The Twenty Year Triangle

Chapter Six

"But you're all cool and fun; kids will like you," I point out. "You can't, not be friends with anyone else just cause me and Olly are outcasts."

"Kinz is right; that's not fair," Olly agrees.

"You know my ma and me had to move around a lot before we came here. I never really got close to any kids because we'd always leave, till now. You two are the closest friends I ever had," Hunter's eyes fill with emotion, and I feel a big lump in my throat. 

"I never thought I'd like anyone but Kinsey," Olly says with a smile. "But you're the coolest Hunter. It feels like we knew you all along."

"Yeah, it sure does," I say with a soft smile at Hunter. 

"No matter what happens at school, even If I hang out with other people, you two will always be my best friends," Hunter promises. 

"Promise?" I ask.

"I promise" He thrusts his free hand out to the middle, so it hovers over my lap.

I place my palm over Hunter's hand, and then Olly places his palm over mine. 

"I promise too, friends forever," Olly says. 

"Best friends forever," I declare. 

Tears are burning my eyes as the memory fades away like these duplexes soon will. I see a huge dumpster parked outside and a few trailers with the logo S&S Enterprise on them. That must be the fancy New York company Hunter talked about.

The sadness gives way to anger that someone has the nerve to come in and change our town like this. I wrinkle my nose up in disgust at the idea of condominiums being there. Doesn't even make a lick of sense! That would house so many people where they all going to work? But the rich company that bought everything up probably didn't think about all that; all they saw was land and a beach and got greedy. Not much different than my ex-husband. 

I speed up into main street, and the first thing I see when I get into town is more of them damn work vans with that S&S logo, only this time, they are sitting in front of the bookstore. My bookstore! It and the two stores on each side of it are covered by a big work tarp and a huge dumpster is sitting our front. I watch in horror as guys in hard hats walk out of the store and toss things into the trash.

"The hell do these people think they are?"

The duplexes were one thing, this feels like a personal attack and my blood is boiling. I park opposite the street and march over in a hurry. The door to the bookstore is propped open as the men carry things out.

"Ma'am, you can't go in there..." one of them says, a young thing, can't be more than twenty. 

  "The hell I can't. Where is the owner? Who the hell is in charge of this thing?" I demand as I storm inside what used to be called Haven's Book Nook. Everything is torn down, all the shelves and the big lounge area in the middle are all cleared out and full of dust. 

They destroyed it! My bookstore, our bookstore... gone. It's like a bullet to the heart. 

"Ma'am, you need to leave. You can't be in here." The hard hat man follows me, and I whirl around to tell him off. 

"Don't call me ma'am. I'm not that old. My name is Kinsey Abbot. I lived in this town my whole life and want to talk to whoever is in charge of this."

"Bryan, go take a beat. I got this."

A tall man with a deep, commanding voice walks into the room, and I take a small step back. He's older, much; his salt and pepper shaggy hair and the deeply etched lines on his handsome face tell me that. Yet he carries himself like a much younger man with his faded blue jeans and fitted flannel, a pack of Winstons in the front pocket; his sleeves are rolled up to reveal tanned and toned forearms.