Page 106 of A Moment In Time

He handed her the beer. “Have a drink.”

She drank some beer. “Are you glad you remembered?”

“I am. It was bothering me. I couldn’t understand how I could let a tree fall on me.”

“But you couldn’t get out of the way?”

“Yeah. It was really weird.” He straightened on the stool. “I just remembered something else. I remember looking up at the damn owls. They didn’t fly away. They were just there looking down at me.”

“Okay. That sounds like a nightmare in the making.”

“No. It was cool. I wouldn’t have died alone.”

Chapter thirty

"City employees go first."

By seven o’clock, Gage still hadn’t heard from the city council or Mayor Bessler. He was tired of waiting and he was hungry. He’d been a little on edge and teetering on the grumpy fence for the last two hours, and Sydney left thirty minutes ago to take a walk. She said she needed some fresh air. But Gage knew she needed to get away from him. He didn’t blame her. He’d get away from himself too, if he could.

When she came back in, he left his office and went out to her. He took her hands. “I’m sorry.”

“I get it. I just wanted to leave before I needed to leave.”

Gage laughed. “Smart woman. I don’t think I could take you quitting again.”

“Any word?”

“No. But I’m hungry. Let’s go eat.”

“Okay. I just need to use the restroom.”

While he waited, Gage damped down the wood stove and put on his coat. He had no plans to come back here tonight. After the day he had, he needed to sleep tonight in his bed, not on the couch in his office.

When Sydney came out of the restroom, she smiled. “Let’s go. Are we walking?”

“Yeah.”

They left the office and headed down the street toward the restaurant. He felt a little guilty Remington was staying late for him. But he was also glad his brother would be there when the news came in. When they went through the front door of the restaurant, the room was dark, which it usually wasn’t. Paxton’s customers had to go through the restaurant to get to the bar.

Just as Gage realized what was going on. The lights came on and his whole family shouted, “Surprise!”

All of his immediate family was there, along with his grandparents and all the cousins, aunts, and uncles. Gage looked at Sydney.

“Did you know about this?”

“Um…I might have.”

He looked at the group. “I haven’t officially won yet.” His cell phone rang, and he raised an eyebrow, then took it from his pocket. The call was from Mayor Bessler.

“This might be it.”

Cooper called out. “Answer the damn phone, Gage. And put it on speaker.”

Gage put the phone on speaker so they could all hear the conversation. “Hello?”

“The votes are in, Gage. I’m pretty sure this is the first election in the history of elections that every vote cast was for the same person.”

“I hope that person is me.”

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