Besides not welcome me with open arms and make me an honorary townie at first sight? Nothing. I figured it was a rhetorical question and didn’t bother to answer. “Does this mean you don’t want to use it?” I held my breath.

“Not in its current form. It has no subject. Is there anything juicier you can use?”

“Juicier?”

“Yeah.” He clucked his tongue. “Maybe something shady about the developer. The movie where the corporate guy buys a family-owned and -run ski resort? He promised the sweet old couple he’d keep it exactly the same but secretly planned to turn it into a singles resort. Seen it?”

Of course I’d seen it. It starred the late Alan Thicke and Candace Cameron Bure. But I had no idea how it related to The Hollows. “Do you mean you want me to find out if instead of a condo, Andrew Hanes is really using the land to build…” I racked my brain for an outrageous alternative or two. “A golf course or self-storage facility?”

“If his trickery makes the townspeople feel something, then yes.”

I went numb in the chest. I wasn’t sure the people of this town felt anything but irritated by the strange and nosy visitor in town.

“I didn’t uncover anything sketchy in my research.” Hanes’s interest in low-income housing was a new discovery, but unfortunately, it had nothing to do with Pleasant Hollow, and I doubted it would qualify as “trickery” in anyone’s book.

“There’s always a story. Even if it has nothing to do with the developer. You have another week. Think outside the box and find it.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, desperate for an idea to spark. “I’m on it.” Fake it till you make it.

“I’m giving you an opportunity here. Don’t blow it. Later, Gellar.” He ended the call.

My vision blurred as I made my way toward the B&B, my head down and shoulders slumped. What was I going to do now? A tear dropped onto my cheek and I wiped it off with a heavy hand. Blubbering wouldn’t change anything.

It would be a lie to say I never cried, but it wasn’t a natural response for me. I didn’t choke up during sappy movies or each time I had a setback in life. When I shed tears, it was often during those few times a year when I felt the absence of my dad most profoundly. I barely remembered the actual human being, but I mourned the idea of a father.