Needs A Little TLC (Spinning Hills Romance 2) (17 page)

“The town is growing. I personally think we need to revisit the town charter and its ordinances to decide what qualifies as a public event and what rights the business district has over residents,” another person Cassie didn’t know spoke out. “We’d like to have more choices in the downtown area.”

Mr. Montgomery stepped forward. “The town isn’t growing because it’s completely built out. And this isn’t businesses versus residents. The business district’s goal has always been to incubate, support, and promote small businesses. If you change that, you’ll mess with the town’s character.”

“The town is
evolving
, then, and we need to make sure everyone is heard.” Megan faced him.

“That’s what elections are for, and our town officials were elected last year. If you want to be heard, run for office.” Ruby stood up. “I will personally campaign against any one of you who wants to turn Spinning Hills into one of your fake utopian bubbles. You all moved here for a reason.”

“We moved here and now we want to be involved in the community, but some of you are shutting us out,” Jenna Woods shot back.

Mr. Linden yelled, “Order,” and everyone turned to look at him. Cassie had never heard him yell before. He took the entire room in with one sweeping glance. “We held this meeting to make sure Open Town was in compliance. We already have a town charter in place. If someone does not agree with sections of it, there’s a process in place. It’s on our website. Now, meeting adjourned.”

Mrs. Carpenter looked at Cassie then. “You started this whole thing, and you don’t even live here. You’re bulldozing people, just like your father does.”

Cassie now felt all eyes on her. The blood in her veins turned ice-cold. She hated being singled out because of her father. He had nothing whatsoever to do with her business.

Suddenly, she was ten years old, high up on the oak tree with Sam and Dan, the fire truck, and what felt like half the town below them, waiting to scold them for the mess
she’d
gotten them into.

Sam didn’t raise his hand. He simply moved to stand in the middle of the room while people looked at him expectantly. “This isn’t about Cassie, and it’s definitely not about her father, Mrs. Carpenter. A few of you were questioning whether Open Town was in compliance. It’s been made clear that it is. You’ve also been told there’s a process in place for any other grievances, and that process doesn’t involve public personal attacks.” With that, he turned and with two steps, was out the door.

Everyone’s eyes had gone from Cassie, to Sam, and now back to Mrs. Carpenter. To her credit, Mrs. Carpenter looked embarrassed because Sam was right. The evening’s disagreements had nothing to do with Cassie’s father, and personal attacks accomplished nothing.

But everything that transpired ended up reminding Cassie of her father, anyway. How he used to complain that no one listened or met in the middle anymore. And how he’d ended up doing the same thing. The more people from the opposing party had opposed him, the more he’d moved over to his corner and opposed others, until he’d stopped listening and compromising, too.

A few more words were spoken, but Mr. Linden had already summarized everything in a way that brooked little argument. The meeting was adjourned, and Cassie stood up, feeling uneasy, racking her brain for a way to bring everyone closer to the middle. She looked over at Megan, Jenna, and Mrs. Carpenter. The first two women didn’t look too happy with Mrs. Carpenter.

Cassie walked slowly toward the door, going over their complaints in her head, until a light bulb switched on. She turned a few ideas around in her head, ducked into a dark corner, and then called Jessica to run her thoughts by her.

“I’m about to go on a sort-of date with Rick Springfield, make it quick!” Jessica whispered.

“What do you mean, a sort-of date?”

“He asked me if I wanted to grab a cup of coffee while the kids are at their Boy Scouts meeting.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He just asked! I’m in the parking lot.”

“Can I tell Sherry, Rosa, and Ruby? They’ll be stoked.”

“Yes, go ahead, now hurry up and tell me why you called. He’s parking. Oh, he drives a minivan. Isn’t that sweet?” she asked, breathless.

“Maybe. But it’s hardly a turn-on, Jess. Get a grip. I need to know whether we have room in the Open Town budget for five hundred glossy fliers.”

“Ummm . . . Yes. We do. Oh. Wow. Here he comes. His eyes are so blue I swear they glow in the dark.”

“What if he’s a vampire?”
Click
. Cassie stared at the phone.

A moment later, she was running to catch up to Dan, Holly, Ruby, and Emily. “Do you guys think we can hold a quick meeting right now? I have an idea that might help keep everyone happy.”

“Hey,” Dan said, putting his arm around her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter what they said in there, this isn’t your fault. These disagreements have been brewing for a long time, okay?”

“I know, but Open Town was my idea, and it’s what got these newer people all riled up and feeling like nobody’s listening to them.”

“Because they’re not making any sense!” Ruby threw her hands up in the air.

“Can we please just hold a quick, impromptu meeting?” Cassie implored, wondering if she’d get anywhere.

Emily glanced over at Holly and shrugged. “Leo’s watching the girls, so we have some time. I’ll call him real quick and let him know we’ll be out a little longer.”

Holly nodded in agreement. “Dan can get ahold of Sam and Johnny, and I’ll go see if Mr. Montgomery can join us. Grandma, can you round up Rosa and Sherry and let us use the café?”

Less than ten minutes later, ten pairs of eyes were watching Cassie expectantly. Again she wondered how open-minded they’d be. She chose her words carefully. “I need everyone to hear me out completely before speaking up, okay?” she began.

When a few heads bobbed, she continued, “I think you’re all correct to want to preserve the town’s character, but I also think Jenna, Megan, and Mrs. Carpenter are correct when they say the town is evolving.”

“Not if we stop—” Ruby interrupted, but she was gently shushed by Holly, who put a hand on her arm and said, “We promised we’d listen first.”

Cassie shot her a grateful smile. “The thing is, they live here, too, and they want to contribute. Their ideas are different, and I know it feels like they want to take over, but for them it must feel like you’re all shutting them out. The more they feel like they’re being shut out, the more they’ll band together in the opposing corner. It’ll get to the point where everyone’s attacking anything that comes from the other side without even listening or considering it. That will surely end up damaging the town’s character.”

Everyone was silent, but most of them had narrowed their eyes at her.

“She’s right,” Johnny said on a sigh, and the narrowed eyes turned on him. He put his palms up. “It’s how all relationships fall apart. And it’s hard to stop it once it’s started.”

“But sometimes one side is right and the other is wrong. Period!” Rosa raised a fist in the air for effect, and just like in the meeting, everyone began speaking at once.

Sam glared at her and she shot him an equally venomous look. He was quiet, but he was also being the most stubborn. His body language was clear.

Sherry whistled quick and loud. “Enough. We said we’d hear her out.”

“The things we all want to protect most, like the architectural integrity of the homes and the nature of the business district, are already protected by the town charter and it would take a hell of a lot of work on their part to change it—and I don’t think they want to. There were over a hundred people there tonight, and only one mentioned changing the charter. If you’d listened with an open mind, you’d have seen Dr. Cornerstone didn’t say a thing about changing it. In fact, he cited it when he talked about one or two national chains. He’s providing a service we need in this town, and he deserves to be heard and considered. I think they’re latching on to Open Town because they feel excluded from the things that matter to them.”

Cassie took turns looking at each of them, trying to make them see. “You know, you’re all opposing the new PTA and the Little League in your own ways. All I’m saying is you should start by meeting them halfway in those efforts that seem to matter to them so you can stop this whole old-versus-new residents dynamic from getting out of hand. I know you don’t want things to change, but things always do, whether you want them to or not.

“I called you here to propose we give them a platform for the new PTA, their moms club, and the Little League by inviting them to do a write-up of everything they want to accomplish with these community organizations. Mr. Montgomery already has something written about the Chamber of Commerce, and we can print them out on nice, glossy paper, make sure it looks very professional, and distribute them in the open houses, so they see we’re promoting everything our community is about, not just the things one small group thinks are important.”

Sam shook his head. “No. You don’t know what they’re trying to do with the PTA and the Little League.”

Emily groaned and rolled her eyes. “You should see the new uniforms they’re proposing for the teams.”

Cassie folded her arms and stared at them. “Then I’ll tell you the same thing you told them. If you don’t like what they’re doing, there’s a process in place. Are you two even part of the PTA or the Little League boards? Do you even go to the meetings? Or do you go around town complaining about everything they’re doing and sabotaging them with the people whose ear you have, the same way they’re doing with Open Town? ” She looked at Emily and Sam in turn.

Emily shuffled her feet while Sam frowned.

Holly’s shoulders sagged as she said, “We don’t go because we don’t have time . . . but you’re right. Either we make some time to go to meetings, or we should be grateful someone’s stepping up to the plate. There’s a reason it’s the new PTA. It’s ’cause the old one fell apart. And the Little League used to be a nightmare, too, because it was way too disorganized. Now it’s too structured and there are too many rules in place, but it’s not like we did anything about it but whine.” She looked around.

“Who will talk to them and put this new flier together, though? I agree it needs to look professional, but we only have one week and I don’t have time,” Emily said. “Gracie’s got soccer playoffs, plus I’ll be out of town on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

“I don’t have time, either.” Holly shook her head. “Ella has a dance recital on Saturday and there are extra practices all week.”

“I’ll do it. I don’t have kids or pets or a husband or outside projects. All I have is work,” Cassie said cheerfully, but her voice cracked in the end, when she realized how pitiful her life sounded. It seemed to be coming up a lot lately.

“Do we have room in the budget for this?” Rosa asked. “Where’s Jessica? Glossy, full-color fliers are expensive. We need to know if we can afford them first.”

“I already ran it by her and she said yes. And guess what? She was on a sort-of date with Rick Springfield! She said I could tell you.”

“The temporary penis?” Ruby looked up.

“Uh, yeah, but can we stick to calling him Rick Springfield, please?” Cassie implored.

“Temporary . . .” Dan shook his head. “You know what? I don’t want to know. Let’s stay on topic,
please
. All in favor of inviting the crazies to participate raise your hands.”

Cassie frowned. “That’s another thing. You should all stop calling them that. You’re not seven years old, you know.”

“Things do change and evolve, whether we want them to or not. We’ve been here long enough to know that,” Rosa said, raising her hand on a drawn-out sigh. Cassie was not surprised that Sam was the only one who didn’t raise his hand.

Ruby stood up and looked at the group, a friendly challenge in her eyes. “It’s up to us to make sure we highlight everything that has always made Spinning Hills special, so we attract all those who believe in our magic.”

Rosa stood up, too, with eyes so bright Cassie could practically see the light bulb burning behind them. “Magic, that’s it! Your fortunes that day should include predictions about exactly who has a future in this town and who doesn’t, if you know what I mean.”

“I do, and I like the way you think . . .” Ruby began as the two women walked out together.

Sherry took in Cassie’s anxious expression and chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep their magic and marketing from descending into madness.”

Cassie waited for everyone to leave before following Sam outside. He’d left with his jaw set, his eyes stormy, and he hadn’t looked at her.

“I’m sorry,” she said to him when she caught up with him in the dimly lit parking lot in front of the park. “I know you told me there are certain people you’d like to attract, but I think we’re going about it the wrong way and I really am trying to help. You talked about how important it is for communities to work together, but that’s not what’s happening here.”

“I can’t believe you agree with Cornerstone about bringing a national chain in here, Cass! It’s like the Monopoly house all over again, instead now you want to shove stale food and overpriced coffee down my throat instead of a game piece up my nose.” He threw his hands in the air, and Cassie stepped back and glared at him. He’d always said she was the only one who could make him “lose his cool,” but she couldn’t see why at that moment. He was the one being unreasonable.

“Calm down, Sam! It’s not like it was one of the red hotels, it was a little green house!” Her eyes narrowed. “And now that I think on it, it was because you wouldn’t let me put a hotel on Oriental, even though I was perfectly within my rights to do so!”

Sam stared at her a long moment. A grin began to spread, and he shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, well, Oriental was cheap property and it was next to a train station. The hotel was going to wind up becoming a seedy motel with all sorts of weirdos coming to town. I owned property right around the corner, on St. Charles. I had to protect it.”