Anna rushed up to her. “So.” The girl’s blond hair fell into place around her shoulders. “Most of the ladies saw your posts from the last Fun Day. But some had friends who came that day and took pictures with you. And they saw their friends’ posts.”
“Thanks for the heads-up.” Genevieve’s forward progress didn’t slow.
“Yeah! I don’t know where all they’re from. I asked one and she said Alpharetta. And I was like, wow. I enjoy Alpharetta’s North Point Mall. They have a Vans there.”
“I see.”
“Oliver’s getting really overexcited by the crowd.”
“Yikes.”
“He’s talking to a few women right now about horticulture, and I don’t even know what that means. All I know is that it sounds like vultures. And they eat dead stuff, right?”
“Right. Although, horticulture means gardening. It doesn’t have anything to do with vultures.”
“Bummer. Vultures are kind of cool.”
The crowd watched her approach with shy and excited expressions. In response, her professional persona came fully awake.Genevieve smiled, then had to work to keep the expression in place as a visceral memory split into her consciousness. Her, waking up in Sam’s guesthouse, shaken because she didn’t know where she was.
Her shiny exterior wasn’t an accurate reflection of who she was.
Nope. This wasn’t the time or place to go into a funk. A large group of women were waiting and watching.
Gathering her energy, she put on her public identity.
Genevieve Woodward, Christian author and speaker.
Later, when Sam exited his barn, he immediately noticed the crowd gathered near the farm stand. His steps slashed to a halt.
Genevieve. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Gen must be the source of this crowd because if there was trouble on his farm or in his life, he could be sure to find Gen at the center of it.
He turned his steps in the direction of the farm stand, concern thinning his mouth.
When he’d opened the farm’s front gate an hour and a half ago, he’d noticed that a large number of cars waited on the side of the road. He’d chalked it up to luck and to the solid effort he and Genevieve had put into the last event. He’d thought that positive word of mouth had spread.
Now that he was drawing closer, he could see that the group of women surrounding Gen looked to fit into the “Christian women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-eight” demographic Natasha had told him about. Clearly, the extra visitors hadn’t come because of luck or word of mouth. They’d come for the chance to meet Gen.
These people were probably all fans, just like the women at The Kitchen last month had been. But if her fans expected her to appear here today, then her detractors might also expect her to appear here.
He cut straight to the middle of the gathering and wrapped a hand around Gen’s elbow. “Excuse us for a moment, please.” He guided her several steps away and out of earshot.
Her hazel eyes and the feel of her delicate arm beneath his fingers derailed his train of thought.
What had he been about to say? That’s right. “Hello.” Then he added, “Troublemaker.”
“I’ve never in my life thought of myself as a troublemaker. It’s actually quite thrilling.”
“Since the day I met you, I’ve thought of you as nothing but a troublemaker.” He forced himself to release her and put more space between them. “Did you tell people where you were going to be today?”
“I didn’t. I simply posted about the farm on the last Fall Fun Day.”
“Why?”
“To give your business a leg up.”
“I’d never want you to give my business a leg up at the expense of your safety.”
“These ladies simply saw that I was at the last Fall Fun Day, and they came by on the off-chance I’d be here again to say hi. And,” she hurried to add, “to enjoy all the farm has to offer, of course.”
