Six strong, thudding heartbeats I could feel through Thomas’ shirt later, he let go. I knew he didn’t want to. Knew that he only wanted to keep me with him but this had become bigger than either of us.
Deep down inside somewhere, he knew it.
I wished he would say something. Anything. He gave me a kiss, soft and tender, on the lips.
“You have to run interference,” I said to both of them, peeking around Thomas to include Sam. “It’ll take a few days at least to get there and get them all to come back on top of organizing the presentation to a fit state. The Council is going to vote on it tomorrow. You need to find a way to stop that.”
Which was a severe understatement. We were still in the earliest stages of designing our plan. We would have to whip something up on the fly and hope that the council thought it worthy enough.
They had to know how badly the town was doing, they were the ones with access to the budget and they had to know how much tourism would help.
“I will,” he said. His voice was quiet and strained. It broke my heart to see him like that, struggling against what he wanted versus what he knew was best.
I left before those coffee dark eyes of his drew me back and drowned me in his love.
It only took me half an hour to pack the necessary things. I would call Gary on the drive up.
Duffel bag in hand I grabbed my coat and hurried out the door then stopped and ran back in. I took a pad of paper off the fridge and scribbled a quick note with three little words. It wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough but I hoped it would help.
I only hoped the trip was the two days I had promised. I don’t know if Thomas could stall the council much longer than that.
With so much still up in the air, I left before I got cold feet. This is the right thing, I kept telling myself as I threw the bag into the back seat and hopped into my spunky little hybrid.
In less than an hour after I got the horrible news, I was out of Sunrise Valley and headed for New York. Back to my old home. It had the ominous feel of everything coming full circle.
23
Thomas
I sat back down at the table and stared at Sam. She looked back, eyes wide with the news of everything that just happened.
“Fuck,” she said.
“Tell me about it.”
“I didn’t even know we had a mayor. Or a council! This just blew my mind, man.”
I gave her a sharp look. “What? How didn’t- Who did you think ran the town?”
She shrugged. “Nobody? I mean it’s a tiny ass town. I never saw a single election for council members or for a mayor either. They don’t seem to do shit. Why would there be a mayor? The fuck would they even do around here? For that matter what have they been doing because it sure looks like a whole lot of nothing.”
Sam had a point there.
“I really don’t know, but Mayor Gunther has been the mayor since… before I was born I think.”
“Has anybody run against him?”
“Not in recent memory.” This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. We were going to fight Beth together and win. I put my face into my hands, propped my elbows on the table and sat in silence.
“C’mon big guy, it won’t be so bad. Claire will be back before you know it and she’ll probably have some big brain plan to make everything right as rain again.”
I personally knew how far along we were with actual planning and even with Claire back on her feet and attending the planning sessions we had we were far out from anything complete.
It had never occurred to me how much work went into renovations and business deals. I knew they were complex but weeks of work and we were still in the infant stages. I didn’t know how we were going to pull this off.
“Wanna go outside and cap a few kneecaps with my baseball bat? That’ll make you feel better, huh?” Sam got up and rubbed my back in slow circles between my shoulder blades. It normally would make me feel better but now I was barely aware of it.
“No, Sam. I mean, yes I do but, no. That would only make things worse. I’m going to do what Claire asked and I’m going to recruit you, Jemma and Joanne to help me do it.”
She slapped my back with more force than her small frame would have made me believe possible. “That’s the fucking spirit, let’s create a secret cabal that will run this town from the shadows!”
“No, Sam. Go get Jemma. I’ll close up, head to the bank drop off and call Joanne on the way. Meet me back at my place in thirty minutes.”
The click of her boot heels drew my attention. Sam had snapped to a formal salute, about-faced, and marched out through the back. I shook my head at her and pulled myself together so I could stand up without falling to pieces.
Without Claire, I felt lost. I wandered around the shop, locked up, did all the usual closing up business. I noticed as soon as the sign flipped to closed, the protestors left. Quitting time for them as well, I guessed.
I jumped in my car and called Joanne, gave her a quick run-down on what was going on and asked her to meet me at my apartment as soon as she could get around to it.
Somehow I wasn’t surprised to hear that she was already on the way. She seemed to have a sixth sense about danger or maybe she was more connected to the town than any of us realized and knew when things were about to happen.
Bank deposit dropped off and shop closed, I headed back home to find the dining room bustling with activity.
There had to be at least fifteen people in my dining room. “Uh, hi,” I said when the sound of the door shutting turned a host of familiar faces towards me. “What’s… going on?”
Sam hurried toward me, she swept her arm out at the group. “Jemma and I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be even better if we got other people who wanted to help? This is everybody we could find on such short notice. The meeting tomorrow will be a lot bigger once the word gets out.” She playfully punched me in the arm. “Pretty good, huh?”
Some of her infectious energy rubbed off on me and I found a smile had grown on my face. I looked, knowing I wouldn’t find her but unable to stop, for Claire. My heart fell a little when I realized she was well and truly gone.
It was a physical ache, a hole in my chest that I could not close. It was cold and I was so keenly aware of being alone.
Sam, who would rather punch than hug wrapped her tiny arms around me. The pain on my face must have been overwhelmingly evident what I was thinking.
“She’ll be okay,” she said. “It’s not like Claire dumped you or anything. You guys are rock solid now. Got that wedding to plan, got an awesome business. Hell, you’re revitalizing the whole town if we can pull this shit off and if we can’t.” She shrugged. “Who the fuck cares. You still have a girl that is hopelessly in love with you even if it took her ages to fucking figure out what you already knew!”
“When you say it like that, I almost believe things will be okay.”
“That’s because they will.” Sam got around me and pushed me into the dining room. “Now come in here and tell us your glorious plan to fix everything.”
The problem was, I didn’t really have one. Aside from doing what Claire wanted my mind was a blank and with all those expectant faces staring at me I was paralyzed.
Then it hit me.
Beth had managed to make a dramatic impact with only a handful of people. Fewer people than I had in my dining room at that moment. Of all people, Beth had given me the idea that I hoped would stall the council long enough and give them pause over which way to vote.
“Okay, here’s what we do,” I said surging forward. I pointed at Sam. “Get me a few sheets of paper. We’re going to break up into groups to do this.”
All of my friends and those people I had convinced to call Claire last month crowded around me. I couldn’t believe I was actually going to do this. It was one thing to try and talk to the council themselves, it was another thing to stage a large protest and work to change what they thought of public opinion.
�
��If it’s one thing a politician fears most, it’s not getting re-elected. So we hit them there first. Sunrise Valley isn’t particularly large. We only have four council members and the mayor sits at the head of the council, that means we have four districts we need to cover.”
I pulled up the political map on my phone, found each of the four districts and who their council member was, then divided people into groups based on their district.
“Your job is to call, knock on doors, and convince as many people as you possibly can to come out to the rally we’ll stage in front of Town Hall. The bigger the turnout the better. Tell them I’ll bring free pastries and coffee. That’ll get at least some people out.”
“And it’ll make our numbers look larger,” added Sam.
“Right you are. Now, that’s only part one. The second part is we need to approach the council ourselves. If there’s enough public opposition, they will have a public forum on the proposed law.” I hoped I remembered that right. “Which means on the day of the public forum all of us need to be there. Our goal is to drown out everything other than a vote against the bill.”
The rest of the night was a series of coffee-fueled debates on how to bring people out to the rally along with what to write and how we were going to organize the whole thing.
Tables needed to be brought, cookware and cutlery, disposable cups, trash bins. A lot went into hosting hundreds of people and our goal was to be at least a hundred strong right outside Town Hall so each of the council members could see us out there standing up for Sunrise Valley.
I hoped Beth would see us. I wanted her to know that without her interference, I may never have come up with the idea in the first place.
“Remind me to write a thank you note to Beth,” I mentioned to Sam as we stood in the kitchen watching the others discuss carpooling and how they were going to canvas their respective districts.
She looked at me like I was insane. “What the fuck for?”
“Her annoying protesting is what gave me the idea in the first place.” I flashed a smug smile. “I want her to know this is all thanks to her. If we pull this off, she’ll know it was at least in part because she couldn’t leave well enough alone.”
Maybe it was unnecessary but I was beyond caring and the only person who would have potentially stopped me to see reason was at least a hundred miles away. I did find her note while I was in the kitchen, after reading it I tucked it away in my pocket for safekeeping.
Had the bill gone up for a vote without anybody the wiser, I would have been busy with the bakery until it was too late. All those days of frustrating annoyance were worth it if it meant we could save the town.
While I was in the kitchen I found Claire’s note. I read it a few times, adoring the looping slant of her handwriting. I folded it and tucked it away for safe-keeping.
“We’re really going to do it,” said Sam leaning against me. “Thomas… it’s beautiful.” She sniffled a little and I looked aghast at her.
I could count on one hand the number of times in my years of knowing her that Sam had cried or shown openly vulnerable emotion like that. She looked at me, tears shining in her eyes. “Sam… what’s wrong?”
Her blue eyes shimmered and when she smiled a few tears leaked from the edges of her eyes. “We’re planning mass harassment of our town leaders in order to change their minds. It’s… glorious.”
“It’s a protest, Sam. So they understand what’s at risk if they vote against it. They need to understand that people want this.”
“Tomato, to-mah-to. You call it a protest, I call it harassment. I hope somebody throws an egg!”
The next day flew by. I shuttered A Game of Scones early again with the only exception that I didn’t give any pastries to Beth and her protestors which seems to have stirred them up.
Maybe Beth told them to expect it or some of them came looking for free food, whatever the case they were left sorely disappointed. I had bigger issues to deal with than seeming nice and truthfully I didn’t care.
Killing them with kindness wasn’t working, not when Beth had somehow gotten to the mayor. I didn’t know how but I was absolutely certain it could be traced back to her.
There was no way any other person could convince the most politically powerful man in town to do something so suicidal. There wouldn’t be a Sunrise Valley if tourists weren’t welcome.
All that first day I handed out small fliers that explained A Game of Scones would be closing each day that the council was meeting as a show of solidarity with the townsfolk that did not want Sunrise Valley isolated.
I urged any guests that came in to attend, even if they weren’t from around the valley. I also let slip that there would be free food and coffee.
It would, quite literally, be the only place to get the food they usually came in for and it would be free. I was really swinging for the fences with this.
We may lose some profits but they were already down because of Beth’s protesting. At least this way the rally would look even bigger. It was worth the cost if it meant Sunrise Valley could be saved.
I got a text from Claire later that day.
Claire: I just crossed into Manhattan, everything’s okay on my end. I called an emergency meeting with the partners and they’ve agreed. How are things? I miss you.
Thomas: Everything’s going good so far. Not sure how it’s going to work out, will tell you later. I love you, miss you too.
That was all I heard from her all day. Sometimes I would take out the letter she wrote and read the words, ‘I love you’ over and over.
I felt like a lovesick teenager. All I wanted to do was listen to sad songs and whine about how lonely I was. Instead, I surrounded myself with people and kept busy with any task I could.
I let all the staff know that we would be closing and not to come in but they were welcome at the rally if they wanted to come.
Nobody was forced to attend if they didn’t want to. That was the last thing I wanted to do.
After I closed up shop I met everybody back at my apartment. The numbers had swollen so much that I had to make a change of plans and move everybody to the kitchen at the bakery instead. There simply was not enough standing room in my apartment.
There had to be at least fifty people and these were just the organizers.
“Each of us has at least ten other names that are down to come for the rally tomorrow,” said Jim. “There will be hundreds of us there. Nobody with two brain cells to rub together could think that what you’ve been doing has harmed the town. Sure, nobody likes all the kids running around acting snobbish but the effect on the town is massive. Thank you.”
I shook his extended hand. “Imagine what it would be like if there were thousands of people coming every day, just to see Main Street in all its past glory like it used to in the forties. I’ve seen the pictures, it was a sight to see with a green separating the boulevard and hanging street lamps that actually worked.”
On and on it went, some people merely wanted to be there, to say they were I guess. Others wanted to meet me after hearing about me and others still wanted to tell me I was wrong.
“Then why are you here, if you think this is wrong?” I asked a man introduced as Fred Gimble. Old, stocky and constantly squinting like he was sure somebody stole something from him but he couldn’t figure out who.
“Because what that Ingvar girl did was even worse! If I have to choose between two evils I’ll choose the one that at least tries to do the right damn thing!”
I gave a confused look to Joanne, who had been in charge of that district. Technically she didn’t live in town, she rented a room but that was semantics at this point. Joanne was an encyclopedia of information about all things Sunrise Valley.
She parted through the crowd with grace and settled a gentle hand on Fred’s shoulder. “Mister Gimble, how nice of you to make it. I hear Thomas has your favorites, elephant ears! Yes, they’re right over there. You don’t mind if he grabs a few, do you dear? No? See, I t
old you he’s a sweet boy.”
A few muttered words and Fred hobbled over to the elephant ears I had leftover from earlier. I looked at them hungrily. I was going to eat those.
Joanne lightly patted me on the arm. “Don’t pout, sweetie. You can always make more and you’ll want an old grouch like that on your side.”
“How did you manage that anyway? He sounds like he hates my guts.”
“Believe it or not, there’s quite a lot of resentment for the Ingvars around here. Not to mention, with what Claire had found on Beth it wasn’t hard to prove that it was the Ingvars that are purposefully destroying the town.
“All it took was a little… creative narrative to get the point across that the Ingvars wanted to control the whole town. And while Beth’s name is on the deeds we all knew it was their money. The goal was to buy it all up and if they couldn’t they would sit on it and let the town rot away.
“Quite despicable if you ask me.” Joanne mock-fanned herself. “To spite the whole town just because they couldn’t get what they wanted? Sounds like a spoiled little brat to me that deserves a spanking. I say it’s time the Ingvars be held accountable. Get their fingers out of every little pie in Sunrise Valley.”
I was floored. If that was what Joanne was telling people, I didn’t have to worry about the rally being too small. Everything was going better than I could have ever expected.
“Thank you, so much Joanne. This means a lot.”
She hugged me gently at first and then with greater fierceness. “This is my home too and I hope to see my grandchildren here.”
I froze, like a deer in the headlights staring at her as she pulled away. Joanne chafed the sides of my arms and let out a musical laugh.
“Oh my, your face is priceless!” She swatted at me. “I really could not imagine a better man for my daughter. Look at all you’ve done and all she asked you to do was to stall for a day or two. Here you have a massive rally planned the likes of which Sunrise Valley has never seen.”
Bun in Her Oven Page 16