Page 10 of Small Town Schemes & Summer Kisses
Well,he thought.There goes my quiet summer.
Somehow, he wasn’t mad at all about it.
Two days later, Beck had barely stepped through the doors of Bluebell Bay’s City Hall when the scent of burning coffee hit him in the face and paper shuffling reached his ears.
She was already there.
Of course, she was.
Caroline sat behind her desk, her legendary binder open like a sacred text, tabs fluttering as she flipped pages with alarming speed.
“You’re half an hour early,” she said without looking up.
He peered over the desk at the open binder. “You’re only on page twelve. Should I be worried?”
“Only if you thought this was going to be easy.”
He set a paper to-go cup on the edge of her desk. She glanced at it and returned to studying the paper in front of her. “Is that for me?”
“Light cream, no sugar. Sandy told me, that’s how you drink it.”
“You stopped by the diner?” Manicured nails wrapped around the paper cup, pulling it closer.
“I stopped and grabbed lunch. Do you want anything? I can always call.”
Beck watched as she unfastened her hair clip, subsequently running her fingers through her dark hair to massage her scalp.
“No. I grabbed a sandwich from home.”
“I believe in starting strong.”
“I believe in follow-through.”
“AndI believe you’re already bossing me around.”
“Excellent. We’re aligned.” She finally looked up, and something about the way she smiled made him forget for a second that he was supposed to be retired. “Thanks for the coffee.”
He watched her for a minute and then moved to the windowsill, leaning against it so she couldn’t read every thoughton his face. “What’s the plan, Hollis? You’re the one with the grandma army and the strategic initiative.”
Caroline twirled her highlighter between nimble fingers. “We know what we’re up against. Empty town, empty pockets, and empty promises from my father,the traitor. We need to lure tourists back and keep them coming through Labor Day.” Beck nodded, although she couldn’t see it. “How do we make Bluebell Bay the place to be? Coastal nostalgia with a modern twist? Lower the median age of our visitors from sixty-five to twenty-five.”
“You need to do it without scaring away everyone else.”
She swiveled her chair and scrutinized him closely, as if determining whether he was genuine or merely humoring her. “You in, Beckett?”
Beck rubbed his chin and felt the familiar buzz of adrenaline from a marketing campaign. He was supposed to be done with the lure and high from out-thinking the competition.
“It’s never going to work,” he said lightly. “Those clip art dolphins might make it to senior center tote bags, but not a movie star’s Instagram.”
All Caroline heard was that he had accepted the challenge. “So, I’ll need someone who can do better.”
Her confidence startled him with her assumption that he’d already said yes.
“This is a onetime meeting, Hollis.”
“You sure? It sounds like it might be more.”
“One condition,” he said, liking the way she focused, the flicker of determination in those green eyes. “You don’t get to boss me around this summer.”
