“Here you go.” Lily set another pie on the counter. “Okay, these are the last to be delivered. They go to Betty’s Cut and Curl. She’s already got the table set up.”
“Good thing too. Louise texted me an hour ago that early arrivals are already walking along and shopping.”
“I know.” Lily smiled. “Mabel put in a last minute order for extra cupcakes. Becky is putting them in the oven now.”
“But the fair doesn’t officially start for a couple more hours. How did she sell out of cupcakes already?”
Lily wiped her hands on a nearby rag. “From what she said, it started with a face painter who came in for a cup of coffee and decided to try one of the cupcakes. The next thing Mabel knew, the other face painter came in for coffee and a cupcake, followed by the two balloon guys, and then the caricature artists. Each one came with a tale of how the other guy raved about the cupcakes. Looks like we made the right call on the lemon lavender.”
“I just wish I wasn’t so nervous about all of this.” Cindy swiped a lemon lavender doughnut hole from a nearby plate. The first time she’d ever heard of putting lavender in a cake mix, she thought her sister had lost her mind. Once again, her sister proved smarter than the average bear. Everything lemon lavender was a huge hit.
“Any idea how the brunch is going?” Lily asked.
“Oh, yeah. I’m getting a blow-by-blow description from Lucy. Apparently one of the five had to cancel at the last minute but they sent their check anyway. The others are happily eating and chatting up a storm with Alan. From what I understand, the plan is for everyone to ride back to town to gather, then the four donors will receive VIP treatment at the bookstore also. They’ll be the first to get their books signed, will have free snacks and sweets, and all the champagne they want to drink. Lucy and Edna have it all worked out. They will definitely be treated like royalty for the rest of the day.”
Lily untied her apron and came around by her sister. “I’m not surprised. Edna is so good about making sure everybody who sets foot into her bookstore wants to come back, and Lucy is no slouch when it comes to hospitality.”
“What Edna is, is a sweetheart. I’m glad that the big box and online stores haven’t driven her out of business.” Cindy picked up her pies and headed for the door. “Well, I’d better get moving. I want to check up on the food trucks and street vendors before the crowds really start flowing.”
“Which reminds me. Is it true the petting zoo has a baby camel?” Lily held the door for her.
“Yeah. They brought the typical goats, and bunnies, and pigs, but they’ve also got a camel, an emu, and an alpaca.”
“That’s like a llama, right?”
Cindy nodded. “Yep. There’s a monkey too. I think he might be the biggest hit. I mean, who doesn’t love a monkey?”
Shaking her head, Lily chuckled. “The tourists will love all of it.”
“From your mouth to God’s ears. May they love the fair and happily part with their money.” With her hands full, Cindy did her best to wave goodbye to her sister.
Already she could see the bustle of additional activity. Her sources were not exaggerating. The length of downtown Main Street would be closed off to automobile traffic in about an hour, and yet she could already see the extra people mulling about. Cindy paused in front of Floyd’s to watch the caricature artist set up by the barber pole. They had an artist at each end of the street. This one was already sketching a cute little girl with pigtails. Considering the hard time the child was having sitting still, the artist was doing a fantastic job. Of course, the mother beamed. Several other folks were pretty impressed too as the line was growing.
Her next stop was Betty’s.
The owner of the Cut and Curl came rushing out when she saw her. “I can’t believe how many people are coming in for a cut at Fair Day Pricing. I’m so glad your sister had extra pie. It never occurred to me that my morning clients would all want to buy slices before I even tried to sell them to the tourists.”
A handful of shop owners had agreed to sell Lily’s baked goods for those who didn’t want to walk all the way to the lower end of Main Street. Sort of the town’s version of impulse buying.
“This is so exciting. If so far is any sign, we’re going to be packed today!” Betty spun on her heel and ran back inside.
Cindy smiled. Packed was definitely the plan. Wanting to check out the petting zoo, she stopped by the balloon guy. Fascinated with how he blew, stretched, twisted, and tied the balloons into fun animals, she was caught by surprise when he twisted a few into a crown and placed it on her head. “Thank you,” she muttered, hoping she wasn’t blushing.
“Now don’t you look pretty as a picture.” Louise Franklin came trotting out of the pharmacy to take a picture of Cindy. “This gives me a wonderful idea! If we do this again next year, we’re going to have to crown a street festival Queen.”
Cindy lightly tapped her makeshift headpiece. Most likely whatever Louise had in mind involved rhinestones and sparkles and something considerably more lavish than her fun crown, but she didn’t care. She absolutely loved hers.
“Look,” an enthusiastic voice sounded nearby. “Isn’t that just adorable?”
The petting zoo, which included exotic animals and education on rescue, rehabilitation, and preservation as well, was only a few feet ahead. It didn’t take long to notice what everybody found so adorable. Standing in front of one of the wooden posts supporting the small animal pen was a little boy. The kid had curly blonde locks, a bright orange T-shirt, denim shorts, pudgy little legs, and was swaying left, straightening, then leaning to the right and then back. What everybody was finding so amusing was the monkey on the other side of the post. When the little boy swayed left the monkey tracked his movements. If the boy hid in front of the post, the monkey hid behind it and then if the boy leaned the other way, so did the monkey.
“They’re playing peek-a-boo,” the same woman’s voice said.
Another chimed in with, “I think you’re right.”
Cindy agreed. Too cute for words, the little boy and the monkey were drawing a crowd. Things were definitely off to a fantastic start. Taking a quick scan around the small animal pen, she noticed a group of young goats. One little girl with a hand-held brush toddled after them in an effort to brush them. An adult handler held a goat in his arms and demonstrated brushing for the children to imitate. The handler had a good grip on the situation. The children, on the other hand, were doing a better job of scattering the goats then luring them in. The baby goat in the young woman’s arms blinked. The calming strokes had the goat losing his battle with sleep.
Adorable scenes were scattered everywhere. She sure hoped Alan had some time to see all of this before he needed to report to the bookstore. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he would love all of this silly behavior by the cute little animals. Besides, in the last week she’d grown to enjoy Alan’s company even more than she had the week before, and found herself missing having him here to share the fun. Oh, how she wished he could be here now to squeeze her hand and reassure her all was as good as it looked.
***
Despite all the conversations and impromptu planning sessions that had sprung up this past week, especially at the evening card games at Hart House, Alan had not been truly prepared for his first view of Main Street in its latest rendering. “Wow.”
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Holding hands with Grant, Violet walked beside Alan. “I knew this would be great. This type of thing is exactly what our sleepy little town needed to put it on the tourism map.”
“I think the Pastry Stop has been doing a good job of that.” Heather, the cardiologist cousin, had arrived in town just as the brunch was breaking up.
“Agreed.” Callie, the high school teacher and coach, had met them in front of the diner with a couple of her students in tow. “But still, this does a lot more for spreading the word far and wide.”
Heather stopped and pointed across the street. “Sorry, but I hav
e to run. I promised the mayor I’d check in at the first aid station. That will take me all of five minutes, then I’m meeting Jake at the hardware store. We’ll catch up with the rest of you a little later.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Callie nodded. “Has anyone heard from Cindy?”
“She texted me a few minutes ago that we have to check out the petting zoo.” Violet lifted her phone into the air. “Apparently the baby camel and alpaca are too adorable.”
As appealing as a menagerie of young animals might be, what Alan really cared about was seeing Cindy before he had to report to the bookstore. Last night he’d had a long visit with Edna the owner. They’d agreed that if they ran out of books, he would remain for as long as the store was open and autograph a paper signature plate for the fan to place inside a book at another time. Though he didn’t mind spending hours in the quaint shop, he very much wanted to see Cindy first. He almost felt like a junky needing a fix before he had to dive into dealing with the real world.
“There she is.” Violet pointed at Cindy not far away from them.
A few shops ahead, in what was usually a parking lot, Cindy stood with a couple and two kids, waving in front of the petting zoo. His heart did the usual two-step it always did at the sight of her. And to think, only a couple of weeks ago he was ready to give up on fresh air and his muse and head home. Alone. Waving back, he stopped himself from quickening his pace. She may not care for him as much as he cared for her, but he was positive she liked him, hopefully really liked him. Still, no sense making a fool of himself in front of the whole town by running down the street like a character in a greeting card commercial.
Surrounded by friends and her family, he didn’t dare do anything more than reach for her hand as her family huddled around her. “You look great,” he whispered. “It all does.”
“Thanks.” She squeezed his fingers and smiled. “I needed to hear that.”
“This is my cousin Iris, her fiancé Eric, and Gavin and Emily. They’ve been on vacation in Florida.”
The blonde woman sucked in her lips at the introduction and he wasn’t sure if she was the only bashful female in the family or if she knew something her cousin didn’t. “Alan Peterson. Nice to meet you.”
“Seems you’ve caused quite a commotion around here,” Iris said, a confident smile taking over her face.
So she wasn’t bashful. “Sorry about that.”
“Nonsense,” Cindy added. “Commotion is exactly what we need this weekend.”
“Aren’t these guys the cutest?” Violet took Emily’s hand in hers, and ushered the group closer to the attendant.
If Alan remembered what he’d been told about Iris and her new mate, it was the children’s uncle who handed the young woman a few dollars in exchange for food to feed the baby goats roaming at their feet.
Violet and Iris promptly lowered themselves to the animal’s level, helping the children hold out the kibble.
Alan had to admit, the animals were cute. The whole point of the fair was to raise money, and buying food from the petting zoo was a part of that. He gave the attendant a bill and waved for her to keep the change.
“Be careful,” Cindy warned. “If you give an inch they’ll—”
“Hey,” Violet squeaked, falling back on her rear as one of the goats absconded with the whole bag.
“Take a mile,” Cindy finished her sentence through muffled laughter.
Still sitting on the ground, Violet’s rigid expression gave way to fits of laughter as the goats polished off the brown paper bag and began battling over the food in Iris’s hand.
Both children’s eyes rounded like cartoon characters at Violet sprawled on the ground before sputtering with laughter and promptly falling down with Violet.
“I’m not sure I’m willing to get in on this,” Alan chuckled, keeping the food-filled paper bag high above the ground.
“Let me.” Cindy reached into the bag and pulling out a handful of pellets, smiled at him before turning to the animals who would have gladly eaten the offering, bag and all. Sniffing out their next meal, the four legged garbage disposals abandoned Violet and the children and hurried toward Cindy.
Alan had an absurd urge to pull her out of the way of the harmless, but perpetually hungry, kids. Leaning over to join the fun, from the corner of his eye he spotted a curly haired little boy gleefully running past them. The nearest adult, a lone woman stood by the pen with the camel, carrying a little girl on her hip. Alan had the distinct feeling that she had no idea her son was making a beeline for the goat pen.
“Uh oh.” Cindy’s eyes widened.
It took Alan a second too long to put two and two together. Cindy snapped to her full height and spun about toward the gate, giving chase to the little boy. Another second and they would have cut him off at the proverbial pass. As it was, the blond haired munchkin maneuvered the latch with the same ease he probably would have used to open adult-proof medication bottles.
“Oh, no.” Already on the ground, Violet flung herself forward in an effort to grab the nearest little goat that slid through her grip like a greased owl.
Hands in the air, the two children on either side of her giggled with delight at Violet’s latest predicament at the same time the gleeful culprit tore off after the first escapee, leaving the gate wide open.
“Quick,” Callie hollered to Violet’s fiancé. “Grab one!”
A gray and white streak zoomed past the startled man, sending him slipping on the muddied straw beneath his feet.
“Grant!” Violet tripped over one of the slower goats running toward the open gate, and balancing herself, scooped the little guy up into her arms and came to a skidding halt in front of her fiancé. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” Grant spotted the open gate, the baby goats bolting toward freedom, and lunging forward, pounced on the only kid within reach.
“I got one!” Across the way, Callie cradled a baby goat in her arms.
Iris and Eric each held on to one of the children.
“Shut the gate!” a voice hollered just in time to stop the remaining goat from following one ecstatic toddler already scurrying down Main Street with Cindy in hot pursuit and Alan on her heels.
“Billy!” the little boy’s mother finally noticed her wayward son.
Like the Red Sea in biblical times, the people mulling about parted as the goat and little boy pushed their way down Main Street. The child’s giggles grew louder and the goat followed him as though they’d been best buddies all of their short lives. Finally, Cindy’s long legs matched the little boy’s head start, and she scooped him up.
Alan came up on them, and grabbing the escaped goat, joined Cindy and the little boy, giggling and laughing all the way back to the small animals’ pen. Except for the squirming goat, the picture they painted—him, Cindy and the little boy—was more than appealing. He liked it. A lot.
“Billy.” At the zoo entrance, the mother lifted her son into the double-seater stroller and turned to Cindy. “Thank you.”
“Yes.” The attendant reached for the goat. “Thank you. I’m the only one here. The others are grabbing a quick lunch before the crowds arrive.”
“Glad we could help,” Cindy offered quickly.
The attendant double checked the latch and set the baby goat down by the others.
“Well, that was different.” Violet brushed some dirt from her slacks then threaded her hand with Grant’s. “I think that’s a first for me.”
“You and me both.” Grant smiled.
Callie came up beside them, wiping her hands on a paper towel. “We should do this again some time,” she teased.
Smiling, Iris shook her head. “I have to admit. It was rather entertaining to watch.”
“And this,” the uncle got down on his haunches, “is why you guys need to always stay close to one of us in public places.”
Both kids nodded at their father, but Alan had a feeling given the chance, any red-blooded child would rather chase goats.
> “I suppose we should be thankful it wasn’t the exotic animals,” Cindy said.
“She has a point,” Alan agreed. “Even baby camels run pretty quickly.”
“Oh,” Violet cooed, now across the way, petting the much larger animal, “and it’s so soft. The alpaca too.”
“Be careful, though.” Callie waved her finger in the direction of the two animals. “They spit.”
“Oh, no.” Cindy’s eyes opened wide.
Everyone turned in the direction of Cindy’s gaze. The same little boy had climbed out of the stroller, made his way to the pen with the larger petting animals, and with the dexterity of a safecracker, swung the gate open.
“And here we go again,” multiple voices mumbled.
Chapter Seventeen
This was not what Cindy had signed up for when this fundraising idea had come together. Mouth hanging open, all the color drained from the attendant’s face before it snapped shut and she hurriedly closed the gate. Panic in her eyes, she looked from the penned animals still in place to the street ahead. Only three animals had slipped by before the gate had been secured once again, but the gal could do simple math; there was only one of her and a bunch of other animals in need of supervising.
“We’ve got this,” Cindy yelled to her.
Relief washing over her face, she nodded then turned and stormed toward the clueless mom.
Quickly surveying the situation, Cindy pointed down the road. “Looks like Cole and his buddy are already chasing the emu.”
“Good,” Violet huffed, already rushing toward the street, her fiancé at her side. “Those suckers are really fast. Grant and I will go after the alpaca.”
“Sounds good,” Cindy shouted at her cousin, then prepared to bolt after the camel running in the opposite direction. She looked up at Alan. “Want to catch a camel?”
Grinning like a little kid offered the keys to the candy store, he nodded, grabbed her hand and leading the way, darted down Main Street. “Camels can get a good trot going. Funny looking, but fast. We’d better hurry.”
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