Always You: A Lilac Bay Novel (Friends with Benefits)

by Rachel Schurig

  And my damn head was still pounding.

  I should go home, I thought. Call off sick and go spend this rainy day in bed with Ben and Jerry’s and Heather Dale on my TV. Maybe it would all look better tomorrow.

  Just as I was about to stand and do just that, my phone rang. I groaned, assuming it was Andrew again for more witty repartee, but a glance at the screen told me it was an outside line.

  “Awesome,” I mumbled, thinking about Jerry and chickens. “Good morning, mayor’s office, this is Riley James.”

  “Riley James?” the unfamiliar voice on the other end of the line asked. Definitely not Jerry Brooks. “This is Gina Stanley. I’m a producer for the Heather Dale show.”

  My heart seemed to stop beating in my chest.

  I stood quickly, holding the phone to my ear, and scanned the room for Andrew. He was at his desk, talking to Lane from public safety. Not on his cell phone. Not pranking me.

  “Hello?” Gina Stanley asked. “Miss James, are you there?”

  “I’m here,” I said quickly, still not sure if I should believe that this phone call was happening. “How can I help you, Miss Stanley?”

  “Well, we received your application on our website,” she said, and my heart stopped all over again. “We were very impressed with what you sent in. We’ve been doing some additional research on your town, and we’re quite intrigued. We think Lilac Bay might be just the kind of place we’re looking to feature on this show.”

  Oh my God, oh my God. Was this real? I glanced again at Andrew. He was laughing at something Lane had said. Still definitely not on the phone. Get it together, I tried to command myself. Don’t blow this now.

  “That’s amazing to hear!” I said, shooting for a mix of professional and bright in my tone, but overdoing it a bit on the bright side. I winced and tried again, pleased when my voice sounded more normal. “I’m so happy you liked what you saw of our little island.”

  “We really did. Lilac Bay seems to capture the small town feel we’re hoping to find. So we’d like to talk to you about the next step now.”

  “Okay. That would be great.”

  “You work for the city, is that right?”

  I was nodding before I remembered that she couldn’t see me. “I do. I’m the director of tourism in the mayor’s office.”

  “Wonderful. So this part will probably be easy for you. What we need you to do is form a small welcome committee. Their role will be to coordinate with us here in New York, and plan and implement the various activities that we’ll be asking you do over the course of the shooting.”

  “Hang on,” I blurted out, my best intentions of professionalism going right out the window. “Are you saying you’ll be shooting here? For sure? Are we on the show?”

  “We won’t make our final decisions until the first site visit,” she said. “Which we would like to do in the next week.”

  The next week? Holy shit. My mind was already spinning. They were going to come here? In a week? I hadn’t even told the mayor yet.

  But Gina was still talking. “We’re obviously on quite a tight schedule. We’ll come out with a film crew so the producers can talk to you, get a tour. Nothing very formal. They’ll want to get some shots of the island, of course, and meet the committee. And then we’ll go from there. Does that work for you?”

  “Of course,” I said quickly. Take a deep breath, Riley, I told myself. Keep it together. “That would work just fine for us.”

  “I’m going to email you the information about what we’re looking for in the committee,” she said. “There’s a bunch of legal things in the packet as well, releases to sign, that kind of thing. You’ll want to go over it with your city’s lawyer.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll give you some time to look through it. Can we be in touch on Monday?”

  “Monday should be plenty of time.”

  “Great. Keep a list of any questions that come up and we can discuss those as well.”

  I was definitely having trouble breathing now. This was actually happening.

  “I’ll do that.”

  “Wonderful. That’s all I have for now. Go through the packet. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Thank you so much. This—wow. This is a great opportunity for our town. Everyone will be so excited.”

  Her voice was warm when she responded. “We’re excited as well. Thanks for applying.”

  After I hung up the phone I just sat there at my desk, unable to process that this was actually, really real. They wanted to send producers—a film crew!—out to Lilac Bay to meet with us. They thought we—what had she said? Captured the small town feel they were hoping to find. Holy crap.

  “What’s the matter with you?” I looked up to see Millie in front of my desk, glaring at me.

  “Nothing,” I said, too shocked to even be annoyed at her presence.

  “You were fifteen minutes late this morning,” she snapped. “And now you’re just sitting here staring into space? Do you have plans to work at any point this morning?”

  The Heather Dale Show was sending a film crew and producers to our island. We might be on national television. All that exposure. Grants and reward money, funding for the library and the school and the rec league and the senior center—

  “Are you even listening to me?” Millie snapped.

  I looked up at her, grinning from ear to ear, and her eyes widened—I’d probably never looked quite so happy to see her before—as her frown depend.

  “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “I was just thinking what a nice day it is,” I said, struggling not to burst into hysterical laughter. I had to tell the mayor. I had to tell Andrew!

  “This is nice?” she asked, wrinkling her nose as she looked out the far window into the gray gloom, the waves of Lilac Bay crashing in the distance. The damn island had never looked so beautiful to me in my life.

  “Very nice,” I said, laughing now. “Don’t you think?”

  “Riley James—” she started, then gasped when I stood, walking away from the desk in the middle of her sentence. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  I didn’t bother to answer. From here I could see that Andrew was on the phone now, his brow furrowed as he looked at his computer. He looked up and saw me approaching and I could see his face register that something was going on, something big.

  “Can I call you back?” he said to whoever was on the other line, hanging up the phone and standing as I reached him. “What? What is it?”

  “We did it,” I told him, laughing again. I felt like screaming, like jumping up and down. In the end, I threw my arms around him, kicking up my feet a little when he caught me. I could feel every eye in the office on us, but I didn’t care. We did it!

  “What did we do?” he asked, his voice sounding both bemused and pleased, his arms automatically coming up around me to hug me back.

  I pulled back so I could look at his face when I told him the news. “They’re sending a film crew, Andrew. And producers. They want to check out the town. We have an actual shot at this!”

  His eyes widened, his mouth actually dropping open. “Heather Dale?” he whispered.

  I nodded, barely able to stand still. “They want to come next week!”

  “Oh my God!” Andrew grabbed my hands and started jumping up and down, pulling me along with him until I was laughing, feeling more than a little hysterical.

  “What on Earth has gotten into the two of you?” Millie cried. “Stop this at once! This is a place of business!”

  “You’re right,” Andrew said, grinning from ear to ear. “We should take this in to the mayor.”

  “Absolutely not—” Millie began, but we both brushed straight past her. I knocked on Mayor Jones’ office, feeling giddy as I imagined his reaction.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Millie cried, right as the mayor called for us to come in.

  Andrew squeezed my hand as we opened the door to see the Major Jones
at his desk, eating a bagel and reading a magazine. Definitely hard at work. I turned to shut the door and saw Millie’s red face glaring at me, apparently ready to push us both out of the way.

  “Don’t you have anything to do?” I asked sweetly. “I thought this was a place of business.”

  And then I shut the door in her face, and turned to tell my boss the amazing news.

  Chapter 6

  The commerce committee meeting that I had been dreading all week suddenly didn’t seem so boring after all. In fact, I was downright excited about it. Because it was no longer actually a commerce meeting. Instead, the mayor had asked everyone in the office to spread the word that he wanted to see the entire town at the meeting. It was time to share our news.

  I got to the gymnasium in the senior center early so I could help set up. Libby was there waiting for me. As the president of the commerce committee, she was supposed to be running the show tonight. But now all of that had changed.

  “What’s this all about?” she asked me, the moment I appeared in the doorway to the gym. “Why did the meeting get changed? Why does mayor want everyone here?”

  “I’m not supposed to tell you,” I said, failing to hide my wide grin as I grabbed a few folding chairs from the stack against the wall and moved to set them up. Libby blocked my path.

  “You have to tell me,” she said, her voice pleading. “We’re friends, Riley. Friends don’t keep good gossip from other friends.”

  I probably would have told her, even though I was expressly forbidden to do so by the mayor. But at that moment the side door to the gym opened, and Rose Powell and her friend Chrissy came in.

  “Hello, ladies!” I called before looking back to Libby. “Sorry. Looks like you’ll have to wait.”

  She made a face at me but joined me when I stood up to greet the newcomers. I said hello to Chrissy, and then Rose took me by the hands, peering into my face.

  Andrew’s grandmother was one of the only women on the island that could match me in height. Even at seventy-something years old she stood tall and regal, her soft white hair piled in a bun at the top of her head. Growing up, I’d spent more time at Rose Powell’s house than my own, so I’d seen all the pictures of her as a young woman. She’d been a knock out then—and honestly, was still a knock out to this day. There was a shadow of sadness on her face now, one that hadn’t been there last year, that was obviously the effect of losing her husband ten months ago. Rose and Frank Powell had been more in love than anyone I had ever seen in my life. Her grief was palpable. But somehow she still managed to keep it together, helping Iris to run her cafe, taking care of her family, and being a friend to everyone on this island.

  “How are you, sweetheart?” she asked. “You look tired. Are you working too hard?”

  “Oh, you know how it is, Rose,” I said. “Lots of stress involved in soliciting vendors for the Fish Fry.”

  She grinned, her expression a little wicked. “Yes, but you have to do it with that awful Millie Briggs standing over your shoulder. You know I don’t like to speak poorly of my peers, love, but what a terrible bitch.”

  I burst into laughter, hugging her.

  “What are you laughing at?” Andrew asked, appearing at our side. “Is my grandmother being dirty?”

  “That’s none of your business, young man,” Rose said, releasing me to hug him. “You look too thin. Come to my house tomorrow and I’ll feed you.” He winked at me over her shoulder and I rolled my eyes. Spoiled rotten.

  “So, what’s this about?” she asked. “Chrissy and I were planning to go out to the movies tonight before Posey came bursting into my cafe to say we all needed to come to this meeting.”

  “Weren’t you supposed to be at the meeting anyhow?” Andrew asked. “I thought you were the treasurer of the commerce committee.”

  “Vice president, darling,” she told him, waving a hand. “But these meetings are so boring. I always skip them.”

  “You’re an upstanding member of the town, Mimi Rose, has anyone ever told you that?”

  She patted the side of his face. “At my age you don’t have time for sitting around in gymnasiums, listening to Crystal and Fran fight over who should get the historical society plaque for first fudge shop on the island,” she muttered.

  “Well, I think things will be a bit more exciting than that tonight,” I told her, grinning over at Andrew.

  “You both know what’s going on,” Libby said, her voice accusing. “Tell us!”

  “We have to get this room set up,” Andrew said. “Everyone else will be here soon.”

  We got to work setting up the folding chairs, Rose and Libby helping. Town members began trickling in about ten minutes before the meeting was set to start, many of them helping with the set-up, more of them badgering Andrew and I about the agenda. Once we’d finished, Andrew and I went and stood near the mayor’s podium, watching our friends and neighbors fill the space.

  “Holy crap,” he muttered. “This is a lot of people. It’s Friday night. Doesn’t anyone have plans?”

  “It’s not every night the mayor calls for an emergency meeting,” I told him. “Besides, this is Lilac Bay. What kind of plans could they have?”

  “You have a point there.” The crowd filling the space did seem to be rather excited, chattering and laughing as they greeted each other.

  “God,” Andrew suddenly said, shaking his head. “This is the most exciting thing to ever happen on this island.” He grinned at me. “They’re going to freak out, Riley.”

  By the time the mayor arrived, the small gym was packed. People were standing along the sides of the room, crowded four and five rows deep in the back. I wouldn’t be surprised if ninety percent of the island was here. I felt a rush of affection for these people, my neighbors all crowded in here on a Friday night with only a few hours' notice. Their town had asked them to turn out and they had, no questions asked. We deserve a shot at this, I thought fiercely. These people deserve it.

  I caught sight of Rebecca and Jake, sitting with the three boys crowded on their laps, and waved, feeling giddy.

  “Welcome, welcome,” Mayor Jones said, stepping up to the podium. The mayor rarely ever used a microphone, and tonight was no exception. He had a loud, booming voice that could easily carry to the back of any room on the island. It suited him. William Jones was a tall, broad, beast of a man, still very handsome at sixty-something. He was also a man who knew how to dress well. He had his suits tailor-made on the mainland and accessorized them with colorful shirt and tie combinations. He had a head full of thick brown hair and a mustache Tom Selleck would have been proud of, both of which he kept carefully styled. In addition to his mayoral duties, which I wouldn’t call highly taxing, William Jones led kayak tours to the uninhabited coves and rocky outcrops at the far end of the island, played for the Elks rec team, and taught ballroom dance classes at Tina’s studio. Maybe not the most expected combination of hobbies for a mayor, but he somehow made in work.

  He was, in fact, exceedingly popular on the island. A former All-American at the University of Michigan, he’d won a national title before coming home to the island as a conquering hero. He ran his parents marina for a few years before funneling his popularity into a political run, first on the city council before running for mayor—an office he was elected to a record eight times, which meant he’d been running this place for more than thirty years now. And that was why, of course, he was so reluctant to take any of my suggestions for revitalization. Everything had been working out just fine for him for longer than I had been alive.

  None of that matters now, I reminded myself. My tourism campaign paled in comparison to what Andrew and I had done with this contest.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Mayor Jones said, straightening his tie and nodding his head in acknowledgment of the smattering of applause that met his appearance at the podium. “I asked you all to come here tonight in order to share some exciting news.”

  “They’re building a bridge to the mainla
nd?” Jerry Brooks called from the back.

  “No, there are no plans to—”

  “You’re going to let us drive cars?” Iris Holder asked hopefully.

  Andrew groaned beside me. “Now she’s started it,” he whispered. The long-standing no automobile law was a contentious topic on this island. The vast majority of islanders were in support of the rule, considering it the number one factor that put us on the map. But the ones who opposed it could get awfully loud. Just as I feared, the room immediately devolved into grumbling and arguments.

  “We don’t want cars!” David cried, staring at his girlfriend in horror. “Are you crazy?”

  “What’s crazy about wanting cars?” Sherry said, turning in her seat to glare at David. “I have arthritis, boy, you try walking up all these hills when you get to be my age.”

  “You’re fifty,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Hardly a senior citizen.”

  “What’s the supposed to mean?” Rose asked, leaning over Iris. “I’m a senior citizen and I get up the hills just fine, Mr. Jenkins.”

  “The no car rule is one of our greatest assets,” Posey was saying, shaking her head at her cousin. “I’ve been telling you this your entire life, Iris. People come here to get away from the busyness and the stress of their lives and—”

  “We’re not getting cars,” Mayor Jones shouted over the din. “The automobile ban is not on the agenda tonight.”

  Most of the room fell immediately quiet, many looking relieved, while a select few continued to grumble.

  “What we have tonight is even more exciting.” He leaned over the podium towards his constituents, a grin on his face. “Ladies and gentlemen, Lilac Bay has been chosen as a finalist to represent small-town America on a new reality television show.”

  He paused for reaction, and when he got none, frowned.

  “Don’t you understand? Our town could very well be on TV.”

  “For what now?” Jerry asked, his brows creased.

  “What’s a reality show?” Fran asked.