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I heard Blaire take a deep breath. “Tanya! So good to see you!”
She locked in what I had come to recognize as her professional smile—when did I start cataloging her smiles?—and reached out to shake Tanya’s hand.
“Welcome to Holly Ridge!”
“Thank you, dear,” Tanya replied.
“I wasn’t so sure about covering Holly Ridge after the last few festivals had been a flop, but when I heard they had brought in Blaire Greene to run the show, I knew I had to give it another chance. And lucky me I did. Look at the sights there are to see.”
She finished this last statement looking directly at me. I felt myself wanting to laugh at her boldness, but instead managed to stick my hand out to shake hers.
“Cole Thomas, Winterberry Glen CFO. I’m working with Ms. Greene on the festival.”
I chanced a glance at Blaire to see how she was reacting to Tanya alluding that I was one of the best sights to see in her precious hometown. Blaire looked flabbergasted for a second, but quickly recovered.
“That’s Holly Ridge. Always full of surprises! I’m so glad to be back in my hometown running this festival. It’s a dream come true for me.”
Apparently, Blaire felt the need to really lay it on thick with Tanya. I had never heard her use this syrupy tone before.
“We weren’t expecting you until closer to lunchtime,” Blaire continued. “I was planning to take you over to Joe’s Café, just across the square there, for some iced teas and lunch to talk all about the festival.”
“Well,” Tanya replied. “I’m here now. Maybe Cole should join us for a pre-lunch cocktail, and we can really dive in to the numbers side of things, as well as talking about the festival.”
I jumped on this opening.
“I would love to join you ladies for lunch. It will be great to hear Blaire explain the festival to someone other than me for once.”
I could feel Blaire’s eye-daggers driving into my temple, but I chose to ignore her, addressing Tanya directly. “Shall we?”
Tanya tucked her arm into mine, which I felt was a little much, and immediately launched into questions about my job as CFO as we walked toward the café. Blaire had no choice but to follow behind us—she wouldn’t miss her chance to show off Holly Ridge to Tanya by refusing a direct request from the blogger herself. I could feel her glare on my back, adding an extra few degrees of heat to the day the whole way to the restaurant.
Chapter 8
Blaire
Furiously, I walked behind Cole and Tanya, keeping less distance than what was considered polite, but there was absolutely no way I was going to miss out on a word of what was said between them. It took me weeks to get Tanya to even reply to my emails, and even more time to get her to agree to come to Holly Ridge to hear about our festival, and there was no way Cole Thomas was going to screw this up.
As we walked toward Joe’s Café, Tanya’s arm tucked in between Cole’s annoyingly firm bicep and those exposed forearms, Tanya questioned him about being a small-town CFO. Her high-pitched giggle at every other answer started to grate on my nerves, and I was once again glad for the fact that most local businesses were only a stone’s throw from the town square.
“Here we are! Joe’s Café!”
I saw Cole jump, which gave me a smidge of smug satisfaction, and I spared him a smirk before putting on my press-conference-ready smile to address Tanya.
“Tanya, I think you’re just going to love Joe’s. He’s kept all the town favorites on the menu from when I was growing up, but he has also added a lot of new foods and cocktails to keep up with the Joneses. We don’t want anyone to leave town for their quinoa and organic cocktails!”
I watched Cole as my jab landed. He knew I was referring to Muggsie’s, which I knew was his favorite restaurant due to the paper coasters and free pens he had on his office desk. Needing to expend some energy after receiving one too many passive-aggressive emails from Cole in a day, I had done some research and found out their menu hadn’t updated in years. I saved that information for a moment just like this one.
“I asked Joe to reserve us an umbrella table outside. The covered roof and ceiling fans really make the July heat almost pleasant, and then we won’t be freezing in the overcompensating AC.”
Maybe I was laying it on a bit thick, but my nature desired everything go according to plan and wouldn’t let me have it any other way. I needed Tanya to be in a good mood for this conversation, and not only did that involve the perfect seating arrangement but also meant we’d have Cole Thomas join us for lunch as well.
“Perfect!” Tanya responded. “I hate when restaurants are too cold. It totally ruins the experience for me.”
I knew that. I planned this afternoon down to the T, but what I hadn’t planned for was Cole butting in and throwing everything off.
I said hello to Meghan—Joe’s daughter, serving as hostess while home from college for the summer—and asked for our table reservation. I had let Joe know that this meeting involved some great publicity for the festival, so even though we were an hour early, I knew the staff would make it work for us.
“Sure thing, Blaire!” Meghan responded. “We have your table ready. Just let me grab an extra set of silverware and I’ll take you right out!”
