Love Inspired April 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Vannetta Chapman

Author:Vannetta Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Pouring rain put Monday’s demolition on hold, but it didn’t slow Shane. He hunkered down in the trailer, expanding his ideas digitally to use at the town meeting that night.

A sharp knock interrupted him shortly after Pete had headed over to the church. He got up and opened the door.

Miles Conrad stood on the other side. Mary had warned him that the central valley land owner wouldn’t like Shane’s ideas, but then Miles had never been a nice man. He owned the major community business not far from Kendall Mills Road. When the fire swept south, destroying numerous farms and homes, his Feed & Seed store emerged unscathed. Some folks would see the residential loss as a sorrow.

Miles was the type to see it as opportunity.

He didn’t bother with pleasantries or small talk. He smacked an envelope into Shane’s hand and almost got punched for his rudeness. Twenty years back, that might have been the outcome.

Fortunately, Shane had matured. Miles, however, had not. “What’s this?”

“Cease and desist order. All new construction must stop,” Miles demanded in the same patronizing tone Shane remembered from long ago. “The courts want to review the permissions the town has given you.”

At Miles’s behest, no doubt, but this wasn’t Shane’s first rodeo. “This is an unincorporated town, Miles.”

Miles scowled. “The law’s the law.”

“The law is actually on my side,” Shane told him in an easy voice, his calm heightening the other man’s discomfiture. “I’m not building new. I’m replacing. And as long as the buildings meet or exceed code, I’m legal. Worse, you know that and were hoping I didn’t,” he went on. “I’m not sure what that says about this situation, but if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” He reached forward to shut the trailer door, but Miles blocked it with his hand.

“You’re nothing to this town, Stone.”

Funny how the words hurt, even after all this time.

“You came from nothing and you’re still nothing but an ex-con, always looking to take what’s not his. Hiding behind a hard hat and a bunch of trucks doesn’t change you. Just dresses you up a little.”

Shane pulled the door shut.

He didn’t want to. Part of him wanted to go toe-to-toe with the obnoxious landowner and have his say, but the best defense against a man like Conrad was to ignore him.

He wouldn’t like being ignored, and if he thought prettying up the town messed up his chances at getting a highway spur through his land, that was his problem. Not Shane’s. And having people hate you for something you didn’t do was a price he’d paid long ago. Yeah, it was rough, but in the end, totally worth it.

He finished his layout for the presentation and was just heading out the door when a big truck rolled into the small parking lot where they’d parked the work trailer. A big, burly man swung down from the driver’s seat.

Bobby Ray Carlson.

He hadn’t seen Bobby Ray in years, and the football player hadn’t lost any height and had stayed trim.

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