Page 4 of Wildly Yours (Owl Creek #3)

I stop at Caleb’s auto repair garage to kill time until Serena is officially doing public business. My nerves are thrumming like there’s electricity running through my system, and it takes my twin brother three seconds to notice something is off.

“What happened to you? Raccoon piss in your well or something?”

I give him my best ‘fuck you stare’ and walk to the back of his shop.

“Got something I can hammer on for a couple of hours?”

“It must be really bad if you’re in town in the middle of the day. Seriously, what’s going on? I’m waiting for a part to be delivered so I’ve got time.”

“I finally figured out what all the noises are that have been messing with my research. To make matters worse, there are lights to match.”

“You look like you’re going to kill someone, and it’s over noise and light? I think it’s time you stopped living on the mountain, man.”

“How would you feel if you couldn’t fix cars anymore, or make your metal sculptures? How would you feel if the thing that brings all your senses into focus, that makes the world make sense, was disrupted?”

“Pretty shitty.”

“That’s what the noise and light are doing to me. And I can’t fix it. Not on my own, anyway.”

Caleb leans against the car he’s working on with a smirk. I know that smirk because I’ve been looking at it my whole life. Hell, it's the same smirk that flashes across my face when I get the better of someone.

“So that’s what’s really bothering you. You can’t fix it by yourself. You need someone. Is that why you’re here? Want my help?”

“There’s nothing you can do. I need help from the Mayor.”

Caleb starts to shake as he covers his mouth to try to hide his laughter. He knows the deal—he’s the only one who does.

“I don’t know why you’re laughing. This isn’t fucking funny.”

He reaches his hand to squeeze my shoulder but I shrug him off and pick up a tool to start banging on something.

“Look, I don’t think the reason you two aren’t…

whatever you were back then… anymore, is funny at all.

You know that. But I do think it’s funny that the one time you need someone—like—really need them, is the one time you have to eat your hat and admit that you didn’t handle things as well as you could have. ”

“Ever since you settled down you think you’re the King of Mature Relationships.

You would have done the same thing if you were in my shoes.

And you know what?” I shake a wrench at him.

“Laugh all you want, but if I don’t fix this, tourism is going to tank in this town.

And then Mom will be pissed about her boat festival numbers, and every retiree in this town with an apartment above their garage is going to be wondering where their summer income went. ”

“That bad, huh?”

“Some jackass decided to re-open the mines on Mr. Miller’s land. Turns out there might be some scarce minerals that they need for clean energy production up there.”

“You’re a biologist trying to save animals with your research. Don’t you support clean energy production? Isn’t that your thing?”

“At what cost, Caleb? Dirty rivers and wells? Noise pollution? Mountaintop removal? More mosquitos in the summer because all the bats and birds that eat them are gone? And for what? So a couple of tech bros can drive electric cars in Los Angeles? This whole mess could pit half the town against the other half. And they don’t even know if there is any molybdenum up there. It’s just a hunch.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“I need to talk to Serena. There’s gotta be some way we can expand the park to include Mr. Miller’s land. That way they can’t mine for the molybdenum.”

“Expand the park? How are you going to do that?”

“Buy him out and grandfather his house into the deal. He can keep the house but the land around him is officially owned by the city.”

“With what money? The city just spent its rainy day fund on the new library. The piggy bank is empty.”

I feel my body deflate. I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know what I’m going to do. But everything I know, everything I’ve built up there, is falling apart.

The parts guy pulls up to deliver whatever Caleb has been waiting on. He walks out to get the box and signs the receipt.

“Wanna replace some rotors with me?”

I pull on some coveralls and get to work, trying to rehearse in my head exactly how I’m going to talk to Serena after I hurt her years ago.

I have never stopped thinking about it, but I’ve never let myself be in a situation where I needed her.

Where I needed to explain why I did what I did all those years ago.

And now I’m regretting letting the wound fester for so long.