Page 13 of Ocotillo Kisses
“Portable bathrooms!”
Everyone laughed at the last, but Britt nodded. That was certainly something to be considered, since she was sure Mrs. Lopez and Mr. Nazareth and her own uncle didn’t want to open their stores to non-customers to use the restrooms. She didn’t think they did that now, for people who lived in town.
As the list grew, she saw some of the enthusiasm dim from the council members. Surely they didn’t have a very large budget, and every single thing listed was going to cost money in some way or another.
Britt held up her hands for calm. “These are all great ideas, but again I caution you not to get your hopes up. I’ll do what I can, and hopefully it will be nice, but please limit your expectations. Another thing I wanted to mention was that we need to get the square, er, squared away. You wouldn’t invite someone to your house without cleaning up, and I think you need to give that same kind of attention to the square. I don’t think there’s a lot we can do with the square itself, and the patchy grass or whatever, but some of the businesses could use some—” She measured her words, not looking at anyone as she said, “Sprucing up. Maybe some power washing, some window cleaning. New coat of paint maybe? I think Sofia’s mural is spectacular, but it kind of highlights what I’m talking about. You see that, shiny and new, showing the town when the square was fresh, and you turn the corner and see things more on the run-down side, it’s going to be a letdown, no matter how we decorate for the holiday. So I’m thinking while I’m working on the vendors, you could maybe be working on that?” She addressed Mr. Delgado, Lacey’s dad, who looked uncomfortably at the older blond woman beside him.
“Perhaps you could form a group to do that?” the blond woman asked.
“No, I’m not going to do that. I’m doing this for you in my free time. You can feel free to get someone else to organize it. My understanding is that you didn’t have anything planned because no one wanted to take it on. I’m one person, and I’m going to do what I said I’d do. The rest is up to you. If that’s not acceptable, please let me know, so I won’t put time into something you decide you don’t want to do.”
She was aware of people staring, of mouths hanging open at her frankness, but she hadn’t achieved her success by wasting her time. And, hey, if Mrs. Lopez could be blunt to get her into this mess, she could be blunt to keep herself on the edge of it. She had no reason to dive in, to give them more than she wanted.
She was still working remotely on her own business. She didn’t need something to do. She was only going to be here a couple more weeks, and honestly, she was kind of beating herself up for coming into town in the first place. If she hadn’t wanted to cook her own meals, she wouldn’t have found herself in this situation.
She was ready to walk out when Sofia Aguilar stood. “I can help with getting the town cleaned up. I’m sure I can get some people to help me.” She nudged the man sitting beside her, who nodded and grinned up at her.
“Thank you, Sofia,” Mr. Delgado said. “That would be great. We can get you started on that soon. All right?” He turned his gaze back to Britt. “And we can get you your budget at the end of the week. Meanwhile, if we could ask you to perhaps look for food trucks, arts and crafts vendors, something like that who would actually pay money to take part, that would be great.”
Britt nodded once. “What are you going to charge?”
The woman and Mr. Delgado exchanged another look. “We’ll do the research and get back to you.”
“Keep in mind not a lot of people are going to want to drive out here and have to pay too much, so don’t go crazy.”
“Understood.”
Britt hoped they were done and moving on with the meeting. Mr. Delgado looked at Mrs. Lopez, as if to see if she had further comments, but she didn’t.
Good. Britt motioned to her grandmother that she wanted to leave, and when her grandmother waved her off, Britt tried not to huff, but turned and left the meeting. If her grandmother wanted to stick around and chat with her friends, that was fine. Britt had had all the interaction she wanted with the people of Broken Wheel. She would wait for her grandmother in the car.
She shoved through the swinging door with more force than necessary, only to be met with resistance as the door struck something and bounced back toward her.
And in that opening, she caught sight of what she’d hit.
Con McKay. What was he doing here?
