AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Shit,” I muttered as Beck parked at the curb. “Not Paul.”
Beckett snickered. “Have fun with that.”
I hesitated to get out. “You sure you don’t want to come with me?” I gave him my most charming smile. “I might need my wingman.”
“Nah, you got this. Standing up the mayor is probably a bad idea.”
I sighed dramatically. “I guess if you want to be all responsible about it.”
“Although I wouldn’t say no to a trade,” Beckett said with a nervous chuckle. “Selling people isn’t my strong suit, like it is yours.”
I considered it for half a second, but while I might be able to charm the mayor, I hadn’t done the research and designed a landscape presentation to win her over. That was all Beck.
“No way. She’s gonna be blown away by your presentation,” I said. “I’ll just have to pull up my big-boy pants and deal with Paul.”
“Thatta boy,” Beck said, giving me a thump on the shoulder. “Now go and count yourself lucky you don’t have to deal with Colt.”
“I wouldn’t call it lucky,” I grumbled. “I was looking forward to tearing him a new one.”
Beckett’s eyes glinted with malice. “I’ll try to save you a piece, but no promises.”
I laughed as I got out of the truck. While I headed toward Lyle and Paul, Beckett pulled away.
“Wes, you’re here!” Lyle said, sounding more eager than I’d ever heard him in my life. “Paul, you know Wes, and Wes, Paul is the neighborhood liaison here. I’ll leave you two to discuss any questions or concerns regarding the park’s impact on the residents here. I’ve got to get back to work.”
“You’re not staying?” Paul asked. “I thought you’d help facilitate—”
“Sorry,” Lyle said quickly. “My crew needs me.”
He clapped me on the arm and whispered in my ear, “The man is a black hole of rambling nonsense. I had to escape the vortex.”
“I thought we were friends,” I protested.
He grimaced. “So I’ll owe you a beer. But there are some things in life every man has to face alone.”
“Fine!” I called as he walked away. “But you’re buying tonight!”
He shot me a thumbs-up just before rounding the corner of a house and disappearing from sight.
Damn. The universe was conspiring to make me take this meeting on my own. I’d hoped to at least have Lyle there as a buffer. Maybe I really had jinxed it by bragging to Dad. I’d just wanted him to see that his business was in good hands.
“Wes, I’m so glad we finally get to do this. The Dix neighbors are excited to have a park, but understandably they have a lot of questions and concerns. For example, you will be planting a screening shrubbery between the park and the backyards, won’t you? Ed Barton is concerned about his privacy, and understandably so if there’s going to be folks having picnics and wedding receptions and all manner of parties at that gazebo and picnic area. And then there’s the question of what exactly you will be planting. All the town hall plans were more conceptual than exact. Posy Matthews has some suggestions that would attract more hummingbirds. A lot of folks really enjoy birdwatching. In fact, I indulge in the hobby myself…”
Words just kept pouring from him, like a torrential river. I tried to pay attention. I really, really did, but at some point, my mind shut down to protect itself. Maybe I really should have traded with Beckett, because keeping track of every complaint or concern from the residents of the neighborhood was a lost cause.
Instead, my mind drifted to the quiet conversation Beckett and I had shared the night before. The intimacy of it had actually reminded me of a simpler time in our lives. When we were younger we used to have gaming marathons, go camping, or drink ourselves stupid, and we thought nothing of crashing in the same bed. And some of those nights, we talked in the darkness, sharing parts of ourselves, binding ourselves closer together.
I wondered, were we always headed for this fucked-up relationship where we both wanted more than just brotherhood? A few years ago, I would have denied it. But from the moment Beck and I had made peace with being brothers, he’d had a special place in my life. In my heart. He came before all others in my life, and he had for a very long time.
“Don’t you think, Wes?”
I realized Paul was staring at me, waiting for an answer.
I wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted from me. There had been more than one town hall to address residents’ concerns, and the plan was in motion, so there wasn’t much I could do to assuage these worries. My job was to enact the approved plan, not reinvent it.
My best bet was to make Paul—and by extension, the neighbors—feel as if they’d been heard.
“Yes, of course we’ll do our best to ensure everyone is happy,” I said. “We all want the same thing, right?”
