Of course.
I let it ring twice while I walked toward the gate. Then I answered. "What?"
"Nice to hear your voice too," Fletcher said.
I stopped in the strip of shade thrown by the P-Patch sign. "If this is about the same thing it was about yesterday, my answer's the same."
"Zane, you haven't even heard what I'm calling about."
"You're calling at six-thirty on a workday. It's about the lake."
"It's about opportunity."
"That's the same thing in a cleaner shirt."
Fletcher laughed softly, like I'd made the exact joke he expected and he was willing to let me have it. He'd been doing that since we were kids. He let me swing while he stepped out of range.
"I'm trying to have a real conversation with you," he said.
"We've had it."
"We've had the part where you say no before anyone finishes a sentence."
"I save time."
"You turn stubbornness into a profession."
"Only when you're trying to sell me something I already own."
A truck rolled by on the road beyond the gate, kicking up dust that drifted gold in the low sun. I watched it pass and kept my eyes off the lake.
Fletcher sighed. "You know this area is going to change whether you like it or not."
"My land isn't an area."
"Everything is part of something larger."
"Does that line work on sellers who don't know you?"
"It works on people who can look five years ahead." His voice stayed smooth, reasonable, almost gentle. "The P-Patch, the road, the lake access, the west side of town. You're sitting in the middle of a natural growth corridor."
"I'm standing beside a community garden with a cracked tomato cage and a kid's crooked compost trench."
"Exactly. Community amenities matter. Access matters. Planning matters."
"What you mean is money matters."
"Money keeps towns alive too."
I looked down at my boots. Dust clung to the leather. A smear of mud marked the left toe from the carrot row.
I closed my hand tighter around the phone.
Fletcher kept talking. "You don't have to sell tomorrow. Nobody's asking you to sign your life away over coffee. But you need to stop treating every conversation like an attack."
"You want Beargrass access."
"I want you to sit down and hear options."
