Barbecue and Bad News (5 page)

“Are you serious?”

“I already contacted Jones to fill in for you. He’s thrilled.”

“Jones?” Was she kidding? Savannah felt doubt creep in. She’d wanted off the Van column for months, but it was too big of an income stream for GetItNowNews. Evelyn had refused to let her ditch it, instead dangling one carrot after another to keep her going. But this time Evelyn had someone covering for her. She’d never done that before. Maybe the timing was finally in her favor. She couldn’t imagine Jones being the voice of Van, and it took about everything in her to not say so . . . but after all, this might be her only chance off that darn assignment. “Do you promise?”

“I promise. This little series will have folks on a high from all the feel-good crap. They’ll gobble it up.”

“Series?”

“Give me at least three stories. That way they’ll be so distracted in your fun small town stories they won’t even realize there’s a new Advice from Van voice.”

“That makes me sound extra special.”

“Can’t have it both ways, my dear. Do you want out or not?”

“I want out.”

“See, I told you everything happens for a reason.”

Savannah’s mood brightened as she got closer to the bank building. One innocent text of a picture of the tiny sign in the window had just forced her life into a new direction. She paused in front of the huge window.

Be careful what you wish for
rang from her past. But this was what she wanted. A new chance to show her writing chops in real news articles. Okay, so it wasn’t real news, more like fluff, but it was a step in the right direction. And she’d get her own name on the work. That’s what she wanted.

She also couldn’t deny she could use the break. It had been way too long since she’d taken time for herself. Not that this was totally for herself. She’d be writing those stories for Evelyn, but a little downtime in a small town with no drama sounded pretty good right now.

Suddenly, the sign was plucked from the window.

Had it all been a marvelous daydream?

But then a redheaded man walked outside. “Were you interested in the space?”

“Me?” She swallowed back the urge to say
Yes! Yes! Yes!
“Hi. Do you work here?”

“Yes.” He extended his hand. “I’m Connor Buckham. I own the building. There are two offices and apartments on the top floor. Sorry, I just rented the vacant one.”

“I know. I mean, Evelyn Biggens rented it for me.” She pushed her hand out in his direction. “I’m Savannah Dey.”

“Nice to meet you. Welcome to Adams Grove.”

“Thanks. You know, I’d give anything to get a tour of the old bank. Please tell me the original vault is still in place. Those things are so cool.”

“It is, and I’d be happy to take you on the ten-cent tour.” He pulled the door open and motioned her inside. “Come on in. I’ll show you the apartment too.”

“Just four hundred and fifty dollars a month? What’s the catch?”

Connor laughed. His blue eyes danced as he gave her a wink. “No catch. It’s a small town and there’s not a whole lot of demand for rentals. Where you from?”

“DC.”

“Not too far. I used to live up in Chicago.”

“And you moved here? On purpose?”
Don’t offend him before you even get to know him.
Doggone that mouth. She needed a piece of tape!

He laughed. “I grew up here.”

“And after living in Chicago, you still wanted to come back?” She knew what it was like to be a kid wanting to get out of a small town, but she’d never once looked back.

“Actually, my mom got sick and I came back to take care of her, but I knew I was ready to come home. The city just wasn’t for me. Even under the stress of Mom being sick, I was happier here in Adams Grove than I’d been up there.” He eyed her carefully. “What do you do?”

“You mean for work?”

“Yeah. Evelyn is your boss. What do you do?”

And just how was she supposed to answer that question without lying to the nice man? “I’m a writer.”

“Well, then this just might be my lucky day. One of my clients owns the local newspaper. As luck would have it, the woman that covers the police blotter down at the paper, her grandniece, Anna, just went into labor. Early. Bee had to drop everything to get there. She’s a dear friend of the family. They could sure use your help. Won’t pay much. Paper goes out twice a week these days, so it won’t take too long either. It would be a huge help if you could cover it while you’re here.”

Now what on God’s green earth would make him think any old writer could do a police blotter? For all he knew she could write advertising copy, or personal ads. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. You know that my boss is the one paying for my stay. I’d have to clear it with my editor. Besides, I’ll only be here for a week—”

“Any help you could give would be appreciated. It’ll ease the burden that she has to get right back home. At her age, she’s too old to be missing out on important family events. Consider it a good deed. They’re really good people. Jack and his sister have kept that paper going on a shoestring just to stay in business. They’re a cornerstone of this community.”

How could she say no to that?

He must’ve sensed her hesitation because he kept rambling on, selling her, as it were. “It’s interesting. The police blotter stuff. You’ll see all the cases come through . . .”

Well, now that he put it that way, it could potentially work to her benefit. The police blotter? Seriously? It
would
help with the stories that Evelyn wanted her to write. It would be like getting paid to do research. And it was only for a week. She knew Evelyn wouldn’t care. It wasn’t like this little paper was any competition for GINN.

She leveled a stare into Connor’s pleading blue eyes. All she really wanted was to chill out. She needed the break, and she needed to figure out what the heck she was going to do if Evelyn didn’t make good on her promise to take her off the Advice from Van column.

“And it won’t take long,” he said.

“Fine. I’ll do it. How much time could it take? Besides, how could I say no without sounding like an awful and uncaring person?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Connor said.

“Like I said, I’ll have to clear it with my editor, but I don’t think it will be a problem.”

“Excellent. I’ll let them know you’ll stop by and chat with him first thing Monday morning. That work for you?” His eyes twinkled with satisfaction.

He was probably a pretty good lawyer, because she’d just agreed to do something she’d had no intention of doing just moments ago. How had that happened? “Fine. Who do I talk to?”

“Jack over at the
County
Gazette
. Thanks for doing this. You really have no idea how big of a help it is.”

“Good timing, I guess.” And she really did kind of look forward to seeing how the small-town paper worked. It would be interesting to compare it to the huge conglomerate of GetItNowNews.

Connor moved toward the door. “Let me show you around, and then I’ll show you the apartment. I’ve got the key right here.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Follow me.” He led her through the old bank building’s main floor. The wooden teller stations still spanned the front room, and the vault door was like a piece of artwork with the brass shined to a luster as lovely as gold. “What do you think?”

She ran her fingers along the fine wood railing. “This place is great.”

“Yeah. I fell in love with this building when I was a kid. It was empty back then. A safety hazard, really, but I was always drawn to it. I’d imagine bank robbers racing down the street and good guys capturing them, tying them up, and then locking them in the vault until the sheriff came and carted them off to jail.”

“You have a good imagination.”

“I guess locking up bad guys in the vault
with
the money wasn’t that brilliant of a plan, but it worked in my head at the time. It was a part of my childhood, and when I moved back and found out that the town had put this old building up for sale, I couldn’t believe I was going to be able to actually own it.” She followed him up the stairs.

He pushed a key into the lock and swung open the door. “I used to live in this apartment. That’s why it’s furnished.”

“Nice.” It definitely lacked a feminine touch, with the oversized furniture in three colors of leather and pictures hung way too high for any woman to have hung them, but overall it was comfortable and clean. The light coming through the long floor-to-ceiling windows was almost magical. The original glass panes made it seem to swim across the pine flooring.

“Over here there’s an office, and . . . well, you can see the rest.”

“I can.”

Connor punched at his iPhone and then raised a finger as he spoke into the phone. “Hey, Jack, yeah, you still need someone to run down the police blotter stuff for the paper?” He nodded and gave her a wink. “Yeah, I’ve got someone that can help you out temporarily.”

An hour later she had the key to her new apartment, had landed a job doing the police blotter, and had accepted an invitation to join Connor and his wife, Carolanne, the next day for some kind of Sunday cookout at the artisan center just outside of town.

By the time Savannah got back down to Adams Grove Garage, Bobby had already locked up and headed out. She drove back to her temporary home and parked around back where Connor had told her. The back entrance looked bright and cheery, with planters of bright orange and yellow marigolds, just like the ones in the window boxes on the front. The flower boxes flanked a shiny burgundy door.

With her laptop and the dry cleaner bag with her party dress in it over her shoulder, she rolled her suitcase over the threshold toward the stairwell. The narrow staircase to the second floor was pretty steep, so rather than risk a tumble, she dragged the suitcase, clunking it on each stair tread, one at a time, as she made her way up.

Connor hadn’t bothered to lock the door, but she tested her key once just to be sure. One quick twist and she was in the apartment. She hung the dress she’d spent weeks picking out for the wedding in the oversized armoire in the bedroom, then unpacked her clothes. The kitchen was twice as big as her one at home, and all the appliances she’d need for her stay looked to be there. Rather than set up her computer in the office space, she set it on the antique table near the window. The light was much better there.

She pulled a notepad from her purse and made a quick list of the facts she knew to get started on the article. Scanning the list, she was impressed with just how much she already had. Now that she had the inside track and access to the police blotter, this assignment should be a breeze.

Evelyn would be thrilled to hear the progress she’d made, and she was pretty happy with how things were going herself. Then again, if she made it sound like it was going too well, Evelyn might want the articles sooner. Maybe she’d wait and update her tomorrow.

Right now it was still early enough to make it out to the Cody Tuggle concert, and that sounded like a great way to get her impromptu vacation under way.

Scott Calvin sat behind his old metal-and-wood desk and pushed a fancy ivory-colored envelope to the side. There was something just not right about getting an engraved invitation to something that would probably cost more than he made in a year. Especially when they were giving him an award for something that was clearly in his job description.