Love Is Gone, So Am I novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Last Holdout

Gus pulled one of the stakes out of the sidewalk and turned it over in the moonlight.

Somebody had written on it in black marker.

MH-C. Lot 7.

"Merriam House," I said. "C for Champlain."

"What's Champlain?"

"I don't know. Davis's contract said planned property. Within fifty miles."

He threw the stake into the gutter.

"Gram's going to love this," he said.

Avis did not love it.

She found out at seven the next morning, when a black car parked outside the diner.

Celia sent a boy in a blazer across the street to invite Avis to breakfast.

"Tell her I've eaten," Avis said.

"She says it's about your building, ma'am."

Avis put on her cardigan.

"Then I'll have coffee."

The diner was full. It was always full on Sunday mornings: fishermen, church people, the ferry crew, half of Front Street.

Celia sat in the back booth in a white sweater with a leather folder in front of her.

She looked like she'd been dropped there from a magazine.

Avis slid into the booth across from her.

I sat beside Avis.

Gus stood at the end of the table with his arms crossed.

"I'll be quick," Celia said. "I know you're busy."

She opened the folder.

Inside was a drawing. A long white hotel with green shutters and a glass dining room hanging over the water.

MERRIAM HOUSE CHAMPLAIN, it said across the top.

"Ninety rooms," Celia said. "A wedding pavilion on the lake. A spa. It'll bring this town more money than it's seen in fifty years."

The waitress stopped pouring coffee at the next table and listened.

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