Page 4 of Where She Belongs

What more could a man want?

Apparently, everyone around him had their own answers. His younger sister included.

Faith had found the love of her life and married him, and none of it had stopped her treating this house as hers. Tate didn’t mind. It was good to have her coming and going as though nothing had changed.

Because Heaven knew things around here were changing far too much for comfort. All his friends were getting married and having kids while he felt stuck.

Maybe that wasn’t the best way to describe it. His reasons for being stuck were no one’s fault but his own. And while he didn’t have any regrets on the matter, he couldn’t help but feel like there was a shift in the atmosphere. Something was coming. He didn’t know what, but there was a definite change on the horizon, and he wished he could tell if it was good or bad.

Jason charged in.

That was different.

Jason was the calm one. The twin who took a room in from the edge of it and went off on his own when he needed his head clear. Nothing rattled him, and he’d never once needed to say so.

His twin slammed a crinkled flyer onto the table, his palm cracking the air with the sound. “Did you see this?”

Tate arched a brow and brought his eyes down from his brother’s face to the paper. A notice for a town hearing. A plot of land, up for rezoning.

Tate reached for it. Jason stayed planted by the table with his fists on his hips, and there was heat coming off him. Jason didn’t run hot over much. Whatever was on that paper had earned it.

There it was.

The map put the parcel hard against near a third of the Dennison property. He brought it up closer and read. “A developer’s buying the land next to us.”

“So, you didn’t know?”

Tate cut his brother a look. Jason angry was rare enough to mark on a calendar, and here it was. “It’ll be fine, Jase. It’s a meeting. They’ll put it to a vote and it won’t pass. People try this on towns like ours all the time, figuring there’s money in what we’ve got for free. I’d bet that developer has a picture in his head of a country club where folks pay to pretend to be a cowboy but in luxury with a spa and a gourmet chef.”

Jason went still. “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I. And neither will anyone in town. You know them just as well as I do. Remember when those sisters moved back from California? Up at Twisted Rivers Ranch? They weren’t even going to build anything up there. They just wanted to live here, and the people had their pitchforks ready to run them out of town.”

Jason rubbed his thumb across his lower lip. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“You know I’m right. It’ll be fine. But if it makes you feel any better, we can go to the meeting. See what it’s all about. That’s what these things are for.”

His brother nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He blew out a breath as if he’d been holding it this whole time. Then he pulled out a kitchen chair and slumped into it. They were near spitting images of one another, but Jason cared more about grooming. Both had brown hair and rich brown eyes. Tate sported scruff on his jaw. Jason kept his clean-shaven, squared away enough that he looked like he visited the barber quite often. Even their builds were similar. It was a wonder the people in town could tell them apart when Tate bothered to put gel in his hair and shave.

A hat was going to cover whatever he did to his hair, so he’d stopped doing anything to it.

“You hear about the Black property?” Jason said it to his coffee.

Tate huffed. “You’re a treasure trove this morning, aren’t you?”

“Can’t help it. I was at Salon 406.” He winced. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. Christine must have seen me coming up the sidewalk and she pulled me inside.”

Biting back a laugh, Tate lifted his mug to his lips again. “I bet you got all the dirt on what’s happening in town, huh? This whole developer fiasco. And now the Black property? What’s going on there? Someone finally moving in?”

Jason sighed. “Nobody knows. There’s no record of a sale. Just a crew out there the other day. Cleaners, I think.”

Tate nodded. “Makes sense. I’ve only ever seen a few maintenance people out there every so often. It probably needed a good cleaning. Did you know it’s still furnished?”

“News to me.”

“Yeah, I went over there to check it out after we graduated from high school. It’s eerie.”

“You ever think of her?” Jason whispered so low, Tate almost didn’t hear him.