Amie Denman - Meet Me On The Midway

He had jumped at the job as if it were an arrow pointing toward his life’s mission.

“What makes you qualified?” Evie asked.

Was that a polite question or an accusation? He didn’t need to explain himself to anyone.

“What makes you qualified to run an amusement park?” he fired back.

Uh-oh. That was not how he’d intended to sound. His sister had warned him about his tone. She’d be punching him in the gut right now if she’d heard that.

Color rushed to Evie’s face and she stood abruptly. “Please draw up emergency evacuation plans for the areas that need them and put them up. You can do it on company time the next shift you work at the Point.”

“I’m there tomorrow for the afternoon shift.”

“Good. Fine. Thank you,” she said. “You can also check the fuel valve while you’re working for me, and I’ll notify you when the extra inches of clearance are added around the electrical box.”

The way she said inches made it clear she didn’t like making the change. Too bad. She would never have to find that panel in an emergency and shut it down while wearing fifteen pounds of gear and an air tank. That was his job.

“And the tree?” he asked.

“We’ll see about that.”

She picked up her purse and left his office without even a backward glance.

Scott followed her into the station and leaned on the ladder truck, watching her as she walked down the block and entered the front door of her building. She’d mentioned to him in the truck that she’d just moved to downtown Bayside.

Great. She’s right under my nose.

He stood there long enough to see the lights go on in the third-story windows. His mind locked on the sprinkler and standpipe system in that block of buildings, the location of the fire department hookup, the available hydrants along the street.

He couldn’t help it. Seeing danger everywhere he looked was imprinted on him like a scar.

CHAPTER THREE

“TELL ME AGAIN why I should breathe,” Jack Hamilton said.

“You have to,” Evie replied, not even looking up from her desk across from her brother’s. “Your body is smarter than you are.”

Jack put his chin in his hands and stared at Evie. “You’ve always been the calm, rational member of the family, but you’re spending money like it’s your last day on earth.”

“Maybe it is. The mother ship could be coming for me tomorrow. Maybe they need an accountant on their home planet.”

Jack tapped a pen on his desk until the annoying noise got Evie to look up.

“I thought you didn’t want to be an accountant anymore,” he said. “That’s why we hired someone to replace you and you’re off building docks and knocking down our old hotel.”

“I haven’t knocked it down yet. I need permits.”

Evie minimized her computer screen and gave Jack her full attention.

“I love numbers. Accounts. Spreadsheets. Love them.” She sighed. “When I was younger, I thought those things would make me happy for life.”

“But?”

“Dad died and left us Starlight Point. I want to be more than just a number cruncher. Accountants you can hire. What you need is a partner.” She paused and grinned at him. “Especially since you’ll be a family man before the summer is over.”

Jack put his head on his desk.

“Don’t be dramatic. You can come in here and cry about your sleepless nights. I’ll pretend to be sympathetic. I’ll even look the other way if you have puke on your tie.”

“I believe you’d tell me if I had puke on my tie. I hope you would, anyway.”

Evie laughed. “I would.”

There was a knock on their office door.

“It’s Mel,” a voice called from the other side.

“You can only come in if you have doughnuts or good news,” Jack yelled.

Mel Preston swept the door open. The head of maintenance at Starlight Point had married June Hamilton in a Christmas ceremony the previous winter. After the two of them had carried a torch for each other for more than a decade, Evie was much relieved when they’d finally given in to the flames. In her mind, it freed everyone up to get back to the business of running an amusement park. For her part, Evie had no intention of ever being such a ninny in the romance department. It killed on-the-job productivity.

“You don’t have to knock, Mel,” Evie said. “You’re a member of the family.”

“Still can’t believe my good luck,” he said. “I hope your sister never comes to her senses.”

“She won’t.”

“What’s up, Mel?” Jack asked. “Evie and I were in the middle of an important whining session.”

“My brother’s being a baby about having a baby in the middle of the summer.”

“I can add to your problems if you need something more to cry about,” Mel said.

“Do we have problems?” Jack asked.

“I think you should come see for yourself,” Mel responded, his tone losing all its levity.

Jack and Evie jumped to their feet. “Ride problem? Someone hurt?”

Mel shook his head. “Someone’s a pain in the rear.”

Evie guessed who the pain in the rear was before Mel could explain.

“Is it the new fire inspector?”

Mel blew out a breath and made two fists. He tapped them together lightly. “Can’t believe the guy has the nerve to wear one of our name tags while being our worst enemy.”

Jack picked up his cell phone from his desk and shoved it in the interior pocket of his suit coat. “Where are we going?”

“Bennett’s going through the employee dorm with a clipboard right now. He just got done raking one of my guys over the coals for parking in a fire lane while he did an emergency repair on the back of the Silver Streak. Yesterday we caught heck for using a torch near flammable materials. Guess the guy doesn’t know that every single thing in the maintenance garage is flammable.”

Mel’s pickup waited just outside the employee gate near the corporate office. He was parked in the same place Scott had parked the fire truck when he dropped Evie off over a week ago on that rainy afternoon. That was before Evie realized who her chauffeur was.

Jack and Evie got in the truck and Mel briefed them on the ten-minute drive around the outer loop to the employee dorms located close to the marina.

“Fact is, the guy’s right about a few things,” Mel said. “I hate admitting that.”

Sandwiched between the two men in the truck, Evie saw the look that passed between her brother and his best friend of more than twenty years.

“We’ve talked about that dorm before,” Mel continued. “It’s eighty years old. The floors roll. The windows leak.”

“We never promised our summer workers a palace,” Jack said. “It’s free housing.”

Mel nodded.

“But?” Evie prompted.

“It’s not the nicest. I wouldn’t let my son stay there,” Mel continued.

“Ross is six going on seven,” Evie said.

“I know. He thinks it’s fun camping out in the big box our new refrigerator came in. I mean I wouldn’t let him stay there if he was a teenager working here.”

“Why not?” Evie asked.

“It’s not air-conditioned, the bathrooms stink and there are girls living right down the hall. Very dangerous.”

Evie thought about the many times she’d begged her parents to let her live in the dorms with the other summer employees. Although they’d owned Starlight Point, Virginia and Ford Hamilton had required their three children to work regular summer jobs in the park.

Evie had done time running the register in the airbrush art stand, scooping ice cream and sweeping trash off the midways. Her coworkers were her friends and they’d told her about all the fun they’d had off hours in the dorms after playing on the beach and going on rides.