To Get Me to You (Wishful 1)

“—in the pretty immediate future, I need to go back to Chicago to finish closing out my apartment and get the rest of

my stuff down here. It’s a fact that there isn’t room for all my stuff at his place. Or yours, for that matter. A lot of it is probably going into storage either way.”

“Dibs on that tufted sofa with the scroll legs, if you’re getting rid of it,” Christoff announced.

“It would be a nightmare with dog hair, so it’s all yours.”

“Maybe you and Cam need to be thinking about y’all’s place. You know I’d design you anything you want. And Lord knows, between the acreage he owns and your land out at Hope Springs, there’s no end of pretty places to build a house.”

“I hadn’t thought about keeping any of it. You know, it’s sad, but I’ve been so damned busy since I got back, I haven’t even seen all of it yet.”

“Well I reckon you ought to do that before you go donating every last square inch to the city. You could keep a fair chunk for yourself and still give over plenty for the park.”

She wanted that, she realized—to walk her land with Cam and Hush and choose a piece to keep. It seemed like a good way to begin putting down those roots she so desperately wanted. Maybe they could manage a picnic over the weekend.

“The news is starting!”

Norah pivoted toward the nearest screen. Hissing admonishments swept the bar until the crowd quieted down. Adele turned up the TVs, all tuned to the same news station. They had to sit through reports of a string of robberies in Columbus, a warehouse fire in Tupelo, and a nasty four car pile up in Lawley before the view finally shifted to Deanna Fossett outside City Hall.

As she recounted events from earlier in the day, Norah began to bounce on her feet. “C’mon, c’mon.”

“The City Council is still in session and is not available for further comment. Elsewhere in City Hall, results are being tabulated for today’s referendum ballot about retail store size caps here in Wishful. Poll workers report the biggest voter turnout in city history, with a whopping eighty-five percent of registered voters coming out to weigh in on the issue. We’re still waiting to hear preliminary results.”

“What is taking so damned long?”

“Paper ballots, sugar,” Mitch murmured.

“It is not that hard to count to three thousand in an hour.”

“Maybe it’s really close and they wanted to double check,” Cecily suggested.

Norah hoped to hell it wasn’t that close.

“Oh, wait a second. Someone is coming out.” Deanna hurried up the steps of City Hall to meet Sandra, and Norah could see the flurry of other reporters doing the same. “Mayor Crawford, what can you tell us about the referendum results?”

Norah reached for Mitch and Miranda’s hands and found herself pulled backward against a long, hard body.

“You made it.”

“Shh,” Cam said.

“—were a lot of ballots to go through. Our team is busy recounting to verify the exact totals, but there is absolutely no question of the results. By an absolute landslide, the statute capping commercial spaces at 40,000 square feet has passed.”

The whole place burst into cheers and applause. Several members of the coalition enthusiastically trumpeted with their noisemakers. Behind the bar, Adele and Joe popped the corks on bottles of champagne. And amid all the chaos, Norah held very still, soaking in the sounds of success, her smile spread so wide, she thought her face might crack.

Cam bent to her ear. “You did it, Wonder Woman.”

She pivoted in his arms. “We did it. With a whole lot of help.”

Tucker bounced over, throwing his arms around both their shoulders. In a TV announcer’s voice he said, “You two have just saved our town from the Big Bad Box Store! What’re you gonna do now?”

Norah and Cam exchanged a look and a smile and answered together. “Sleep!”

Chapter 26

“I can’t believe they weren’t willing to put this off until tomorrow,” Norah said. “We’ve been back in town, what? An hour and a half?”

“I don’t set the schedule. I just show up when they tell me,” Cam said, as they strode across the town green for a City Council meeting.