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

council—”
    “Allow me to interrupt for a moment. What language is he speaking?” Mayor Watson asked, pointing a finger at Dan Edwards.
    “Klingon, of course,” said the new guy.
    Maddie felt the corners of her mouth tighten. Someday soon, she’d laugh at this. Actually, she was ready to laugh now, but it was more nervous giggles in anticipation of her own showing in front of the council. At least her request seemed a bit more reasonable than the two previous.
    “Out!” Mayor Watson snapped, standing. Enunciating very carefully, he pointed from one man to the other, switching with every word. “Klingons. Are. Fictional. Characters. From. A. Television. Show.” He pointed toward the door. “And you’re dressed like a Vulcan. Get out of my council meeting.” His gavel made contact with the table top. “Motion denied on account of the fact that Sudden Falls doesn’t have conference facilities and our single hotel has only twenty rooms.” He cleared his throat and returned to his seat, his face still a bit red. “Next!” he shouted after someone mumbled “Second” and everyone else muttered “Aye.”
    Robert’s Rules and domestic order returned with great haste.
    A horde of butterflies intent on destruction quivered through Maddie’s stomach. This was it. She had to convince the council that her store was in good enough shape to open or it might be weeks before she had any income. She had a little savings left from her divorce settlement, but not enough to live on indefinitely.
    “Maddie O’Callaghan?” the council recorder prompted.
    “Need any help?” Eli asked as she took to her feet.
    She definitely wanted help. But she could do this on her own. Needed to do it on her own. “No. But thanks.” She had something to prove here. To Eli, maybe, to the town, certainly, her mother, probably, and to herself, most definitely. Maddie straightened her conservative navy skirt, picked up a file folder containing every bit of documentation she’d been able to find and stepped forward to the podium.
    Her hands trembled a bit as she set her paperwork down on the stand. Clenching a fist to stop its shaking and taking a deep breath, ostensibly to calm her nerves, she summoned every bit of wisdom her college speech professor had instilled in her and spoke.
    “Ladies and gentlemen of the council. I would like to re-open my late aunt’s antique store located at the corner of Main Street and Maple Avenue. This store belonged to Millie Wilson until her death last summer. Millie had the entire building renovated a year before her death and evidently, at that time, no county inspection was performed. A little over a week ago, the store received a condemnation order. The building is structurally sound.” Maddie picked up the architect and contractor’s statements to that effect, stepped around the podium and placed them on the desk in front of the mayor before returning to her place behind her stand. “If the building needs an inspection, I’d like to ask the council to expedite the process as much as possible as I had intended to open the store last week. If the architect and contractor’s statements are adequate, then I’d like to have the building condemnation order lifted and the lock on the door removed.”
    None of the council members said anything. “Thank you,” she finished, for lack of a better or more articulate response.
    The mayor perused the pages in front of him before passing the reports to the council member on his left. “Ms. O’Callaghan, the council is not in the habit of forcing county workers to play favorites when it comes to the standard business of this city and county. By law, your store should have been inspected when the renovations were complete and it was not. You will need to wait your turn exactly like everyone else.” He glanced quickly up and down the row at his fellow council members. “Who wants to make a motion that the condemnation order stays in place until such time