’t think anyone could go inside and try to change minds right before they got in line to vote. Meaning the last thing they see is whatever drawing Camden has out there. What if he promises them something outrageous?” I grabbed my cell phone to call Sloane and ask her to put a stop to it.

My feet hit the pavement, and the hot wind whipped me in the face as I hoofed it across the parking lot at the town hall. I could not get a deep inhale into my lungs, and I’m not sure if it had more to do with the muggy weather or my anger. How dare he pull a stunt like this. I should have suspected an underhanded move. My no group was back on the street, and somehow my opponent had gotten a room inside the town hall. Money does talk, doesn’t it?

Inside the front doors was a sign that read: See the new Hart Commons before you decide. Next to it, someone had hung one of the Save our History signs. At least the counterpoint was here too. Before I’d made it too far into the red brick building, a red-faced Sloane came stomping toward me with Eddie Matthews, a security guard, on her heels.

“What happened?” I asked.

“They’re kicking me out.” She huffed.

“What? Why?”

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