Page 43 of Grinch Girl

Carol clicked on it, and we were redirected to a brand-new website—a directory of all of Vienna and Wontana’s holiday events, restaurants, amenities, and hotels.

I got slowly to my feet, dumbfounded. “Let me get this straight. Vienna and Wontana have teamed up? Against Falworth?”

Carol nodded.

I blinked. “Those rich assholes are calling us trash—” which, fine,Single Bellswas a little trashy, but the whole thing was being done for town survival! “—but they’re totally OK with using our trashy idea to pullourtourists to them?”

“Yes,” Carol said emphatically. “I can’t believe it either. We haven’t been able to compete with them in decades. I can’t believe they’d try to siphon away our income when they know how close we are to dying. It’s so mean-spirited!”

Mean-spirited didn’t even cover it, not in my view. How could they do this? Falworth might have been the black sheep town of the area, but it was still a place made up of hard-working people just trying to survive. People like me, who were trying desperately to make their lives better. The moneyed citizens of Vienna and Wontana hadn’t gotten together and said, “Let’s devise a plan to ruin Jane Zielinski’s life,” but it sure felt like it. It felt like a personal attack against everyone in this room.

Bella, as usual, tried to look on the bright side. “How do we know this ad campaign will even be effective?”

Carol frowned, deep lines digging around her mouth. “I called around yesterday. We’ve had three canceled Airbnb reservations and six restaurant reservation cancellations. All within two hours of this ad going up.”

Well, shit.

“What should we do?” Michael asked. “Oristhere anything we can do?”

I sat down to think, mind racing. Before I could get far, Carol said, “I have two ideas. First, we need to try to extend our season.”

“What does that mean?” Diane wondered.

“Single Bellsis supposed to end with a fifth date, right, Jane?” Carol asked.

“Yeah. The bonfire at the beach on December 22.” The pre-Christmas party by the lake would be a great visual finish to the series.

Carol looked at us apologetically. “I think there should be a sixth date. On New Year’s Eve.”

Jim and Diane frowned thoughtfully. Michael and Bella looked at one another—and then abruptly away.

I groaned. Loudly. “Carol. Whoa. New Year’s Eve is a major holiday. What if the web participants already have plans? What if the camera crew doesn’t want to work that night? Do you know what an enormous pain in the ass this will be to arrange?”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Think of the possibilities though, Jane. We can start mentioning the big NYE finale in the next date. What if we threw a huge NYE party to conclude the series? A party that anyone—hint, hint tourists—can buy tickets to. That could be a huge moneymaker. Plus, keeping the series going past Christmas gives fans an extra week to come to town to the Village.”

She wasn’t wrong. There was big potential in the idea. But oh my God. I put my forehead on the table. “So much work,” I moaned into the scratched wood.

“I’ll start putting together lists,” she announced briskly. I had to give the rest of the group credit for grit. No one else whimpered a word of protest, although this would annihilate our schedules for the remainder of the month.

“What was the second idea?” Diane asked. “You said you had two.”

Carol paused. A long pause. It was such a hitch in her stride that I lifted my head from the table.

She cleared her throat, and her face folded into an apology. But not to me. “The Wontana Town Council meets today at eleven,” she said quietly. “I thought perhaps we might make a personal plea to them to take down that ad. To ask for a little more solidarity.”

Oh.Now I knew who the apology was for.

Bella’s face froze into a pleasant mask. After an uncomfortable beat of silence, she murmured, “I suppose I could do that.” Her calm voice didn’t match the dismay in her big blue eyes. Bella’s mother, Angela, sat on the Wontana Town Council.

“Thank you, dear,” Carol whispered kindly. Then her soft gaze became a targeted laser—a laser aimed at a bull’s-eye on my face. Her voice transitioned to one of a drill sergeant that harbored no room for bullshit. “Jane, you’ll go as well.”

*

I shouldn’t havebeen surprised when Bella pulled up to the Wontana municipal building with Nate in her car. I knew they’d been working together most mornings. But I’d been running around like a headless chicken since the emergency meeting thismorning, trying to catch up on life. I hadn’t thought it through. Seeing Nate’s dark hair in the passenger window seized the breath in my lungs.

Bella got out of the car slowly, reluctance evident in every tiny movement she made. Despite my constant irritation with my one-time BFF, I couldfeelthe pit in her stomach, and the sensation echoed in my gut.

I ground my jaw. “You don’t have to go in there. You could just say no to Carol.”

---