"He didn"t tell me to leave town. But on the other hand, he
didn"t invite me to stay either."
"Are you staying?"
"I"d like to."
"Do you have a place? I"m sure there are lots of rooms
available at the hotel. It"s pretty slow over there."
He shrugged. "I guess I could stay at the hotel, but
they"ve fixed the place up so nice I"m afraid it"s gotten pretty
expensive. And to tell you the truth, I"m a little low on cash
right now. I haven"t had much income lately."
Suddenly she wondered if the only reason Gavin had
come back was to weasel some money from his uncle. But
something about his demeanor made her think not. Still, she
couldn"t be sure. "What exactly are your plans, Gavin?"
He shrugged again. "I don"t know. I just needed to come
back here, Maggie. For some reason this place feels like
home to me. I just don"t know where else to go."
"I always thought you were more of a big-city guy,
Gavin."
"I suppose I"ve changed."
She smiled. "I can see that. But if you stayed here, how
would you make a living? Any plans?"
L.
168Melody Carlson
His eyes lit up. "You hiring?"
She thought about that for a moment. Just last week, she"d
mentioned to Clyde she"d like to hire someone for the sole pur-
pose of selling ad s.p.a.ce. The paper"s only profits came from
selling advertising, and yet none of them enjoyed doing it.
"Well, actually, we might have an Opening, Gavin. Although
it"s only part time to start-and it"s not very glamorous.
He straightened up in his chair. "That"s okay. What is it?
Delivering papers? Cleaning up? Believe me, Maggie, I"m
willing to do whatever it takes."
She laughed. "Well, I suppose it could include those
things. There"s no doubt a lot goes undone around here, but
I was thinking more about getting someone to sell adver-
tising for the paper. We"ve been toying with the idea of doing
two editions a week, and we"re already understaffed."
"Hey, I was always good at selling ads. Just pull Out some
of the old papers and you"ll see."
She remembered the old ad-filled papers with hardly any
news stories, then grinned. "No offense Gavin, but I think you
were better at selling ads than you were at running the ~
He nodded eagerly. "I was. Want to give me another
shot? Do you think Clyde will agree?"
She drummed her pencil on the desk while she considered
this. "Well, I"m the one who"ll decide, but I"d like to run it
past him first. I want him to be supportive of the decision.
And you know, Gavin, Clyde"s not getting any younger, and