Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
J ack opened the church door for Kate and held it while she walked through. The warmth pouring out was welcome, and he could see her relax as she walked in. It always took a little while after the first cold weather of the season to acclimate to the weather before it stopped bothering him.
It was a good thing, getting acclimated, allowing oneself to be cold. He'd read the latest research and knew that the uncomfortableness was good for his body. That didn't make it any easier.
The entire way from his candy shop to the church, he'd been thinking about Kate.
She just seemed to fit beside him. Better than anyone ever had, and he felt comfortable with her.
She was a good friend. And obviously she cared about Lilly.
He appreciated that probably more than anything, since he felt totally inadequate to be raising her by himself and appreciated any help he could get.
"Thank you," Kate murmured as he walked in behind her, allowing the door to close and keep the rest of the cold air out.
He lifted his hand as they walked in, and Noah Parker, the music shop owner two doors down from the candy shop, smiled from the podium.
"Hey, Jack. We've been waiting on you."
"You didn't have to hold the meeting up for me," he said, surprised, but pleased that they did. He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised; it was a small town and they looked out for each other.
He could see the McBride family sitting to the left, and he moved in that direction.
"Do you want to sit over here with me?" he asked Kate, who seemed to be standing uncertainly. He felt a little bit bad because he'd kind of dragged her along with him. Maybe she hadn't really wanted to go.
Relief moved over her face.
"If you don't mind, yes? I know a few people in town, but I feel a little bit out of my element here."
"Everyone's pretty relaxed. Obviously, since they held the meeting up for us."
"You, not me," she said with a smile.
"If they knew you were coming, they would have waited on you too. You show up to two meetings in a row, and everyone will assume you're a lifelong member."
He moved a chair and held it for her while she sat down, and then he sat down beside her, nodding at Judd and Jones, who had married two of the McBride girls.
"All right, now that Jack is here, we can call the meeting to order." Noah tapped a gavel on the stand. Even though the meeting was always very informal, Noah looked serious and businesslike as he conducted it. It helped set the tone.
"We just got news that Big Bolts has requested approval to put a store in just outside of town, and we already knew the state is in the early stages of planning on making a bypass with an easy on, easy off ramp for Big Bolts and the shopping conglomerate that will probably go with it.
" Noah lifted a shoulder. "Everything is in the early planning stages, but as a small business owner, this concerns me. "
"As well it should. If this happens, the downtown of Mistletoe Meadows will die, like every other small town that's had the big box store go in along with the bypass.
It takes all the traffic and routes it around town.
" Marjorie McBride spoke up, and although she seemed very tired, her words were firm.
"Exactly. We definitely need to fight this. There's no way we can allow this to happen." Jones, married to Amy McBride, nodded at his mother-in-law. "Amy and my veterinary clinic doesn't exactly depend on the traffic going through town, but if our town dies, our business will die as well."
"Same here. As the town doctor, the box store isn't going to affect me, nor the bypass at first, but eventually, as people lose their livelihoods, it will.
Also, not to muddy the waters, but I've been so busy in my practice that I'm thinking about hiring a second doctor to help me.
" Terry, who used to be Terry McBride, sat beside her husband, Judd.
There were murmurs that went through the crowd, probably both about what she had said about the bypass and about her hiring a new doctor.
"Well, that's good news about the second doctor in town. I like to hear about business expanding." Noah spoke from the podium.
Jack figured that, while he was not for the box store nor the bypass, he ought to present the other side. Because there was another side.
When several other people stood up and spoke, but no one spoke in favor of either one of the two happenings—he decided that it was probably his turn to stand up and say what maybe he didn't really want to.
As quiet settled over the meeting, Noah looked around.
"I think we've heard from about everyone. Except you, Jack. I'm sure that you're against both of these things."
Noah said it like it was a given, and it pretty much was, but there was another side.
Jack looked down at Marjorie McBride. He did not want to disagree with her or start an argument or fight with her. The woman was too kind to hold it against him, but he didn't want to be disrespectful either.
Wondering whether he should speak or whether he should just let it go, he glanced at Kate.
"You have something to say. Say it," she whispered to him.
How did she know?
He didn't dwell on that, though, but having got the prompting that he needed, and he slowly stood to his feet. He rubbed the back of his neck and took in a deep breath before he started to speak.
"I agree with everything that's been said here.
I don't particularly want a box store to ruin the small town atmosphere of Mistletoe Meadows.
I also am personally, completely against the bypass.
It will take traffic away from our town, and people who might have gone through and maybe not stopped this time, but come back because of how quaint and cute it is, or maybe someone would have seen an advertisement along the street or whatever.
I don't need to go over that with everyone. You're all aware of that."
"You are for it?" Noah asked, sounding surprised.
"I’m not. But there is another side."
"Multimillion-dollar companies making more money off the backs of working people!" someone said from over on the left-hand side of the room. Jack couldn't see exactly who it was, and he didn't recognize the voice.
"That wasn't what I was thinking," Jack said, his words not coming out as firm as he wanted them to. He cleared his throat and tried again.
"Well, then what were you thinking?" Another woman's voice spoke before he could answer.
"Give him some time. The man's trying to find his words," Marjorie McBride said, and although her voice still sounded tired, there was a firmness to it that settled the room right down, and no one dared to speak.
He nodded at Marjorie and gave her a little smile. She tilted her head and seemed to be watching him intently, interested in what he had to say and willing to listen. He looked down at Kate. She looked at him almost exactly the same way. That was enough to enable him to open his mouth.
"I feel like there are some pros to having the box store in town."
"I knew it! You've sided with the millionaires!"
"Billionaires!"
There were murmurings all through the crowd, and Jack wasn't sure where all the voices came from.
He spoke anyway. "I take a lot of pride in my work, and I make a good quality product.
But it is very expensive. I can't make money if I don't charge according to the hours that I work and mark it up enough to make a profit—enough for me to live on.
That means that sometimes people are priced out of my products, and that's just the way it goes.
But that doesn't mean that there aren't people who still want to buy candy canes.
Should I keep them from buying candy canes just because they can't buy them at my shop?
I don't think so. I guess what I'm saying is, there are people—me included at times—who need to find essentials at the cheapest price possible.
And maybe a few things that aren't so essential, like candy and music and candles.
" He looked at Olivia, who made the handcrafted candles in Mistletoe Meadows.
She didn't look overly happy, but she didn't seem upset with him either.
"I'm not talking about making the millionaires money.
I'm talking about regular folks who maybe don't want fancy candy canes, but just want some inexpensive things to hang on their Christmas tree or to give to their children to eat.
They should have a place to buy those things. "
"Then they can go to a box store two hours away in Harrisonburg."
"It's two hours. And there's gas for the trip there and back. Is that really what we want to do? Price people out of things just because we are concerned about our own selves? Can we think about others?"
"I guess he has a point. I hadn't really thought about it like that." Marjorie McBride's voice rang through the room, and the silence after she spoke was loud and a little scary.
"That's a good point," Noah echoed. "A box store is not all bad."
"No. It's not. I'm not saying I want it to come in, because obviously that would be competition for what I'm doing and for my friends who have businesses as well.
But I don't know that people who would buy handcrafted candy canes are all of a sudden going to go get them at the box store either. It might not be as bad as I think."
"That doesn't solve the problem of the bypass. If they put the bypass in, then that will draw traffic away, and surely you don't have anything good to say about that?" Mrs. Marrey spoke out from the other side of the room.
"Well, actually..."
There was a murmur through the crowd, and Noah banged the gavel a little bit more firmly than he had the last time.
"Let's let him speak," Noah said, a little bit of a warning in his tone.
Ben stood beside the podium, back against the wall, hands folded over his chest, weapon obvious at his side, his uniform giving him the cloak of respectability and deference.
"You're right. If we divert all traffic away from downtown, it will die. There's no question about it. We've seen it all across America. But I have an idea that... as far as I know, has never been tried before."
"What's that idea?" Noah asked, sounding intrigued and not as impatient as Jack might have been afraid. Noah was definitely a man with a head on his shoulders and a very good person to be running a meeting like this.
"I propose that whatever bypass the state puts in only allows trucks to bypass the town.
We make the cars go through. That would get rid of some of the heavy traffic, keep our roads a little bit in better repair, and keep the people who are most likely to be stopping at our shops in the town, while we get the people who are less likely to stop—and also more in need of not being stopped in the traffic jams that sometimes ensue as too many cars try to go through the town.
In other words, we keep the truckers working while keeping the people in cars coming through our town. "
"That is extraordinary. I've never even... would that be possible?" Noah asked, a rhetorical question, because as far as Jack knew, there was no one in the room who could answer that.
"I was also thinking that maybe we could allow certain cars to use the bypass as well. Perhaps locals or in-state residents. I don't know, just a thought."
"I really like the truck idea. I'm not sure about the cars. But we could think about it and see if we can get a state rep to talk to us about it."
Jack had been thinking about it for a while. The rumors of the bypass had been going on for a decade or more, and it had made him sit up and take notice. Every town that put a bypass in, the downtown died. That was just what happened.
But it made sense to take the trucks away, but not the cars.
It would be a win-win for everyone. Cars could get through the town without the big backups that sometimes happened, especially in the fall and winter seasons when tourists flocked to Mistletoe Meadows, and trucks would be safer away from town.
It would get them on their way faster too, since most drivers were paid by the load or mile, and not by the hour.
He’d never mentioned his idea to anyone before, but it seemed to go over well.