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“Ah, yes, the slippery slope of password Hades. Those can be dark times, indeed.” He winked. “But don’t worry, I’ll try to keep this as painless as possible. I even found a few websites to help give you some ideas of what we can do with yours.”
“Really? That’s great, because I’m a visual person. Too many words and it all just kinda runs together in my head. And I brought my notes from tonight’s meeting with the few details we’ve worked out so far. But I’m going to apologize ahead of time—I haven’t had time to type them, so they’re kind of a mess.”
Isaac grinned. After working with Will since college, he firmly believed there wasn’t a scribble on this planet he couldn’t decipher. “I’m sure we can muddle through. Do I need to turn the porch light on?”
“No, I think I can manage.”
He let her talk, then, sharing the highlights from their event committee’s past two meetings. Six weeks was an ambitious goal and could mean some lost sleep for him in the next few weeks, but he was up for the challenge. Besides, he was jonesing to work on something other than bid proposals.
When she’d finished going over her notes, he opened his laptop and began showing her various sites he had found advertising similar events. Some were extensively built out and beautifully designed; others were more streamlined and functional. He envisioned something in between, simple but one that would help attract acts from around their region.
“And this one might be my favorite example,” he said, pulling up a fundraiser page from Charlotte, North Carolina. “See how clean and inviting the home page is? And the navigation buttons really catch your eye.”
Del nodded as she had on each of the sites he’d presented to her, but awash in the glow of his computer screen, he could tell she wasn’t nearly as excited about it as he was.
“You know, Isaac, these are all great and everything…”
“Hmm, I feel a ‘but’ coming on.” He offered her a grin.
“But they aren’t us.”
“Us? Oh. No, see these are live websites at other actual locations.”
She shook her head. “No, I get that. What I mean is, they don’tfeellike us. Like Bourbon Falls. If we’re going to sell this event to the people around here and get everyone excited and invested in it, then we need to really make it…us.”
Which made perfect sense—sites should always be designed with the intended audience in mind.
“Okay. So how do we do that?”
“Hmm.” She leaned back in her seat, brows furrowed as she looked out across the yard. “When I’m designing landscape plans, I always try putting myself in my clients’ shoes so I can see things from their perspective. Often, they have magazine clippings or pictures they’ve snapped from websites to show me… Wait, that’s it.” Del gathered her things and rose. “Come on.”
“What? Where are we going?”
“On a little road trip.” She tipped her head toward the driveway. “It’ll be easier if Ishow you.”
Isaac sank back in his seat. Was she crazy? He couldn’t leave here, not without the risk of being spotted! Only, she didn’t know why it would be a risk to be spotted—and he couldn’t exactly tell her, either.
“Why waste your gasoline when I can just pull it up on Google Earth?” he asked, praying his suggestion would fly.
Del stepped forward, bringing them the closest they’d been all night, and gently pushed his laptop screen shut.
“Because seeing it and experiencing it are two completely different things.”
Of course they were, he stewed as she sauntered off toward her truck. Heck, he probably knew that better than anyone right about now. But experiencing town was precisely what he’d sworn not to do.
“If you try to tell me you’re afraid of leaving, I’m gonna have to call baloney.”
“Why’s that?” he asked, hating the panic rising in his voice.
“Because we ran into each other at the grocery store last week.”
“But there aren’t people shopping that time of night!”
She planted one hand on her hip. “I’m not a people?”
“You know what I mean,” he muttered, unwilling to rise. Because leaving here would be a bad idea. Isaac wasn’t just trying to protect his own hide but to keep the media focus off his business. He hid to protect his company, his partner, and his staff. If he did something stupid now and cost them all their jobs, he’d never forgive himself.
Isaac’s gaze shifted to the twilight skies, his pledge of anonymity warring with a growing case of cabin fever. Itwasnearly dark. Could a simple car ride be all that dangerous?
