Never Tell Your Dreams (2 page)

Maggie crossed the street and caught her reflection
in The Purple Cow Bookstore. She ran her hands through her straight, long brown
hair and ruffled her blunt bangs, trying to make it a little less flat.

She loved the new brick paved Main Street that
replaced the old beat-up blacktop where weeds had seeped through the cracks.
The old broken street lights that had succumbed to a few rocks, had been
replaced by carriage lights—giving the old town the elegance it needed to bring
it back to life.

Fresh flower baskets hung from the carriage lights,
along with small banners welcoming visitors to the annual Grandberry Falls
Jubilee. Being reminded of the annual festivities brought back a lot of
childhood memories of not only the waterfall, but Mitch and her friends.

Friends,
Maggie sighed.
What
friends?

Maggie knew she didn’t have any friends here, at
least not anymore. She never returned phone calls; she never visited them when
she did come back to Grandberry Falls. It wasn’t like she was determined to
leave Grandberry Falls. She was trying to make her life better, and she
believed living in New York City was where all her dreams would come true.

Maggie waved to the elderly gentleman cleaning the
windows at the Trembling Cup. “Hi, Arthur. Are you getting ready for the
Jubilee soon?” She recalled the time he called Hazel, Maggie’s grandmother,
about Maggie smudging the glasswhen she pressed her face up against it. There
was nothing more embarrassing than Maggie washing windows when her friends had
driven by making fun of her.

He shrugged, and spoke softly, “I guess so, Maggie.
Good to see you.”

Maggie waved bye, and got in her car. She had
avoided her grandmother long enough. It was one thing for her friends to
question her engagement to Grady, but another for Hazel to despise him.

The Buy-N-Fly was still on the outskirts of town,
which gave Maggie a feeling of relief that Hazel didn’t have to go far if she
needed something. Funny, but the harder she looked, the more Maggie realized
Grandberry Falls really hadn’t changed much at all.

Chapter 2

Superstition: If
you kiss under the mistletoe and you don’t want to fall in love, you have
twelve days to burn it.

That didn’t go well
.

Mitch had never been at a loss for words when it
came to Maggie. When she got engaged, it changed everything for him. He was
perturbed she didn’t have the decency to call him or tell him to his face after
the mistletoe mishap at Christmas. Instead, it was confirmed by his girlfriend,
Wendy, who saw it on Belle’s Facebook status.

Mitch peered out over the town square from his
office window, and he could see the entire downtown area. There was no greater honor
than to be mayor and serve the town that had shaped who he had become.

“Where are you?” Mitch scanned the sidewalk and
parking spaces looking for Maggie’s car. Her car was parked on the curb across the
street from the falls. Café tables were filled with patrons drinking their
morning coffee, but Maggie wasn’t one of them.

His heart skipped a beat when he caught sight of her,
just like it did the first time he saw her. Granted, it was a long time ago,
but he could still recall how he felt at five years old and she still had the
same effect on him.

You look great,
he wanted to
yell out the window as Maggie ran her hands down her long dark hair. He even
liked the new bangs. Very. . .New York.

He shook his head and turned around. Maggie Greenlee
was no longer his number one concern. Grandberry Falls was, and there was no
way he was going to get any work done by standing there reliving his childhood
dream.

There were a lot of phone calls to make, and they
certainly weren’t going to get done themselves.

Mitch thumbed through his calendar, knowing Susie
put the phone numbers in there somewhere. When he took office, Susie Benton was
the secretary he chose to take office with him. She was a long-time friend and
life-long citizen of Grandberry Falls, plus she’d gone to the community college
to get an Associates Degree in Administration, making her perfect for the job.

“Ah.” Mitch picked up the phone and dialed the long
distance number, unsure if they’d be working today.

Taking the cordless with him, he walked over to the
window and gazed over his town. There was no way he was going to let some bigwig
company come in here and try to claim eminent domain on fifty acres of the
Greenlee property to build an outlet mall. Sure, they could use the business
because the economy was still slow, but the idea of some big company coming in
and flashing a wad of cash didn’t sit well him. Besides, most folks didn’t shop
at BCBG, J-Crew, or Pottery Barn, the stores that would be in the outlet mall.
Now a John Deere outlet might change their minds.

Maggie crossed the street. He followed her with his
gaze. He couldn’t help himself.

“Stop, you fool,” he muttered to himself as the call
continued to ring. She’d only been in town a few minutes, and she was already
becoming a distraction to him. Thank God it was only the weekend. He couldn’t
bear the thought of her sticking around until the Jubilee.

“What?” The woman on the other end of the line asked.

“I’m sorry, is Pat Van Meter there?” Mitch read the
name exactly how Susie had written it.

“Patricia. This is Patricia Van Meter,” she
answered. The noise of honking horns and zooming cars in the background was
enough to give him an instant headache. He didn’t have a clue how people lived
in New York City.

One of those cabs almost ran him down when he had
made a surprise visit to Maggie. Only the joke was on him when he found her
kissing Grady in Central Park.

He pulled the phone slightly away from his ear. “This
is Mayor Mitch Dozier,” he said, but caught himself off-guard by the way he
threw around the title, “of Grandberry Falls, Kentucky. Is this a bad time?”

“Anytime is a bad time.” The woman laughed like he
should’ve known she was busy. “I’m on my way to a brunch and will need to call
you back on Monday. We are still going to pursue the fifty acres, Mr. ummm…”

“Dozier, Mayor Mitchell Dozier.” His voice was
sharp. He was annoyed how little this town meant to her. Well, she didn’t grow
up here, nor had she visited, but to give so little concern for his community
told him a lot about her compassion. He closed his eyes in frustration. “And we
will be fighting you for it. I guarantee that, Ms. Van Meter.”

He rubbed the palm of his hand after he slammed down
the phone. He didn’t get any further than Susie had with Ms. Van Meter, and now
it was time to call a meeting. Hazel Greenlee was going to lose everything if
she didn’t start fighting.

Maybe this was a good thing. Hazel didn’t want Maggie
to know, but Maggie had the right. She was a lawyer and this could be her
opportunity to use her education for her family. Make good by the community.
Hell, make good by leaving him. Didn’t she owe it to him?

“There you are.” Susie said when she peeked her head
around the door into the old musty office. She fanned her nose with her hand,
and pointed to the couch that Liz Day, the new interior decorator in town,
dropped off. “Really Mitch, you need to get a good makeover in here, starting
with some candles. The new little couch isn’t going to make much difference.”

“The last mayor was here for forty years. Let’s get
some air fresheners. You know, the ones you plug in.” He smiled. He couldn’t
imagine being mayor for forty-years. Mitch looked back out the window. Maggie
was gone. His heart tugged. “Maybe we can get the carpet cleaned.”

Susie set some files down on his desk and peered
over his shoulder out the window. “Maybe we could get Liz to redo the entire
place.”

Mitch heard Susie, but couldn’t focus on her. He
just stared at the empty parking space.

“What are you looking at?” Susie asked with a
curiosity in her voice.

“Nothing. Liz Day, yeah, give her a call on Monday.”
Mitch picked up the file and tried to concentrate on anything but Maggie.
Having her here for the next 24-48 hours wasn’t any good for anyone right now,
unless she was willing to help with the eminent domain issue, and for that he’d
need Hazel’s permission.

“If you need me, I’ll be at my desk for a couple
hours until the hoity-toity shower.” Susie scowled and swept her long brown
wavy hair behind her head. Her green eyes slowly lowered. “You know the one
where you used your authority to make every girl in Grandberry Falls attend.”

“I’m not using my authority. The Greenlees are good
people and Maggie is too.” Mitch did call in a few favors for Belle. She was
afraid no one would come to the shower, and she was right. He might’ve called a
few of the girls and begged. “She’ll come back. Everyone who leaves generally
does.”

Who was he kidding? No matter how many coins he
threw in the falls, he didn’t think Maggie would ever come back home for good.

Susie sighed. “Whatever. I guess it’ll be good to
catch up. And don’t forget to sign off on the Jubilee beauty pageant
contestants and the rowboat derby. Every year the mayor’s signature makes the
events official.” She put the forms on his desk, walked out, and shut the door
behind her.

Mitch grabbed the pen out of the fancy holder that
has his name engraved on the plaque. Hazel Greenlee had it made especially for
him after he won the election. He quickly signed his name next to the big red X
on the papers, and set them aside for Susie to pick up when she came back in.

There were a couple more important phone calls about
the case he was about to undertake, but a call to Hazel before Maggie got there
was at the top of his list.

“Good morning, Hazel. It’s Mitch.” Hearing her peppy
voice brought back so many childhood memories. His family owned the adjoining
farm and he’d run like a stallion across those fields to get to the Greenlee’s
every morning. “I wanted to call before Maggie made it to your house.”

“You saw Maggie?” Hazel voice rose with excitement.
“Did you ask her to marry you yet?”

“Hazel, you know as well as I do that Maggie is here
for her wedding shower to Grady. Besides we have more important things to talk
about.” Mitch couldn’t take anymore talk about Maggie and her wedding to that
damn goof-ball. Sure, he seemed nice, but not Maggie’s type at all. He didn’t
like Grady’s slicked back hair and pin-striped pink button-downs.

“You know how I feel about
Grady
.” Hazel
emphasized his name with disgust. “He didn’t even try to appease me by throwing
just a pinch of salt over his shoulder. You and I both know that’s not a good
way to start a marriage.”

He loved that about Hazel. Although Mitch never
really understood her crazy superstitions, he did embrace them. Maggie had
brought Grady to Grandberry Falls for Christmas and as Hazel told it, Grady had
knocked over a salt shaker and refused to throw a pinch over his shoulder
because Grady believed that “superstition is nonsense.” Mitch knew Grady didn’t
have a shot in Grandberry Falls or in Hazel’s heart.

As a matter of fact, Hazel had carefully given Mitch
a sprig of mistletoe, knowing Mitch would run into Maggie. And as superstition
would have it, they had to kiss. But it wasn’t any old kiss. It was
a kiss
that
shook them both to their core.

Mitch opened up the desk drawer and took out the
dried up sprig of mistletoe. He knew he was supposed to burn it within twelve
days of their “accidental kiss” they had shared when she was in town during
Christmas, to break the superstition, but he couldn’t. Even though he did
promise Maggie that he would, it was just another reminder that she occupied a
place in his heart that he was afraid no other woman would be able to hold.

He wasn’t getting anywhere with this conversation
and Maggie would be there soon. “Anyway, they are still going to try to take
your property using eminent domain. I think we need to have a meeting and soon.”

“Well, I don’t have to go to the shower today.”
Hazel sounded a little more upbeat than she should. Mitch laughed. Hazel would
do anything to get out of it. “You know I’m right about him, Mitchell.”

He hated how Hazel danced around the eminent domain
case.

“When is Maggie leaving?” This was a loaded question
for Mitch. Besides wanting to know how long his heart was going to be on edge,
he wanted to make sure he made it over to the cemetery. He loved how she
visited her parents before she left town. It was one of the few times Maggie
Greenlee acted like the Maggie Greenlee he knew before she left to go back to
the big city. “Tomorrow. But I don’t want this situation mentioned around her.
Understand, Mitchell?” Hazel snarled through the phone and Mitch knew all too
well not to mess with her.

No one messes with Hazel.

“Fine.” Mitch hated to work on Sunday, but would if
it was going to benefit the city. He had a job to uphold. “Can we meet after
she leaves?”

“I’ll make sure she’s gone after breakfast,
tomorrow.”

He could hear the TV in the background