“Not me,” Barbara said, folding her arms over her chest. “I don’t run unless someone is chasing me.” She laughed as if no one had ever said that before.
“But a lot of people do,” Libby said, and inched forward on her seat. “I talked to the manager at Fleet Feet, the running store out on the Old Aspen Highway? They’ve organized a lot of races and said they would be happy to help with a fundraiser. The way it works is that we ask runners to pledge to raise two hundred dollars each. If we can sign up five hundred people, that’s one hundred thousand dollars. After the race expenses are deducted, there would still be at least seventy thousand to contribute toward the van and more. And it’s something we could do fairly quickly.”
“Sounds like a great idea to me,” Dani said.
No one else said anything. Gwen was watching Libby curiously, and Libby couldn’t tell if she was interested in what Libby had to say, or merely amused.
“I don’t know,” Deb said, shaking her head. “That’s a lot of money to ask someone to raise. I can’t imagine there are five hundred people in Pine River willing to run very far.”
“A 5k is only 3.1 miles,” Libby pointed out.
“I think it will be too cold,” Mrs. Freeman said with a grimace. “It’s already so cold,” she said, pulling her sweater a little tighter.
“We don’t really have enough time to organize a race,” Michelle said. “You need sponsors and a course.”
Libby pulled a paper from her purse where she’d jotted some notes. “Fleet Feet has done this before. We just need to help organize it. They also have a course they’ve used that is the right distance. I’ve made a list of potential sponsors.”
“I say we add Libby’s idea to the list,” Dani said.
“Maybe if we had more time,” Barbara said uncertainly, “but it just seems too ambitious to me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with ambitious,” Libby said. “If we all pulled together, we could do it, and raise some good money.”
“It feels like too much for this group,” Gwen said firmly. “None of us has ever done anything like that, am I right?” she asked, looking around. “Have you, Libby? Have you ever put together a race to benefit a charity?”
“Ah . . . no,” Libby said. “But I think I could do it.”
“Right now, I think we have enough on our plate.” Gwen stacked her papers and stood up. “And, we all have to get back to work. When’s our next meeting, Deb?”
“Friday. We’ll meet at the Grizzly so we can have a look at the banquet hall for the silent auction.”
Everyone stood, leaving Libby sitting at the table, her idea effectively dismissed. Pushed aside. Ignored.
She pasted a smile on her face, pushed down that whisper of anger that was trying to take hold. Deep breaths. Tropical paradise. She stood up. “Deb, can I bring anything to the next meeting?” she asked as politely as she could make herself speak.
“No thanks, we’ve got it covered.”
Libby nodded, slung her purse over her arm, and walked out of the meeting room while the others lingered to say good-bye.
She walked straight to the ladies’ room, and into a stall. She sat down and braced her hands on her knees, taking deep breaths, trying to quell her anger before she said or did something she’d regret. Before she could manage it, she heard the door open, and two entered.
“Anyway, he said it was a joke.”
That was Deb Trimble speaking.
“He said they knew it was going to be a disaster, but it was too late to do anything about it. So off they went and got married in a barn.”
Libby’s mouth dropped open.
“A barn.”
She recognized Karen’s voice over the sound of water running.
“Yes,” Deb said with a snort. “A barn wedding. I guess that’s the kind of thing they do in California, but not here. And Gary said it was all so disorganized, as if it hadn’t been thought through.”
That was not true! If there was any disorganization, it was because Austin and Gary kept changing their minds! And Gary! He’d seemed so happy, and he and Austin had been totally on board with the barn setting, had both said it was a really cool idea.
“Well, you know, what can you expect?” Karen said. “It was probably a little too early to jump into something like that after her breakdown.”
“Yes, probably,” Deb agreed.
“My aunt had a breakdown when I was a girl. They just need a little time to recover, you know?”
They. As if the people who reached a breaking point were a different class of person. Deb and Karen probably thought that she needed to be wheeled into the sun every afternoon and have poetry read to her instead of returning to her life.
“I think I’ll speak to Gwen,” Deb continued. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea that she plans a big race, either. I heard she’s been driving by Ryan Spangler’s house.”
“Oh no. But you know, Deb, it might be best if she goes off to plan something on her own so we don’t have any issues with the auction.”