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I barely know what to do with a dog, and I’m supposed to teach a three-year old to dance? If I had any doubt before—and I didn’t—that I still had feelings for Hope, I’ve for sure put doubts to rest.
Along with whatever dignity I may still have when I get on stage to dance with a bunch of elementary school kids. Charly’s not the only one I have to hunt up a costume for. I’m going to have to find adult-size knee-length britches and wooden clogs, because I’m positive the costume I wore when I was nine doesn’t fit me anymore.
But if Hope is one of those ladies who likes a man in breeches, then it will all be worth it.
Chapter 14
Hope
After three super busy days, I find enough time to meet Evie for lunch at the Garden of Eatin’. When I arrive, Georgia and Stella are there too.
I’m not easily intimidated, but these two women make me nervous. Georgia because she’s famous, and Stella because she’s Sebastian’s sister. But they both greet me with hugs and praise for everything they’ve heard about me from Carson, putting me immediately at ease.
I slide into the seat next to Evie. “I hope you don’t mind I invited Georgia and Stella,” she says. “We’ve got some planning to do for the wedding episode, and I thought you’d want to be in on that conversation too.”
“Sure. No problem, but while we’re on the topic, I have some bad news.” I’ve been dreading telling Evie and Georgia that the one big thing I’m covering for the wedding is the one thing that’s not going so smoothly.
“Uh oh. What is it?” Georgia crosses her arms on the table and pulls her shoulders back like she’s gearing up for a strategy session.
“The wedding cake.” I take a deep breath. “I’ve gone back and forth with the baker in LA your producers want to use, but she wants to charge way more than they’re willing to pay her. She says she has to make the cake here and wants all her travel expenses covered, plus enough money to rent a professional kitchen where she can make the cake, and that’s before the thousands of dollars she wants to charge for the cake itself.”
“Forget her.” Georgia waves her hand, like she’s swatting away a fly. “Find someone else. There are plenty of bakers who’d love the exposure my show will give them.”
And this is why Georgia is a girlboss. She does not tolerate nonsense.
“Okay, but we’ve got less than a month.” I, on the other hand, am not a girlboss. Yet.
Evie swings her arm around my shoulders. “You’ll find someone even better. We’ve got total confidence in you.” Then she drops her arm and passes me a cup of coffee. “Figured you’d need this. You’re burning the candle at both ends. Now, tell us what’s happening with Yulefest.”
“Thank you.” I press the mug to my lips, enjoying the warmth of it before taking a long sip. “Almost as good as Britta’s.”
“I won’t tell Adam you said that,” Evie says, then elbows me to let me know she’s kidding.
We’ve gotten close in the last six months, but before I stayed with her in the summer, we didn’t know each other well at all. And I’m still learning all the ins and outs of her personality. Like that she teases a lot, but sometimes she uses humor to cover what she’s really feeling.
“So, Yulefest,” Georgia says. “What kinds of demands is Mayor Voglmeyer making that are keeping you so busy?”
I tell her the basics while she sips from her water glass, her eyes narrowing in a way that reminds me of Charly’s books that have sly animals always outsmarting their predators.
I can appreciate that look. Everyone, except the mayor, knows Georgia is behind all the Yulefest events. At least the ones that are new. She feeds her ideas to Carson who meets with the mayor and suggests them in a way that makes her think she came up with them.
If she knew Georgia was behind any of it, she’d never go for any of it, no matter how good it might be for Paradise. They’ve got beef going back to when Georgia was in high school but has gotten worse since Georgia refused to feature the hamburger place the mayor’s son owns in one of her episodes.
At least according to both Evie and Carson.
But the idea behind Yulefest is genius—one more reason to be intimidated by Georgia.
Paradise is busy in the summer, which is when local businesses make most of their money. However, there’s a ski resort forty-five minutes away that’s expanding, and Georgia thinks there will be more opportunities for Paradise with that growth. Especially if the town can capitalize on its quaint Danish vibe during the Christmas season.
Its square houses with pitched roofs and cute downtown mean Paradise is a ready-made Christmas village. Especially when it’s covered in snow. Which it always is by December.
Georgia’s primary motive for turning Paradise into a Hallmark-Christmas-movie-worthy small town is to help business grow so the town won’t die like so many other small towns do.
But Yulefest will also help her own business. Highlighting the festival onAt Home with Georgia Rosewill guarantee she’ll be able to sell all her renovated cottages in the Little Copenhagen at top price.
I’m nervous as I tell her about the events, giving Carson most of the credit for the ideas, but also taking credit for the ones that are mine.
“That all sounds amazing,” she says when I finish, but she doesn’t have that wily prey look on her face anymore. She’s genuinely impressed. “Your ideas are going to generate revenue for this town. Evie wasn’t wrong when she said you had a natural gift for organizing and planning.”
