Page 58 of Making New Plans

I speared a few leaves with my fork. “No. Just life in general.”

My smile and answer were purposefully blasé. She’d have to try a lot harder than that. She didn’t need to know I had plans. And plans for my plans.

Tilting her head at me like a bird of prey, she switched tactics. “Well, I suppose living out of a suitcase must be difficult. Do you miss Boston and your architecture firm?”

The Tangled River gossip lines had certainly been busy and far-reaching. I chomped through a crouton before answering. “I have everything I need. And both Boston and my firm will be there when I go back.”

“I should hope so. Have you been back to town for anything other than your parents’ funerals in the past two decades?”

I saw Chloe clench her fork like a spear out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t bat an eyelash at her mother’s rudeness. “No, I haven’t.”

“Ah, well.” Mrs. Higgins ate a few bites of salad, while everyone did the same.

Chloe seemed to be doing her best to drill her gaze into my forehead, so I winked quick as lightning at her to let her know her mother wasn’t getting to me.

Then she was back at it. “Oh, Samuel, do tell me how the election campaign is going.”

Samuel stiffened as if he’d been shot then wiped his mouth on his napkin three times before responding. “It’s going very well, Miranda. Thank you.”

She nodded then announced to Chloe and me, “Samuel is soon to follow in his father’s footsteps to become the next mayor of the neighboring town of Glendale.”

I hmm’d politely while Chloe glared daggers into her salad.

Miranda continued her monologue on Samuel’s long lineage and list of accomplishments with an occasional affirmation from the man himself. The salads and the hearty potato soup served next were long gone by the time she finished extolling his character. I could’ve sworn the mayor nodded off several times. But if he did, he was an expert at hiding it.

Chloe looked my way less and less as her face flushed deeper and deeper. I started to wonder about the object of Miranda’s game. Was she aiming this monologue at me to show how truly short I fell in her eyes? Or was it somehow meant to undermine Chloe and her life? Or was this a setup?

Then the steak came. A steaming, juicy, perfectly seasoned cut that gave easily under my fork and knife. The famous rolls had arrived, too. I scarfed one down quickly with a secretive smirk at Chloe.

But right before I took a gloriously steaming bite of steak, Miranda reverted her attention back to me. “You weren’t very close with your father, were you, Hunter?”

Chloe’s fork clattered to her plate, but I refused to look away from her mom’s eyes as I slowly inserted the steak into my mouth. And chewed. And swallowed.

“No, I wasn’t, Miranda.”

Her nostrils flared at my use of her first name. I took a sip of water from my sweating water glass, which reminded me of good ole Sammy’s face. His knuckles were white on his steak knife. Perhaps he’d been hoodwinked into this as well.

Miranda pressed harder. “Why do you think he left you the lodge then? A lodge that has been owned by generations of Tangled River residents and is stitched into the very fabric of this town.”

Chloe hissed in a low voice, “Mom, stop.”

But I didn’t care. Sure, I thought the woman was a conniving hag for doing this, but Chloe’s anger on my behalf more than made up for it. Besides, a person only had so much power over me as I let them. And Miranda Higgins, despite her relation to Chloe, had none. She thought having historic knowledge about me gave her an edge. It did not.

I swallowed another bite of steak before replying. “I believe he did so because I’m family. As you said, generations.”

“Then why are you planning to sell the lodge?”

Ah, a neat trap. I could’ve told her the real reason—that I didn’t want it, that I had plans for the sale money. But something held me back. Something with desperate blue eyes and pursed lips.

I speared another bite of steak and smiled genteelly at Miranda. “I’m not sure where you heard that, but if I were you, I’d verify any information I heard in gossip circles before spreading it.”

Samuel choked and coughed before chugging water while Chloe stared at me with something wavering between shock and triumph. Mayor Higgins snored lightly from his chair. But Miranda’s face—worth a thousand words, Milky Ways, and cups of chili. Honestly, I thought her steak blackened a little from the heat of her snarl.

“Is it not true then?” she demanded through clenched teeth.

I continued to smile at her, to piss her off even more. “I’m afraid that’s confidential.”

Practically spitting with rage now, Miranda shot back, “Well, I should know who’s taking care of such an important part of our town. We can’t have it in just anybody’s hands.”

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