by Jean Oram
“Are you?”
“If it’s furry and won’t bite my head off—or my hand—I’ll like it. Why?”
“Good. I know someone who needs help.”
“Who? With what?” She felt herself perking up at the possibility of a new distraction. She was already helping her pregnant friend, Jen Kulak, by taking over some of her guided mountain hikes on weekends, but there were still plenty of hours to get caught up in unhealthy Todd fantasies.
“Scott.”
Scott Malone, the local police officer, was her friend Amber Thompson’s fiancé. He also ran an animal shelter and was one of the few people in town who liked his mother’s meat loaf. Amber was absolutely crazy about him—even with his dismal culinary palate—which made him a-okay in Nicola’s book.
“He needs people to foster a few dogs. Gwen Hart just moved into the nursing home and she has five dogs that need homes, but his shelter’s full.”
“Has he talked to Janet Martin? She likes to pet sit for people. Maybe she can help.”
“She’s already got the puppies he found abandoned out near avalanche control.” That sounded like Janet. She was great with pets and people, and loved to help out when she could. “He’s hoping to find more people who can foster.”
“My apartment allows pets—I could take one.”
“Awesome.” Devon pointed a finger at her, looking serious once more. “But I’m not letting you off the hook. You talk to Todd by the end of next week or I’m cooking up a plan for you two. Enough is enough.”
Nicola nodded slowly, letting him know she’d heard him. Noting his I-mean-business expression, she didn’t know whether to hug him or book herself on the next flight to Tibet.
* * *
Nicola tried to keep from fidgeting, wondering how long the meeting was going to run. She needed to get home and let her new furry friend out before he had an accident or destroyed the place. She hadn’t left Twiggy—a shaggy little mix of at least four or five breeds—alone for longer than an hour or two so far, and wasn’t sure whether he’d retaliate for his supposed abandonment. While Devon had wisely taken home an old retriever that didn’t need much attention during the day, she’d taken a frisky goofball that made her laugh.
Still, it was good. She hadn’t thought about Todd in hours. She hadn’t reminisced about how they used to video chat almost nightly. She hadn’t worried about how awkward things were between them now. She hadn’t even daydreamed about their February kiss, or the happy little sigh her whole body did whenever she thought about the moment their lips had touched.
Well, at least not as much as usual.
“This is going to be a very serious problem for Blueberry Springs unless we do something to combat it,” her boss, Andy McIntyre, stated. He exhaled slowly, smoothing his meeting agenda, a sure sign he was trying to rein in the urge to completely wig out.
Blueberry Springs was a small mountain town, relatively cut off from big-city things such as Starbucks and movie theaters that played more than two movies at once. But what it lacked in busyness it made up for in outdoor activities, and therefore had attracted an influx of younger, single people who opted to move to the pretty town and work online from home rather than in a city high-rise two hours away.
The problem was, they weren’t staying. They loved the town, the mountains, and stuck around for a few seasons or a year, but ultimately returned to the city. Which she could totally understand. After living a go-go-go life, newcomers would find Blueberry Springs a romantic alternative. But once here… Well, she’d been a bit antsy at first, missing the bustle and the ability to buy a box of tampons after ten any night of the week. But after a while she’d begun to meet people—thanks to her busybody aunts—and the place had slowly settled into her bones, to the point that she’d come to think of Blueberry Springs as home.
“Nicola, you’re young and single,” Andy stated.
She wrinkled her nose. In Blueberry Springs, being single wasn’t nearly as cool and carefree-sounding as it was in the city, and having her lack of a relationship pointed out in the middle of the meeting made her feel a bit like a defect. An on-the-spot defect.
“What type of things makes a single city person like you stay here?” he prompted.
“Um…” She still kind of planned on traveling with Todd again—assuming they ever got their friendship sorted out. “Maybe I’m not the best person to—”
“What do you like?”
She paused, thinking.
Todd.
“Be honest with us. What would you like to see more of?”
Again, Todd.
“What is our town missing?”
Todd, of course.
Wow. Her brain was really on one track today—likely due to Devon’s chat yesterday. She’d been doing so well, weaning herself off thoughts of Todd. And now not so much.
She needed to go on a date. Get her romantic life in order so she could move past her steamy BFF and his rejection, then work on getting their friendship back.
There. She had a plan. A good one, too.
Andy idly tapped the table with his fingers, waiting for her to reply, reminding her of Todd. When they’d shared an apartment in college she’d often find Todd in the kitchen during midterms, absently tapping the counter, hungry, but his mind tangled and lost in a mental list of study notes. She’d pull down a snack and place it front of him, snapping him out of his reverie. A bright smile would break the look of concentration, his brow smoothing. She loved being able to make him light up like that. It made her wonder if he got lost in his own world at work now and whether he was remembering to eat. Or worse, if someone sexy and irresistible had noticed his lack of mental presence when working out a problem and had taken it upon herself to care for him.
She uncurled her fists and pulled her mind back to the meeting. She really needed to find someone to date so she’d stop obsessing over Todd. It was getting unhealthy. But how was she going to find someone?
“It’s difficult to meet other people my age. I went out snowshoeing and stuff like that, hoping to meet other people in town. I’ve met a few, but…” She shrugged. “There’s just nothing really happening. There’s no easy way to meet up with people regularly enough to become friends. Or to date,” she offered feebly. It would feel odd not having Todd vet her date beforehand.
“We have a movie theater.” One of the clerks, Jill, piped up, a defensive tone in her voice. “We have a fall fair. Cruise night. Markets. Mandy makes awesome brownies and has a little café where people work on their computers. And a nice, old library. Jen does wilderness excursions.”
“And Nicola’s Love Extravaganza—we can’t forget that,” Andy said. “You’ll do it again this year, right?”
She nodded, thinking about Jill’s reaction.
“I’m not dissing Blueberry Springs,” Nicola said carefully. “I chose it as my home, but look at it from an energetic city person’s point of view. The movie theater only shows two movies. That’s fine and all, but it’s not the selection they’re used to. The fall fair and cruise night are only two events in a twelve-month span. The library is open only three days a week. And Jen’s excursions draw more tourists than anything else.”
Nicola felt the familiar frustration well up. There was so much potential for the little town, all of it unfulfilled or unrealized. If she could just get in there and lift everything up she was certain she could make something big happen.
“If we don’t fill these new neighborhoods, as well as the condos and apartments that are going up, we’re screwed,” Andy said. “We’re spending considerable sums on infrastructure. If we can’t keep people, we can’t fill the new homes. We need their property taxes.” Her boss shook his head, stress lines appearing between his brows. “We need an economic stimulus. We need a nightlife. We need…” He let out a sharp sigh.
“Decent, affordable high-speed internet and a thriving social scene,” she muttered as she checked the clock. End meeting. End meeting.
; Slowly, Nicola realized that everyone in the small conference room was looking at her. Uh-oh. Did she say that bit about ending the meeting out loud?
“Your February event had quite a draw from a large cross-section of residents as well as visitors,” Andy said carefully, his attention on the pen he was rolling between his fingers.
“Thank you, it did.” No. Wait. Everyone was expecting her to solve this massive crisis. They were watching her, waiting for a brain wave. With hope. So much desperate hope they were practically choking on it.
She glanced from face to face and let out an internal sigh. Fine. It was her job, but she was not doing a pile of overtime for no reimbursement again. February had been different. She’d barely known anyone and was new in town, completely eager to leave her mark on it. Now, she was helping Jen with some of her guided hikes and had a dog at home. A dog whose legs were currently crossed, waiting for her.
Then again, it would be a better distraction from Todd than the dog was proving to be. And maybe if she built a social scene she’d find a man. Phase one of the “get over Todd” plan.
Her boss strode to the front of the room to tap a pie graph showing housing demographics. “We approved these developments. Now we need to get people to move into them. Apartments. Condos. Then into the new subdivision. What can we do to make that happen?”
“You need them to hook up and have babies.” Nicola had heard that from her aunts for several months now.
When are you going to settle down with a nice man and have some babies to fill up that new neighborhood? There’s a nice little bungalow planned near a playground that would be perfect for you. Close to the hiking trails.
“Yes,” her boss replied, not bothering to put too fine a point on it.
“If I put in overtime, I’m getting paid for it.”
He nodded eagerly.
She paused to think. They needed something where young, active people who had been drawn to Blueberry Springs could meet each other, hang out and do things together. The things they’d come here for.
But how did you build a social scene?
“Hiking club?” Too specific. “Outdoor club?”
No, bigger.
Hook up, hook up.
Where would she go if she wanted to find someone? Well, she’d just keep on following Todd and hope that—whoa. No. Not going there. And definitely not thinking of that gut-warming smile of his that sent tingles of happiness through her every time he… Crap. She was thinking about him again. Was this how addicts felt? Thoughts of the substance sneaking in here and there, taking over brain space?
She wrote down “outdoor club” as something for Jen and her boyfriend, Rob, to look into, as it wasn’t a half-bad idea. That would be good for the locals who wanted to hang out with similar-minded people. But they needed something way bigger. They needed a multilayered, multiyear plan that they could implement, say…yesterday.
“Who are we trying to appeal to?” Nicola asked, clearing her throat, pen poised. “Specifically.”
“You.”
Great. Now anything she planned, the group would take as some sort of peek into her inner psyche.
“And that Todd fellow.”
“We aren’t a couple and he doesn’t live in Blueberry Springs.” She made doodles on her paper so they couldn’t see her expression.
“Then people like you.”
“So, under thirty, professional, single,” she said, writing that down. “An interest in the outdoors and adventure, but also possibly a little bit on the fringe, because they chose a teeny town in the middle of nowhere over a city with tons of things to do and decent shopping, because they don’t care if they’re about a million miles away from an airport and their friends.”
Weren’t demographics fun?
She closed her notebook and stood up. “I’ll let you know if I think of anything.”
She glanced around the room, feeling as though she was the only one without someone to love, someone to go home to. That type of thing rarely bothered her, but today it felt as though it was digging a little too close to a tender spot hidden deep inside.
Sucking in a soothing breath, she pasted a smile on her face. It was her job to take care of the town of Blueberry Springs and she was paid fairly to do so. This wasn’t about her.
But it sure felt like it was. And to make the hit deeper, it all was starting to feel as though it was something she should have—love, relationship, family. Something that had been missing for far too long.
She paused at the door. “Fourteen date nights,” she blurted out, turning to face the group. “We plan the dates. People show up. Boom. They meet people.”
Problem solved for both the town and herself.
“Oooh. Are they blind dates?” asked Jill hopefully. Apparently there was another single in the crowd—à la Jill Armstrong. She was a planner like Nicola and had managed The Diner in town with her twin sister, Jodi, before the owner retired, closing it down.
“Um, maybe.” Blind dates could be a fun way to mix everyone up.
“But what if you don’t like them after the first date? Do you have to keep dating them for all of the dates? What if we want to meet people and not date? And what about the LGBT crowd?”
“Dating’s complicated. Maybe we should just make them social nights. People can naturally pair off if they find someone.”
Everyone nodded. She had it. The concept. Next up? How to implement it.
She faced her boss. “You know we’re going to need a lot more than a few date nights to save the town though, right?”
He nodded. “Bring me a proposal, including a budget and timeline, ASAP.”
“Okay.” She turned, thinking that if she planned these date nights right she’d stop thinking about Todd.
But then again, maybe she’d just get caught in a new circle—one where she wondered what it would be like to go on fourteen dates with him. Because as much as she tried to kid herself, she was infatuated with Todd.
She needed to face the facts and get over him. Determined to start putting her head back on straight, she mentally ticked off reasons she and Todd would never make it as a couple.
One. They were opposites.
Sure, they got along famously and had traveled the world together for two years—but he’d brought the action, adventure and spontaneity, while she’d brought the plans, details and Polysporin.
Two. They were great friends, but that was all he wanted—his old college roommate who’d never take his outrageous flirting to heart. And she’d gone ahead and crossed that line. Major error.
Three. She wasn’t his type, anyway. She was a plain Jane and pear-shaped. Since high school all Todd dated were long-legged packages complete with amazing eyelashes and expensive highlights.
Four. He didn’t do long-term relationships. He did short-term fun, then moved along.
In other words, they weren’t meant to be together despite the sizzle that had seared her brain when they’d kissed. Nicola needed to find a way to get it through her head that they were never going to be a couple. She needed to get on with her life—and get her friend back.
* * *
Nicola had spent a week honing her ideas for Blueberry Springs’s social nights with Jill, and Andy had enthusiastically approved the plan. However, he wanted her to run a test before launching it to the public, which made sense. All she needed were a few test subjects, whom she hoped to find in Mandy’s popular café.
Yawning, Nicola stretched and checked the time. It was later than she’d thought. She peeked out of her cubicle, noting that everyone else had gone home. She’d waved at people as they’d left for the day, but hadn’t realized how late it had become. If she didn’t hustle she was going to miss meeting up with her friends for supper. It was a good thing she’d gone home at lunch to let Twiggy out or the dog would be bursting by now.
Swinging the small woven purse she’d purchased in El Salvador over her shoulder, she hurried out of the town offices and headed toward M
andy’s. A chilly breeze swept into the valley and she zipped up her light jacket as Devon met up with her as she crossed Cherry Street.
He gave her a platonic peck on the cheek, then fell into step beside her.
“How’s my favorite man?” she asked.
“Uh-oh.” He pushed his hands deep in his pockets, studying her as they walked. “What do you want?”
“Jill and I are working on a project for the town and we need some help testing stuff.” They paused to let Wanda’s grandkids run across their path and into her bridal shop.
“Date nights. I thought you’d never ask.” He playfully tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow. “I’d be honored to be your boyfriend. Logically, it is the first step to marriage.”
“You’re unstoppable, aren’t you?”
He grinned. “It’s one of my most redeeming personality traits.”
“Only because you don’t have very many.”
“Oh, that hurts.” He pretended to clutch a dagger and pull it from his chest. Laughing, he began walking again.
She smiled at his antics, happy to have him as a friend. Too bad they didn’t have that certain something she felt with Todd as they’d have a lot of fun together. “They’re not date nights. They’re for anyone. Social nights.”
“Not a date because you’re in love with Todd. I know, I know.” Devon opened the door to the café for her and Nicola immediately spotted her friends, sitting and chatting.
“I wish everyone would stop misinterpreting our easy friendship for something more.”
He lifted an eyebrow.
“You know what I mean.” She added under her breath, “No wonder I ended up kissing him. Everyone’s messing with my head.”
“You’re friends who should be on the cusp of making the leap to lovers,” Devon said, ignoring her comment while he took her jacket and hung it on the coatrack by the door.
“He already rejected me, if you recall,” she grumbled, waving at her friends. “Besides, he’s like you—doesn’t do relationships.”
“With the right woman we do.”
