Welcome to Bluestone 1 - Bluestone homecoming Read Online Free Page B

am.”
    Quinn’s mouth twisted into what he might have
thought was a socially acceptable greeting, and held out a hand to
give Leo a brisk handshake. Yeah, intensity, this guy had it. What
he was doing with sunny Lily, Leo had no idea. But he clearly
wanted her to himself.
    Lily was having none of that. She kept her
arm hooked through Leo’s as they walked toward the town hall. “Come
sit with us. We need to catch up.”
    “Not during the meeting,” Quinn grumbled.
“And there might not be three seats in a row.”
    “Always half full, is Quinn,” Lily said, not
to be deterred as the three of them pressed through the crowd
trying to get in the door.
    Leo glanced over his shoulder but didn’t see
his mother. He did, however, meet the shuttered gaze of Trinity
Madison.
    “So why the big turnout for the meeting?” Leo
asked. “I don’t remember it being such an event before.”
    “Your mother didn’t tell you?”
    “Tell me what?”
    Lily tucked her long hair behind her ear, and
her expression dimmed a few degrees. “Bluestone’s been hit pretty
hard by the economic downturn. Jill barely rented out half her
cabins last summer, and I only rented out a third of the ice
fishing cabins. Quinn’s been trying to sell his bar for a year, no
nibbles. People just don’t have the money to come up here, or
they’re working two jobs, or staying closer to home. So we’re
trying to come up with some ways to get them to visit. Maybe you
have some ideas.”
    He frowned. “You think that I, who couldn’t
get out of this town fast enough, will have ideas to lure people
here?”
    Her mouth twisted in a pout. “It’s not really
the ends of the earth, like the two of you seem to think it is.
It’s a lovely place that’s not too expensive, where people can get
away for a weekend without too much trouble.”
    “I suppose you tried that line of
advertising,” Leo teased, surprising himself. He couldn’t remember
the last time he’d teased someone. Successfully, that was.
    “We’re trying to broaden the appeal,” she
said, ignoring him. “So far Bluestone is mostly known by sportsmen.
But if we appeal to families, maybe we can revitalize.”
    He appreciated that, and hell, if he didn’t
think Bluestone was a nice little community, he wouldn’t have sent
his son to live here. “It’s not going to be easy. Something like
that takes years.”
    “Maybe you could come up with a quick fix.
You were always the smart one.” She gave his arm a squeeze.
    Despite Quinn’s prediction, they were able to
find three folding chairs together, two rows behind Leo’s mom and a
woman who’d been her friend forever, Brenda Filbert. Again he
wondered why his mother dragged him here, then sat somewhere else.
She’d only introduced him to the reverend.
    On the other side of Lily, Quinn folded his
arms and stared straight ahead, at the council gathered on the
stage. Right. Leo remembered he had been here before, for a
play in middle school. He’d had a crush on a little blonde girl
whose name he could no longer remember, and sat through a bad
version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas .
    “So. Boyfriend?” Leo asked low, dipping his
head to Lily’s ear.
    Her laughter rang out, earning a scowl from
Quinn. Did the man do nothing but scowl? Maybe Leo was just
bringing out the best in someone again. Maybe Quinn and Max would
get along just fine.
    “No. Just a friend.” But something in the
brightness of her eyes made him doubt her words. Quinn certainly
had other ideas.
    The meeting was called to order, and after a
reading of last meeting’s minutes, the council dove into a
discussion of how to save Bluestone.
    An advertising campaign was suggested, but
all of the slogans were trite and tired, nothing uniquely
Bluestone. Leo immediately wished for a notebook, but hadn’t
thought to bring one. He glanced at Lily. No purse, so no notebook.
He looked around, and saw Trinity Madison sitting two rows behind
him. People were still