A positive attitude in you inspires a positive attitude in others.
—Muriel Sterling, When Family Matters
Wednesday morning found the members of the Icicle Falls Chamber of Commerce assembled in the banquet room of Dot Morrison’s Breakfast Haus.
“Do you want me to bring up the idea of the festival?” Cass asked Samantha.
“I appreciate the offer, but no.” It would be nice if someone would just take the reins and gallop them off into the sunset (or over the cliff) but Samantha knew she had to do this herself. Her glance sneaked to the far end of the table, where Blake Preston sat talking with Ed York, who owned D’Vine Wines. Would he weigh in and advise everyone present not to listen to a woman whose business was in ruins?
Don’t be ridiculous, she scolded herself. It was in the bank’s best interest for her to succeed. Otherwise, they’d have a chocolate company on their hands, and what would the bank do with a chocolate company?
“Just remember to stress that we’ll all benefit from this,” said Charley, whom she’d filled in on their way to the meeting. “We need to figure out how to make Icicle Falls a tourist destination all year long, snow or no snow.”
Samantha nodded and pushed her plate away. What little she’d eaten of her Belgian waffle was lying in her stomach like a brick.
Another fifteen minutes of small talk and Ed brought the meeting to order. There was much to discuss, like how to encourage everyone to put out hanging baskets and window boxes full of flowers come spring so they could keep their Alpine village theme consistent throughout town.
During this discussion several of the women present cast scornful frowns in the direction of Todd Black, whose sports bar, the Man Cave, camped at the edge of town—rather like the embarrassing relative everyone at the family picnic wishes would just go away. His concession to the requisite Bavarian look they were going for had been to add the carved wooden overhang to his roofline and commission one of his buddies to paint a Neanderthal in lederhosen holding a club on the front of the building. Many thought it in poor taste. Rather like the brawls that often took place there on a Saturday night.
Another hot topic of discussion was whether or not to foot the bill for a new town sign welcoming visitors to Icicle Falls with a quaint German phrase.
“Really,” said Annemarie Huber, who had recently purchased the Bavarian Inn, “if we’re an Alpine-style village we should have an Alpine-style welcome sign.”
“You have a point there, Annemarie,” Ed told her. “We should check with Bill Jacobs to see how much it would cost.”
“Too much,” Todd muttered.
“It will add to our town’s charm,” Annemarie insisted. She got as far as having everyone agree that the matter should be looked into.
The brick in Samantha’s stomach grew heavier. If nobody wanted to fork out for something as small as a sign, they sure weren’t going to be excited about coughing up cash for putting on a festival.
“We have one more piece of new business from Samantha.” Ed smiled at her encouragingly.
She’d just had to open her big mouth and tell him she had a proposition to discuss that could benefit the whole town. Now her feet weren’t simply cold, they were frozen solid. Would everyone think she was being completely self-serving? They’d probably shoot her down. Heck, if she didn’t need this so badly she’d shoot herself down.
People were studying her with speculative interest. Sell this idea. It’s the only one you’ve got and it needs to fly. She steeled herself and put on her game face. “Yes, I’ve kicked this around with several people.” Charley and Cass, her family—that was several. “And I’ve been getting some positive response.” Especially from her family.
“Let’s hear it,” Ed said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m open to ideas. Business hasn’t been the best this winter.”
“You can say that again,” agreed Olivia Wallace, who owned Icicle Creek Lodge.
“We need to do some things to bring in business and make Icicle Falls more of a tourist destination throughout the year,” Samantha said. “After all, it’s lovely here all year round. We have great hiking in the summer, and in the fall when the leaves turn, it’s gorgeous. Plus we’re near some of the best wineries this side of Napa.”
Ed nodded. “Amen to that. So what did you have in mind?”
“Well, it’s an idea my family’s been toying with for some time.” Some being the operative word. She continued, the big lie tumbling out of her mouth before she could bite her tongue. “And it’s a dream my stepfather, Waldo, had hoped to make happen.” If he’d known about it he’d have been all over it, she rationalized, willing the guilty burn off her cheeks. Waldo loved a good party, and this would be the party to end all parties. Anyway, he’d been useless to the business in life. He could darn well contribute something in death.
“God rest his soul,” someone murmured.
If they pulled this off, he could rest in peace with Samantha’s blessing.
“So what is it?” prompted Ed, who was practically salivating now.
She could feel Blake Preston’s gaze on her as she stood there all dolled up in the business equivalent of the emperor’s new clothes and felt her cheeks go warmer. “Well, what’s the third-biggest spending holiday of the year?”
“Mother’s Day,” Annemarie guessed.
“Close,” Samantha said. “Actually, it’s Valentine’s Day, coming in right after Christmas and Thanksgiving, and I’m thinking we could celebrate it here in Icicle Falls, which is why Sweet Dreams would like to sponsor a chocolate festival in honor of Cupid’s big day. I’m sure, as you all know, a festival can bring loads of business into a town.” Okay, there it was. Had she baited the hook enough?
Some people had caught the excitement; she could tell by the glint in their eyes. Others, like Dot and Todd Black, Mr. Alpine Neanderthal, were looking dubious.
“What exactly did you want to do?” Dot asked.
Samantha launched into her spiel, making the sales pitch of her life, all the while hoping no one would suggest there wasn’t enough time to plan something like this.
“But that’s only a month away,” Hildy Johnson protested. Hildy was a stocky woman whose smile was as thin as the rest of her was fat. Her husband, Nils, was a pharmacist and he took care of filling prescriptions over at Johnson’s Drugs but Hildy ran everything else, including him.
And now she’d just found the proverbial fly in the ointment. “I know it’s less than six weeks,” Samantha admitted, “but my family has already done a lot of the groundwork.” Some anyway. They’d logged in a ton of phone calls over the weekend talking about it and Cecily and Bailey were working on schedules and venues for possible events. “We’d have to start small this year, but if we all pulled together to offer something fun and visitors enjoyed themselves, well, word of mouth would bring us twice as many people next year. And, let’s face it, this is a day that lends itself well to merchandizing—lovers’ packages at our B and Bs and motels, wine-tastings, romantic dinners, special floral arrangements.”
Now more eyes were lighting up. She still didn’t dare look at Blake. She pressed on, throwing out enticing details like so many Hershey’s Kisses.
“What about advertising? How are you going to promote this?” Hildy wanted to know. “You can’t get the word out overnight.”
“But you can get it out fast, thanks to the internet and social media,” Samantha argued, parroting Bailey’s words.
“How many friends have you all got on Facebook who don’t live here? How many hits are you getting on your websites?” Todd asked cynically, making Samantha want to kick him.
“Obviously, we’d need to promote other places, too,” she said. “Radio, newspaper—”
“They all cost money,” Hildy interrupted.
Now Samantha couldn’t help looking in Blake’s direction. The pity in his eyes made her want to cry. Instead, she pinned on her best saleslady face. “I realize we’re racing against the clock, but if we all worked together, pooled our resources, we could bring some good business into town.”
“And God knows we could use it,” muttered Heinrich, owner of Lupine Floral.
“So, would we like to be involved in this?” Ed asked. “What do you think, people?”
“What the hell,” Dot said with a shrug. “I can hang up some foil hearts and offer a breakfast special.”
“We have limited funds in our lodging tax fund,” Hildy said. “And this.” She shook her head. “It’ll get costly. We’d have to pay overtime to the police for security and we’d have to pay for maintenance and cleanup.”
“That’s what the fund is there for, isn’t it?” Samantha asked reasonably.
Hildy frowned at her. “Of course, but it’s not there for every cockamamie idea that gets thrown out at Chamber meetings. Money doesn’t grow on trees and we need to be wise with ours. I think we need a committee to look into this,” she concluded.
“With only a little over a month until V Day, I think we have to decide today to either pass or jump in,” Dot said.
“Then I say let’s jump,” Charley said. “I agree with Samantha—we can start small.”
God bless you, Samantha thought, shooting her a grateful smile.
Hildy shook her head again. “I think we should pass.”
“You can’t pull this off,” Todd said.
“I think we can,” Samantha insisted. “If the whole town supported it, we could pull it off and we’d all benefit.”
“What do you think, Blake?” Hildy asked, obviously looking for someone to side with her.
He tugged at his necktie. “It’s a big undertaking,” he said. “You’ll probably spend more money than you take in this first year.”
“There you go,” Hildy said as if that settled it.
Go ahead, stab me in the heart, thought Samantha bitterly, narrowing her eyes at him.
He refused to look in her direction. “But if you’re asking me whether I think it’s an idea that, with a little more time to plan and execute, could increase tourism, I’d have to say yes,” he added. Now he did look at Samantha, who still hadn’t removed the scowl from her face, and regarded her with those blue eyes of his in a way that dared her to accuse him of being biased.
She’d take that dare. He was.
“I dunno,” Todd said with a shrug. “It doesn’t do much for me. I don’t sell chocolate at my place.”
“But I sell wine,” Ed reminded him, “and it goes pretty damn good with chocolate. We should put our heads together and see what we can come up with,” he said to Samantha.
“I think it’s a smart idea,” Heinrich put in. “And if it brings people here, it’s good for all of us. Why not capitalize on the fact that our town has a chocolate factory?”
“I like the idea, too,” Annemarie said.
“God knows we need to do something after the dead winter we’ve had,” Olivia added. “And I’d rather offer some special packages and have my place full than sit around and do nothing until the bank takes it.” Her cheeks turned red and she cast an apologetic glance at Blake. “No offense.”
“None taken,” he assured her. “Cascade Mutual wants to be part of this community, and working together is in all our best interests.”
What a hypocrite, thought Samantha.
Discussion continued for another ten minutes, with Hildy raising every kind of imaginable objection. Finally Todd shrugged and said, “Do what you want. It won’t affect my business either way.”
“That’s for sure,” Charley muttered in disgust. “As long as there are losers and beer in the world, he’ll be fine.”
“We’ll take a vote,” Ed announced. “Do I have a motion?”
The vote was almost unanimous, with Todd abstaining and Hildy casting a resounding no.
“This is a waste of money,” she informed Ed as she left, but several people lingered to congratulate Samantha on her great idea.
“I’ll be happy to help with the planning,” Olivia volunteered.
“Me, too,” Cass said.
“I’m already thinking about the menu for your chocolate dinner,” said Charley. “How does chocolate pasta with French cheese and artichokes sound for one of the courses?”
“Heavenly,” Samantha murmured. And expensive. “Remember, we need to turn a profit.”
“Trust me, we will.”
“I think this will be wonderful,” Heinrich gushed. “We could become the perfect Northwest destination for lovers. Annemarie,” he called, hurrying after her. “We should work together on a romantic package.”
“Don’t forget to include chocolates in it,” Samantha called after him, and he grinned and gave her a thumbs-up.
They were on their way. She beamed as people walked past, promising to help.
“I think you’d better set up an email loop,” Jonathan Templar suggested. He was her computer tech expert and owner of Geek Gods Computer Services. “So you can all keep one another up-to-date.”
“Gee, I wonder who we can get to do that,” she teased. “Hopefully, someone who works cheap.”
“Since it’s for the town, I’ll offer my services for free,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. “And I’ll build you a special website. I can have it up and running in a couple of days.”
“You’re my hero,” she said, and kissed him on the cheek, making his whole face turn russet.
From the corner of her eye she caught sight of Blake, old Mr. Community Spirit, talking with Ed while watching her. He gave her what he must have considered an encouraging smile, which made her seethe. Oh, yeah, the bank wanted to do what it could to help the community, all right. Unless a business was really in trouble. Then they could forget it.
She turned her back on him and said to Charley, “Let’s go. I’ve got a lot of work to do.” Like saving a company.