Sweet Talk Boxed Set (Ten NEW Contemporary Romances by Bestselling Authors to Benefit Diabetes Research plus BONUS Novel) (132 page)

Pam was in the lobby when she walked inside. “Hey there. Just the person I needed to see. Can I borrow an office space for an hour, and I need to ask you about something.”

“Sure. Everything okay?”

“I don’t know,” Elli said.

Pam motioned her to an office next to hers. “You can set up in here.”

“Thanks.” Elli put her laptop case on the desk and started unpacking the power cable. “I just had the most interesting conversation down at the town municipal center.”

“Oh?”

“Did you know there’s a chance the pier may not reopen at all?”

Pam sat down in the chair. “I’ve heard the rumors, but we’ve heard that before. You don’t think they’re serious. Do you?”

Elli nodded. “I do. I was just talking to the clerk down there. Evidently there’s a big town meeting tonight. I plan on being there.”

“Really? I didn’t get a notice. Usually all the businesses hear about those meetings. Are you sure it’s tonight?”

Elli pulled the flyer from her purse and handed it to Pam.

Pam pressed her lips together. “I’m going to make some phone calls to some of the other small-business owners around. If they are trying to keep it quiet, something has to be up. Make yourself at home here. I’ll be there tonight too.”

“I was so hoping you would say that. Thanks.” She pressed the button on her laptop and the screen lit up. “I won’t be long.”

“Take your time. And thanks for letting me know about tonight. That’s kind of odd.”

Once Elli had the listings narrowed down to the ones that met Nana’s criteria and had them all charted out in a cohesive route, she tapped on Pam’s office door. “Want to ride along to check out some potentials for Nana?”

“Absolutely. I could use a break.” Pam grabbed her coat from the rack by the door, and she and Elli headed for the parking lot. “If I know you, you probably have all of this on a precise schedule, but I have a place for you to look at before we get started.”

“It’s probably on my list.”

“No. This one isn’t on the market yet. It’s my neighbor’s house. They’re getting a divorce. While you were looking up houses, I took a chance and gave her a call. They are ready to entertain offers. You’ve got to see it. The place is great. Plus Nana would be right next door to me.”

“Great. Let’s check it out.”

Elli drove toward Pam’s house.

“It’s the one just past mine.”

“Oh, the cute yellow place?”

“Yep. The Lazy Daisy. They own a bunch of florists in Virginia. I love the name.”

“Me too.” Elli pulled into the driveway. “Nice. Parking for at least four maybe even five cars here.”

“Yeah. There’s a rental lockout with it too. They never used the place much. Not sure why they’ve kept it this long.”

“Do you have a key?”

“Sure do.” She held it up. “I’m their emergency contact.”

They got out and walked around the exterior first. “It’s in great shape.”

“They spent almost a year renovating and remodeling,” Pam said. “I think their original plan was to use the rental unit as a potential in-law suite one day.”

“I see how they could have made that work. It’s great. Lots of light too.”

From the ground floor there wasn’t much of a view, but the upstairs unit had a clear view of the ocean. “It’s gorgeous up here.”

“I know. This house sits a little more forward than mine so from this angle it’s like you’re the only one on the beach.”

“Wow.”

Pam chattered like an excited squirrel. “I’m thinking the downstairs would be perfect for Nana. Look at all this space. And no stairs. Plus wait until you see the kitchen.”

Elli followed Pam into the chef’s kitchen. Gorgeous cherry cabinets with green glass fronts picked up the shine in the granite countertops. It was nice to see the rich cherry tones alongside the colors of sea glass. So many people opted for blues and whites that it got old. This seemed fresh and warm. She opened a set of green fogged-glass French doors expecting to go out onto the deck. “It’s a pantry. Oh my gosh. Nana would love this.”

“And look.” Pam walked over to a glassed-in sun porch. “Is this great or what?”

“She could use this as her art studio. Nothing but light. It’s perfect.”

“I know. And I’d love it with y’all being right next store.”

“Y’all?”

“Oh, come on. You should just move back. I miss you like crazy.”

“I miss you too.”

“There’s plenty of room here. You could stay upstairs. Nana isn’t getting any younger.”

“Don’t be putting that guilt trip on me. I could come and visit more often though.”

“Okay! That’ll work just as well.”

Elli walked back upstairs. “I could at least stay up here until Nana gets settled in. Then I could rent it out furnished, and that could cover Nana’s bills. It could really work.” She could really see the potential. It met all of Nana’s criteria too. “Tell them not to list it just yet. Maybe we can bring Nana over here tomorrow to take a look. I have a feeling this is going to be the one, but let’s do a ride by on these others on the list…just in case.”

“You got it.”

Elli drove while Pam called her neighbor, who was almost as excited about Elli’s interest as she was. Two of the places were in such poor condition they didn’t even bother getting out of the car. The others were okay but couldn’t hold a candle to the location of the Lazy Daisy, so they headed back to the spa.

“Thanks for coming with me today. That was fun. Like old times.” Elli looked at her watch. “I think I have just enough time to get up to Kill Devil Hills to pick up some tools and supplies for Brody before the town hall meeting. He’s going gangbusters on those boards for me. Lot of good that’ll be if they shut down the pier though.”

“Well, never lose hope. Keep focus on what you want. You get what you expect.”

Pam was always finding the positive in every situation. If that girl ever came yelling catastrophe, Elli would be the first one to run because it just wasn’t in Pam’s nature to worry.

“I’ll try. Want me to pick you up for the town hall?”

“No. I’ll just meet up with you there.” She got out of the car and waved as she went inside the resort to her office.

It would be nice to spend more time here.

CHAPTER NINE

It hadn’t been easy finding a parking space at the town hall. Either Pam was just out of the loop about the situation, or she’d hustled up a lot of attention in the past few hours.

Elli’s stomach clenched as she got closer to the building. She really hoped this bad feeling in her gut was something she ate and not bad news getting ready to come her way.

Inside, there was standing room only, so she edged her way around the right side and took a spot against the wall. She didn’t know as many folks as she used to around here, but she looked for familiar faces and saw a few. She did a double take at the guy sitting all the way across the room. From the back it looked just like Brody.

He was seated next to two men in suits, and it looked like they were having a casual conversation. No surprise. Brody seemed like the type who could get along with anyone.

Then the guy turned and glanced around the room.

It was Brody.

Why would he be here? He must have caught wind about what was going on and decided to come. He probably thought she didn’t know. Maybe she should’ve gone back to the beach house before coming, but she hadn’t wanted to lie to Nana and hadn’t wanted to worry her either. It had seemed easier just to come straight here. But she could have saved Brody the trip.

Just as the mayor, town council members and committee chairs filed into the room, Elli saw Pam come in. She waved to catch her attention and watched as she excused her way through the crowded room toward her.

“Hey, sorry I’m late, have I missed anything?” Pam said, half-winded.

“No. They’re just calling the meeting to order,” Elli reassured her.

“Something’s fishy. No one I know knew
anything
about this. I went online and it was posted in advance as it’s supposed to be, but boy was it hush-hush and buried in the middle of a bunch of other stuff. We rustled up the troops.”

“Well, it looks like you did a good job.” Elli watched the expression on the faces of the committee members as they took their seats. They didn’t look like they’d expected this kind of outpouring. And then she made eye contact with the man sitting to the left of the mayor, and when it all registered, she elbowed Pam so hard that Pam yelped.

“Ow.”

Elli whispered through gritted teeth. “Look who is up there.”

Pam glanced around, and then her mouth dropped wide open. “I knew he was working for the town, but I had no idea …”

“I should’ve known he was up to something when he asked me over and was so nice.”

“What?” Pam grabbed her arm. “You went to his house?”

Elli shushed her. “I’ll tell you later. It’s a long story.” A heaviness centered in her chest.

“This is like the craziest day ever.”

The secretary got up and read the minutes from the previous meeting.

The facts listed out like that, one by one in a monotone voice, were somewhat depressing and unfortunately accurate.

As the secretary read through the estimates to repair the pier, it became abundantly clear where the meeting was headed. Under the best-case scenario it was a two-year project, and it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that the town just didn’t have.

Elli wished she could march up there and demand more time to reconsider, but all the Buy A Board campaigns in the world weren’t going to raise that kind of money in time to reopen the pier anytime soon. Talk about determining adequate pile bearing capacity, including the static formula method, the dynamic formula method, the wave equation analysis, point bearing piles, and pile load tests made her almost dizzy. Then there were non-water loads, including dead loads, live loads, construction loads, and wind loads to consider. It was an engineering macramé to say the least. On a personal level she was disappointed to the point of sadness, but as a businesswoman she knew that what they were saying made sense.

One by one, locals took their turn at the microphone. Some sad, some angrier than all get-out that the town let this happen. A couple went in for the personal attack on Holden Moore.

Elli had to admit she appreciated those the most.

A guy with a ponytail, wearing a baseball cap with a fish embroidered on the front, stabbed his finger in the air toward Holden as he spoke. “And we brought back a local like you, way overpaid you, to do
this
? What kind of economic development is it to shut down the one real tourism draw we have? You’re nuts, man.”

Elli wanted to applaud him. Pam did.

The image of that snaggle-toothed jack-o’-lantern popped into her mind. At this point it sounded like there wasn’t much anyone could do to revive the pier for this summer any more than they could have revived a rotten pumpkin.

The waitress from the diner who’d been so nice to Holden the other day, Evelyn took the mic next.

“Every one of y’all sitting up there was voted in to help us, or hired in on a platform to save this town’s legacy and bring in tourism that would support but not swallow the town. I get it that the insurance and liability of that pier is a problem, but y’all were trying to be all sneaky about this. Don’t think we haven’t noticed. If I hadn’t gotten a well-timed phone call I wouldn’t have even known this meeting was going on.” She leveled a stare directly at Holden. “And I see some of you several times a week. Not so much as a peep. Seriously?”

Holden spoke into the mic in front of his seat. “The town meeting and announcements made regarding earlier discussions on this subject were made in accordance with the guidelines set for the town of Sand Dollar Cove.”

His matter-of-fact tone rubbed Elli like a jellyfish sting.

Apparently the waitress felt the same rub, because she pulled her hands up on her hips. “We don’t care if you followed it to the letter. The point is we usually know and we’re always here. This was done differently than business-as-usual and I think that’s shady. I’ve said what I have to say.”

Someone on the board spoke up. “We realize this isn’t what you were hoping to hear tonight, but the truth is that pier has been uninsurable since the storm of 2007. We’ve done our best to keep it up and going just because of its landmark status, but we have to do what’s right for the financial stability of this community. We will be looking into other ways to promote tourism and viable alternatives to facilitate those ideas for our community and the visitors that those pastimes bring to the area.”

“Sounds like a political line to me,” someone shouted from the crowd.

“Please no comments unless you come to the microphone and state your name.”

“Are you going to say anything?” Pam asked.

“What’s there to say? It’s a budget thing. I can’t raise the kind of money it would take to fix it even if they granted it. They’ve got us over a barrel.”

Pam walked over to the microphone and stated her name. “Some individuals have gone the extra mile to raise money to try to fix some of the problems with the pier. Was that even taken into consideration?”

Holden said, “I’ll take this one. Yes. Trust me, we are aware of the individual efforts, and we’ve considered all options, but at the end of the day our mission is to keep this town working toward a long-term plan that will help the town grow.”

Pam leaned into the microphone. “And what are we supposed to do with all the materials purchased by people who donated specifically to help this town repair the pier and do just that?”

“That’s between the private parties, not a matter for this town council or commission.”

“Nice,” Pam said, and simply left the microphone.

“Look,” Holden said. “Make me the bad guy if you have to, but I love this town as much as anyone. I grew up here, and I wanted to save the pier too. It just isn’t in the numbers. Maybe one day it will be, and that can all be revisited. I know lots of you here today participated in the Buy A Board campaign. I’m sorry. My hands are tied. You elected me to help not only keep this town on its feet, but also to expand tourism in a way that fits the community. I’m trying to do that.