Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (9 page)

Why hadn’t he taken care of this while he had the chance? In addition to being mayor, he was one of the town’s two realtors. He’d had the listing for the store which included the keys and the ability to get in and out without detection. Why had he listened to the other members of the group and kept the stuff there?

Most of the other members of Silver Shadows were less worried about discovery than they were in having a location to meet. Of course, the other members weren’t the upstanding Mayor Watson, either. More importantly, most also lived outside of the Sudden Falls city limits, so exposure would be less likely. And, almost all shared membership with their spouses.

He checked his watch. 7:01. Time to get this party started. When he banged his gavel again, the din finally died down. He looked over at his secretary and the council recorder, Dora Andrews, whose job it was to take the meeting minutes and keep the meeting on schedule.

Old business was handled with great haste, and two routine votes were taken with unsurprising results. He felt, and not for the first time, that even a poorly-trained monkey could do this job.

“The first order of new business is Harold Cunningham.”

Rob’s itinerary read “neighbor woes”. This should be painfully entertaining. Harold Cunningham, a long-winded curmudgeonly retiree who spent his days looking for things to complain about, showed up at the courthouse at least once a quarter to make some sort of complaint.

Old man Cunningham stepped up to the podium with a sheaf of notes and Rob felt himself visibly age. “Mayor Watson, members of the town council.” He nodded respectfully to each of the council members in turn with far more formality than a Sudden Falls council meeting required. “I would like to speak to the abomination that is concrete lawn ornamentation.”

To his right, Rob heard Nancy Cannifarm sigh and whisper, “Oh, dear God. Not again.”

He fought a grin as Cunningham continued. “Our quiet community is known for its class and small-town charm. Residents who insist on decorating their lawns with gnomes, deer and—worst of all—clothed concrete geese, turn our quaint little village into an eyesore. I’d like to recommend that the council pass an ordinance that outlaws these blemishes on the town landscape.”

What Cunningham, not to mention his neighbor, Richard “Dicky” Dixon, needed was a class-act wife like his own. Emma would have taken their tacky lawn ornamentation and turned it into a yard worthy of a full
Home and Gardens
layout.

Rob looked down to the front row where his wife, Emmaline Louise Parsons-Watson sat primly with her hands in her lap. He caught her gaze and she smiled serenely at him. Emma was easily the best thing that had ever happened to him, even if they were a less than perfect match.

Nearly everyone described his wife as sweet, proper and always in quiet control. She was, without a doubt, the ideal politician’s wife. She never went out in public less than perfectly made up, she never swore, she never said anything bad about anyone and she would never,
ever
understand the truth about her less-than-perfect husband.

Rob knew himself enough to know that while he liked that she was sweet and proper, in his secret heart-of-hearts, he would have liked their relationship to be different. He wouldn’t change her for anything in the world. But he wished he could be as satisfied with her as she seemed with him. She couldn’t help that she was a bit like a pastel mint and he had a hankering for Atomic Fireballs. She was flawless in every other way. And he truly loved her.

Rob would do anything to protect what they had. And knew that the only way to save his marriage—not to mention his career—was to make sure that Maddie O’Callaghan didn’t make it inside her Aunt’s shop until he could clear out all traces of their having been there.

He rubbed the knots of tension at the back of his neck which threatened to drive a headache to a skull-splintering level behind his eyes. He kicked himself for not having taken care of this…
mess
earlier. Having the O’Callahan’s out of town had been ideal. He and his group had continued to be able to use Aunt Millie’s Antiques for their meetings, and no one had been any the wiser. He really wished Maddie O’Callahan hadn’t come back to town.

Even while Harold Cunningham droned on, Rob’s eyes shifted back to Emma who sat next to the president of her gardening club—the two of them probably chatting about how she’d fix the old guys’ garden situation.

For that matter, she could probably even run Millie’s store by herself.

He felt as if a lightning bolt had struck. Perhaps this whole mess could be solved in one fell swoop. What if…?

Emma
had
been talking about getting a job lately. Only the night before she’d complained—in her usual non-whiny, non-threatening sort of way—of being tired of staying at home. Their children were in elementary school now and didn’t need her during the day.

He shook his head. No. That would be too crazy, not to mention too easy. His eyes narrowed as he stared out into the gathered group of citizens. What if he and Emma were to buy the antique store? It had been on the market for six months before Maddie had come back to town.

Thank heavens the O’Callaghan’s had hired him as their realtor. If they’d hired Penny Jackson his bacon would have been cooked a long time ago.

But helping Emma buy the store might be the perfect solution. He didn’t really want her to work, but it would keep her happy and let him solve his little problem. He straightened his spine as he organized the papers in front of him. Now all he had to do was make it worth Maddie O’Callaghan’s while to give up her aunt’s antique store.

And to do that, he had to convince the council to keep the store condemned as long as possible.

Cunningham shuffled his papers and Rob feared that he would continue. However Dora—God bless her organized little heart—called a request for alternate viewpoints.

As Dicky Dixon defended his right to own concrete lawn ornaments, Rob focused on convincing the rest of the council to keep Maddie O’Callaghan out of her aunt’s store. His entire future depended on it.

For a change, Maddie had been more concerned with her upcoming presentation to the Sudden Falls town council than she had with whatever Eli was up to. Both took a back seat when she looked to her right and saw a guy in his early twenties with pointy, rubber, stick-on ears and matching red Star Trek uniform of
The Next Generation
era. She looked to her left to try to catch Eli’s attention. Unfortunately, his focus was centered on the lawn ornament drama in front of them.

Seriously? Vulcan ears?

As if the two codgers in center stage weren’t over-the-top enough. Had the city of Sudden Falls completely gone insane in the years that she’d been gone? It had been pretty far gone when she lived here. Clearly, somebody had sprinkled a little too much crazy dust in the town reservoir.

She elbowed Eli in the ribs then tilted her head toward Star Trek boy when she had his attention. “Somebody’s mom took too much LDS in the sixties,” she whispered.

He grinned. “That’s a reference to a line by William Shatner in
Star Trek
—
The Voyage Home
. The actual line is ‘He’s harmless. Part of the free speech movement at Berkeley in the sixties. I think he did a little too much LDS.’“

“Spoilsport.” She noted that the action had broken up in the front. Mayor Watson clacked his gavel and promised a decision by the next council meeting. “Dora?” he prompted the woman taking copious notes.

She shuffled her papers then straightened. “Next we have Dan Edwards who would like to petition the council to offer Sudden Falls as the next location of StarCon.”

Mayor Watson’s eyebrows climbed into his hairline so slowly that Maddie suspected there was no way it could be deliberate. To her right Star Trek boy stood and walked to the front. To her left Eli desperately tried to staunch a bad case of the giggles.

“What am I missing?” she asked.

“StarCon is a Sci-Fi Convention—focusing heavily on Star Trek.”

“Ahh.”

Dan Edwards looked down at an electronic device in his palm before speaking.

Unfortunately, none of the words coming out of his mouth made any sense. In fact, Maddie was certain they weren’t even English—or any language she’d ever heard, for that matter.

Mayor Watson grabbed a front section of his own hair and tugged, as if trying to keep his head from hitting the desk in front of him. “Excuse me, Mr. Edwards. But you’ll have to speak
English
.”

This whole council meeting had reached the point of ridiculousness. Maddie wanted to get her portion of this over with and open her store. Was that really too much to ask? She turned when she heard the shuffling of feet behind her.

“Good Lord,” Eli muttered.

Another Star Trek boy came forward, this one sans ears but with the obligatory costume—this time in gold. As Dan Edwards spoke, the newcomer translated.

“He says that he would like to petition the council—”

“Allow me to interrupt for a moment. What language is he speaking?” Mayor Watson asked, pointing a finger at Dan Edwards.

“Klingon, of course,” said the new guy.

Maddie felt the corners of her mouth tighten. Someday soon, she’d laugh at this. Actually, she was ready to laugh now, but it was more nervous giggles in anticipation of her own showing in front of the council. At least her request seemed a bit more reasonable than the two previous.

“Out!” Mayor Watson snapped, standing. Enunciating very carefully, he pointed from one man to the other, switching with every word. “Klingons. Are. Fictional. Characters. From. A. Television. Show.” He pointed toward the door. “And you’re dressed like a Vulcan. Get out of my council meeting.” His gavel made contact with the table top. “Motion denied on account of the fact that Sudden Falls doesn’t have conference facilities and our single hotel has only twenty rooms.” He cleared his throat and returned to his seat, his face still a bit red. “Next!” he shouted after someone mumbled “Second” and everyone else muttered “Aye.”

Robert’s Rules and domestic order returned with great haste.

A horde of butterflies intent on destruction quivered through Maddie’s stomach. This was it. She had to convince the council that her store was in good enough shape to open or it might be weeks before she had any income. She had a little savings left from her divorce settlement, but not enough to live on indefinitely.

“Maddie O’Callaghan?” the council recorder prompted.

“Need any help?” Eli asked as she took to her feet.

She definitely
wanted
help. But she could do this on her own.
Needed
to do it on her own. “No. But thanks.” She had something to prove here. To Eli, maybe, to the town, certainly, her mother, probably, and to herself, most definitely. Maddie straightened her conservative navy skirt, picked up a file folder containing every bit of documentation she’d been able to find and stepped forward to the podium.

Her hands trembled a bit as she set her paperwork down on the stand. Clenching a fist to stop its shaking and taking a deep breath, ostensibly to calm her nerves, she summoned every bit of wisdom her college speech professor had instilled in her and spoke.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the council. I would like to re-open my late aunt’s antique store located at the corner of Main Street and Maple Avenue. This store belonged to Millie Wilson until her death last summer. Millie had the entire building renovated a year before her death and evidently, at that time, no county inspection was performed. A little over a week ago, the store received a condemnation order. The building is structurally sound.” Maddie picked up the architect and contractor’s statements to that effect, stepped around the podium and placed them on the desk in front of the mayor before returning to her place behind her stand. “If the building needs an inspection, I’d like to ask the council to expedite the process as much as possible as I had intended to open the store last week. If the architect and contractor’s statements are adequate, then I’d like to have the building condemnation order lifted and the lock on the door removed.”

None of the council members said anything. “Thank you,” she finished, for lack of a better or more articulate response.

The mayor perused the pages in front of him before passing the reports to the council member on his left. “Ms. O’Callaghan, the council is not in the habit of forcing county workers to play favorites when it comes to the standard business of this city and county. By law, your store should have been inspected when the renovations were complete and it was not. You will need to wait your turn exactly like everyone else.” He glanced quickly up and down the row at his fellow council members. “Who wants to make a motion that the condemnation order stays in place until such time as a county inspection proves that the building has no structural issues and that all work done to the building is up to code.”

No one said anything until he glared specifically at the council member to his right.

“I move,” was her mumbled reply.

“Second,” came a voice down the table.