“You will be sure to bake something, too, won’t you? Everyone will be so disappointed if you don’t.”
“I’m afraid I’m too—”
She held up a hand and shook her head in a way that proved she’d had a lot more practice at this “negotiation” than I had. “Now, don’t you worry. You won’t have to do this all by yourself. We have an entire committee assigned to help you. Your first meeting should be within two weeks. Since you have such a beautiful space, we thought we’d meet there. I already told the group I was sure you wouldn’t mind. You don’t, do you, dear? I’ll email you all their information so you can confirm with them.”
“I guess the rest of you—”
“Excellent. I’ll inform all the others. I just know you’re going to do a wonderful job this year.” Her brow furrowed into deep lines as she leaned close. “Maybe you can figure out a way to ban Tilly and Hans. At the very least, we’ll have to assign a guard to the drinks.”
She straightened back up. “And make sure you have a tentative agenda for the meeting. We only have two and a half months until Derby Day. Now, I must get going. I have to find Harriet and give her the good news that’s she’s off the hook. Tootles!” She waved her fingers at me as she left me standing in the middle of the sidewalk.
Damn it!I closed my eyes and blew out a frustrated sigh. I guess organizing Derby Day was now added to my long list that never seemed to grow shorter, no matter how many things I checked off it. Hopefully, the committee she put together involved people who would actually be capable of helping so all I had to do was organize them. Yeah. I could do that, couldn’t I?
“Is it safe, yet?”
I turned toward the amused voice as one of my best friends stepped out from behind an alcove.
I propped my hands on my hips. “Reid Braxton. Were you actually hiding? You’re a deputy. You’re supposed to shield the rest of us.”
He grinned. “Sorry,” he said in a tone that implied he really wasn’t. His knowing gaze searched my face. “What did she steamroll you into doing?”
I rolled my eyes. “Looks like I’m planning Derby Day this year.”
“Well, shit. Have fun with that.”
“Speaking of, what are you doing in—”
Reid took a step backward. “I’ve got a meeting I need to get to. I’ll catch you later.”
“No, wait. I need you—”
He waved as he turned his back and practically jogged the other way.
“Ugh!”Why couldn’t I do that?
Hoping no one else stopped me on my only morning off during the week, I continued my walk and pulled my coat closer against the brisk breeze that had picked up as gray clouds pushed out the puffy, white ones.Maybe Iain will get his wish for snow after all.
Deciding to treat myself to something to fend off the cold, I stopped in at Brew’s Clues.
“Hey, Emalee! You want your usual?” The owner of the coffee shop greeted me with his usual, pleasant smile.
“You know it.”
John went to work making the caramel latte that was the treat I gave myself on my days off, hot in the winter, iced in the summer.
I set my bags down at a table to wait when none other than Hans Zimmerman walked in. I didn’t know him well since he didn’t participate in many town events, but his identity was hard to miss. He was tall and lean—like a beanpole, as my grandmother would say. He wore a suede coat over a button-up, blue denim shirt and scuffed cowboy boots with a tan cowboy hat. When John greeted him, he asked for a pound of John’s special roasted blend.
His weathered, tan face with pale blue eyes turned and landed on me, sharp as a hawk’s. He tipped his head. “Mornin’, lil’ lady. Hope you’re stocked up for the week. It’s gonna snow right good tonight.”
John brought my coffee to me. “The weatherman’s just calling for an inch or two,” he commented to Hans.
Hans pulled on a toothpick that was hanging out of his mouth. “Weatherman’s wrong.” He wiggled his long, knobby fingers. “My old bones ain’t.”
“It’s a little late in the year for a big snowstorm, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Well now, I reckon Mother Nature don’t look at a calendar.”
I frowned. I knew outsiders would scoff at what they’d call Appalachian superstitions and lore, but I’d learned that as crazy as some of them sounded, they weren’t always wrong, especially when it came to the weather. After all, folks had survived for centuries in these mountains without the benefit of modern science. So, if Hans’s bones predicted we were going to get a snowstorm, it was worth paying attention.
