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“You should’ve brought your man here for that.” She rolled her eyes. “But I’ll put an arm around you.”

“You’re my hero,” I said, fanning myself. “Toby obviously hoped we wouldn’t be here. I’m gonna kill him.”

“Join the club,” Wren said.

“None of it’s good for the spring,” I said. “They’ll ruin it.”

“Exactly,” she muttered. “This is why I do this responsibly.”

Next to us, Mollie took a deep breath. “I’m glad we told Piper to stay away. This is packed.”

“It’s good,” I replied. “That means they might take us seriously.”

I let out a long sigh as the door opened. I jumped, thinking it was the mayor, but it was someone else.

Hugh hobbled in front of us all.

“I see you’ve all gathered here,” he said.

“To fix your screwup!” Tammy snapped.

I thought Hugh would snap right back at her. That was what he always did.

Instead, his head hung low. “We need to talk about that.”

We were all pissed at Hugh, but seeing him remorseful was shocking. He did whatever he wanted and never cared. This should have been the same thing.

When we quieted down, he spoke. “I need to say one thing. You all better open your ears because I’m not doing it again.”

I swore I could hear a pin drop.

“I’m sorry . . . for selling that land. I could’ve done things differently, but they were very persuasive.” He lowered his head again.

My eyes went wide. I knew he hadn’t felt great about it, but to apologize to all of us?

“We get it,” Mark said. “We wish you’d used the grant, but it’s fine.”

Hugh scoffed. “You all have to stop depending on that. You realize we’ve basically signed the town over to whoever that is, right?”

Everyone looked at each other. I’d said it before, but now virtually the entire town was realizing what I had.

“They wouldn’t hurt us, right?” Jackie asked.

“Yes.”

“We don’t know!” I said instead. “And it’s not always great to live in mystery.”

“But we need them!” Jackie pleaded.

“I know, and I’m not saying we stop working with them entirely. Not working with them gets us in hot water.” I pointedly looked at Hugh. “But maybe we should be careful. Very careful.”

“I’m not selling any more,” Hugh mumbled. “I didn’t know they would make a damn data center.”

I glanced at him and sighed. I could imagine being where he was. My shop was barely running. If not for the grant, I’d be in trouble too.

“Let’s not dogpile on Hugh,” I told everyone. “We can be mad, but I’m sure he’ll help us fix this. Right, Hugh?”

“I will. I promise on my own ass.”