~*~
“Over my dead body.” The all but shouted pronouncement was punctuated by Cam slamming the front door.
The entire Campbell clan went silent, waiting to find out what was going on. He stalked into the room, hands balled to fists, face set. Norah could see the worry beneath the simmering temper and struggled not to cross over to try and soothe.
“Campbell Alexander Crawford, you go right back out that door and prove you know how to enter it in a civilized manner,” Grammy snapped.
A muscle ticked in his jaw, but Cam did an about face and followed his grandmother’s order.
Aunt Liz rose. “What on earth?”
“I take it the City Council meeting didn’t go well?” Miranda asked dryly.
“That depends on who you ask.” Sandra sank into a chair.
The front door opened and shut again, softer this time. Cam prowled back into the living room. “I apologize, Grammy.”
His grandmother sniffed. “Do you want cobbler before or after you tell us what you’re tantruming about?”
“Respectfully, I don’t want any cobbler.”
“Oh, man,” Mitch said, “it must be bad.”
“I’m evidently the only one to think so,” Cam growled.
“Maybe you should start at the beginning,” Reed suggested.
“At tonight’s City Council meeting, we received a formal proposal from GrandGoods.”
Norah’s hand fisted on the arm of the sofa. “The megastore?”
He nodded. “They want to use Wishful as a pilot site for a new, smaller store designed to expand their market share into more rural locales. I have a number of problems with it, not the least of which is that they’ve already made an offer on the property where they want to build—the acreage owned by Abe Costello that wraps around two sides of Hope Springs. They want to put a goddamned parking lot almost to the edge of the springs.”
Norah expected Grammy to call him out on his language, but she said nothing.
“We can block that,” his mother said. “If not the direct purchase of the property, then the zoning restrictions on what and how they could build on it.”
“We need to do a hell of a lot more than that to update the zoning code. Have you even looked at the minimal site review process out there? I have. And we don’t have time to change that before the Council meets again in two weeks to talk about this. You saw everybody in that room. I was the only one thinking in terms other than ‘Ooo, shopping.’”
“Campbell.” Sandra’s tone was a warning.
“I don’t want our history paved over by some soulless corporate giant.”
“We don’t know that it would be that bad. Their presentation—”
Cam interrupted. “The guy gave an impressive presentation. Slick. Too slick.”
“What exactly was their pitch?” Uncle Pete asked.
“They don’t want to damage the identity of the town,” Sandra began.
“Of course, they’ll lead with that.” Norah’s chest went tig
ht. Unable to keep still, she shoved to her feet, tucking her hands beneath her arms. “They want to get your guard down. I bet they said that they’re on the side of the people. That their philosophy is to embrace the identity of the community and that the store and the town will be equal partners. They’ll offer choice and convenience to the masses. Jobs and an influx of capital to the local economy. They probably rounded things out with a nice speech about how there’s value in the future and that progress lives on. How’m I doing?”
Cam stared at her with disbelief. “What? Were you hiding under the table in the Council chambers? How do you know all that?”
Norah closed her eyes and felt the blood drain out of her cheeks. “Because it’s what I said. On behalf of one of their biggest competitors, in another small town, just like this one.” She began to pace the room, her steps short and jerky. There wasn’t enough space for what she was feeling amid all these people. “I told them all of that and more. I convinced them everything would be great. That Hugo’s would be an asset and partner to the community. And within three years, seventy percent of the businesses downtown had been wiped out and the town was so swollen from urban sprawl, it was barely recognizable.” She looked at Miranda. “Have Your Cake was gone.”