"One of the guy's dads sells sheds, and when he heard what you've been doing for the fire department, he donated it for your holiday trail."
Eve hugged me tight. "Thank you."
Sofia skipped to the entrance to the trail. "Can we turn the lights on?"
"We sure can," Eve said.
There was a switch located at each grouping of blow-up decorations, so we walked the trail, turning them on one by one and troubleshooting any issues. It was windy tonight, so some of the blowups didn't want to stand up straight.
It was close to opening time, so I said, "Why don't you get to the ticket booth, and I'll finish turning everything on."
"That's a good idea," Eve said.
"What should I do?" Sofia asked.
"You can go with Eve and pass out tickets, or you can stay with me."
Her brows furrowed. "I want to do both, but I want to see the lights more."
"Finish up here, and you can help with tickets and wristbands later," Eve suggested, and I shot her a grateful look.
Eve left, and we moved to the next grouping of blow-up decorations. When we finished turning everything on, we backtracked through the trail to make sure it was still working. "I have a feeling we're going to have to have someone walk the trail each night to ensure everything is up and running."
"That's a good idea," Sofia said as if she was a part of this too, and I suppose she had been all along.
"Are you ready to greet some visitors?" I asked, eager to see how the shack was working out.
I glanced at my phone; the trail had officially opened ten minutes ago, but we hadn't seen anyone walking around yet. Even if we didn't get anyone tonight, I had a feeling we would once word got out.
We reached the entrance to the trail, and Sofia spotted the hot chocolate truck, "Can I have hot chocolate?"
"Of course." I handed her a five-dollar bill and watched while she ran to it.
A woman in the window leaned down to talk to her.
"How are things going?" Frank approached me.
"The light trail looks great. Now we need visitors."
"I'm not talking about that. I was talking about you," Frank said.
He wanted to know if I'd followed his instructions. "I've been seeing that therapist you recommended, and I'm going to a grief support group."
"I'm glad you're being proactive about this."
This time I wasn't surprised. "Thanks for pushing me."
"Are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with a certain woman?" He inclined his head toward the ticket shack where Eve was talking to a family of five.
I let out a breath. "I think she had something to do with it too."
"I wanted to let you know that I see the effort that you're making to be more engaged with the community. You've done a lot between the holiday party and now the light trail. Is it true that all proceeds will go to the fire department?"
"Yeah, but that was all Eve's doing."
He rocked back on his heels. "I knew I liked that girl when she came into the firehouse."
"You liked her muffins."
