Page 11 of Ocotillo Kisses
“I was busy.” The woman’s tone had turned sharp, and again Britt wondered how this place stayed in business, with customer service like this.
“I just came in to pick up a few things to make dinner.”
“I thought Mrs. Mendez did the cooking for Millie.”
“Yes, but it’s not really to my taste.”
If possible, Mrs. Lopez’s face became more sour. “Is that so? Not used to home cooking, I suppose?”
Not used to so much salt and flour in her diet. “I just thought I’d pick up some things that were a little lighter.” Britt moved to the small produce section and selected a few items to add to her hand basket.
“I guess you go to a lot of fancy restaurants back in Houston.”
“I do eat out a lot. Comes with the job.”
“You’re a wedding planner?”
“I’ve done a couple of weddings, but mostly I’m a party planner. I started out small, doing family reunions, events along those lines, but now I do corporate parties, retreats, things like that. I’ve done a few smaller weddings, but that’s not my area of expertise.” As she spoke, she realized she may be telling Mrs. Lopez more than she needed to hear.
But the woman was studying her, her scowl gone. “How did you learn how to do all of that?”
“Well, I worked for an event planner for a couple of years, then I went out on my own. I’ve been working for myself for almost three years.”
“That’s fairly impressive.” A great compliment, coming from Mrs. Lopez. “What about street fairs? Have you ever done anything like that? Small town festivals?”
A pit of apprehension started forming in Britt’s stomach. She needed to get her eggs and butter and get out of here before she got roped into something she couldn’t get out of.
“Maybe you could come to the town council meeting tomorrow night and give us some guidance. We had decided not to do Founders Day this year because it’s so much work and no one wants to do it, but maybe if you could give us some advice, we could do a nice event for Fourth of July.”
“Advice?” Britt asked, approaching the register cautiously. Advice, she could do. More than that, she wasn’t willing to commit to. She was staying until the beginning of June, and then she was going home. Most of her events at this point could be monitored from Broken Wheel, but it was time to start working on Christmas events, though even those, she had booked the locations back in January. She had a couple of new event spaces she wanted to work on wooing, and there were always new caterers looking for a chance.
“Yes, just advice.”
“That’s all I could do, because I don’t have any contacts out this way. So I could just point you in the right direction.” She wondered, though, if only two months out was enough time for the town to pull something together. “I was here last year for the Fourth, remember, it was Grandma’s birthday weekend. I thought it was pretty nice.”
“We were kind of hoping for something that was all weekend long, to draw people to town for a stay, kind of boost business.”
Britt frowned. There wasn’t enough going on in Broken Wheel to boost, was there? Who would benefit? The grocery store? The motel, maybe. The Wheel House, the refurbished bar out on the other side of town? The diner, possibly. So why put in so much work into just boosting four businesses? Because it was work, no lie.
If Broken Wheel had shops or something, that would be different.
“I’ll work something up,” Britt said. She had the time, so why not bolster some goodwill with the people of town? “Oh, while I’m here. Who did the mural outside?”
Mrs. Lopez smiled, at least, that’s what Britt thought that expression was.
“Sofia Aguilar. You know, she runs the motel. I think she’s a couple years younger than you. She hoped that would bring people to town. At least, that’s what they told me to convince me to let her paint it there.”
“It’s great. I can see why she thought that. It is completely social media-worthy.”
Mrs. Lopez rolled her eyes. “That’s what they tell me. Anyway, are you about done, because who knows how George is stacking my order back there?”
“Let me just grab a couple more things,” Britt said, finally able to add her eggs and butter to her order.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night at the meeting, right?” It sounded like more of a warning than a question as Mrs. Lopez bagged her groceries, but Britt felt compelled to respond anyway.
“Yes, I’ll be there.”
What had she gotten herself into?
