Lost and Found

Chapter 23

Sydney went to the library an hour before it opened on Saturday with the donated baked goods to sell at the children's art expo. She shuffled the boxes in her arms as she unlocked the door. She dropped the three of them on the desk and sighed. Only 6 more to go, she thought to herself as she headed back for her car. She grabbed the rest and parked her car. As she was getting out, Meredith was pulling in. Sydney waited as Meredith took two coolers out of her truck and rolled them towards her.

"A little help, please?" Meredith asked as she reached Sydney.

"Where were you when I had nine boxes of baked goods to bring in?" Sydney asked as she grabbed a cooler.

"Probably still watching Marco put these in my car," She said as they laughed together.

"Wow," Meredith said as she looked at the boxes on the counter. "You got a lot of donations."

"Yeah, I guess since the fundraiser tends to draw a lot of attention, everyone wants to be noticed. Whatever the reason, I'm not going to complain."

"I know this is going to be an extremely long day for us, but I'm really glad we decided to try an art expo with the kids," Meredith said as she looked at all the boards.

Sydney smiled. "Me too. Which reminds me." She reached into her purse, took out her camera and started taking pictures of all the boards.

"Why are you taking pictures of all this?"

"For the library's website. I figured if we showed everyone what this looks like, they may come in more than once a year and donate," Sydney said as she continued to take pictures.

"Ahh, the guilt factor. I love it," Meredith said smiling.

"Good, so I'm sure I can count on all of you taking pictures too then."

"You bet," Meredith replied as she started putting the pastry boxes on the designated table.

At 11:00, Sydney and the rest of the women had had their picture taken with the two newspapers Sydney invited down and had just given short interviews. As the news crews went to talk to some of the parents and take more pictures, Sydney leaned against the reception desk and looked around at all the people in attendance. There were proud parents and beaming kids by the dozens and even a few people Sydney recognized from the library. Totally worth the last two weeks of hell, she thought to herself.

"Hey beautiful." She heard from behind her. She turned and smiled as she saw Bryce, Bianca and Nick.

She smiled wide before wrapping Bryce in a hug. "What are you guys doing here?"

He smiled as she stepped back. "Where else would we be today?"

Nick smiled as Sydney hugged him. "Had to see what you guys working on for so long." She smiled and stepped towards Bianca.

"And since this will be the only part of the fundraiser I get to see..." Bianca said as Sydney gave her a hug.

"Next year you'll have to make the guys buy a whole table," Sydney said as she stepped back from Bianca and went back over to Bryce. Bianca smiled at Nick and Bryce.

"This looks like a great turn out," Bryce declared as he put his arm around her.

"Yeah, it's been nonstop since 9 this morning."

"Is that what time you got here?" Bryce asked as he looked down at her.

"No, my day started at 6 this morning." She nodded towards the refreshment tables. "I had some donations to pick up before I came in."