“Yes.” Katie shut the file cabinet drawer. “She runs the Cranberry Bay Youth Program. The craft show is the biggest fund-raiser of the year for the kids.”
“I met her when I stopped at the rest stop on my drive into Cranberry Bay,” Rylee said. That afternoon seemed so long ago. So much had happened in the last month: friendship and laughter with the sewing circle, mentoring Maddie, repairs on her grandmother’s home, her father appearing on her doorstep, and Bryan. Rylee flushed, thinking about Bryan and the way he looked at her yesterday, saying her name and announcing to everyone that he was grateful to her.
“We’re going to have to come up with a plan to talk to her about our idea,” Lisa said. “We don’t want Beth to think we’re competing with the Craft Fair, and we want her to support our idea.”
“What if we combine her market with ours? We could invite the crafters from her market to exhibit at ours,” Rylee suggested.
“You’re right,” Ivy said, her voice a little garbled by the pin she held lightly between her teeth. Ivy removed the pin from her mouth and slipped it into the place on the holiday apron fabric. “I don’t see why we couldn’t all work together.”
“Because…” Sasha said slowly as her eyes blazed at Ivy. “I am the one who sells the goodies from the bakery. We can’t have all these little homemade wrapped brownies and cookies that Beth always has at her fair.” Sasha cut firmly into her fabric. “Beth doesn’t even have a permit to sell food at the Craft Fair. But everyone turns a blind eye because she’s on every committee in town and no one wants to cross her.”
“But if we don’t have Beth on board,” Katie said. “Our vintage market proposal will not pass the council. We won’t get a permit.”
“I don’t even think the council looks at the proposals,” Sasha said. “They rely on Beth, who is not always right.”
Ivy grimaced. “No. She’s not. The time she ruled not to allow anything to be on the sidewalks of Main Street about killed all of our business that summer. The tourists stop because of the brightly colored flowerpots and sidewalk displays. But Beth decided those decorations made the street look junky and tacky. I lost about thirty percent of my walk-in business that season, as did every store along Main Street. Of course, the council never mentioned it, and the next year sidewalk displays were back.”
“There has to be a way to work with her,” Rylee said. “Why don’t I go talk to her? I could take her a small check for her youth fund-raiser and that might sweeten the deal.”
“Good luck.” Sasha muttered under her breath as she stabbed her pattern with a pin. The tissue crinkled under the force. “It’ll take more than a check to change Beth Dawson.”
A woman carrying an armful of fabric bolts and sewing notions placed her items on the counter and motioned to Katie. Katie excused herself and strode toward the front of the shop. Her blonde hair, pulled into a ponytail, bounced on her shoulder and made her look like a perky teenage clerk instead of the owner of the shop.
Rylee’s cell phone rang and she scooped it out of her bag, which was hanging from the back of a chair. Her heart leapt as Cranberry Bay Police Department scrolled across the caller ID. “Excuse me,” she mumbled and hurried quickly toward the backdoor leading to the outside.
“Hello,” Rylee said breathlessly. She expected to hear Dad’s voice pleading for her to bail him out of jail.
Instead, a deep male voice that she didn’t recognize spoke. “Rylee Harper?”
“Yes,” Rylee stepped behind a large shelf of spring fabrics at the back of the shop. “This is she.”
“This is Officer Robert Anderson at the Cranberry Bay Police Department. I have a young lady with me who would like to speak to you.”
“Rylee!” Maddie’s voice screeched in her ear.
“Maddie. Are you all right? What happened?”
Maddie’s sobs filled the phone as Rylee tried to understand the girl’s jumbled words.
“Hold on,” Rylee said, feeling very out of her league with Maddie. “I’m at the sewing shop. Your Mom is here too. I’ll go get her.”
“No.” Maddie wailed, her voice filling the small phone.
Rylee moved it away from her ear.
“Please. Can you come?”
“I can come to the station,” Rylee said. “But I’m not your legal guardian. I won’t be able to sign anything to release you.”
“Please,” Maddie cried. “Just come.”
Rylee pocketed her phone. Thankfully, Lisa was working at the cutting counter and helping a woman chose between two green fabrics. Rylee vowed to call Lisa as soon as she found out what was going on with Maddie.
“I need to go,” Rylee said to Ivy. “Where is Sasha?”
“She left to pick up Tyler at her sister’s beach place. Tyler called, and I guess there was a fight between the boys over some game. Tyler lost and wanted to go home.” Ivy peered closely at her. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s Maddie,” Rylee lowered her voice. “She’s at the police station.”
“The police station!” Ivy’s voice raised an octave.
“Shh…” Rylee placed her fingers to her lips, “she doesn’t want me to tell Lisa. She said she only wanted to see me. I’ll try to convince her to call Lisa as soon as I can. I don’t know what has happened, but she was very upset.”
Ivy nodded and pursed her lips. “Do you want someone to go with you?”
“It’s okay,” Rylee said, shaking her head. She fingered the strap of her cloth bag that she’d tossed over her shoulder. Her heart beat fast. Police stations had never been a good thing for her.
Rylee waved to Katie and headed out the back door. A light rain fell on the empty sidewalks, and Rylee pulled up her hood. Holiday lights from the shop windows glowed. Except for Lisa’s sewing shop and the tavern, all of the stores had closed for the day.
Rylee quickened her pace to a half-run. She headed toward the small brick building on the edge of town. As she rounded the corner, she crashed into Bryan, who carried two cups of hot coffee.
“Whoa!” Bryan placed his hand on her lower arm. He smiled into her eyes and sent her heart cascading in her chest. “I was just coming to see you. But you’re off somewhere in a hurry. Is everything okay?”
“The police station,” Rylee said.
“The police station!” Bryan lowered his voice. “Is it your father?”
“No,” Rylee said. Bryan was family. Maddie may not want her mother to know, but she was going to tell Bryan. “It’s Maddie.”
“Maddie!” Bryan straightened. An unreadable, dark expression crossed his face. “Why is Maddie at the police station?”
“I don’t know.” Rylee twisted her hands and bit her lip. “She called me, but she wanted to talk to me.”
“Let’s go.” Bryan picked up her hand. Together, the two strode toward the police station. Their steps on the wet pavement matched.
Relief filled Rylee’s body as Bryan walked by her side. Supporting her. Police stations brought back too many memories of the times she had sat in hard plastic chairs and waited with her mother to bail Dad out of jail. Or the times she’d gone by herself, pocketing fistfuls of cash from her waitress job. She kept cash in a mason jar under her bed, knowing she’d need it to help Dad. And it was always a matter of when, not if. To make sure there was enough in the jar, she shopped the used clothing stores and bought whatever was on sale. She always pocketed the rest in her emergency fund jar.
The front of the brick building that housed both town hall and the police station was dark. But Bryan guided her to the side. He pulled open the glass doors with Cranberry Bay Police stenciled across the glass pane in black letters. Rylee stepped inside a small office. File cabinets jammed the corners, and a computer sat on a desk. In the back of the room, sitting on a green chair, Maddie huddled under a blue blanket. Rylee stepped quickly toward her.
A tall man, wearing a blue police uniform, touched her arm. “Ma’am, can I help you?”
“It’s okay, Ro
b,” Bryan said. “We’re here to see my niece, Maddie Franks.”
Maddie lifted her eyes from the floor. Relief shone in her eyes at the sight of Rylee. But her gaze quickly darkened as she swung her head to face Bryan. Maddie scowled.
“Why did you bring him? I asked for you.” Maddie buried herself deeper into the blanket. She dropped her gaze to the tiled floor.
“We bumped into each other on the street,” Rylee said, kneeling beside her. “Bryan wanted to come, and…” Rylee paused, “I wanted him here.” She turned and looked up at Bryan, standing beside her, and smiled gratefully into his eyes. He lightly placed his hand on her right shoulder and squeezed.
“Maddie,” Officer Rob Anderson said. “Do you want to talk first or shall I?”
“Tell us what is going on,” Bryan said firmly.
Maddie kicked her foot from under the blanket. She hooked it to the edge of the chair and didn’t say a word.
Rylee placed her hand on Maddie’s arm. A slight tremble filled Maddie’s small form.
“Whatever it is,” Rylee said carefully, “we won’t judge you. We just want to find out what happened.”
“I stole something,” Maddie said without lifting her eyes from the floor. “And now I’m going to jail.”
“What?” Rylee straightened and looked at the officer. “Is that true?”
“Tell her the rest,” Anderson said.
Maddie raised her eyes and stared straight at Rylee. “I stole something from your house.”
“What?” Why?” Rylee couldn’t imagine what Maddie would steal from her grandmother’s home. She’d helped Rylee pack up everything from old clothing to jewelry to kitchen items. If there was something she wanted, she could have easily asked her.
Maddie shifted her gaze and stared at a distant spot on the wall. A door opened and another officer walked in. He held Raisin on a rope leash. The dog lurched toward Rylee. Rylee grasped Raisin as he lunged at her in a bundle of wiggles and joy.
“Raisin!” Rylee exclaimed. “How did you get here?” She looked up at the officer. “Did he escape?”
The officer shook his head and nodded toward Maddie.
The room spun underneath Rylee. Raisin. Maddie tried to steal Raisin. The one thing she had depended on. Raisin, with his brown eyes and wagging tail, who was always glad to see her. He was always eager to go for a walk or a run or play with a ball.
Anderson cleared his throat. “Maddie is waiting to find out if you’re going to press charges against her.”
Rylee adjusted the rope leash into her left hand. Raisin leaned against her body. Every part of her screamed that she should press charges against Maddie. Maddie had tried to take her most prized possession, the one thing she’d never be able to replace if something happened. But she looked down at Maddie’s slumped shoulders. Compassion filled Rylee’s heart. Something was wrong. Why would Maddie try to steal Raisin? Did Maddie want to steal Raisin to harm the dog? Was there another side to Maddie that she didn’t see? A low ache filled Rylee’s gut, and she tried to steady her emotions.
“I need to know why. Why would you steal Raisin from me?”
“Because,” Maddie looked up at her with tears shining in her eyes, “I didn’t want you to leave like my Dad.” Sobs wracked the girl’s body, and she turned away from Rylee, pulling the blanket around her shoulders. Behind Maddie, Bryan stood quietly.
A torrent of emotion gripped Rylee as she tried to process Maddie’s raw words. Slowly, Rylee steadied herself and said, “But Maddie, I’m not leaving.”
“But you will.” Maddie said, sobbing. “You are done with the cottage project, and you will leave. I took Raisin because I wanted you to feel like I do when everyone I love leaves me.”
Straightening, Rylee looked at Bryan as a pained, dark expression filled his face. Rylee’s chest constricted. She’d left him ten years ago. He had just proposed to her, and she had left without saying good-bye and had never contacted him again. She had ignored his phone calls, until he stopped calling.
Rylee picked up Maddie’s hand. She entwined their fingers together. “I’m not going to press charges,” she said.
Maddie poked her head out of her blanket cocoon and looked into Rylee’s eyes. She slipped the blanket off her shoulders and embraced Rylee in a large bear hug. “Thank you.” Her words were muffled as she buried her face against Rylee’s shoulder.
Rylee gazed above Maddie’s head at Bryan, and the emotion reflected in his blue eyes ripped straight into her heart. She understood the hurt she’d caused Bryan by leaving.
Chapter Sixteen
Bryan shrugged off his black jacket and hung it over a small hook along the back wall of the pub. Rain dripped down the windows of the empty room. Suzanne wiped down the front counter. Behind the bar, Tom towel-dried a thick whiskey glass and talked to Suzanne.
Bryan slipped into the hard, wooden seat of the back booth and pulled out his riverboat casino file from his black bag. Butterflies raced in his stomach, and he took a couple deep breaths. His research was solid and impeccable. The facts were clear. If they didn’t do something to save Cranberry Bay, the town would become only another pass-through, used-to-be town on the way to the coast. There wasn’t one person on the City Council who would argue that the town didn’t need to be saved. It was just a matter of whether his idea would be the one to start the ball rolling.
The pub’s front door opened, and Sawyer strode in. He shook droplets of water from his shoulders and nodded to Suzanne. Sawyer held up two fingers. Tom poured a couple of tall glasses of microbrew and handed them to Suzanne. She followed Sawyer to the back table. Bryan shook his head as Suzanne placed the beer in front of him. Suzanne gazed at Sawyer, the same attraction mirrored in her eyes Bryan had seen all his life when women looked at his older brother. Sawyer nodded to her but didn’t smile. Bryan wasn’t surprised. After Sawyer’s wife had died, he’d buried himself far away from ever risking his heart with anyone again.
Sawyer reached into his pocket and slipped out a twenty-dollar bill, but Bryan pushed it away. He placed his credit card on the table. “It’s on me.”
“Should I hold onto this for a couple more rounds?” Suzanne waved the plastic card in the air.
“No.” Bryan shook his head. “City Council meeting tonight.”
“Right.” Suzanne nodded. “I heard it’s going to be a good one. Be right back.”
Sawyer picked up the glass and took a long drink of beer. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and frowned as he set his glass down.
“This flavor isn’t as good as last month. Might have to give this a miss.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Bryan. “Everything ready to go for tonight?”
“Looks like it.” Bryan tapped his right finger on his file. He jiggled his foot against the floor. His knee hit the table’s hard bottom in a thump, thump.
“I’ve talked to Councilmen Matthews and Councilmen Bickerman. Both of them are ready with their yes votes. It took a bit of persuading to convince Councilwoman Dawson, but she liked the idea of using the boats for a fund-raiser for the Community Kids Fund. I couldn’t get ahold of the other two council members, but I figured you had the mayor’s vote in the palm of your hand.”
Bryan took a long swig of his beer and nodded. “Cole has promised me his support.”
He reached into the file and pulled out the one-page bid contract between himself and Sawyer. His hands shook slightly as the words blurred.
Sawyer tapped the type on his business letterhead paper. He leaned back in the booth and crossed his hands over his chest. “Looks like I’ll be writing a check soon.”
“I want to talk to you about the funding.” Bryan swallowed.
What he was going to say would jeopardize the entire project, but he had to say it. He had no choice. He had to obtain the funding through his own means or through corporate sponsors. He needed to prove himself worthy in the eyes of the town, his family, and Rylee on his own, not on a bet with his older brother.
&
nbsp; “Don’t tell me you’re pulling out?” Sawyer lowered his voice. He leaned toward Bryan.
Bryan’s chest heaved. He heard his father’s words in Sawyer’s: Both of them always confident that without their support, he’d never succeed at anything. Bryan remembered the first time he played on the community baseball team. Dad had leaned down and said to him, “As the coach’s son, the referees will look the other way at some things. You understand?” Bryan understood that day as well as he understood Sawyer’s words now; Without his father and his older brother, success would elude him.
But Bryan thought it was time to prove otherwise. “I am pulling out of the bet.”
Sawyer whistled. “You’re calling off the bet and refusing the funding which is giving you at least three votes on the council, and it’s less than thirty minutes before you walk into the meeting to present this idea? Your idea is resting on my support for passage.”
“It’s time I prove myself on my own worth and merit, and not on handouts from you.”
Sawyer took a long swig of his beer. He traced a pair of initials with his thumb and stared hard at the carved words. “Every year, on Ginger’s birthday, I sit at this table. She would have been thirty-five.” He shook his head. “Thirty-five. When we were kids, it seemed like forever. Now it seems like we were robbed of all we could have been together.” Sawyer’s voice broke.
“I’m sorry,” Bryan said, quietly. “I didn’t think when I picked this table. I should have remembered…”
Sawyer looked up at Bryan, the pain etched deeply in his eyes. “You love Rylee.”
Bryan swallowed hard. He had tried so hard to avoid falling in love with Rylee again. But he’d known from the minute he saw her that he still loved her. Every moment they spent together only verified what he’d known in his heart; he’d never let her go. She was his first and only love. “I don’t think I ever stopped.”
“I’m giving you the money for the boats,” Sawyer said. “I will be your first corporate sponsor. I believe in this dream of yours, and I think it’s a good one. It won’t solve all of Cranberry Bay’s problems, not by a long shot. The elementary school may still have to close, but it’s a start, and I want to stand behind you.”
Sweetheart Cottage (Cranberry Bay #1) Page 15
