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Vivian snorted, while people watched as Jonathan tried to pretend nothing weird had just happened.
Finally, someone on the other side of the room shouted, "Well? What does it say?"
"This one was personal," Jonathan replied primly and stuck his cell in his pocket.
Jamie snorted loud enough for everyone to hear this time and stated, “It probably told him to stop being a jackass."
The entire meeting cracked up while Selectperson McCreary banged the gavel.
"That's enough." She banged it again, starting to look frustrated that everyone wasn't settling down. "I said that's enough. We obviously have the beginnings of a solution. Camden Ross and Vivian Breck will be paid for their services, additional help will be brought in, and Jonathan will stop being a jackass."
Vivian laid her head in her hands and tried not to laugh at what she wouldn’t approve of her son saying.
From farther back in the room, someone who sounded suspiciously like Camden's mother added, "Good luck with that."
Before anyone could add to the chaos of the meeting, the selectperson called for adjournment and hurried out the back door, leaving anyone who might question her behind.
“What about Captain Jack?” Tyler asked. “I didn’t get to use my sign.”
Vivian only managed not to snort because she loved her son. “I am one hundred percent sure you will get to use your sign sometime in the not-too-distant future the way Captain Jack is out there breaking all the laws.”
He seemed content with the idea that at some point he’d get to dog shame the captain and tucked his stuff away in his backpack.
Everyone rose, knowing there wasn’t going to be any more decision-making tonight—at least not formally.
But that didn’t mean anything in Starlight Harbor. Only people like Jonathan and to some extent the selectmen believed that. Most people knew the truth though.
Because of that, there was a slow exit while everyone glanced to the far left-hand side of the room where the three older gentlemen sat, heads together.
Vivian would give up her best pro-lift to know what they were saying.
When the collective waved Noah over, she suspected she wouldn’t have to wait too long.
10
Cam
Camden was 99.8%sure his head was going to explode.
Of course, Jonathan Baines had to stick his nose in where it didn't belong. He’d been looking for a way to be the hero. If he wasn't so much of a—in Jamie’s (and maybe his mother’s) words—jackass, Cam might've felt bad for him at some point.
Some very, very distant point.
But Jonathan had always used Cam and Jamie, and their friend Rob Dunn until he moved away, as the stepping stool to build himself up.
He’d always seemed a little desperate.
The only time Cam had ever hit someone was when Jonathan started the rumor Cam admitted to being then-pregnant Vivian's baby daddy and he had coldheartedly told her she was on her own.
Of course, it'd been Jonathan's brother who had gotten Vivian pregnant and disappeared.
Cam wasn't sure which reason was a better one: trying to ruin his reputation as a teenager or trying to destroy the town’s legacy just to get a one-up.
Of course, adult Cam could see the rumors also deeply hurt Vivian, so in retrospect it was a no-brainer. But Jonathan had done so many things to tick Cam off for decades that each one felt like the worst at the time.
But now he'd gone too far.
About six miles too far.
