Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance by Elizabeth Bemis

What if he and Emma were to buy the antique store? It had been on the market for six months before Maddie had come back to town.
    Thank heavens the O’Callaghan’s had hired him as their realtor. If they’d hired Penny Jackson his bacon would have been cooked a long time ago.
    But helping Emma buy the store might be the perfect solution. He didn’t really want her to work, but it would keep her happy and let him solve his little problem. He straightened his spine as he organized the papers in front of him. Now all he had to do was make it worth Maddie O’Callaghan’s while to give up her aunt’s antique store.
    And to do that, he had to convince the council to keep the store condemned as long as possible.
    Cunningham shuffled his papers and Rob feared that he would continue. However Dora—God bless her organized little heart—called a request for alternate viewpoints.
    As Dicky Dixon defended his right to own concrete lawn ornaments, Rob focused on convincing the rest of the council to keep Maddie O’Callaghan out of her aunt’s store. His entire future depended on it.

    For a change, Maddie had been more concerned with her upcoming presentation to the Sudden Falls town council than she had with whatever Eli was up to. Both took a back seat when she looked to her right and saw a guy in his early twenties with pointy, rubber, stick-on ears and matching red Star Trek uniform of The Next Generation era. She looked to her left to try to catch Eli’s attention. Unfortunately, his focus was centered on the lawn ornament drama in front of them.
    Seriously? Vulcan ears?
    As if the two codgers in center stage weren’t over-the-top enough. Had the city of Sudden Falls completely gone insane in the years that she’d been gone? It had been pretty far gone when she lived here. Clearly, somebody had sprinkled a little too much crazy dust in the town reservoir.
    She elbowed Eli in the ribs then tilted her head toward Star Trek boy when she had his attention. “Somebody’s mom took too much LDS in the sixties,” she whispered.
    He grinned. “That’s a reference to a line by William Shatner in Star Trek — The Voyage Home . The actual line is ‘He’s harmless. Part of the free speech movement at Berkeley in the sixties. I think he did a little too much LDS.’“
    “Spoilsport.” She noted that the action had broken up in the front. Mayor Watson clacked his gavel and promised a decision by the next council meeting. “Dora?” he prompted the woman taking copious notes.
    She shuffled her papers then straightened. “Next we have Dan Edwards who would like to petition the council to offer Sudden Falls as the next location of StarCon.”
    Mayor Watson’s eyebrows climbed into his hairline so slowly that Maddie suspected there was no way it could be deliberate. To her right Star Trek boy stood and walked to the front. To her left Eli desperately tried to staunch a bad case of the giggles.
    “What am I missing?” she asked.
    “StarCon is a Sci-Fi Convention—focusing heavily on Star Trek.”
    “Ahh.”
    Dan Edwards looked down at an electronic device in his palm before speaking.
    Unfortunately, none of the words coming out of his mouth made any sense. In fact, Maddie was certain they weren’t even English—or any language she’d ever heard, for that matter.
    Mayor Watson grabbed a front section of his own hair and tugged, as if trying to keep his head from hitting the desk in front of him. “Excuse me, Mr. Edwards. But you’ll have to speak English .”
    This whole council meeting had reached the point of ridiculousness. Maddie wanted to get her portion of this over with and open her store. Was that really too much to ask? She turned when she heard the shuffling of feet behind her.
    “Good Lord,” Eli muttered.
    Another Star Trek boy came forward, this one sans ears but with the obligatory costume—this time in gold. As Dan Edwards spoke, the newcomer translated.
    “He says that he would like to petition the