Love Inspired December 2014 - Box Set 2 of 2: Her Holiday FamilySugar Plum SeasonHer Cowboy HeroSmall-Town Fireman

by Ruth Logan Herne

  “I’d rather not talk about it.” He looked up. There was so much going on behind his eyes. “I’d rather take you fishing.”

  Her curiosity got the best of her. “Okay, three hours. I bring the coffee—you never bring the subject up again after Saturday. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  * * *

  Dylan put his hand to the doorknob of the firehouse conference room Friday night like a man greeting his execution. Meetings. To his mind, there wasn’t anything more joy crushing than a committee meeting. His aversion to meetings had been solidified back at his former office job, and Dylan wasn’t in any hurry to build on it. If Chief Bradens hadn’t personally asked him to serve on the firehouse’s 150th Anniversary Committee, there wasn’t a soul in Gordon Falls who could have made him be here. No soul except Violet Sharpton. Dylan couldn’t rightly say if Bradens had sicced the feisty old woman on him, but Violet had nevertheless cornered him after Sunday services last week saying they “needed new brains in the room” and wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Chief Bradens on his own was a force to be reckoned with, but when tag-teamed with Violet Sharpton? Well, Dylan was smart enough to know when he was licked.

  Lord, I don’t mind telling you I’m in no mood for whatever lesson You have in store for me here. Death by committee isn’t the way I’d choose to go.

  The rectangular meeting room table was all filled except for one seat: his. Normally a pretty prompt guy, Dylan just couldn’t bring himself to hustle to this meeting and as such was five minutes late. He’d happily have supported the firehouse’s 150th anniversary any other way, and planned to jump on any opportunity to escape into a more task-oriented role. If only that didn’t look like the slimmest of possibilities. Dylan was so absorbed in his exit strategy that he almost didn’t register the biggest surprise in the room: Karla Kennedy sat between Vi and her grandfather.

  He caught her gaze as he settled into his seat. She wore the same “what are you doing here?” look he must be wearing. If Dylan couldn’t figure out why he was on this committee, he had even less of a clue why Karla was here. She wasn’t even a Gordon Falls resident, nor did she profess any desire to stay in town once Karl had recuperated. Not to mention that next to Clark Bradens—who was the youngest fire chief Gordon Falls had ever hired and by definition had to be here—Dylan and Karla were almost a decade younger than anyone else in the room. So he and Karla constituted Violet’s “new brains”?

  He took a moment to survey his fellow committee members. Chief Bradens’s father and predecessor, George Bradens, was to his left. George was a friendly, caring guy—an honorary dad to half the department and a pillar in the Gordon Falls community. Next over sat Pastor Allen from the church. Dylan liked the man—he was compassionate without meddling and easy to talk to. Next to Allen sat Margot Thomas, the high school principal.

  At the head of the table opposite Chief Bradens sat Ted Boston, the round, slightly self-aggrandizing man who’d been mayor of Gordon Falls for as long as anyone could remember. According to the chief, this town-wide celebration had been Boston’s idea. It made sense in some ways; the firehouse seemed to be the hub that held Gordon Falls together. It sat in the center of town in more ways than one, Chief liked to say. Next to Boston, Violet Sharpton sat smiling at Dylan, practically beaming in satisfaction. That couldn’t end well, and knowing Violet, there was more to it than met the eye. Dylan felt the weight of suspicion settle in his stomach like a rock.

  The usual formalities of introductions and basic goals went by without incident. Another boring, ineffective meeting like the hundreds he’d endured in his former life. The firehouse was important to him; he knew he ought to participate. But as it was, Dylan ended up devoting more energy to trying not to look at Karla than he did mustering up some enthusiasm for the celebration.

  “I’ll be honest, people,” Mayor Boston said as he leaned back in his chair, “the last thing this town needs is another potluck dinner. I want us to come up with something unique, something that will really pop. Something to put Gordon Falls on the map.”

  It was one of Boston’s favorite phrases; he was always talking about ways to put this town “on the map.” Dylan thought Gordon Falls was holding its own rather nicely and didn’t need much help in the public relations department. It was part of the reason why he’d come here.

  Blank faces met Boston’s challenge. If you needed new ideas, Dylan thought a bit sourly, why’d you ask the same old people who run everything else in town? The same old people except for Karla and me, that is. And why us? Dylan realized he wasn’t being fair in his criticism, but his good mood had left the room a while ago.

  “That’s why I brought Karla,” Karl pronounced, as if reading his thoughts. “She’s a fountain of good ideas.” He looked right at Dylan when he said it. Karla went a bit pale and looked down at her hands.

  Dylan had to admit, Karl wasn’t wrong there. “I have had a lot of success with the Coffee Catch she dreamed up,” he offered, if only to take the blanched expression from her features. “But, Karl, you’re bound to be fully on your feet long before July. Don’t you think we ought to let Karla get back to her business in Chicago?”

  “It’s no good to rush these things,” Violet cut in, her voice pleasant but with a decided edge. “Let’s not go giving Karl any deadlines he can’t meet. I like to think Karla can help bring a visitor’s perspective. Besides, Karl can always help sitting down.”

  Karl hurrumphed at Violet’s coddling. “Don’t you worry about me, Vi.”

  “So, July is when you are planning on the event?” Karla piped up, obviously feeling the squeeze of being seated between Violet and her grandfather.

  “The official anniversary date is July 15, but that’s a Sunday,” Chief Bradens answered. “Pastor Allen has already agreed that we’ll honor the firefighters in church that day, but we were hoping to have some kind of special event on the Saturday before.”

  Karla looked as if that solved everything. “That’s Bastille Day.”

  Befuddled expressions met her pronouncement. “What’s that got to do with the firehouse?”

  “Well, nothing directly,” she replied, “but it does hand you an easy way to have a unique kind of celebration.”

  Dylan had spent enough summers in Chicago to see where she was headed with this. “The Venetian Night boat parade.” It wasn’t a bad idea at all.

  “What?” Violet’s smile was curious but a mile wide.

  “Every July Chicago celebrates the weekend around Bastille Day with a boat parade,” Karla answered to the entire room. “People decorate their boats with lights and streamers and all kinds of things, and then they have a sort of parade out on the water at night. It’s beautiful.”

  “We’ve never done anything like that before here,” Principal Thomas said. “It’d be an easy way to get all kinds of people from the community involved. Even the students.”

  “It’s barely a month away—can we get it done in time?” Chief Bradens wondered aloud.

  “I don’t see why not. We could let each boat pick a decade from the one hundred and fifty years the firehouse has been in existence,” Mayor Boston suggested as he looked up from taking furious notes.

  “Or just let them use the color red. Or firemen in general. There are loads of ways to do this.” Karla’s entire expression had changed from suspicious boredom to genuine excitement. Until, that is, the moment when Mayor Boston turned to her with an authoritative gleam in his eye.

  Oh, no. He knew that gleam. Chief Bradens had that gleam, too, and it only meant one thing. Poor Karla—she didn’t know what she’d just done, did she? Her next month was a goner—if she was even planning to stay that long.

  “Miss Kennedy, I think you’ve hit on a grand idea,” the mayor said. “I think Gordon Falls will be in your debt after you’ve chaired such a marvelous celebration. And to think our y
oung people will be the ones to spearhead this effort. It’s a most exciting thing.”

  Dylan watched in sympathy as the shock registered on Karla’s face. “But wait...I...”

  “Of course she’ll chair the thing,” Karl piped up before Karla could even finish her objection. “But hang on—we can’t expect her to do all this by herself.”

  “No one’s asking her to,” Violet replied. Dylan’s gut dropped to the floor when Violet turned her sweetest gaze to him and said, “Ted said young people.”

  Mayor Boston turned his head slowly to look straight at Dylan. “I most certainly did.”

  “You don’t...” Dylan sputtered, feeling inevitability rise up and swallow him like a high tide. “I mean...” He felt the next four weeks slip through his fingers as though Violet had personally yanked them from his grasp.

  “I’ll gladly free up Dylan’s time so he can chair the event. It’s a great idea.” The chief had the good sense to look pleased that he’d just dodged the chairmanship himself.

  Before another ten minutes went by, subcommittees for decorations, food and publicity had been formed, and Dylan found himself approving a weekly Thursday meeting for the next month. His peaceful, autonomous life had just evaporated right before his very eyes. He was supposed to be building a business, not running a parade. Surely he and Karla could find some way to get themselves out of this before it went any further. Because even if it was June, this was Gordon Falls—and this town was very good at letting things snowball out of control.

  Chapter Five

  Karla marched up to Dylan’s truck while Grandpa slowly wheeled his walker out to the parking lot. Behind her he could hear the old man boasting about his “smart girl” to Pastor Allen. “What just happened in there?”

  “We’ve been ambushed.” Dylan shook his head. “This whole thing took me by surprise.” He bent toward her and whispered, “Do you think they had that planned all along?”

  Karla looked over at Violet, who was beaming at her grandfather. “I can’t believe it, but I think they did. You and I seemed to be the only two in the room who didn’t see this coming.”

  “Not exactly fair to you.” She couldn’t know what an uncontrollable beast a Gordon Falls committee could become. This bordered on entrapment.

  “Not exactly fair to either of us.” Karla ran a hand through her shiny dark hair. “And I walked right into it with my bright idea, didn’t I? I’m sorry I ever opened my big mouth.”

  Dylan leaned up against the words Gordon River Fishing Charters painted on the side of his truck. He tucked his hands in his pockets. “Don’t knock it... It is actually a good idea. But I’m with Ted—no one needs another potluck banquet around here.” He shrugged. “Ambushed or not, it is a much better plan than anything they would have come up with. I do like it.”

  Karla leaned up against the truck beside him. “Enough for us to chair it?” She looked as if she might actually go through with it, but she was smart enough to realize this wouldn’t just be a simple, fun, as-long-as-I’m-stuck-in-town-I-might-as-well-do-something project, didn’t she?

  He couldn’t leave her high and dry. If she was going to stick with it, the least he could do was go along with it until they could figure out another plan. “Well, I certainly can’t endorse the tactics.”

  “No, that was sneaky. I’m going to have to have a talk with Grandpa and Vi. But it wouldn’t be so awful. There’d be just enough time to pull it off.”

  He’d walked into this parking lot determined to get her help to ditch this chairmanship. Now he was agreeing to stick with it? What happened to the whole “Captain of my own destiny” thing? It was like some other, vastly more foolish man had taken over his vocal cords as he looked into those pretty blue eyes and heard himself say, “I suppose I could see my way clear.”

  “At least it will give me something to do in this town. No offense, but I’m getting pretty bored around here.”

  That just showed how little she knew about what it was like to live in Gordon Falls. Sure, it seemed charming and rustic to a visitor. He’d come here himself to simplify his life. It was only lately that he’d come to realize how complicated it had become instead. And now this. He managed a dark laugh—at himself, mostly—as he checked his watch. “At the very least we can keep the meetings from becoming three hour gabfests. That thing went on way too long for me.” He looked up pensively at the night sky. “I should probably mention my bone-deep revulsion of meetings.”

  “No kidding.” Karla laughed in reply. “It showed all over your face.”

  He winced. “That obvious?”

  “Let’s just say that if anyone had any doubts whether or not you came into this voluntarily, I think you put them to rest.”

  Dylan winced. “I really hate meetings.”

  “Well, you’d better tell Vi.” Karla looked over at the older folk who were still grouped in animated conversation. “I’m surprised she’s not taking a victory lap around the parking lot.”

  “With your grandfather,” Dylan added. “He was having a lot of fun, too. Those two are up to something.”

  Karla sighed. “Actually, I think he’s just glad to be out of the house for anything.”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to chair a town-wide, last-minute boat parade.” He wanted to give her one last chance to get out of this right now.

  She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. On the one hand I could throttle him for dragging me into this. Then again, I haven’t seen Grandpa this happy in a while. He needs something to do and to take his mind off that hip, and I don’t think he can do this without my help.”

  Dylan shifted to face her. “Gordon Falls is full of people who could step up to the plate to help Karl. People who live here, who owe something to the community. I’ll stand up for you if you want to bail. I don’t think it’s really fair what they did to you.”

  “Oh, and leave all this on your shoulders? How fair would that be?”

  Dylan looked over her head. The older folk were now sitting and talking on a bench beside the church parking lot as if they had all the time in the world. He had three more charter contracts to mail tonight and a stack of maintenance bills to pay. “What if we take the reins for a little while, do most of the heavy lifting to get it set up, then come up with some reason to hand it off to Karl and Vi. You heard how many ideas they had—I think they really want to do it themselves and we’re just stand-ins.”

  It seemed like the best solution for everyone. The prospect of working with Karla for a little while wasn’t exactly an unpleasant one. And if they were planning an exit strategy all along, it would make it easier to spend time with her because neither of them would be assuming things that weren’t going to happen.

  “We could work it so they don’t know,” Karla said. “Set it up so it looks like they’re stepping in to save the day. Vi and Karl will look like heroes.” She leaned back against the truck as she gazed over at her grandfather. “Look at his face. Grandpa needs a little time in the limelight, don’t you think?”

  Dylan realized he’d never asked. “Karl does know you’re going back to Chicago, doesn’t he?”

  Her silence was telling. “I’ve told him, but I think he’s choosing not to hear it.”

  “Then won’t you doing this just make it worse?”

  “Actually, I think it will be an improvement. If we do this right, it’ll be a much nicer finish line than ‘whenever Grandpa feels better.’ I’ll spend the next three weeks setting up Gordon Falls’ perfect summer event, time it so that something calls me back to Chicago by the beginning of July, and then let a rehabbed Grandpa swoop in and bask in the glory. I could even slip back into town just for that weekend and watch all our plans bloom into Grandpa’s victory lap.”

  It felt convoluted and a bit over the top. Only, it also made a complicated, twisted sort of sense. At le
ast he had an exit strategy they both agreed on, and no one could argue Karl and Violet didn’t deserve their chance to look like heroes. He and Karla were just making that happen in a roundabout kind of way.

  “Okay—” Dylan extended a hand “—We have a deal.”

  She took it and gave it an exaggerated shake. “Captain, indeed we do.”

  “By the way, Cocaptain,” Dylan called as she headed for her car, “we’re still fishing tomorrow morning.”

  “I can hardly wait.” Sarcasm dripped from her words.

  “Think of it as our first executive planning session. Bring lots of coffee.”

  “Super strong and lots of it,” she replied. “Five-thirty? Really?”

  “Really.”

  “I don’t know why I’m saying yes to this.”

  Dylan knew exactly how she felt.

  * * *

  Fatigue pushed down Karla’s shoulders as she climbed the steps to her little apartment above the coffee shop. It was homey in a Gordon Falls kind of way, but it lacked the panache of her city loft. Dad and Grandpa had covered the loft’s rent while she was here helping out, so she could look at this extended stay as a “family-rescue working vacation,” at best, and a chance to work at something close to her chosen profession, at the very least.

  Tonight she’d inadvertently turned it into something else besides. What made me suggest that event? she asked herself as she turned the big, old-fashioned key in its pretty lock. What have I gotten myself into now? It wasn’t as if there was much else to do in Gordon Falls when she wasn’t at Karl’s. It was pretty, but also pretty quiet. Downright boring, some nights. Sitting in Grandpa’s living room watching loud television with Mom and Dad wasn’t her brand of entertainment. At least the anniversary thing would give her something to occupy her time. She’d always had a knack for events, and her cochair wasn’t so hard on the eyes, either.

  Her cell phone rang just as she put down her bag. “Did you check your email yet?” Her Chicago roommate and fellow culinary school graduate Brenda Billings—or “Bebe” as almost everyone knew her—sounded incredibly excited. The pair had endured no end of “BB and KK’s apartment” jokes since they moved in together at the start of their final year.