Need You for Mine (Heroes of St. Helena)(65)
“Great. If they’re anything like these, Lulu will flip. I can just see the taglines you used on these images. Real Men Work. Real Men Sweat. My favorite is Real Men Wear Swagger. Brilliant.” Chantel paused, and Harper could hear her thinking through the phone. “Wait. I have a better idea. What if we came to you?”
“Here?”
“Photos can be underwhelming, so this way nothing can be lost in translation. Seeing the whole concept, how the store, the new display, the campaign, and Swagger all work together to create a singular vision would be helpful.”
Harper looked inside past the three bobbleheads, to the girdles on the floor, the boxes of new sleepwear still needing to be shelved, and felt the panic settle around her neck. “Ah, when were you thinking?”
“We’re launching the line on National Underwear Day, so what if we came the day before? A little prerelease where I can bring Lulu and the entire team, and if it goes well we can wrap this up before the launch.” Chantel’s voice went serious.
“If you like what you see, then you would offer us the same territory, same exclusive terms?” Harper asked, unable to mask the excitement in her voice. This would change everything for her grandmother. It would also change things for Harper. Just a few weeks working on this project and already look how much her life had changed.
How much she had changed.
“What I experienced when I was there changed my mind about you and the Boulder Holder. I know it will change Lulu’s. She’s looking for a reason to say yes to you, Harper. So am I. Your grandma was one of our first retailers.”
“The first. And would Lulu really want to celebrate her prelaunch here?” Harper asked, because in-person didn’t seem to be her forte when it came to people between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five. The idea of negotiating with a roomful of runway-ready trendsetters and executives made her palms sweat.
“Absolutely,” Chantel said with so much confidence that Harper felt her own lift. “I just got word that Lulu will be flying out for the launch and wanted a work retreat away from the office with the team to finalize things. Wine country is sexy, romantic, enticing, and the perfect place to get in the right mindset. Plus, it’s the perfect timing to showcase the new, beautiful, fresh face of the Boulder Holder.”
Any concerns Harper had vanished. Meeting Lulu was the next logical step, and she had no need to be worried. Making friends was what Harper did. It was how she’d survived eight different schools before the third grade. Sure, she was quirky and sometimes a bit awkward, but she was real, knew how to listen, and, most importantly, she had heart.
Lots of it.
Obviously, that was what Chantel saw in her. It was why she was giving her a shot to prove herself. And Harper wouldn’t let her down. She was going to make that shop and display come to life. She was going to take her concept, which she’d dubbed real women want real men, to the next level, and make sure Lulu saw that same potential and determination as Chantel.
“And what a face,” Chantel said, her voice going breathy. “One wink from Adam and I wouldn’t be surprised if Lulu agreed on the spot. Oops, that’s the other line, I have to go. Have Adam wear plum—it’s Lulu’s favorite color and the accent for Swagger.”
Thrilled at the idea of spending more time with Adam, and terrified of pulling off their ruse for even longer, she said, “You bet. We’ll see you soon.”
“I don’t care how big your banana is, that dipstick is not welcome anywhere near my booth or my houses,” Nora Kincaid said to Ida Beamon, all piss and vinegar, jabbing her cane toward her handcrafted mailboxes that resembled miniature Victorian houses, and nearly poking out Adam’s left eye. Adam managed to dodge it and took in the remaining chaos at the registration table.
“My dipped bananas are the crowd favorite. Grabbing one on the way into the fair is tradition for families all around town,” Ida argued, pointing to the TOWN FAVORITE star on her I TAKE MINE DOUBLE-DIPPED AND WITH NUTS shirt. “Veteran vendors get first dibs on last year’s booth. Last year I had booth one, like I had it the thirty years before. And just because some bonehead didn’t consult the map doesn’t mean you get to run me out of my booth.”
“The hell it doesn’t,” Nora said, raising her cane to smack-down level. “I was here early so I could get in line first, then I turned in my form. First!” She shot up a finger, then pointed a more appropriate one at McGuire. “Where that bonehead there assigned me booth one.”
Adam grabbed the cane before it struck bone, and when someone lobbed a chocolate-dipped banana at the registration table, he put himself between the blustering old biddies. After a few kicks to the shin, an elbow in the ribs, and someone goosing him from the sidelines, he knew he had to change tactics—and fast.
A mob of ladies swarmed the registration table, demanding to see if they still had their promised street-facing booth.
Not just ladies—angry old biddies with a bone to pick. It was as though every quilter, crafter, and banana-on-a-stick master, from the dawn of time until the present day, had been promised a street-facing booth. Adam felt genuine fear take over.
“One more elbow flies and I will give the entire front row of booths to the Gardening and Flower Club.”
A collective gasp came from the crowd, but the elbows lowered and everyone took a step back. Everyone, except Ms. Moberly, the town’s librarian. She stepped forward and looked over the rim of her glasses at Adam in a move that was pure velvet and steel, and had silenced rowdy kids for over four decades.