Page 80 of The Dangers of Daydreaming

My startled eyes met hers.

“I looked up what you guys usually call it—I figure for marketing it’s best to keep the same name, and this one is so cute. Anyways. My pitch.” She gave a sharp dip of her head, and immediately, I saw her transform before my eyes. She brushed her long hair back into a bun, straightened her shoulders, and held her papers in a relaxed hand as she launched into her plan.

“I propose a week-long event, but with emphasis on the weekend. I believe this will give ample opportunity for guests.” She leaned forward, clicking thearrow on her laptop, which moved to the next slide with dates and a schedule.

“The U-pick will be open all week long. Anyone can come by, rent a basket, pay the entry fee, and pick, but I think we should have evening events as well, to draw people in. Nothing fancy—” She clicked the arrow again. “I’m thinking karaoke night, yard games, maybe even a treasure hunt through the orchards.” Another click. “On the weekend, I want to increase the fun a little. I think we could get local shops to put up some stands—kind of like a farmers market. There would be a small entry fee, but nothing exorbitant. I would also like to connect with businesses to put together a silent auction. The goal is to get your trees completely bare by the end of the week, but if we haven’t… I talked to a few school groups this morning who would be interested in donating their time to help. And, if your family wasn’t against it, we could donate those final proceeds to the hospital your grandpa is in.”

I hadn’t even had a chance to sit down. A cold soda was slowly numbing my hand, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the laptop.

“I know. I know it’s a lot, and we can totally scale back if you want. And… and if you hate it completely, that’s fine too. But if you like it, I want to plan it. All of it—I want to handle the whole thing, and I think I could, even from Utah. I think we could easily get it set up for early next month—we just want to give ourselves enough time to market and the businesses enough time to plan booths…” She trailed off, staring at me.

“You remembered,” was all my brain managed to produce.

She nodded, still watching me.

“This is amazing.”

“You think? You don’t hate it?”

I was shaking my head. Slowly at first. “Not at all. Lucy, this is incredible. It would be fantastic for the inn and the farm but I also think it would be the perfect send-off for my grandparents and their plans to sell.”

Her gazelocked on mine, and silent communication passed between us. Yes, I was on board with the selling, but no, I wasn’t really ready to talk about it yet.

“Okay. Okay, if you’re sure, I’m going to nail down the schedule. I don’t want to bug your grandma with this, but I don’t want to overstep either.”

I waved her concerns aside. “Let’s not tell her. She’ll love the idea, but let's keep it a surprise.”

“Sounds good.” She flipped her paper over and produced a pen that I’m pretty sure she’d tucked into her bun at some point and made a few notes on the back.

“Once you have a tentative schedule, send it to me and I can reach out to the businesses about the silent auction. I have connections that I think might help.”

“Perfect, I’ll do that.” She was scribbling away.

“And Lucy?”

“Hmm?” She tucked the pen between her teeth and skimmed over her notes.

“I don’t want this to interfere with your promotion. Let’s get all of that nailed down, too.”

She grabbed the pen and nodded. “Yes. Okay, good point. But this is a priority too. I need you to know that.”

I took the pen from one hand and the paper from another and set them on the table, cradling her face between my hands. “I know it is. Thank you, Luce. This is all… It’s incredible, and I know I couldn’t pull it off without you.”

She beamed up at me, her hands still raised a bit into the air where I’d removed what she was holding. I couldn’t help it, I pressed a kiss to her smiling lips, restraining my hands from sliding around to the back of her neck and deepening it.

I was supposed to be following her lead, doing what she needed, not what I wanted. But I was still a man, and how could I not kiss her after everything she’d just done?

Her eyes were a little glazed when I forced myself to step back again, and she cleared her throat. Pink touched her cheeks. I almost kissed each one of them, but backtracked to my seat again. If I were to keep kissing her, it would be hard to stop. And then it would be hard to keep my newfound pledge to be less selfish.

Chapter 25

The Missing Piece

Lucy

“So,yourpresentation—theonefor your job—how is it coming?” Finn’s voice was there, but my mind was still on the kiss. I mentally smacked myself, forcing my brain back to the present. My presentation. Yes. That. The whole reason I was on this island in the first place. I hadn’t worked on it anymore since dropping Finn at the hospital last night—so as much as I’d rather dive into the U-pick event, I really did need the help.

“I don’t really know,” I admitted. “I think the addition of the movie location tour is great and maybe I should leave it at that, but I just want more, you know? Something to set me apart.”

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