Page 91 of Third Time is the Charm
Her eyes dropped from his as she nodded. “It will be ok. Darcy and I… well, we have a plan, I think.”
“Beth,” he said sternly. Her head popped back up at his tone, meeting his gaze. “You know if you needanythingyou let me know. This is my town up here, I know a lot of people; if you are in trouble, I will do anything to help you.”
Beth inwardly groaned at the kindness and concern he showed her after she’d broken his heart the other night.
“Thank you, Col. I really appreciate it. I know this… can’t be easy for you, but your support means a lot to me. I will let you know if we need anything,” she replied, attempting a warm smile before changing the subject. “So, what is going on? What can I do?” Her focus back on the task at hand – getting the Contest back up and running. “Did you speak to anyone in charge yet? Have they called?”
Colin sighed, his hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, there was a voicemail waiting for me this morning when I got in from the head of the Board of Supervisors.”
“And…” Beth said, fearing the worst based on his stunned expression.
“It’s fixed, Beth,” he continued in shock. “Everything is fine. The guy – I don’t even remember his name – apologized for the confusion and inconvenience and said that all of the permits were in order and we are good to go.”
“I don’t understand. How is that possible? Did the woman you spoke to talk to him? Or maybe the people you know at City Hall?”
“I mean, unless she called the board over the weekend – which I highly doubt.” Disbelief clear in his voice. “No, my guy isn’t on the board, he’s below the board, but would have at least been able to talk to them. I have no idea how this happened, but someone spoke directly with the head of the Board and had this fixed over the weekend. I mean, I’m going to call them now and confirm that the voicemail wasn’t some random prank or something, but I doubt it…”
Beth felt her brow furrowing. She wasn’t going to question or complain that the threat of having to cancel the Contest was gone.
“Was it Pat? Could he have gotten involved?” She couldn’t stop herself from wondering. It just seemed so unbelievable that this huge problem was suddenly, miraculously resolved.
“No, I hadn’t even told him what happened. I was trying to get all of the information first. He’s the only person I could think of who would be well-known enough to be able to speak directly to the board – except he has no idea that any of this happened.”
Beth felt her face relax in realization at his words. Pat wasn’t the only one who would be that well-connected.
Darcy.
“It was Darcy,” she murmured. Now, the shock was written all over her face.
That must have been what he was on the phone about the other morning.
“What? Seriously?”
“I told him after our dinner on Friday what was happening – mostly because I needed to tell him about Caroline and what she was doing and the only way to explain that was to tell him the issues we ran into.”
“Holy shit,” Col replied. “Well, tell him ‘thank you’ for me. Can’t say I’m still not wary about him… and you… but, he didn’t need to do this; I’m sure he didn’t want to do this for me, but, shit… just tell him thank you.”
“I will,” Beth said with a small smile.
“Alright, I’m going to call and confirm with the city, just to ease my mind…” With a brief nod, he opened her office door and walked out, leaving her alone in her office.
Picking up her cell, she opened a text to Darcy.
~Thank you.
- For what?He texted back.
~For fixing the permit situation that I told you about. I know it was you.
- You’re welcome.
~ I don’t know how you did it, but I do know you didn’t have to. Colin says thank you, also.
- I did have to do it, and I didn’t do it for him. I know how important this is to you.
~ Well, thank you.
- For you – anything.
