Chapter 5
“Tomiko, can you get Martha Aldridge on the phone for me, please?” Julien called to his assistant from the intercom in his office.
As much as he didn’t relish the idea of making Martha run the gauntlet that would be his father’s third degree, his mom had demanded he invite her over for a meal. He couldn’t put off such a summons. Running interference for her while she was in the lion’s den, however, he could and would do.
“Mr. King? I’m sorry, but I don’t seem to have any contact information for a Martha Aldridge.” Tomiko’s voice crackled over the phone speaker, full of regret and a pinch of worry. “Do you want me to dig around online and see if she’s listed anywhere?”
He’d really not had Martha give her information to his assistant before she left yesterday?
That meant Tomiko didn’t have everything she’d need to make the reservations for Martha’s flight to the Children’s Book Creators Conference either, which needed to happen sooner rather than later if they were going to add her to the same flight on which he was already booked.
He pressed a button on his office phone.
“No, I don’t want you to have to go through all that trouble.
” Pivoting mentally, he made a quick decision.
“Forward all my calls to my cell and reschedule my meeting this afternoon for tomorrow morning. I’m stepping out of the office, and I’m not quite sure when I’ll be back. ”
“Yes, Mr. King.”
Julien grabbed his wallet and car keys from his desk drawer, then marched out of his office on a mission. A few of his employees greeted him as he made his way through the building, but most noted his purposeful gait and deduced he didn’t have the time to stop and chitchat at the moment.
The ways he and his father approached leadership in the workplace were on two different spectrums. While John King operated by a defined hierarchy of power in which he was the final word and those below him were paid to follow his directions, Julien believed productivity increased with employee satisfaction.
Facilitating an open and friendly work environment where everyone felt valued, respected, and part of a team had proven to be successful for Julien.
It went against his nature to brush by his coworkers without a smile or encouraging word.
Even so, he barreled forward out of the downtown commercial building and into the bright autumn morning sunshine.
The locks on his Range Rover clicked with a press of the fob in his pocket, and Julien stepped around a pigeon more worried about abandoning the spilled Goldfish crackers on the sidewalk than about any human walking by.
The leaves at the top of the sweetgum tree his car was parked under were just beginning to transform in color.
In a few more weeks, the branches would be an ombre of reds and golds.
After climbing behind the wheel, he typed Little Creek Library into the onboard navigation system, then turned his vehicle east for the hour-and-fifteen-minute drive.
The city skyline grew fainter in his rearview mirror the farther he drove until he was surrounded completely by the landscape of the Cherokee National Forest. He could’ve stepped into the pages of a fantasy book, where dryads roamed among the forest’s pines and fairies hid under the fronds of the green ferns growing in the underbrush.
It had been too long since Julien had taken advantage of the expanse of nature at his fingertips.
His mom had been right. In his effort to prove himself and convince his father of his capabilities, he was becoming more and more like the man.
An unhealthy work-life balance that leaned much too heavily to one side.
Once he earned the CEO position, once his father was no longer putting himself at risk by coming to the office every day, Julien could slow down as well.
Maybe he could even talk his dad into a day of hiking to Benton Falls.
The trail wasn’t too long or rigorous, and spending time in nature would benefit them both physically and mentally.
Julien turned off the main road that would lead into North Carolina if he kept going. After a few more miles, a wooden sign welcomed him to Little Creek. He slowed down to the posted speed limit as small businesses began to dot the side of the road.
“Your destination is on the right,” the GPS’s computerized voice announced.
The woods ended in an open green space of a town park, a picturesque white gazebo standing in the center of the square.
Julien could imagine outdoor folk concerts and town-led Easter egg hunts happening within the perimeter of this park.
It was idyllic and clichéd and a reminder of homegrown roots and wholesomeness.
A quintessential small-town centerpiece.
On the other side of the park stood the library.
Julien pulled into a parking space and killed the engine.
Instead of stepping immediately out of his vehicle, he took a moment to examine the building.
A blue tarp covered most of the roof, screaming the library’s need for a quick replacement.
Normally they probably would’ve received a grant to help cover the cost of repairs, but there had been an unusual number of weather-related disasters that year.
The state’s budget was more than likely depleted by the amount of aid they’d had to give.
He got out of his car and walked to the entrance.
The automatic doors opened for him, and he stepped inside to the familiar floorplan of so many public libraries.
A semicircle circulation desk sat in front of him, a welcoming librarian waiting to assist. To the side was a bank of computers, and beyond those, the multimedia section housing the library’s selection of DVDs, music, and audiobooks.
On the opposite side, a bright mural of children reading under an oak tree was painted along the wall.
On hip-height shelves were board books and picture books, behind those were higher shelves with early readers, chapter books, middle-grade selections, and finally books appropriate for young adults.
The children’s section. Martha’s domain.
Julien’s gaze scanned the area, but he didn’t see Martha anywhere.
“Can I help you?” A bald woman with a head tattoo and an employee ID hanging from a lanyard around her neck stepped in front of him.
Julien glanced down at her ID. Evangeline Kelly.
“Hello, Ms. Kelly. I’m looking for Martha. Is she by chance working today?”
He thought his question had been straightforward, but the woman peered up at him as if he’d just spouted off a riddle. In a foreign language.
“You’re here to see Martha?”
“That’s right. Is she around? I only need to speak with her for a moment.”
Ms. Kelly tapped her bottom lip with a nail, her gaze narrowed and yet somehow also distant. As if she were deep in thought, but Julien was caught in the center of her musings. She blinked, and the look was gone, replaced with warmth and friendliness.
It made Julien instantly suspicious.
“I am so sorry. I must have dropped my manners, but look—” she bent a little at the waist and made a scooping motion with her hand—“I’ve picked them right back up. I’m Evangeline Kelly.” She pointed to her ID. “And you are?”
He held out his hand. “Julien King, ma’am.”
Her eyes flashed. “Julien King, of course.” She gave his hand a squeeze, then turned on her heel. “Follow me. Martha’s leading a writing circle for a few of our kids right now, but she should be done soon. I’ll show you where they meet.”
Julien trailed behind Ms. Kelly, but she slowed until they walked side by side.
“So, Mr. King, you and Martha are old acquaintances, is that right?” She gave him a sideways glance as she walked.
“I’ve known her all her life, so I’d say that’s accurate.”
She nodded like she’d known the answer all along and was just getting him to admit it out loud. “What was she like as a child?”
Julien tried to think back. “Like any other kid, I guess?” What could he say?
He’d sound like a complete snob if he admitted he hadn’t really paid all that much attention to the family that worked for his.
In reality, they’d been like a Venn diagram, living in two separate circles with only a sliver of overlapping connection.
Ms. Kelly cast him a small smirk. “You didn’t really notice all that much back then, did you?”
“Honestly? No, not really. But in my defense, a teenage boy doesn’t normally pay all that much attention to the kindergartner living next door.”
She looked up at him. “But you aren’t a teenage boy anymore, and she’s no longer in kindergarten.”
Heat crawled into Julien’s cheeks. Hadn’t he been having those very same thoughts himself?
Ms. Kelly appeared pleased as punch. “Come on, Martha’s right over here in our community room.”
She paused outside a cracked door. It was opened enough that he could peer through without disturbing the goings-on inside.
A handful of kids of various ages sat around a round table with notebooks or laptops in front of them.
Martha sat among them, the top half of her own body curved over a composition notebook on the table, the pencil in her hand scribbling furiously on the page.
An alarm ripped through the silence previously only interrupted by the tapping of computer keys and the skritching of pencil on paper.
“That’s time.” Martha tapped on the screen of her phone and silenced the alarm. “Okay. Who wants to share first?”
“I’ll go.” A girl who appeared to be the youngest of the group raised her hand. She licked her lips, lifted her paper off the table, and began to read. When she was finished, everyone clapped for her.
“That was really terrific, Sam. I specifically loved your simile of comparing how Jordan thought studying for the test at the last minute was as useless as rubber lips on a woodpecker. I wanted to laugh out loud when you read that. Very clever.”
Sam blushed, but her wide smile gave away how pleased she was with the praise.