“Any wineries in the area?”
“There’s one, but people head to the Swan Valley if they’re going on a day trip.”
“So we need to inform people our winery is better.”She made a note.
“Ourwinery?”Lauren asked with a grin.
Chelsea shrugged, not wanting to think about her wording.“You know what I mean.Do they have a stall at the fair?”
“I’ll have to check.”
“It might be worth giving them a stall if they don’t,” Chelsea said.But still there wasn’t much to keep people returning.“Anything else?”
“There’s nowhere really for people to stay,” Lauren added.“The pub has a couple of rooms upstairs and there’s an old motel down the road tradies and road workers stay at, but that’s it now Lilydale is closed.We don’t even have a caravan park and the campsite by the lake was vandalised recently.”She shrugged.“Aunt Maggie hosted weddings on a semi-regular basis and they attracted day-trippers or weekenders.”
Chelsea sat back in her chair.“I had no idea Lilydale was so important to the town.”
“It was enough to keep Honeybrook on the edges of the map, but it wasn’t our saving grace.”
But it was a way to save Lilydale and perhaps help the town.If she brought Lilydale back to its former glory and added workshops and weddings, it might help.She had the promotional skills to come up with a great campaign, especially if she played into the rejuvenation of her aunt’s dream.
“Chelsea?”
She blinked and glanced at Lauren.
“Where did you just go?”
Nerves teased her stomach.Why was she even considering this?It wasn’t the way to a stable income.Still, she couldn’t stop the words coming from her mouth.“Maybe I can bring Lilydale back,” she said.“Restore it and expand on what Aunt Maggie was doing.”
“Stay here?”Lauren asked.
She hesitated.“I don’t know.”It was such a huge risk.
But the idea of making Lilydale her forever home appealed.
“You know what you should do?”Lauren drew out her phone.“Get this guy in.He takes overgrown gardens and clears them, recording the process on social media.He’s got so many followers.”She showed Chelsea a video of a man in high-vis clothing, hacking back lawns and overgrown trees until they were tidy.He had several million followers and each post had hundreds of comments on it.
“He’s perfect!”Chelsea found his contact details, saw he was based in Perth, and added it to her to-do list.She could create videos documenting restoring Lilydale, and create a channel on social media.She added Kylie, the woman who reworked the Tours Australia ad in record time, to her list of people to contact tomorrow.She’d give Chelsea some tips on how to do it.
“I can see your mind is running away with itself.”Lauren laughed.
Chelsea typed a couple more ideas as she smiled a little sheepishly.“Sorry.Almost done.”She put down her phone.
“You don’t need to apologise if you think it will help bring this place back to life.Tell me if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“I will.”She turned her attention to her friend.“So, what have you been up to for the past ten years?”
Lauren chuckled.“Now that’s a story which will take a while.”
***
Chelsea hadn’t got home until late last night.Not that Ethan was keeping tabs on her, he was just attuned to noises, especially at night, and the sound of the car engine woke him from where he slept in his swag in the barn.He’d listened to the car door shut and then waited until he heard the telltale thud of her shutting the front door before he’d settled down again.
It wasn’t any of his business what Chelsea did, but he couldn’t help wanting to make sure she was safe.
The shower he’d had yesterday had been pure bliss, and it felt significant that she’d given him a key to the house, but perhaps he was making too much of it.
They hadn’t talked about anything important.His reasons for leaving her were still valid today.
