Page 21 of The Christmas Fix
“Agree to disagree.”
Paige grinned. “I’ll see you at the meeting. I promise you’re not going to regret this.”
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“What are your thoughts about this whole TV thing?” Velma Murdock, town council member and owner of the recently flooded laundromat and Merry’s two hot chocolate stands, demanded as she slid into his SUV.
Noah pulled away from the curb and headed toward the old high school. He weighed his words carefully. “I have my reservations.”
“Of course,” Velma nodded.
“What ‘of course’?”
Velma patted his arm and flipped down the visor to check her blonde fluffy hair that she’d religiously styled like a football helmet for the last twenty or so years. “Noah, you’re a very cautious man.”
“Which is why I’m good at my job,” he pointed out.
“Which is why you’re very good at your job. You’re a professional worrier. You worry so much that none of the rest of us have to. I’m asking you if you think this whole show thing will be a good thing.”
He sighed. He had the unfair reputation of being Mr. No. But when his townspeople wanted to spend twelve percent of their annual budget on new reindeer light cutouts for the lampposts, he was the voice of reason. The crusher of dreams.
But their noses light up red!
“I’m withholding judgment,” he told Velma. “But I will say, at this point, we don’t have any other option. All our eggs are in this basket. If we don’t have that influx of cash at the end of the year like we’re used to, it could be catastrophic.”
Velma nodded, flipping the visor back up. “Well, let’s go let a TV show save our collective ass.”
He pulled into the old high school parking lot, noting the fleet of other vehicles already parked. Production vans, construction trucks, a handful of rental vehicles. It looked like Cat had called in her own personal army.
Paige’s words played back to him. He felt he was a good judge of risk. And his risk meter was screaming warnings at him where Cat was concerned. There was no way he was lowering his defenses around the woman. He wasn’t putting the fate of Merry in the hands of a vapid TV star who cared more about her appearance than she did the welfare of his friends and neighbors. No, he was going to watch Catalina King like a hawk.
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The woman was a four-star general. At least that was the impression she’d forced on him at the meeting in an old science lab. Noah had expected Cat to sit back and file her nails or not even be present. He hadn’t expected her to take point, pacing in front of the small, hodge-podge crowd of city council, production staff, and county services. And he certainly hadn’t expected her to casually mention that she was producing the series. He wanted that information to make him even more nervous. But he was too busy feeling a little shell-shocked at just exactly how well she knew Merry and its current predicament.
She’d marched them all through a potential timeline, fielding questions and making adjustments accordingly while keeping everyone present focused on the end goal. The Christmas Festival. Noah itched for a shot of caffeine while he digested the information. Velma listened intently next to him.
“Excuse me, Ms. King?” Elroy Leakhart, the balding school principal and Noah’s co-chair for the Christmas Festival, raised his hand.
“Cat,” Cat reminded him.
“Right. Cat.” Elroy squinted through his thick glasses. “When do you think we’ll be able to open the Christmas Festival? This seems like an awful lot of work to get done.”
“You’re right. It is,” Cat told him. “Even if everything goes perfectly, with a timeline this tight, we aren’t going to have the park and the rest of the downtown up and functioning by December 1,” Cat said. “We could cut projects and focus more on the park, but that would mean that Sunshine’s Diner doesn’t get rebuilt or the Hais’ house isn’t touched or the dozens of other flooded homes don’t get the help they need.”
She scanned the room, those gray-green eyes landing on Noah and holding briefly before moving on.
“By my estimates, we’ll be able to open the festival on Christmas Eve.”
Murmurs rose around the room. Noah felt simultaneously smug and sick. He knew she was promising more than she could deliver. Now everyone else would see it too. Condensing a month-long holiday extravaganza into a day? It wouldn’t even be worth putting up the decorations.
“I know. I know. It’s not nearly enough time. But what we’re lacking in time, we’ll make up for in planning, outreach, and marketing. This show will be airing four of the five episodes leading up to the Christmas Eve reveal. That’s going to draw its own crowd, and I have some ideas on how to maximize the festival including running it into New Year’s Day and calling on some of our bigger sponsors to partner with us for the festival itself.”
The murmurs quieted down. Noah glanced around him. People still looked nervous, but they wanted to believe her. They wanted to believe that she was here to help because she cared.
“I won’t go over the plans now for the sake of brevity as I know all your plates are already overflowing. But I promise you, I will make this worth your time. Together, we’ll find a way to bring in the money you need. Now, if anyone has any specific questions, you’ll find my cell number on the packets we handed out earlier,” Cat told the crowd.
Who was this woman who fielded questions about production logistics, emergency management, and craft service?
