Jack straightened. “Gracie,” he said, soberly enough to grab her attention. “If you’re posting that pic on Instagram, please remember to use the Save Fogg Peak hashtags that Hawk’s been using, okay? Amplify Hawk’s message while you’re doing your selfie thing.”
“Oh gosh, of course,” she agreed, wide-eyed. “No, like, I’m totally committed to the effort now. I’m Peaky forlife.”
“You’re…?” I frowned.
“Peaky. You know, a person who supports saving the Peak? I convinced my mom to talk to her bridge club and her bunco ladies about it,” she said proudly. “Mom says they’re having a joint meeting about it tomorrow at Panini Jack’s?—”
I looked up at Jack in surprise. “They are?”
“I let lots of organizations hold their meetings at the diner.” He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal… but it was averybig deal to me. I knew he’d turned Helena Fortnum down when she’d tried to hand out flyers from the Environmental Committee at the diner earlier this year.
“—so, like, I was wondering if Save Fogg Peak has an official merch shop where we could buy T-shirts? Or is that something I could help out with?” Gracie asked.
Merchandise? Really?
“Y-yeah. Sure. You could definitely help out,” I agreed.
“Sick! Thanks, Hawk!” With that, she ran off as abruptly as she’d come over.
“Jack?” I demanded, staring after her. “Did that just happen?”
“You mean, are the young people of the Hollow treating you like a celebrity because you had a kick-ass idea and you executed it? Yep. That definitely happened.”
I turned to look at him. “Careful. You’re starting to sound like you support the cause.”
Jack grinned. “I supportyou.You’re doing good work, Bird, and I’m proud of you… even if your happily ever after in this particular case looks a little different from mine.”
“I think I’ve spent so long focusing on this one thing I wanted that I thought the no votewasthe happily ever after. I forgot that the story didn’t end there,” I admitted. “If this development gets canceled, what kind of oversight do we want to guarantee before we consider a new one? What kind of developmentwouldbe okay? I don’t know. But I told you I’m going to meet upwith Simon for dinner sometime, maybe even this week, and he promised me information on Evola’s environmental monitoring of their recent build sites. That might be a good jumping-off point to start figuring things out.”
“And you reallywillonly be talking about the development at this dinner,” Jack said in that overly casual, not-at-all-casual way of his.
I grinned. “What do you think?”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “I think… it sounds like you’ve got a busy week coming up, Hawkins.”
“Oh yeah. I’ve got a campout protest to continue, alternate proposals to consider, an Instagram campaign to keep up with, an octogenarian Hooker to pin down, a job at the diner to get back to—assuming my boss still wants me—and a hike with the Mini Scouts. I’m swamped.” I gave him a sideways look. “From what I saw at the diner earlier, you’re gonna be run off your feet this week, too, eh?”
“No question.” He darted a sideways look at me, then glanced at the rows of tables we hadn’t yet visited. “How hungry are you, baby?”
I laughed. “For food? Not at all. For you, on the other hand, I have a powerful hunger.”
As in, years andyearsof hunger that only Jack could satisfy.
Jack pulled me against him and pressed a brief kiss to my smiling lips, and I was so caught up in him I didn’t give a single thought to who might be watching or what they might think. I wanted to shout my happiness from the rooftops.
“Let’s go make the most of our night, then?” he suggested softly.
I nodded. “Lead the way.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JACK
“He is so excessively handsome!”
~ Mrs. Bennet
Hawk had beento my house many times before. Hell, he’d helped me renovate almost every room in the place. But bringing him home tonight felt different.
