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Jadyn was staring at him intently. “Are you serious?”
Hale shrugged. “Creating a program of low interest or no interest loans so people can do needed upgrading, stabilizing or increasing their property value without forced buyouts.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. Real estate and urban renewal isn’t something I know much about. But I’m willing to learn.”
“Can we put you in touch with someone?” Gemma asked.
“Absolutely,” Hale answered, to another weird squeeze of his thigh by Elsa.
Gemma smiled. “Fabulous.”
“No offense, man,” Braelin said. “You just get tired of the shit.”
“No offense taken,” Hale assured him. “Seriously. The conversations need to be had and you shouldn’t shy away just because someone might get offended. But the bottom line is, they shouldn’t. It’s truth. I’m telling you something you already know when I say we all have to face it, or nothing will get done.”
Braelin jutted up his chin to Hale.
Hale dipped his back and then scooped up some more mashed potatoes and gravy to shove into his mouth, making a mental note to ask Gemma for her gravy recipe, because it was the best he’d ever had.
* * *
They werein his Escalade on the way home, Rocco following in one of the company Tahoes, when Elsa broached it.
“I hesitate to point this out, but you’re a busy man, and you just offered to wade into the Brooklyn regentrification issue, which you might not know is a thing.”
“I know it’s a thing.”
She said no more.
“You don’t think I should get involved?”
“Not for me to say.”
He took in a breath, and then he said, “Sweetheart, we may have had words the other day, but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to listen to your opinions about pretty much anything.”
“Okay then. Traditionally Black neighborhoods are being taken over, Hale. This is a very big deal to people who are finding themselves forced out of spaces that have been theirs for decades. You don’t live in Brooklyn, or New York.”
“I’m in New York a lot of the time.”
“What I’m saying is, you can’t save everybody. You can’t become aware of an injustice, throw a bunch of money at it, and time you don’t have. This is meaningful to them. It’s their home they’re losing. Part of their identity. And for you, it’s a cause.”
“I don’t understand how that’s bad.”
“It’s not, exactly.” He heard her blow out a breath. “I’m just concerned you’re already stretched too thin. And without hesitation, you jump into something else.”
“I care,” he said softly.
“I know, honey,” she replied in the same tone and leaned over to kiss his cheek. She sat back and mumbled, “I love that about you.”
He loved she did.
He loved she put that out there.
But even so, the way she said it made it clear she still worried.
He ignored that.
He’d be fine.
And eventually, she’d see he was.
