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Chapter Fourteen
The town council meeting was set to begin in five minutes. Derek waited outside for Kylie to arrive. All the other members of their group had come, but no Kylie. She lived next door, so there was no logical reason for her to be late. Was she not coming? Would she really leave him stranded like this? Was she doing what she did to her job before and flaking?
His worry turned into anger. She had promised she would help him through this fair, which had been her idea in the first place. He couldn’t wait any longer, and with a surly glance toward her dark front door, he went inside town hall.
The first thing he noticed was that the room was much fuller than usual. While council meetings were always open to the public, no one usually showed up unless it was a meeting where they could bring up business they wanted discussed. The topics were anything from complaints about neighbours to petitions for various things around town, new stop signs, and the like. Even on those nights, there were usually only a few people in attendance. But there had to be twenty people there, and Derek knew all of them.
The second thing he noticed was his team of organizers gathered in a corner talking, and at the center of the group was Kylie. If she was already here, that meant she had actually been very early, and he was a total jerk for jumping to conclusions about her. Again. She’d more than proven herself, so why couldn’t he just trust her? The guilt of it took up residence in the back of his throat.
She passed out sheets of paper to everyone in the group. She handed one to Derek as he approached. It was an outline she had typed, going over all their points for various arguments they might face from the rest of the council. Everyone was chatting, nervous about their presentation. He leaned over to Pete who was standing beside him.
“Why are there so many people here tonight?” Derek asked.
Pete whispered back, “Kylie took the names from our list of those who opposed the water treatment plant and phoned them all, asking them to come and support the vote for the fair’s permit.”
“She cold-called twenty people to come here tonight?” Derek couldn’t believe it.
“Actually, it was around fifty,” Pete said. “These are the only ones who could make it.”
“Hey!” Kylie said. “I was getting worried. Is everything all right?”
Derek couldn’t admit to waiting outside, thinking horrible thoughts about her, so he cleared his throat and said the first thing that came to mind.
“Oh, Charlie wouldn’t let me leave. You know how it is.” This earned him a raised eyebrow from Pete, who’d seen Derek waiting outside when he arrived.
“Of course,” she said. “Did he need an extra tuck in?” The warm smile she gave him melted his knees.
“Yeah.” He coughed to cover the crack in his voice.
“Attention please!” A stern voice hollered over the chatter. It was Bette, already at her seat and lightly rapping her knuckles on the table. “We’d like to call this meeting to order.”
Bette gave everyone in the room a pointed look, like a stern teacher who’d caught her students out of desks. Of course, they all, including the mayor, quickly found their seats.
The five council members and mayor took their places at a long fold out table in front of the old wooden stage where town theater productions were put on before the high school had built a proper auditorium.
The rest of the attendees sat in folding chairs, facing the council.
Bette nodded. “Thank you. Let’s—”
The oak door at the back of the room banged open, and Randy sauntered in. He pulled off his tuque, and his grey hair stood up as he took his time finding a seat and settling in.
“Thank you.” She tried again, “Let’s get started.”
The first order of business was about putting a bike lane on the main road as it passed by town so those biking the long rural routes wouldn’t be in danger when the road hit town and the shoulders narrowed. Council voted, and the proposal passed.
Next there was a discussion of the annual canoe and kayak regatta that was hosted on Camden Lake. It was decided that Quincy, who owned the paddling outfitters in town, would assemble a planning committee and begin promotions right after the long weekend.
By the time the petition for the fair came up, Derek’s palms were sweating. The council, even Bette, seemed to be in a generous mood that evening, but town politics had a habit of shifting quickly.
“Next up,” the mayor said, checking his agenda. “Kylie Martin is presenting a petition to hold a fair,” the mayor picked up his paper as if he hadn’t read it correctly, “next weekend? That’s a bit last minute, young lady.”
Derek ground his teeth. Young lady? He expected her to anger at the slight, but her composure didn’t shift at all. She simply stood up to face the mayor and councilors with a professional smile.
“While our petition does come within the two-week minimum for notice of such a large event, according to town bylaws,” she said, sounding like a professional, “we hope you’ll see we’ve got this event well planned in accordance with guidelines and that we have an excellent reason for needing to hold this event so soon.”
She handed each member of the council a sheet on which she had very plainly laid out the plans for the event, the schedule, the benefits to the community, the affected bylaws and how she’d addressed them.
Derek risked a glance down the table at the other council members. Bette peered down her nose at the paper. That wasn’t good.
