Lettie gave her a grateful smile. ‘I think I’m panicking about not succeeding in raising enough to cover the shortfall on the insurance.’
‘It will be fine, Lettie,’ Melody assured her. ‘I know it will.’ She looked away from Lettie for a moment and Zac watched as she bit her lower lip thoughtfully, wondering what was going through her mind.
‘What is it?’ he asked, unable to stand the tension a moment longer.
‘Only that we want to entice as many people here as we can.’ She thought for a few more seconds. ‘It occurred to me that you have a wonderfully close community here and maybe we should mention the reason behind putting this event on this quickly to them?’
Zac thought of people setting up crowdfunding pages online. ‘I agree. If people we know understand why we’re doing this it’s bound to encourage them to come along and support us in any way they can.’
Lettie pulled a face. ‘You don’t think it’s taking advantage of people’s kindness though?’
Melody turned to look up at Zac. ‘I don’t think that, but what do you think, Zac?’
He considered her question and came to the conclusion that there was nothing dishonest about doing it. ‘I suppose it will answer anyone’s question about us pulling this together in such a short time. Add to the transparency of the thing too.’
‘Yes, it would, wouldn’t it?’ his sister said, seeming happier at that point of view. ‘Go on then, Melody. Add something about our reasoning behind this. Maybe put in a paragraph letting people know we’re also looking for sponsors, or suggestions for sponsors.’
‘Yes,’ Zac said, liking the idea the more they spoke. He recalled something from his night out. ‘I forgot to mention Callum has offered to interview one or two of us about the festival on his radio show.’
‘That’s kind of him,’ Lettie said.
Melody nodded. ‘It is.’
Relieved to have remembered to share this snippet of information, Zac peered over Melody’s shoulder at the website again. ‘The logo.’
‘Sorry?’ Melody turned her head to one side and looked at Lettie. ‘He’s right. We don’t have one yet. Damn. We’re going to need one quickly if we’re to order promotional merchandise. Well done, Zac.’
‘I could give it a go – coming up with one?’ he said, wanting to be helpful.
Lettie shook her head and grinned at him. ‘No, it’s fine. I think I know just the person who will enjoy doing this for us.’
‘Who?’ he and Melody asked in unison.
‘Brodie’s sister, Maddie. She’s an interior designer and loves anything creative. I’ll ask her. Then if she doesn’t think she can do it the three of us can put our heads together and come up with something. Or—’ she smiled at him ‘—you could do it for us.’
Zac thought of the doodles he had always done on notepads and on the front of his schoolbooks when he was growing up. His teachers were always telling him off about drawing on things but none of it was very artistic. ‘I’m not the one to do that,’ he admitted.
‘The first thing we should do though is come up with a name for the festival,’ Lettie said thoughtfully.
‘Now that I can do,’ Zac said proudly. ‘How about Hollyhock Farm Wellness Festival.’
Melody laughed.
Trying not to be offended by her amusement at his suggestion, he shrugged. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘Sorry,’ she said, resting her hand on his arm and making his skin tingle from her touch. ‘It’s such a simple but perfect name for it, I think. Don’t you, Lettie?’
Lettie nodded. ‘I do. It’s to the point and at least people will automatically know where the event is being held too.’
He hadn’t thought of that. He glanced at Melody’s hand on his arm just as she removed it, his skin cooling immediately when her hand moved away. He really needed to rein hisemotions in. She was only here for a short while and he had no intention of getting his heart broken again. Although he suspected she had the power to do that to him, even if unintentionally.
8
MELODY
By the following week, Melody felt as if she had lived at Hollyhock Farm for months rather than days. The Torel siblings were funny, friendly and made her feel as if she was one of their close relations rather than someone who had only recently started working for them. She liked them very much and wanted to do her best to be helpful wherever she could.
She was sitting in Gareth’s office having just ordered tote bags, T-shirts for the volunteers they hoped to find to help run the event, several banners, stickers and biros, all with the cute logo of the outline of a hollyhock flower with the wordWellnessunderneath, which Brodie’s sister had designed for them.
