Page 12 of Stirring Up Love
“You’ve clearly been talking with Ali too much.” Simone smirked to needle Meg for the baking reference. “And yeah, I knew the farmers’ market wouldn’t be a huge source of income, but I guess I saw it as a testing ground. A stepping-stone to becoming part of the community again. And then along comes ...”
An unexpected rival who poked holes in the hull of her dreams. Left her floundering in a sea of uncertainty when she was used to navigating the shores of surety. Her past was interwoven in this place. Had everyone forgotten? Would her plans for Hawksburg’s future be a laughingstock?
“Along comes a cute stranger?” Meg grinned.
“Along comes a competitor out to get me.”
“Out to get you?”
“He insinuated I was just a proxy for Pops.”
“Ouch.”
But maybe he was right. If she couldn’t launch her dream of making Hawksburg a destination, of showcasing the town’s worth, then was she just a glorified manager of her grandfather’s restaurant?
“This was a wake-up call. Now I know I need to go bigger.”
Meg’s brows arched.
The idea had come to her while she was circling the paddock on Willow’s back. Riding always helped clear her head. “I’ve got an idea on how to raise capital for the expansion and get some exposure to boot.”
“We’re raising capital now?” Meg settled her hands on her hips, her T-shirt tucked into high-waisted jeans.
“I’mlooking to raise capital, yes.” Not that she didn’t appreciate Meg’s support, but it was bad enough being the girl who couldn’t make it in Chicago. If she couldn’t hack being solo back home, she’d never get the town on her side again.
“Just how big of a reno do you have planned? Because if you sit tight for a few years, keep on churning out great barbecue—”
“I want more than just a renovation.” She licked her lips. Meg was a vault; that much she knew from trying to pry her sister’s secrets out of her over the years, before she learned that was a dead end. And sooner or later, she was going to have to share her ideas with locals. Meg would be a safe sounding board.
“I’ve been looking at retail spaces to rent.” Meg’s brow pinched in question, and Simone went on: “I want to open up a boutique to serve as a showcase for local goods. And down the road, I’d like to create a town-square venue to host concerts and shows. I just feel like Hawksburg has so much to offer.”
Meg was nodding along, lips pursed. “So you want to draw in more people to town? Open the borders, so to speak?”
“Exactly.” Simone grinned, enthusiastic for the first time since Handsome—scratch that—Cocky Stranger had opened his mouth. Meg got it, no long-winded explanation necessary, which might mean her plan had merit.
But Meg’s brow furrowed. “And so, in the spirit of that, you drove the first nonlocal vendor to ever grace the farmers’ market out of town.”
Simone’s smile slipped, along with her jaw. She wrestled it back up. “I didn’t drive him anywhere,” she mumbled, and she pulled Willow’s reins over her head, leading the mare out of the paddock.
“What’s that?”
“I said, I may havetriedto run him out of town, but he stuck like a friggin’ leech.” The crunch of boot heels in gravel let her know Meg was following her toward the barn. “And granted, I may have gone a little overboard in calling up the Spinners—”
“A little?”
She shot Meg a glare over her shoulder. “But they’ve been dying to be invited back! They deserved the chance to be there more than some random dude who, lest we forget, was selling barbecue. You know the code.”
“The code is more of a guideline. You know we have, like, three cheese guys.” They sold different kinds of cheese, made from different kinds of milk, but yeah, no arguing the cheese point.
They entered the barn, and the familiar scent of leather and hay engulfed her senses. Here, she didn’t need to perform. To succeed.
Meg grabbed Willow’s halter while Simone slid off her bridle, then she slipped it on and clipped two leads to it. “Plenty of loopholes. Which would’ve made it easy to welcome a newcomer.”
Easy? To welcome that pompous jerk? But yeah, her conscience hadn’t been the quietest all day. It was one thing to let him rattle her but another thing to mess with someone’s livelihood. She didn’t take that lightly, but something about Finn had stirred her to a desperate act when she should’ve taken a step back to assess.
That something had nothing to do with his sexy smirk and everything to do with his dig at her capabilities. Okay, so maybe it was ninety/ten. Sixty/forty.
But no matter which way she sliced it, she’d messed up. Meg was right. Her first chance to put her plans into action and welcome new people into town, and she’d failed the test.
