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“No,” Mindy interrupted him, stalking forward so that she was standing just in front of the podium and glaring up at him.
Now that they were this close, he could see the small ways that her face had changed over the years since he had seen her last. Her cheeks had lost some of the roundness from her youth, accentuating the delicate bones of her face. She had the beginnings of laugh lines at the sides of her mouth, and his heart gave an unaccountable twinge at the thought that he’d missed out on all the smiles that would have caused them.
While some things about Mindy had changed, the things he’d once loved about her remained the same. She had the same soulful brown eyes. And the ringlets of her hair, which he’d used to love wrapping around his fingers, were exactly the same as well. Apparently, so was her fiery spirit.
She continued chastising him, her words snapping him out of his fond memories.
“Did you ever stop to think about what this is going to do to our town?” she demanded, hurling the words at him ferociously. “Did you consider the fact that adding in trucking routes will cause so much traffic that it will make getting anywhere in Snowy Pine Ridge a complete nightmare?”
Noah heard murmurs of assent around the room, and his eyes flicked up to see a few of the people whom he’d thought had been on his side a moment ago now nodding their heads along with Mindy.Uh oh.
“I have a plan for the flow of traffic,” he said quickly, her words getting under his skin a little.
She eyed him skeptically, clearly not buying his assurances. “I’m sure you did. And I’m sure you also considered the fact that, while you claim this industrial complex would bring additional clientele to the businesses in town, it will alsocostthe town existing customers and business, didn’t you?”
“I’m not sure I’m following your—” he began, but once again, she cut him off.
“Of course not. The only thing you probably spent any time thinking about is your own profits. Did you stop to consider the fact that the customers that we currently have, the people who travel from all over the country to visit our town, do so because of its charm? There’s not a single franchised business here. Everything in Snowy Pine Ridge is entirely locally owned.”
She took another step forward, bringing herself so close that her thighs were nearly touching the stage.
“It’s a town made of and run by small business owners,” she went on. “The same people who live here. What happens to those small businesses when more people move here? When, suddenly, franchises begin poking around because we can’t keep up with the demand?”
More murmurs filled the room as people began to wrap their heads around what Mindy was insinuating, and Noah’s pulse picked up a little. This hadn’t been going very well to begin with, and it was going downright terribly now.
“What happens,” Mindy continued, really picking up steam now, “when our town that we love so much begins to lose its charm? I’ll tell you what.” She whirled, turning her back on him and facing the crowd, addressing her fellow townspeople directly. “The people who love Snowy Pine Ridge as much as we do, who come here when they need to rest, when they need to be reminded that a little bit of magic exists in the world—they’ll stop coming.”
She said the last three words slowly, deliberately enunciating every syllable. Noah tried to hide his grimace, watching with growing frustration as every last face in the crowd became clouded with distrust. He glanced toward his lawyer and the mayor, his mind scrambling for a way to take control of the situation once more.
But it appeared that Mindy would be having none of that.
“You all know how important this town is to me,” she said clearly, still addressing everyone else in the room but Noah. “You welcomed me with open arms when I moved here. I knew this place was special immediately. And now I’m pleading with you not to forget all the things that make Snowy Pine Ridge unique. The things that make it a place worth loving.”
All around the room, people were nodding and murmuring in low voices, and Noah sensed that no amount of damage control would fix what she’d said. Not today. If he tried to rebut her little speech right now, the only thing it would accomplish would be to further alienate him from the rest of the town.
“She has a point.” The older man who’d asked a question earlier spoke up, his gruff voice filling the silence that had fallen in the room.
“You’re right,” Noah admitted, knowing that honesty was the only thing that could even remotely salvage this for him. “She made some excellent points. And they are all things that I have considered and have plans to deal with.” Mayor Thornton stepped up beside him, and Noah knew that was his sign to wrap things up. “Plans that I would be more than happy to discuss with you all in more detail either during your next meeting. Or you can contact me directly.”
Low, unsatisfied murmurs made their way around the room as Mindy finally moved away from the edge of the stage, settling into a chair near the front row. Noah stepped back from the podium and allowed Mayor Thornton to take the place he’d vacated, and she addressed the crowd quickly once more, going over a few more items of business that pertained to the town.
Noah walked back to the seat beside Hugh, and his lawyer shifted uncomfortably.
“That didn’t go very well,” Hugh whispered under his breath, and Noah had to work to keep his expression neutral.
“I can come back from it,” Noah murmured, and the other man gave a non-committal grunt.
The two of them fell silent as Mayor Thornton wrapped everything up. After the meeting was adjourned, Noah watched Mindy carefully, wondering if she would stay to rail at him some more. But although she cast an angry, distrustful look in his direction, she filed out with everyone else.
Noah and Hugh stood, waiting for the mayor to make her way back to them. As she approached, she wore an apologetic smile.
“I’m sorry if that wasn’t quite the reception you expected,” she said, not unkindly. “As you can see, our town’s residents are passionate about Snowy Pine Ridge, and they have strong opinions about the future of the town.”
“Well, Mindy clearly does,” Noah murmured before he could stop himself.
His lawyer and the mayor both glanced at him quizzically, and he realized he’d spoken louder than he’d meant to.
“Oh? Do you know her?” Mayor Thornton asked, and from the expression on her face, Noah could tell she was surprised by that.
