“What public embarrassment?”
“Serena’s getting her minions to arrange a public protest at the next game.”
“Good.” I get back to typing. “It’ll bring more fans out to the game. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
“She brought Dakota with her to a local interview …”
“I stand corrected.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “What did she say?”
“Oh, she went on and on about how you’ve ruined the family-friendly atmosphere the Mudflaps once had.”
“Family-friendly? It had all the charm of a condemned bar when I took it over. I’m the one who’s making it family friendly!”
“Not to hear her tell it. Or to see the homemade sign Dakota was holding. It said ‘Save Our Mudflaps.’”
“She used her five-year-old as a prop in a protest against me.”
“Oh yeah. She’s got a whole narrative: how the team’s losing its values, how you told a mom to take her ‘unruly toddler’ out of the stands.”
“I told her where the sensory room is! She cried and thanked me for having accommodations for neurodivergent kids!"
“Yeah, well, now it’s being spun as the opposite.”
I stare at Scottie.
“Details don’t matter when people want to be angry,” she says. “They just want someone to blame, and you’re a convenient target who had the audacity to move here.”
I feel the blood drain from my limbs, like they’re going weak, leaving me drained.
Helpless.
“What more could I have done for this town? I sponsored every single little league and pee wee league and Pop Warnerleague, and whatever other fake names these things have. Is there a business owner in town I haven’t reached out to? A church potluck I’ve missed? I got in a dunk tank at Founders Day, Scottie.”
“I know,” she says gently.
“What have I done that’s so awful? What crime did I commit?” My voice cracks. “I put everything into this place. I gave them everything I had.”
Scottie’s eyes soften behind her tortoiseshell glasses. “Nothing you did was wrong. It’s not you—it’s absolutely them. Jealousy makes people irrational. Think about it: you’re wealthy, sure, but you’re also smart and beautiful, and you came from outside of the town and started making all these changes with input, but not permission. You have all this power, yet you’re still humble enough to care about people.”
My scoff comes out half sob. “How is that threatening?”
“It reminds them of all the things they’re not. It’s not just that you’re an outsider; it’s that you’re a better insider than they’ll ever be.”
I press my palm to my sternum like I’m trying to keep myself from spilling out, and I drop my head. And that’s when I see the light through the window catch my ring.
Sean.
“How am I going to tell him?”
“You don’t have to protect him from this.”
“I know. I just … he’s been through so much already. I don’t need him to get through this.”
Scottie looks at me and her voice softens. “No, but don’t you want him? Wouldn’t it make it easier? Less lonely?”
That stops me cold, because she’s absolutely right. But?—
“You don’t think it would be a distraction?”
