9. Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Ryan
A fter shopping with Emily on Saturday, I spent all of Sunday reading the books she recommended. Surprisingly, I was enjoying them. I mean the sex parts were … well, hot, but the world building, the struggles, and the feelings were what sucked me in.
I had already read through two of the twenty-one books, and I brought the third in my bag for down time at the library. However, when I logged into my computer and checked my email, my good mood was shattered. There was a notice from the mayor’s office about an upcoming council meeting regarding funding, and I only had a week to put together my arguments.
Our library was important to the community, and, yet again, I needed to argue with people who never stepped foot in our library to prove it. We ran after school study programs with the kids in town, a couple of book clubs met in the rooms on the weekends, and we ran literacy programs to help school age kids learn to read and comprehend stories better. All of these things were vital for such a small community in order to give the kids a better chance at success later. Plus, there were always people, mostly in our romance section, checking out books. The town had many avid readers in it, but what else was there to do in the small town besides read, go to the only bar, or go to church?
Unfortunately, there was a lot of nepotism in the politics of our small town. The Hill family basically controlled everything. William, the oldest in the family, was the pastor at the only church in town. His brother, David, was the mayor and had been for a long time. Their father was the mayor and their uncle was the pastor before them. The Hills had ruled this town since its founding.
Unfortunately, we went through this budget argument almost every year. Last year they decreased our funding, choosing to direct the money toward a food pantry run by the church instead. They did it without informing the constituents that they were planning to. The town initially fought for the library and the funding it received long before even Betsy was here, but the people took it for granted now. Every time our funding was lowered, I had to find a way to make up for the loss.
I would fight the best I could, but another drop in funding would leave me scrambling to figure out other ways to make up the financial burden. I’d be back to contacting trust holders and endowment programs, but I didn’t have a lot of luck last year with it. Who, outside of our small town, cared about a library serving only a couple thousand people? Most small towns didn’t have a library at all. Outside of Fairwood, none of the towns surrounding us had a library and would come to ours instead.
As I began pulling reports for the council meeting, my mind drifted back to Emily. She’d be arriving in an hour or so. Maybe it was a good thing the notice came through this morning. She’d want to focus on her writing. With my mind being focused on building a case to keep library funding, I wouldn’t bother her as much.
She was damn near irresistible, and if I didn’t find myself busying my mind and hands, I’d end up sitting next to her again just to have the chance to speak with her. I needed to cool my jets before I scared her off with my pursuit.
Refocusing on my task, the mayor hadn’t given me much time to put together a group of people who could lend support at the meeting, but I’d try to do that. I got to work drafting an email to send to all library card holders. With any luck we’d have at least a few people show up in support for the library.
I’d never sent an email about library funding before, afraid it would cause more waves, But desperate times called for desperate measures. I wasn’t only trying to save the library for the many people who utilized it. I was trying to save my job and the life I was trying to build here.
A few hours later, I finally emerged from my office.
“Another funding cut?” Betsy asked, concern drawn over her expression.
She must have read the email I sent out. “Looks like it. I’m hoping we can garner enough support, and people show up to the council meeting.”
“When David finds out about that email, he won’t be happy,” Betsy cautioned.
Thinning my lips, my voice hardened, “I can’t imagine threatening the library funding would look good for his reelection. Maybe he shouldn’t have tried to redirect the money to his brother’s church again. The people in this town should know what he’s doing - what they’re doing.”
I didn’t know for sure if this latest round of threatened cuts to our funding would be directed to the church, but I could guess it would be. It always was.
“Agreed, but fighting fire with fire could burn the whole town down. Be careful,” Betsy warned.
I nodded, because a part of me recognized she was right. My email was strongly written - half because of the anger bubbling up in me over the unfairness of it all, the other half because of my strong sense of right and wrong.
I didn’t complain when funding was going toward the church’s food pantry, but there were rumors the church wanted to take over the literacy programs, and I drew the line there. Those programs were best handled by the library.
“So, you and Emily were shopping buddies this weekend?” Levi asked, changing the conversation from the town meeting we were talking about.
As usual, the four of us gathered at the bar after work. I had told them about the upcoming town meeting regarding the funding and they’d all agreed to come lend their support. We needed as many people as possible to show up.
“I ran into her at Trudy’s and we did some shopping. We met up with Preston and Meghan at the diner, it was nothing.”
Levi and Trey both grinned wide at me, and my eyes flicked between them. I could practically see their brains turning. Thankfully, Preston jumped in and saved me from any further discussion.
“So what are you going to do about the funding if the pastor wins?”
Grateful for the change in the conversation, I replied, “I have no clue. I’ll keep searching for someone who will take an interest and help us raise money. I doubt I’d be able to convince the entire town to back the continued funding of the library. Not when most of the town would prefer the funding to go into the programs at the church.”
“I never understood how they get away with this shit,” Trey remarked before taking a sip of his beer.
Strands of his dark brown hair fell over his brow, and he shoved them back. My friends were all as aggravated about the funding situation as I was. We could see the benefits of the library programs in real time.
This year alone, we had three kids receive at least partial scholarships to college and several more get acceptance into their first school of choice. They might not be Ivy League schools, but it was far better than the results from Trey’s graduating class.
“Look, most small towns don’t even have a library. Mayor Hill sees that and believes the church can take on the programs instead of the library,” I explained.
“Yeah, and indoctrinate the youth by deciding which books they should be reading,” Levi grumbled leaning back in the booth.
“I’ll fight it for as long as I can, but if it fails, I may need to consider going back to my old career,” I warned.
“You burnt out so badly, though. I’m sure you could freelance, or I don’t know, I’ll hire you,” Trey suggested.
Barking out a laugh, I shook my head, “Sure, sure, take the tech guy turned library director and throw him into carpentry. Nothing bad could happen there.”
“You worked with wires, which is kinda like running electricity. I could train you, and within months, I’d bet you’d run circles around Levi,” Trey joked as he flashed a grin at Levi.
“Why do I put up with your abuse?” Levi scowled at Trey.
Turning back to me, Trey said, “All I’m saying is if you need the work, I could use the extra hands, and Preston won’t even consider the offer.”
“Cars. That is what I do. I understand them, find peace working on them, and enjoy the work I do. You’ll never drag me away,” Preston said, for the thousandth time.
It wasn’t the first time Trey tried to get Preston to join them, but Preston’s only love was cars. It didn’t matter if they were old muscle, new minivans, or custom builds, he loved them all. Zeke snatched Preston up when he arrived in town a year before I did, and Preston claimed he’d never been happier.
When the town went through the boom of people coming in to build B&B’s and vacation homes as investments, they conveniently forgot the local businesses could help. The residents didn’t forget Trey and his dad, who was now retired, and kept them afloat during the initial tourist boom. Now the big developers were gone, and Trey’s business had picked up again.
The new neighborhood of townhomes, which was mostly vacation rentals now, and the B&B’s all needed handyman services to fix mistakes the original builders made. The rental managers had Trey on speed dial.
Levi joined Trey in the company during high school summers and weekends. After they graduated, they both stuck with it. When Trey took over from his father, he made Levi a partner in the business. Trey didn’t think he’d have anyone to pass it on to.
While Trey’s offer was considerate, I was happiest working at the library. If I couldn’t do that anymore, I honestly didn’t know what I would do.