lunch for a while, so she knows what we want. We put in our orders and then I turned to Amy. “Tell me about Barry Gleason. What kind of regulation power did the council give him over the businesses?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I can pull up the minutes and send them to you. I don’t really think they changed much last meeting. Maybe he’s just exercising the power he already had. Why, was he harsh with the store?” Amy sipped her tea, watching me.
“Harsh is an understatement. He gave us so many citations that we’ll never get them cleared in a week and he’s threatening to shut us down over the holiday.”
Amy’s eyes widened. “No way. I’m sure that’s not allowed.”
“The problem is that he thinks it is. Get me the fire regulations so I have something to show him. I’m going to fight this guy tooth and nail.” I sipped my tea and then groaned when Carrie dropped off my fish-and-chips basket. The smell of french fries makes me happy. I’m not proud of this fact, but it’s the truth. I needed the salt, carbs, and fat today. Stress eating is my specialty. “I can’t wait until he gives Josh his list of violations. I’m sure he’ll go ballistic on him. Darla said that a lot of what he wrote me up for doesn’t even make sense.”
“Maybe he’s got a brain tumor and doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Amy took a big bite of her cheeseburger and wiped grease off her chin.
“Whatever it is, he needs to be reined in before someone thinks he’s serious and does all this crap.” I thought about Harrold, the older man who owned The Train Station. This kind of report on his shop could cause him to have a heart attack on the spot. “He’s dangerous and needs to be stopped. I need to talk to the mayor.”
“Uh-oh, I know that look in your eye. You’re going to cause trouble.” Amy pointed a french fry at me. “Maybe you should calm down first.”
“Did I tell you what he said to me? How I could figure out some way to fix the issues if I met up with him? I don’t think he was implying I could bribe him with money.” I lowered my voice and glanced around the room. “It makes my skin crawl just thinking about him touching me.”
“Wait, he wanted you to pay him off with carnal acts?” Amy almost choked on the french fry she’d just ate. “Man, that guy is creepy. He told Mayor Baylor that I was hitting on him last week. Barry had started to corner me in the hallway outside my office. I told him that if he came one step closer, I was going to punch him.”
“What is it with some men? Does he think he’s so attractive to women that we’ll do whatever he wants?”
Amy took a sip of her tea. “I heard when his wife divorced him, she got alimony because she could prove he had been stepping out on her. I guess she had a good lawyer for the prenup and a premonition that he didn’t know how to be faithful.”
“Whatever he was, he’s not going to push me or the other businesses in South Cove around like we’re his chess pawns. I’m dealing with this now. Before Aunt Jackie calls in the lawyers.” I broke off a piece of the battered fish. Tilting at windmills could wait until after lunch. I settled in to enjoy my food.
Chapter 2
“How did your day go?” Greg King, South Cove’s police detective and my boyfriend, was sitting next to me in the swing on my back porch eating fried chicken straight from the bucket. I loved how he’d just show up with dinner and not expect me to cook all the time. Apparently, according to tonight’s impromptu picnic, he didn’t require me to set a table either.
“Besides finding out my store is a fire trap? Okay I guess. I had a good lunch.” I glanced up from the chicken I was carefully pulling apart to share with Emma, my golden retriever. “Wait, you already knew, didn’t you? That’s why you brought dinner.”
“I might have talked to Amy, who filled me in on your fight with our esteemed fire chief.” He wiped his hands and face with a paper napkin. “Do you need a hug?”
“I need someone to rein this guy in.” I fed the last piece of meat to Emma and tucked the rest of the food away in the box it came in. “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“This must be serious if it’s affecting your eating.” Greg was able to dodge the biscuit I flung at him and Emma snapped it up.
“Let’s talk about your work. Any hitches in preparing for the festival?” I put the box on the side table and gave Emma a shake of my head, warning her my leftovers weren’t fair game. I love my dog, but sometimes she has a one-track mind. Especially when she smells fried chicken.
“We’re bringing in some off-duty officers from Bakerstown for the weekend, but mostly it’s business as usual. With a few thousand more visitors than a normal day.” He gave the rest of his biscuit to Emma and stood to take his box out to the trash. “Toby told you he won’t be able to cover any shifts that weekend, right? I’ve got him working full-time plus overtime this week. It’s not that I don’t trust the Bakerstown guys, but I know Toby and Tim.”
“I get it. Toby’s last scheduled barista shift was today. He’s yours until the festival is over.” I thought about the upcoming schedule. “Oh, and I’m working Aunt Jackie’s shift tomorrow. She and Mary are going into town.”
“Girls’ night?”
“In a way. They both have doctor appointments in the morning, and then they’re doing lunch and a shopping spree. She’ll probably be home early evening, but I told her I’d take the shift. She’s been working a lot lately. She needed the break.” And, I thought, maybe she’d not be as grumpy if she got out of town for a while. My aunt was used to living in the city, where she could visit a museum or eat out at a fancy restaurant any night of the week. I loved having her here, but South Cove ran at a slower pace than she was used to.
“No worries. I’ve got a final planning meeting for the festival with Darla and the council tomorrow anyway.” Greg and I were only dating, but it felt like more. Probably because we saw each other at least once a day. He lived in an apartment outside of town, but he liked hanging at my house more. And he loved Emma. All in all, it wasn’t a bad situation.
* * * *
The next morning, I called Amy to see if she had found the regulations. Her tone told me that the mayor was standing over her and she couldn’t talk. But I did get a promise to have a return call by the end of the day. The shop was empty after my commuter crowd had wandered in for morning java on their way to work. Aunt Jackie had talked to an electrical contractor who was coming in on Thursday for a look. I glanced at the list of “violations” and did the simple ones like unpacking the few boxes of books I’d stored by the back door. I even got on chairs and cleaned the dust off the ventilation covers. By the time Sasha came in for her shift, the place was gleaming, the bookshelves were all stocked, and I was beat.
“The place looks amazing.” Sasha grinned. “Slow morning?”
“That and too much energy from being anxious about this whole Barry issue. I swear, I’d like to tie him to a chair and shave off that long hair he’s so proud of. He looks like he’s lost in the seventies.” I sank on a stool, sipping the mocha I’d just made for myself. “But at least I can say we’re making progress on the issues.”
“I heard Josh Thomas got a three-page list. Kyle says he thought Josh was going to have a stroke right there and then.” Sasha got settled behind the counter, washing up and putting on an apron before pouring
