Page 32 of Lovewell Lane (Honeyfield Dreamers #1)

Margo

I thought town hall meetings were for politicians in suits and ties.

Filing in slowly were all of the prominent characters that I’d met since moving to Honeyfield.

Every business owner, including Amelia, walked in.

Family members of those business owners.

Non-business owners showed up as well, the outspoken mothers that I’d met through opening the diner filed in last. They always formed a small coalition and swarmed around several tables every time they ate at Lucky’s.

Scanning the room, I quickly discovered Derek sitting next to Andy, who I learned over time was his good friend after seeing them interact.

Andy was usually the only person I saw Derek joke around with.

Though, he didn’t seem to be joking around today.

His face was perfectly stoic as he stared straight ahead.

I whipped my head around to look at Lila, who I was sitting next to. “Are these always full of so many people?”

She shook her head. “They get more attendance when big events are coming up. Like the Honey Festival.”

“Ah,” I sighed. That was why I was here for my first meeting, so that checked out. The mayor himself stopped by the diner yesterday to formally invite me and persuade me to give him a promise that I’d be here. I was curious what the big deal was.

The opening minutes consisted of a lot of yawning from the crowd and repetitive stammering on the mayor’s part. Finally, he said something that caught everyone’s attention.

“Now, onto the Honey Festival,” he said nervously. The mayor pulled his wire-framed glasses off of his face and wiped his forehead with the back of his dress shirt sleeve. “I know a lot of you are interested as to how ticket sales are going. We are only a month out after all.”

He took a deep breath before speaking again, “We haven’t sold many tickets.”

Someone dropped their phone from a pew and it clashed to the floor before deafening silence followed.

Derek stood up, looking like this was an inconvenience rather than a massive economic issue for the entire town. “How many have we sold?”

The mayor slid his glasses back over the bridge of his nose. “Uh, it says here. Twenty-four.”

My eyebrows shot up my forehead. People had spoken about this Festival as if it was Honeyfield’s claim to fame. Sam said people drove from all over the state. And there were only twenty-four tickets sold?

“I was planning on making hundreds of baked goods,” I murmured to Lila.

Her face told me this was just as much of a shock to her as it was to me. “Now, everyone, let’s not get riled up,” the mayor said over our whispers. “We have had some recent success in terms of bringing new interest in town.”

“Margo,” he called. I sat up straighter in my seat. “Would you mind coming up here?”

Feeling like the kid who got called on unexpectedly in class, I shot Lila a look before standing up. We were sitting in the back of the room, so I had a long and damning walk up to the front where the mayor was standing. He gave me a heartwarming smile as I approached him.

I felt his arm wrap around my shoulders as he pulled me into a tight side-hug while I turned to face the crowd of familiar faces. “I didn’t realize you were going to call on me,” I stage-whispered to him.

A few people in the front row chuckled.

“For anyone that’s been living under a rock these past few months, this is Margo,” The mayor introduced. I looked at him like he had three heads. What was I doing up here? “She has brought new life into this town.”

Oh.

“Our Dreamers program, while hit or miss, has brought in great minds like Margo here and Lila,” the mayor paused to gesture in Lila’s direction.

She shrunk into her seat like she was the one being held against her will instead of me.

“Margo, how would you replicate the success you’ve had with your diner in terms of the Honey Festival? ”

I took a deep breath. That was a lot of pressure to put on one person. “My friend, Scarlet, helped a lot with planning for the launch of Lucky’s. I’ve made a lot of great connections with all of you that have helped. She’s also posted online for me to create buzz.”

I stared right at Derek. “I can ask her if she has ideas for the Honey Festival, but in general I think it would be a great idea to put up flyers. What are we doing now to tell people the Festival is happening?”

“Usually, they just know,” said a man I didn’t recognize in the front row. “Happens at the same time every year.”

“That method probably won’t work if every year less and less people are showing up,” I said. “Just a few months ago, we weren’t sure if the Festival would be happening, right?”

A few people sat up straighter in their chairs. “Then we’ll need to take a different approach,” I continued. “Flyers across town, tell people you know outside of town, get the word out.”

I looked to the mayor, hoping to be relieved of my duties. He smiled and patted my shoulder before letting me go from his chokehold of a side hug. “Great idea, Margo. We will spread the word. Go old school.”

“I’ll ask my friend about the new school stuff, too,” I added. Before he could ask me anything else, I hurried back to my pew next to Lila. We shared a look. What had I just gotten myself into?

The rest of the town hall meeting was a snooze fest. I understood why people just showed up for big events because the mayor seemed happy to have a captive audience for his meaningless ramblings.

We were held for another forty-five minutes before he concluded the meeting and let us all get back to our day jobs.

I rushed back to the diner to check on Mike and Sarah. They seemed to be in high spirits, so I walked to the back to my office to call up Scarlet.

“I need your big beautiful brain again,” I started.

Scarlet sighed playfully. “What is it now? World peace? Are we stopping global warming?”

“I need you to save an entire town of people.”

“Meteor or supervillain?”

“Lack of marketing.”

“Ah,” she laughed. “Just my specialty. I thought you said the diner was doing great?”

I sat down on my chair and propped my feet up on my desk. The office was so small that I had to sit diagonally to fit in the room with my legs straightened out, but it made me feel powerful all the same.

“It is. Which, unfortunately, means I’ve earned street cred and have now been tasked with saving the Honey Festival.”

“God, why does everything in that town have to be so cute? We can’t let the Honey Festival fail.”

“I know, so get that beautiful mind of yours to work. Tell me what I need to do,” I said.

We stayed on our call for the next two hours before Mike knocked on my office door. I opened it for him.

“Hey,” he said. “So, we’re done out here. Anything we should do before we go home?”

“No, go, head out.”

“You sure you don’t need anything?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said while waving my hand. “I’m all good. Go home and get some rest. Thank you.”

I closed the door and held the phone back up to my ear to hear Scarlet giggling. “What?”

“It’s so weird hearing you be the voice of authority. You sound so… reliable.”

“I’m reliable,” I scoffed.

“I know,” Scarlet said with a softer voice. “I’m really proud of you. You’re doing a great job.”

Her words reminded me of Derek. Which reminded me that I hadn’t told Scarlet about all of the weird events lately with Derek.

“Thanks, Scar,” I paused, trying to think of a way to bring him up.

“So, is there anything else going on that I should know about?” My best friend was so beautiful and smart.

“Derek and I kind of went on a date,” I blurted.

“What? When? I thought things had fizzled out. You were focusing on the diner!”

“And I still am. Basically, his dad set us up on a dinner date with neither of us knowing about it.”

“Oh my God, just like Parent Trap!”

“Finally, someone gets it! Yes, exactly like Parent Trap. Anyway, we both talked very maturely about the kiss and everything, and we decided it would be best to focus on ourselves. At least, that's what I got out of it.”

“Okay, and?”

“And then we had a really great time. Like, it wasn’t technically a date anymore, but it was fun. He took me lightning bug catching in an empty strawberry field and it was so romantic, and sweet, and we got rained on, but it still was a great time. Holy shit. I soooo have feelings for him.”

“You’re just now figuring that out?”

“Then he drove me back home and we said goodnight. He stared right at my mouth for what felt like hours before turning around and going right back inside.”

“No way! No kiss?”

“Nope. He sticks to his word, I’ll give him that.”

“Wow.”

“I know!” I exclaimed. “So now we’re in this awkward limbo again. He got really weird and jealous when a customer was talking to me earlier.”

“Men are fickle creatures,” Scarlet murmured.

“Yep. So that’s where I’m at,” I sighed. “I should probably go. I have a lot of paperwork to sort through, and it’s already late.”

“Alright, just leave me on a cliffhanger then, I guess.”

“Sorry, pal.”

I sighed, sitting upright in my chair and moving my computer mouse to wake up my monitor. This was going to be a long night. I had payroll to schedule, and my accounting for the month to figure out.

My cheek was pressed firmly against a stack of papers when my phone started buzzing. I sat up with a jolt and answered it. My eyes squinted into the bright light of my office.

“Hello?” I mumbled.

“Are you okay? You never came home,” Derek’s voice growled at me. He sounded worried.

I blinked. “Oh, yeah.” My hands reached for the papers that were stuck to my cheek seconds ago. “I’m fine. I just fell asleep in my office.”

“Your office is four feet by five feet. How do you fall asleep in a cardboard box?”

“I have no clue,” I said honestly.

“Look, if you’re out with someone, I understand. You don’t need to lie to me, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

A burst of laughter escaped me. “I’m not with anyone. I really did fall asleep.”

He paused for a hefty amount of time. “You should take breaks more often. It isn’t good to work all the time.”

“Says you,” I scoffed.

“You aren’t wrong, there.” I heard him shuffling things around. “Get home. It’s too late to be working.”

“Will do, boss,” I snarked.

“One other thing,” Derek said. He sighed into the phone as I waited patiently. “Tessa really wants you to go to the aquarium with us.”

“Oh.”

“I figured I’d give you a heads up after the fishing trip situation. She drew you a picture to convince you to go. I can just tell her you’re busy with work if you don’t want to–”

“No, I want to go,” I said in a rush.

“You do?”

“Someone old and wise once told me I should take more breaks.”

He choked out a laugh. “Okay, she’s pretty excited. So, just be sure before you say yes.”

I was sure. And very endeared that Derek noticed I hadn’t come home. Never in my life had I had anyone look out for me like that. Partly because I never allowed them to.

It was hard to have someone waiting for you when you never stayed in the first place.