She had heard the expression “shaking in your boots” before, but as she climbed the concrete steps to the loading dock, Cally finally understood what it meant. Everything below her knees trembled uncontrollably while her face smiled and her voice said cheerfully, “Mind if I join you fellas?”

“Not at all!” cried Merv as he, Doc, and Jud Thornton all stood to offer her their lawn chairs. Without looking at him, she accepted the overturned milk crate Ben vacated for her. “So what are we singing?”

“Actually we were just talking,” Jud said. “Business, I’m afraid.”

“That can wait,” Doc told him. “How often do we get an alto to join us?” He turned and smiled to Cally. “You can sing Greg Allman’s part!”

“Dammit, Daniel.” Jud seemed to have already been on the edge of losing his temper. “This needs to be discussed!”

“Maybe I should join you some other time?” Cally offered perfunctorily, pretending to get up to leave, though she had no intention of actually doing any such thing.

“On the contrary.” It was Ben. “Maybe your input would be welcome, and timely.” He touched her arm, and then she could not have walked off the loading dock if she’d tried. “You could stand in for Ian May, since he can’t make it tonight. His knees are acting up again, apparently.” He looked at the other men on the porch as if he were awaiting their replies to this, but the way he urged Cally to sit back down told them the matter was not, as far as he was concerned, actually open for discussion.

Merv said “Hmm. Maybe so. Well, Ms. McCarthy, we were talking about what would attract more business to Woodley, to keep it from falling right off the map. What do you think?”

Ben stood behind Cally and said, “Ms. McCarthy just recently suggested to me that we could use a burger restaurant here.”

Luke, who was standing in the street next to the loading dock, said, “I wouldn’t mind the competition. Heck, I’d probably be their first customer!” He shouldered the pizza warmer. “But I have to be getting back now. Can’t leave Andi all alone with that huge, hungry mob!” He saluted and went back across the street.

“I don’t see what good it would do to open more businesses,” Jud complained, “if nobody can even find this place. What are we going to do about that? We need to lift the...”

“Now, there are lots of things we need to consider,” Merv interrupted him.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A cold breeze rushed out of the woods west of town, causing leaves and discarded wrappers to tumble up the street. Cally shivered and shrank back toward Ben’s warmth, then caught herself at it and sat up again, listening attentively. She was pleased to realize the very questions she had meant to bring up seemed already to be on the table, without her even needing to ask them.

Judd, it seemed to Cally, was insisting that “someone” needed to stop making Woodley so hard to find, as if “someone” were doing so deliberately. The other men seemed to think they didn’t want “just anyone” to be able to find their way into the heart of their little town. Jud told them he thought “just anyone’s” money was just as good as anyone else’s as far as he was concerned. Merv and Doc seemed uncomfortable and kept glancing at Cally sidelong as they argued with Jud.

“We really shouldn’t even be discussing this without Ian and Doug,” Merv pointed out.

“We might make more progress without them,” Jud snorted.

“Now I hardly think...”

Cally felt Ben’s breath on her cheek. “They’ve been dancing around like this for years,” he whispered. “They won’t talk about it, not really, in Jud’s presence. Nor yours, I think. Not yet. Come with me.”

All conversation on the dock ceased as the men swiveled their heads around and caught sight of Ben and Cally. Merv grinned hugely and his eyes twinkled. “Ah. I see. Why don’t you kids go talk about something more interesting, then, eh?” he suggested.

Cally moved away from Ben. “No, I... it’s not...” Doc winked at her. Ben’s hand was already under her elbow, urging her to stand. “I’ll talk,” he whispered in her ear, his breath warm on her cheek.

“Goodnight, you youngsters,” Merv called, waving as Ben guided Cally down the steps.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Doc added. Jud grumbled something in reply to that but Cally and Ben were already too far away to hear what it was.

Cally was shaking again, including everything above her knees, but this time it was with anger, not trepidation. “What was all that about?” she whispered in a hiss. They were headed up Main Street toward the residential district, and she wondered why she was whispering. “That was insulting!” she blurted out as they entered the oaken hall at the end of town. “They just shooed me away as if I were some kind of impudent child!” She yanked her arm out of Ben’s grip. “I know I’m not from around here, but why can’t the White Council talk in front of me? This is worse than junior high school!”

Ben stopped walking and looked at her. “The White Council?”

“That’s what Kat calls them,” Cally explained, feeling a little foolish. “All that gray hair.”

Ben laughed out loud and Cally looked sidelong at his mostly brown hair with gray temples and beard. “Are you part of them?” she asked.

“It’s complicated,” he said.

“No doubt!” She turned away and started walking again, having made up her mind to return to Vale House and try again another evening, preferably when Ben was not around.

“Sarcasm does not become you,” Ben called after her.

“I’m not trying to be becoming!” she threw back over her shoulder.

He ran to catch up with her. “I said I’d talk,” he said. “And I will. If you want.”