Free Preserving Love: A Contemporary Romance Series (Nick & Lexi Book 2) by Kay Brody Page A

Society, I saw several of them standing off to the side. Patty, Grant, Vincent and Mya were all in attendance. Probably waiting to see how this was going to be fucked up and how I somehow had a hand in it. Grant had filed the motion to remove me as head of the Society. At first I’d been upset, but then I realized that I’d known it was coming all along. He hadn’t kept his desires to lead a secret.  
    Patty seemed to be following him around like a lost puppy dog. I wasn’t sure what that was about and no longer felt like I cared. The only reason I still attended the meetings and worked on the plans with them is because I believed in the cause we were fighting for.  
    Evan and I had decided to have a long talk. He’d shared with me that he had no part in what had been taking place and that they pretty much had his hands tied. I wasn’t sure why I believed him after everything that had happened, but I did. I really didn’t think he was being dishonest with me.  
    Every second he wasn’t occupied with work he had spent by my side. Talking, trying to figure out a way to salvage my life. At this point we were only days from a decision from the HRC and the matter would be resolved. But afterwards we still had to resume normal living and at the moment I was unable to do so.  
    Financially I was hurting bad from the closure of my shop, but mentally it was killing me. That business had been everything to me and out of nowhere I didn’t have it anymore. I’d ended up with a lot of time to think. What would I do if I never regained what I’d lost?  
    Mostly I wondered who had initiated all of this and why they’d done it. I knew that I’d never have the answer and it didn’t matter. The goal had seemed to be to destroy me to have the building approved, but sometimes it felt as if it were an attempt to destroy the relationship with Evan. I wasn’t sure why that would be a goal for anyone. No one even really knew us as a couple.  
    If it had been the goal, it hadn’t worked. Evan and I were stronger than we’d ever been. As we’d made the plan for the community meeting, we’d realized that we loved each other. We’d understood that we’d needed each other in our lives. We’d also realized that we could make it through this or anything else that anyone would throw at us.  
    “The crowd is awfully quiet,” Kendall’s voice brought me out of my thoughts.  
    She had never attended these things, so I was surprised when I saw her beside me.  
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Supporting my best friend,” she shrugged. “Besides, I heard these things are filled with available men.”
    “Best kept dating secret in Western North Carolina,” I teased. “How do you think I met my man?” my eyes drifted to the stage, where Evan stood quietly preparing the part of the speech we’d worked so hard on.  
    “I thought that was Facebook,” she laughed.  
    “Maybe,” I couldn’t help but giggle. “This has been very odd, hasn’t it?”
    “It’s been unique,” she corrected. “But the best things are.”
    “I hope this works Kendall,” I confessed my worry to the only person I could. Evan had to hear my support. He didn’t need to be worried himself.  
    “If not, I suppose you could move away,” she suggested as a joke.  
    “I doubt that.”
    “He’s about to speak again,” she told me, her way of quieting me.  
    Evan lifted the microphone to his mouth again. I saw him take a deep breath, look at me with a smile and open his lips to continue.  
    “I’m not really a Yankee,” he started. “Not by your definition. I have lived in a lot of places. My job takes me around the country. I move in, help progress a development and then move out. It can be a lonely life, but it never really mattered. My career was what was important to me.” He cleared his throat. “But when I moved into the Asheville area, things changed for me. I found that things I hadn’t planned on being important, became