Page 69 of Pumpkin Spice Promises

Across the room, Rosie struck a spoon against a metal cider pot. The noise echoed hard enough to make half the room jump. “Okay,” she called. “If everyone can stop conducting separate government agencies back there, I’d like to continue.”

Darlene spoke without raising her hand. “You said seven.”

“It is seven.”

“It’s seven-oh-five.”

“Thank you, Darlene for the reminder.”

“I know.”

June pushed a tray of cookies toward Iris. “Want one?”

“No.”

“You didn’t even look.”

“I’ve known you for thirty years.”

“That doesn’t mean you know this cookie.”

“It has orange icing.”

“It’s seasonal.” June pouted, but pulled the tray back anyway. “More for me, then.”

“Ladies,” Rosie lifted both hands, “please let's begin.”

The room finally quieted and I looked around.

This.

This was what I had forgotten. Not the pumpkins. Not the lights. The people. Willow Creek never did anything simply. A festival meeting required food, arguments, gossip, side conversations, unnecessary opinions, and at least one person threatening to resign from a volunteer position nobody had officially appointed them to.

It should have annoyed me, it would have annoyed anyone normal, but there was nothing normal about this town. Instead, something inside me ached.

Pops would have loved this. He would have arrived late. Meme would have complained. He would have sat beside Walter and whispered comments through the entire meeting until Margaret threatened to separate them.

I glanced at the other side of the table.

The empty space beside Walter suddenly looked too large.

So, I focused on the whiteboard. Rosie stood beside it with a marker in hand.

“Back to the first problem I mentioned earlier. Location.”

Several people groaned.

“We need space for vendors, parking, children’s activities, hayrides, food, and the closing bonfire.”

My stomach tightened. Bonfire. I hadn’t heard that phrase used in connection with the festival in years.

Darlene leaned toward the woman beside her. “We all know where it belongs,” she whispered. But everyone heard it.

I knew the question before Rosie even looked at me.

“No,” I declared.

Nobody had asked. But that didn’t matter. The ranch would never be ready for an event like this in so little time.