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them,” Georgina bellowed. “We’ve been known to take on a group project or two over the years.”
    “Like those Christmas stockings we made in ’93,” offered Margaret Louise. “Do you remember all the hol lerin’ we did over the trim work on those? I thought Rose and Dixie were goin’ to come to blows a few times.”
    “And the curtains for town hall.” Debbie waved her hand in Georgina’s direction. “When she took office, she was all tore up about the curtains they had on the office windows. And I mean all tore up .”
    Margaret Louise snorted. “We got so sick of all her fussin’ we made some new ones.”
    Georgina made a face. “I wasn’t that bad.”
    “Yes you were,” the members said in unison, bringing a flush to the mayor’s face and a new round of laughter to the room.
    “What I think they’re saying is they’d like to help with the costumes,” Leona said, beaming.
    “I don’t know what to say,” Tori stammered.
    “ Okay will suffice,” Rose said. “We’ll just need you to come up with a list of character costumes between now and next Monday, is all.”
    “Next Monday?”
    Georgina grinned. “Next Monday. We meet every Monday, Victoria.”
    “But I thought I had to be voted in.” Tori looked from the mayor to each of the other members, her gaze coming to rest on Leona.
    “We’ll get to that.” Rose slowly rolled the skirt into a ball and stuffed it into a satchel beside her chair. “We’ve got to make sure everyone is on board first before we vote and we’re shy two members tonight.”
    “I’m not sure when Melissa will be back. She’s still down in Pine Grove carin’ for her mama.” Margaret Louise folded her blanket and tucked it under her arm. “Jake and I are looking after the six until she gets back.
    But I’m sure as anythin’ she’d be tickled to have Victoria in the group . . . someone closer to her own age.”
    “I’m only thirty-six, Margaret Louise,” Debbie protested. “What’s Melissa? Thirty? Thirty-one?”
    “And I’m only twenty-eight,” Beatrice offered shyly.
    “True enough. But the rest of us are old.”
    “Speak for yourself, twin. I’m not old,” Leona said, her finger pointing authoritatively at her sister. “I was born after you.”
    “By ten seconds,” Margaret Louise retorted.
    “There’s still one more vote we need,” Rose interjected through the chorus of halfhearted protests and laughter.
    “One more?” Tori asked.
    The looks the women exchanged in response told her all she needed to know about the one potential holdout.
    Dixie Dunn.
    So much for a unanimous vote.
    Seeming to sense the flash of doubt that rippled through the room, Leona reached over and squeezed Tori’s hand, her voice audible to no one but her. “Give Dixie time, dear. There’s always a few bumps in the road on the way to anything worthwhile—Dixie just happens to be your bump.”

Chapter 4

    Exhausted, Tori exhaled a strand of hair from in front of her eyes and leaned against the fifth box of dilapidated books she’d opened so far that morning. Never, in all her years as an assistant librarian in Chicago, had she seen so many worthless books. Sure, people tended to donate the bound copies they didn’t care about, but to drop off books with ketchup stains and missing pages?
    “Miss Sinclair?”
    “Tori. Please .” She pushed off the box and wound her way past six more like it to reach her assistant, Nina Morgan, a petite woman with dark skin, even darker eyes, and a shy smile. “How’s it going out there?”
    Since Monday, Tori had spent the bulk of each day culling through the library’s storage room, determined to have it cleared by the time the board met for its monthly meeting next Wednesday night. That gave her the rest of today and the first three days of next week.
    A feat of mammoth proportions.
    “It’s been fine, Miss Sinclair, until two minutes ago.”
    “What happened two minutes ago?” She wondered if Nina could hear her