The front door was propped open, and inside, oversized fans were scattered around the office. The newspaper must have been flooded on Saturday. Callie had heard that the levee’s reservoirs were already near capacity last week because of the rain the area had gotten over the last month, and the storm had dropped another fifteen inches of water on top of that. With the faulty construction it was only a matter of time until the levee failed. Unfortunately, that time had come sooner than anyone could imagine.
On one hand, Callie felt vindicated in her reporting, but she also felt awful for everyone who was affected by this scandal, including Hanna and Tom. Their new house wasn’t beyond repair, but it was going to take a while to clean everything up. And it looked like the newspaper office was right there, too.
Callie silently kicked herself for not checking in with her old coworkers to see if everyone was okay. She had been so caught up in the drama of the weekend, it hadn’t even crossed her mind.
She walked through the reception area and found Garrett and Jerry, holding black trash bags and cleaning the muck from the office. They both looked utterly defeated.
“Oh,” Callie said, putting her hand over her mouth as she took it all in. The wood floors were muddy, the walls that weren’t covered in brick had water stains, and a window was broken in the back, probably from a tree branch. The room had a musty odor and was almost unrecognizable.
Garrett looked up from the pile he was cleaning up. “Breaux!” He almost sounded excited to see her. “What are you doing here?” He wiped the sweat off his head with his forearm as if he was suddenly aware of his appearance. She noticed there were wet spots on his gray T-shirt, too. He had obviously been working hard.
“I wanted to check in on you—it looks like y’all could use my help.” She walked over to them, her tennis shoes squeaking on the slick floor. “This is horrible.”
“Tell me about it,” Jerry said, putting down his trash bag. His light blue jeans and cowboy boots were splattered with mud. She wondered if he was still mad at her for leaving the way she did, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he praised her reporting. “You called it, Breaux—with your story about the damn levee. Just a shame it had to end up this way.”
Callie sighed. If only she had made the discovery about the failed tests sooner, something could have been done to fix the levee before the storm came through. Her news report had triggered an official government investigation, but it was already too late. The levee had broken, and the damage was done.
She looked around the office and noticed the rest of the staff seemed to be missing. The space seemed eerily quiet for a Monday morning. “Where is everyone else?”
“Told everyone to go home. It’s over.” Jerry lowered his head. “I guess it was an act of God, telling me to shut this thing down.”
Callie’s stomach sank. “You’re shutting down the paper?”
“We were already having budget issues, but now this?” He shook his head. “The paper is a money pit. I just can’t justify keeping it anymore.” He ran his hand over his face. Callie swore he was holding back tears.
“But the town needs a newspaper,” she said in protest. The Brady Herald had more award-winning investigative stories than any of the local news stations. And they might not have as many readers as they would have liked, but she had heard from many of the ones who did read it that it was their primary news source. The people needed the news, and this paper couldn’t go anywhere.
“I know, but fixing this would come out of my retirement, and as much as I would like to…” Jerry trailed off and shook his head. “It’s time.”
Callie wrapped her arms around herself. If Jerry would have just taken her offer of money in the first place, maybe it wouldn’t have come to this. She loved this place. It felt like home.
But now, he was giving up on it all, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Suddenly, something snapped into focus. Maybe stubborn Jerry wouldn’t accept her donation in the past, but there was another way he might take her money now.
Callie looked at Garrett and then at Jerry. A smile spread across her face. She straightened her shoulders and held her head high.
“I’d like to buy it from you.” The words came out of her mouth as smooth as butter. She had never been so sure about anything in her life.
Jerry stayed stoic and silent for a long moment. And then, the expression on his face changed. Callie wasn’t sure if he was going to laugh or cry.
She felt her eyes start to sting. Keep it together, Breaux.
Jerry walked over to her and gave her a firm handshake, still not saying anything.
“So, is that a yes?”
“Whatever you say, boss,” he said with a salute. And then he wrapped his arms around her.
A warmth spread through her as she hugged him back.
“Woohoo!” Garrett hollered and gave Callie a high five.
She looked around at the office. A huge smile formed on her face. The space was old and outdated, and now musty and ruined, but it was hers. And she could do whatever she wanted with it.
Her stomach lurched with excitement. She couldn’t wait to tell her sisters.
Garrett handed her a roll of paper towels. “Guess that means you should get to work.” He winked.
She grabbed the roll. “Gladly.”
“Just know, I refuse to call you ‘Boss,’ ” he added with a grin. “But I am excited about working for you.”
“Who said you get to keep your job?” She arched her brow. Then she cracked a smile. She couldn’t actually imagine running the paper without him. She got serious again and took a step closer to him. “Will you be my executive editor?”
“Only if my salary is a million dollars,” he said straight-faced. “And I know you’re good for it so don’t even try to offer me less.”
Callie laughed and swatted his shoulder. “In your dreams…”
“Fine, I’ll do it for twenty dollars a day,” he said. The funny thing was that he loved the job so much, he probably would.
“We’ll talk about it.…” She grabbed the trash bag from Jerry’s hands. “Jerry, you wanna go call everyone and tell them their jobs are safe?”
“It’d be my pleasure!” He walked back to his office with an extra kick in his step and closed the door behind him.
Garrett picked up a pile of wet papers from the floor. “That’s really cool what you just did,” he said, looking up at her. “Honestly, I couldn’t imagine a better person buying this place. I can’t wait to see what you do with this thing.”
Her mind raced with the possibilities. She could redesign the office space and build a better website and hire more multimedia producers to create online content. She could make the paper free for all residents—and rely solely on advertising and her own funding—so that everyone in town could have access to the news no matter what their financial situation was.
“Thanks,” she said, throwing some more soggy newspapers from the floor into the trash. “First thing I’m gonna do is buy some bookcases for people. Why is everyone storing papers on the floor?”
Garrett laughed. “Good idea.” He paused. “Can I also request an office with my new title? I can’t sit at a cubicle anymore.… I had this really annoying neighbor who made it hard to concentrate.…”