Rebecca leaned closer.
“Too much?”
He nodded.
She waited.
No touching.
No talking.
Just waiting.
Finally Mason lowered his hands.
“Where?”
Rebecca clicked again.
A map appeared.
One location was circled.
I stopped breathing.
It was the empty parcel beside Miller’s Diner.
The old hardware store lot.
Mason looked at Diane in the audience.
She was sobbing.
George stood beside her, leaning on a cane.
Tyler had flown in from Seattle.
Everyone knew.
Except Mason.
For once, the secret had been kept from him.
He laughed through his tears.
“You lied.”
Hannah called out:
“IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY!”
The entire room erupted.
Even Mason laughed.
Construction began in April.
George insisted on attending the groundbreaking.
He was eighty-eight by then and complained that everyone treated him like antique furniture.
“You’re not allowed to use power tools,” Diane told him.
“Discrimination.”
“You fell asleep holding a drill last month.”
