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“How about an ornament making class?” Nicole said, reaching over and tapping the notepad.
Everyone smiled and nodded at that one.
“Okay. All these are great ideas for bringing people downtown,” Melanie said, “but we need something to draw people to the Caroling Kickoff itself.”
The event was Melanie’s baby. She got it off the ground and made sure it happened every year when she took over running the Gable Inn. “It needs to be more than what we’ve done in the past. The booths have been great, but if we’re going to compete with the Riverwalk, we need to make it more of a festival. Maybe a funnel cake truck?”
“Oh, I like that,” Nicole said. “So will the kids.”
“Lights. We need lots of lights,” Roni said, thinking of Jimmy.Why does Christmas have to be so loud? So bright?“The more, the better.”
“Yes,” Melanie agreed, her eyes flashing with excitement. “We could even do a light show, and instead of everyone walking around caroling, they could stay at the inn and carol there with the light show going all around them in time to the music.”
Jenni frowned. “I love that idea, but I don’t think the inn’s grass area will be big enough.”
“Maybe we could move it to the park. A light festival,” Nicole said with awe in her voice. “Do you really think we could pull that off?”
“We can if we get a permit.” Melanie pushed her notepad toward Roni. “Keep going. I’m going to call Hannah and see if she can fit me in. I tried earlier, but she hasn’t called me back.”
“Us in,” Roni said.
Melanie nodded and looked at her watch as she slipped away from the table. “Hopefully she’ll be able to squeeze us in before she goes home for the day.”
“I love this idea, but it’s short notice,” Brianna said. “If we could pull it off, people will drive in for miles to see that.”
“Exactly. We can run it every night until Christmas,” Nicole said. “Think of all the families it will bring downtown.”
Brianna leaned forward. “One question. We don’t have any money. How are we going to pay for all the lights, music, soundboards, and all the technical stuff that goes with it? That can get expensive. We’re going to need donors.”
“Yeah, not only money, but we’re going to need a lot of help to get it all set up in time,” Jenni added. “But I might be able to ask Bryce’s family for a donation. They donated an incredible amount of money to the rescue last year. It really pulled us out of the fire.”
“How is Bryce? I haven’t seen him much lately.” Roni had been skeptical about her sister’s new boyfriend at first. She wasn’t sure a rich guy from Boston would be happy living here in Pineville, and she worried he’d whisk her away, but so far so good, and Jenni loved him.
“That’s because his mom bought him this super fancy espresso machine for his office,” Jenni confessed with a huge grin on her face. “Though he says the coffee is still not as good as yours.”
“Boo, hiss,” Roni said with a grin.
“Yeah, I know, but he’s loving his business. He didn’t realize how much he’d like helping people with their finances so his ‘part-time, I’m only going to work enough to keep the lights on and spend the rest of my day riding horses,’ plan has completely changed. Now I have to use dynamite to get him out of the office and back home.”
“That’s really great, though,” Candy said. “I wondered why I haven’t seen him riding with Lincoln as much.”
Melanie came back to the table. “Okay, I talked to Hannah briefly. Apparently, we need more than permits. We need traffic control, sound managers, light managers, safety people. This might be more than we can handle.”
Roni got to her feet. “Are you kidding? We are the women who resurrected Christmas in Pineville. We did it once before, and we can do it again.”
“Okay,” Melanie said, picking up her purse. “She’s willing to meet with us in thirty minutes. You coming?”
“Absolutely.” Roni’s excitement started to chase away her anxiety. They could do this! She grabbed her bag.
“Wish us luck. Keep planning,” she called over her shoulder as they hurried toward the front door and grabbed their coats off the coat-tree.
* * *
Roni and Melaniecrossed the street and walked three blocks over to Hannah’s office in the town hall buildings. They went up the elevator to the third floor and arrived in Hannah’s office right on time.
“Do we have a game plan?” Roni asked.
Melanie smirked. “Yeah, throw ourselves on her mercy.”
