Page 11 of When You're Gone
It was so much money.
It also wasn’t, depending on who you asked.
Tori settled back in her chair and slipped her phone out of her pocket as Maggie droned on about day camp activities. She held her device in her lap as she briefly considered her options. There wasn’t anything to consider, though. She already knew what she was going to do.
She wasn’t going to sit back and let this situation crush the one thing these kids had to look forward to all year. She couldn’t. A year ago, she wouldn’t have been in a position to do something like this, but now she was, so she would.
Tori: I need your help. Can you meet me at Clinton’s in two hours?
She knew he’d understand. Just like she knew he’d help, no questions asked. She was already mentally drafting the email she’d send to Jill and the board tonight. She wasn’t ashamed to use her resources and connections in this way. Not if it meant ensuring that Camp New Hope stayed the same this year.
Fielding hopped up on the barstool beside her and reached for a handful of fries. He shoved them into his mouth like an animal before letting out a satisfied moan.
“An unexpected Clinton’s rendezvous,andyou already ordered me fries? Why do I get the sense that you’re up to something, Victoria Thompson?”
“Can I get you something to drink?” Cory asked as he came over to them behind the bar. Tori was all set with her water—she’d been here for twenty minutes already, desperately working up the courage to have this conversation.
“Do you still have Conway’s on draft?” Fielding asked.
“Yep. Sixteen or twenty-ounce?”
Fielding glanced over at her.
“We might be here a while,” she confirmed.
“Give me the twenty-ounce then.”
Cory turned away to grab Fielding’s beer.
Tori took in a steadying breath.
“How are you feeling?” Fielding asked in a hushed tone. “I know we’ve texted, but I haven’t seen you since Saturday night…”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. She hadn’t asked him to meet her to talk about herself.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re nervous right now?” he teased. He gave Cory an appreciative chin lift when he set the Great Lakes draft in front of him before turning back to her. “Are you going to make me guess why you asked me here?”
She took in another deep inhale. “I have a favor to ask.”
“Yes.”
“Field,” she scoffed. “You don’t even know what it is yet. You can’t just agree without hearing my pitch. It’s a big ask. Honestly, it’s probably too big…”
“Doesn’t matter. If you called me up out of nowhere to ask for help, my answer is yes.”
Tori sighed and picked at the dampened circle on her drink napkin. She knew Fielding would help her—it was why she hadn’t hesitated when the idea sprang to mind during the Camp New Hope volunteer meeting—but she didn’t want to get her hopes too high. At least not yet.
“Let me at least explain what I need first, okay?”
Fielding nodded solemnly as he took a long drink of beer.
“I just came from a volunteer meeting. There was a fire over the weekend at Camp New Hope.”
His eyes bugged out of his head, but he didn’t interrupt her.
“It was an electrical fire. The kitchen, storage shed, and all our supplies are ruined. Insurance will cover the damage, but it’ll take a while for everything to get sorted, and there’s no way things will be ready before camp starts in July. Supposedly, they looked into moving us to a temporary location for this season, but the board already decided that wasn’t financially feasible. So now they’re going to attempt to make it a day camp.”
“What? No fucking way! Most of your kids come from out of town!”
