I blinked away tears. “I’d do anything for you, Moses.”
“I know you would.”
“Until they bring him in, be careful, okay?”
“I will,” he said, giving me a megawatt smile. “Not that Sally would let anything happen to me. She’s like a mama bear guarding her cub.”
As if on cue, Sally came out into the garden and clucked about Moses getting too tired. “See what I mean?” he asked with a grin.
“Are you all ready for your speech tomorrow?” asked Sally. Ralph stood next to her, looking dapper in his bow tie and round tortoiseshell glasses.
I wrinkled my nose. “I guess so.”
“Your mom told us about the national registry,” Sally said in a whisper. “That is fabulous news.”
“I hope it is. I wish I knew more about applying for federal grants. I borrowed a book about it from Matthew, and it’s so complicated, but even if we’re in the process of applying for a grant, it gives us more protection. Sadly, I don’t even know where to start.”
Ralph stood up a bit taller and straightened his bow tie. “Well, I do.”
Sally put a hand on his arm, her eyes glowing with pride. “That’s what Ralphie does, or at least part of what he does.”
“I work for the university,” he said. “I usually apply for research-related grants, but it can’t be too different. Do you have copies of the paperwork from the national registry? If so, I can start the process tonight.”
I thought I might burst into tears. “Would you?”
“Of course. Any friend of Sally’s . . .”
I gave him a giant hug. I hugged Sally and Moses too. For the first time, I felt like everything might turn out okay.
I gave Ralph copies of all the paperwork, and he promised to get right to work on it. Sally put a hand over her heart. “Ralph. You’ve never been so sexy as you are right now. Do you realize that?”
His cheeks turned instantly pink. “I feel that way about you, Sally. Every minute of every day.”
Now I put my hand over my heart. I’d never seen Sally so happy. I waved goodbye to all of them and went back to the kitchen. I made three frozen mojitos and brought them out for my mom, Matthew, and me. Matthew’s face lit up as soon as he saw me.
“Do you want to go and sit outside?” He took my hand, leading me out to the garden.
We sat side by side on the bench by the fountain, my head resting on his shoulder. The mojitos were refreshing and had enough rum to make me relax. Matthew wrapped an arm around me, and I sighed. I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, and I lived in the moment in a way I’d never been able to before. I had finally learned my mom’s lesson. I would not wait too long like Aunt Francesca had or hide my true feelings like my mother. I wanted to tell Matthew exactly how I felt, to share everything with him. Even if my mother thought Campbell women were cursed to only love once, it didn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.
“You’re what matters most to me, Matthew. You mean more than anything.”
He kissed me, a smile playing on his lips. “Really? And how did you finally figure this out?”
I put my hand on his cheek. “I loved you, but I thought you embodied all of the things I’d been trying to avoid my whole entire life, and that scared me.”
“When did it change?”
“When your heart spoke to my heart, and I listened.”
“It was that simple?”
I nodded. “To my great surprise, actually it was.”
And with that, I broke the curse of the Campbell women, once and for all.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
In the cookies of life, friends are the chocolate chips.
~Aunt Francesca~
After the Sunday tea party, I showered and dressed in my Chanel suit and slid into nude pumps. The suit fit me beautifully. I wore a silk sleeveless shell underneath and pulled my hair up into a tight chignon. The final touch was a strand of pearls that had belonged to Aunt Francesca with matching studs in my ears.
I packed my things carefully, including the files I’d copied when I’d broken into Harrison’s apartment—just in case. I was about to leave when I saw the garbage bag in the corner of my room, the one holding Scott’s shoes. I’d forgotten about them completely.
I looked inside the bag at the elegant leather shoes, now stained and dirty. I still didn’t understand why Harrison would have stolen his shoes. It didn’t make sense.
My mom came into my room, putting on her earrings. “Are you almost ready?” she asked. “What’s in that bag?”
I showed her the contents. “Do you remember how Scott complained about losing his five-hundred-dollar shoes?”
“Yes,” she said. “And the other pair got ruined by the fountain.”
I cleared my throat. “Well, Mindy and I may have found his missing shoes.”
Her eyes widened. “When you broke into Harrison’s apartment?”
I nodded. “I thought it was kind of weird, so I, uh, took them.”
She let out a sigh of pure exasperation. “You mean you stole them. Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
“I kind of forgot about them. What should I do?”
She thought about it. “Bring them to the meeting. Even if Harrison is a no-good bastard and Scott is a slimy weasel, we should return them to their rightful owner.”
I blinked in surprise. “A bastard and a slimy weasel? What about all that love and peace stuff?”
“That was before they hurt my baby.”
We walked to the meeting in silence. The weather had turned oddly cool as the sun sank low in the sky. The entire South Side felt quiet. Every Sunday it seemed like the whole neighborhood was a little hungover and recovering from the weekend.
“Is Matthew coming?” asked Mom.
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know. We didn’t talk about it.”
“That’s probably for the best. Even if he doesn’t work for Anderson, we don’t know who he works for, and there could be a conflict of interest. It’s far more sensible just to keep things completely separate.”
Mom took a deep breath and let it out slowly. With her ivory-colored suit and pumps and her hair pulled up in a bun, she looked more like the president of the PTA than a former stoner hippie chick. Claire was a complex creature. Although I knew she was most comfortable in jeans or a long, soft skirt, every once in a while, bits of her early upbringing peeked through. She’d grown up wealthy and pampered as the only child of a prominent family. Pumps and pearls were as much a part of her as kombucha and mandalas.
I slipped my arm through hers. “Janet thinks we’ll be okay. We won’t lose the café.”
Her eyebrows came together in a worried frown. “This has gone so far beyond the café. And what about our friends and their shops? I won’t breathe easy until it’s all over.”
I’d hoped to see our friends and some of our neighbors at the town hall, but when we got there, the entrance looked deserted. A sick feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. We were all alone. The city council meeting was normally held in a conference room upstairs, but when we walked into the building, we saw a sign saying the meeting place had been switched to the auditorium in the back of the building. The clicking sound of our high heels echoed as we walked through the empty marble hall.
We paused in front of the large ornate doors. My hands shook. Mom clasped my hand in hers. “Whatever happens, Fiona, we’ve done our best.”
She was right. I gave her a quick hug as the door to the auditorium opened and Auntie Mags stepped out. “Here you are. We’ve been waiting for you.”
We looked past Auntie Mags and into the room. It was packed. People even stood in the back and against the walls. When we walked in, the entire crowd turned to look at us. Several people smiled and waved.
“I saved you a seat up front,” said Auntie Mags. “We got here early. We knew there would be a crowd.”
“How did you know?” Mom looked a bit shell-shocked.
Auntie Mags
put an arm around her shoulders. “Because as soon as word got out about how you were being harassed by the Anderson people, the calls came in. They all wanted to help, even people who don’t live in the South Side. This has become bigger than they ever expected, Claire.”
“Will that make any difference?”
Auntie Mags shrugged. “It won’t hurt.”
As we walked down the long aisle to the front of the auditorium, people called our names and reached out to shake our hands. It was surreal, like a visit with every person I’d known since childhood. Even the tea ladies were there, still wearing their hats and gloves.
The city council members, all of them looking decidedly nervous, sat on the stage at a long table. My eyes scanned the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of Matthew’s face. The Anderson people were in the front. He wasn’t with them, but Scott and Harrison were, and it made me sick to my stomach to look at them.
I sat between Mom and Auntie Mags. Sally and Ralph sat behind us. Ralph handed me an envelope and gave me a wink.
“I got the ball rolling,” he said. “It’s up to you now, little miss.”
I opened the envelope and looked inside. He’d applied for a grant to restore the garden and return the café to its previous glory. I grew teary as I read the words. It was a start, complete with an application date and some official-looking numbers, and it might be what we needed to sway the council to our side.
“Thank you, Ralph. This is perfect.”
Moses sat next to Mom, still in a wheelchair. Officer Belfiore and Officer Miller approached from the back of the room. Mindy was with them in a tiny black skirt. Her legs looked about fifty miles long. She gave me a little wave when she saw me but stayed near the exit.
“Mr. Richards, can we have a few words?”
Moses looked up at them in surprise. “Of course.”
Officer Belfiore knelt beside the wheelchair and spoke quietly to Moses. I saw Moses’s eyes widen in surprise. “Thank you, Officer.” He looked back where Mindy stood. It was hard to see her in the crowd. “And thank that young lady for me too. It’s a brave thing she’s doing.”
They walked to the back of the room, and Moses leaned over so Mom and I could both hear him. “I think you might already know this, but the person who attacked me is here. Tonight.”
“What happens now, Moses?” I asked.
“They want me to ID him after the meeting.” His eyes scanned the room. “I hope I can. It was so dark in that office.”
“You’ll do fine.” I patted his hand, trying to soothe him, but my own stomach was tied in knots.
The chairman called the meeting to order at exactly seven o’clock. The head of the council, a man with a thick white moustache, leaned forward to speak in the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am Mr. Meers. Tonight, we are here to decide on whether or not we should, according to the laws of eminent domain, purchase the 1600 block of the South Side for the purpose of allowing Anderson Solutions to build a much-needed multilevel parking structure.”
A loud cry of outrage went up from the crowd, and Mr. Meers’s cheeks turned an unhealthy shade of red. He held a gavel in his hand and slammed it on the table. “This meeting will be conducted in a civilized and respectable manner, or all of you will be asked to leave the room.” He slammed the gavel again, and the councilwoman next to him jumped.
The Anderson group, a row of dark suits in a sea of longhaired, tie-dyed bohemians, didn’t look nervous. They looked smug, in fact.
Scott’s eyes met mine briefly before he looked away, an angry flush coloring his cheeks. I studied him for a moment, looking at his elegant suit and his handsome face. I’d been so focused on my life plan, and Scott fit perfectly into the parameters of it. Knowing Matthew, however, made it seem shallow and wrong. I searched for Matthew again, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Mr. Meers called up the people from Anderson to explain their plans. They had a flashy PowerPoint presentation and quoted lots of facts and statistics about how the parking structure was desperately needed and would increase visitor traffic to the entire South Side. Several of the council members seemed to be on their side. They nodded in agreement as they watched the presentation. I looked down at my little stack of notecards, hoping my words would reach the ears of the people on the council and they would understand.
The spokesperson for the Anderson group was Mr. Smith, a dark-haired man with glasses. He spoke for about twenty minutes and then cleared his throat. “And, in conclusion, city ordinance 141 clearly states if the city council deems a construction project is in the best interest for the majority of our citizens, the council has the right to proceed with the project even if there are complaints or residents unwilling to sell. Mr. Alexander McAlister owns the majority of the 1600 block of the South Side. Even if he chooses not to sell his property, the council can still override. And as far as the remaining property on the 1600 block . . .” Mr. Smith’s cold eyes fell ever so briefly on us. “That matter is also in the council’s hands. City ordinance 244, passed this morning, says if there are more than five serious complaints against a property owner or business, the council has the right to close that property without prior notice.”
My heart sank to my toes, and my gaze shot to Scott. He smiled triumphantly. He’d known about this all along.
Mr. Smith held up a stack of papers in his hand. He ticked them off one by one. “These are all complaints against the Enchanted Garden Café. Public nudity, two health-code violations, disturbance of the peace, noise pollution, and another complaint issued late last night. It appears the plumbing for the outdoor fountain is not up to code and poses a significant risk. This has become a matter of public safety, and it is well within the council’s rights to close down the Enchanted Garden Café immediately.”
The people from Anderson picked up their fancy equipment and went back to their seats. No wonder they had looked smug. They held some winning cards.
Mr. Meers called me to speak, and I looked at my mom in panic. Janet sat next to her, scribbling frantically in a notebook as she looked through the stacks of papers and files on her lap. Janet’s face was pale and drawn. My mom took my cold hand in hers and gave me a little smile.
“You can do it, baby.”
I stood up, looking at the faces of the people who had loved me my whole life. I didn’t believe in their reiki or tarot cards or magic and had always been so different from them, but they loved me unconditionally. Time for me to pay a little bit of that back.
The view from the stage was scary. I wasn’t sure of the exact capacity of the auditorium, but it looked like thousands of faces stared back at me. My heart pounded in my chest, and my hands trembled. I was terrified until I found mom’s face in the crowd. I saw Kate sitting with Chad, and Sally with Ralph, and Madame Lucinda, Auntie Mags, and Janet. I wasn’t here for Anderson or the council. I was here for them. I took a deep breath and spoke.
“The South Side is one of the oldest and most historical areas of our city. We recently learned the Enchanted Garden Café has been designated a national historic landmark, and suspect other buildings on our block would qualify for this status as well. These aren’t a bunch of crumbling old buildings that should be bulldozed in the name of progress and convenience. These are irreplaceable treasures, and that is why we applied for a federal grant to repair the Enchanted Garden as soon as possible.”
A cheer went up from my side of the audience. Mr. Smith and the Anderson people did not look pleased. They carried on a heated discussion with Scott and Harrison. Harrison’s face got red, and Scott’s gaze met mine. He understood at that moment I knew about his role in this. Whatever small bit of affection that may have still existed between us vanished forever.
“The South Side is the social hub that attracts visitors every weekend from all parts of the city. It’s a mecca of bars, restaurants, and live music venues. It’s not only a hangout for college students. It’s a popular destination for people of all ages.”
This caus
ed another round of shouting and clapping from the audience. Mr. Meers had to pound his gavel several times to get them to settle down.
“Even more than the historical significance or the vibrancy of its nightlife, the South Side is a community, a group of artists, craftsmen, bakers, shop owners, alternative medicine practitioners, and musicians. Each person, each shop, each resident is a vital part of what makes up the magic of the South Side. And Anderson has used underhanded methods to try to destroy this, including spying, viciously attacking one person, and physically threatening another. Me.”
I looked directly at Harrison and Scott and waited for a reaction. Scott sat up, a confused frown on his face. He obviously had no idea at all what I was talking about, but Harrison did. His color went from red to pure white. Mr. Smith rose to his feet.
“That’s a false allegation. She’s spouting lies.”
“We’ve already filed charges with the police. And we have concrete proof of the spying right here.” I held up the papers from Harrison’s file, looking directly at him as I did so. He slid down into his chair, his hands covering his face. Scott stared at me in shock.
My gaze went to my mom. She had no idea I held stolen documents. Her face glowed with absolute love and trust, but that was the way she always looked at me and at everyone. She had the best and most giving heart in the whole world.
“This is what the South Side is all about. Something more important and valuable than what can be calculated in dollars or shown on a spreadsheet. The people of the South Side are its greatest treasure, but tearing down those businesses for the sake of an ugly, utilitarian parking structure would be the worst sort of injustice.”
I stepped down from the podium to hugs and people reaching out to touch me the whole way back to my seat. Mom waited for me with open arms.
“I am so proud of you, Fiona.”
The Enchanted Garden Cafe (South Side Stories Book 1) Page 25
