Page 26 of Returning to Pine Ridge
“Tomorrow night?” Vaughn suggests. “Give us tonight and tomorrow to spread the word and collect signatures.”
“I can check if the community center is available,” David says.
The door to the café opens, and the mayor’s secretary walks in. She looks around and when she spots our table, she comes directly toward us.
“Dayna,” she says to Mrs. Field, slightly out of breath. “I got your message. I came as soon as I could.”
Mrs. Field smiles warmly and gestures for her to sit.
“Carol, what are you doing here?” Emilio asks.
She sits down. “The mayor is intending on signing the HelixGen Corp paperwork without putting it through a vote,” she says, urgency in her voice. “Which is against town regulations. Anything that’s done for the community needs to be voted on to ensure that it’s not done because the mayor is being paid off to push it through.”
“We already know that,” I say.
“What you don’t know is that the mayor has personal interests that are in direct conflict with the interests of the town. He’s set to make a lot of money from this contract.”
The looks exchanged around the table are telling. Challenging this takeover is more important than ever, and if this is done right, there’s a chance Pine Ridge is going to need a new mayor.
We spend the next hour refining the plan. Carol will alert us the moment the mayor tries to move forward with the signing. Vaughn will reach out to the farming community. David will contact local business owners. Mrs. Field will contact the library board and other community leaders. Emilio will help spread the word through his hardware store and his network of longtime residents. And Atlas and I will prepare the presentation.
By the time the meeting winds down and people start to leave, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic. We have a plan. We have allies. Hopefully, we have a chance.
When everyone has finally left, Atlas comes over to me. I kiss him, soft and reassuring, needing to be close to him after the intensity of the meeting.
“How are you?” I ask, pulling back slightly. “Have you talked to your parents?”
“Not the whole truth,” he admits. “My mom was upset when she found out I lied to them about how things were going. She’s disappointed. My dad … I don’t know what he is. Worried, maybe. Disappointed too.”
I take his hand. “What about the debt? Have you told them?”
“No.” His voice is small. “And I haven’t told them I don’t actually have a place to stay. That I’ve been crashing with Jordan, and before that, I was basically homeless.”
“Atlas—”
“I know. I need to tell them. I will. But I’m scared.”
I squeeze his hand. “Would moving back to Pine Ridge be an option for you? You mentioned it before. I mean, after all of this with HelixGen Corp is resolved. Would you consider staying?”
He’s quiet for a moment. “No. There’s nothing in Pine Ridge for me.”
The words hang between us, and a hairline crack spreads through my chest. I want to ask who I am to him. If I’m nothing. If we are nothing. I don’t. I nod like it’s nothing, like he hasn’t just splintered the belief I was beginning to hold. After all, it’s my own fault for developing feelings for a man who never promised me anything more than a good time.
“Do you want to grab food together?” he asks, seemingly unaware of the damage his words have done.
I excuse myself, my voice carefully neutral. “I have some work I need to finish. All this planning and the distractions have made me get behind on the archive work. I don’t want to give the mayor any reason to doubt the work I do.”
It’s not entirely a lie. I do have work to finish, but right now I need space to process the fact that Atlas might not stay. That our connection was always going to be temporary. That I might be falling for someone who’s already planning their exit.
“Oh, okay,” he says, disappointment in his voice. But he doesn’t push.
I gather my things and leave the Bookshelf Café without looking back.
I walk toward the library, my mind spinning with all the things I should have said. All the ways I should have told him that Pine Ridge has something for him—me.
But years of practice have made me good at protecting myself. I may not have Atlas, but I’ll have a community here in Pine Ridge. Mrs. Field more or less indicated she’ll recommend that I take over her job when she retires next year.
It’ll be exactly like it was before last weekend. Before Atlas came into the Airstream to leave his confession.
