Still, he was starting to feel, recently, like he wanted to say more about how he felt. Like he wanted to be really, really clear about it.
But that wasn’t something he was going to stick in a note and leave with lunch.
There was no rush, though. He was enjoying where they were. They had time.
He caught himself sending Eleanor one last fond smile before he left, enjoying the animated way she described a book that she was showcasing to customers.
Yeah, his life was pretty good these days. Who ever would have thought it?
Winnie had given more tours in the past month than she had in the past year. She knew it was just a random confluence of chance, as one of their summer college student employees had returned to school and another tour guide had gone on maternity leave, butphew. She was beat.
Still, she kind of liked doing the tours. It felt like a good way to flex the social skills that she had let grow rusty for so long.
She didn’t think it was totally unreasonable to hope that the tour group wasn’tsuperchatty today. It was that time of the afternoon where energy felt extremely elusive.
Of course, that meant that it was just that moment when Cherry knocked at the doorjamb to Winnie’s office.
Surprises always did manage to come just when you were least prepared, didn’t they?
“Hey, Win,” Cherry said, a sheepish smile on her face. “Lyle needs us in his office.”
“Now?” Winnie asked, trying to look cheerful about it. She’d been hoping to sneak out to grab a cup of coffee before the tour.
Cherry shot her a sympathetic look that said that Winnie’s efforts at good cheer had not hit the mark.
“I’m afraid so,” she said. “He’s slammed the rest of the day.”
Winnie stifled a sigh. Lyle was a good boss, and he didn’t often do things like throw an unexpected meeting into her lap. If he was doing so now, it meant that he really was slammed.
She bid a sorrowful mental farewell to her afternoon pick-me-up and followed Cherry into Lyle’s office.
“Hello, Winnie, Cherry,” he said, looking up from the mountain of papers on his desk. “Sorry for the short notice, but I did send out for some coffee.” He gestured to a paper holder withthree cups inside, each emblazoned with the logo from Juniper Café.
“Lyle, you are my hero,” Winnie blurted out before she could think better of it, then blushed at the over-exuberant comment. “Uh, sorry.”
Luckily, her boss just chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I know the feeling when an extra cup of coffee feels like it is saving you from a miserable afternoon.” He tipped his head toward the window. Outside, the weather was blustery. It wasn’t quite raining yet, and sometimes this kind of wind didn’t manifest into any actual precipitation, but it was still dark and a little gloomy. “Today, we need coffee.”
The three of them took a moment to sip their beverages, savoring the warmth that soaked into them.
“Okay,” Lyle said, putting down his coffee cup with a reluctant clunk. “I know that you didn’t have this on your calendar, so I’m not going to ask for anything formal, but Winnie, I wanted to check in with you about that folder I passed your way the other day. The one about the fundraisers for this year. Have you given it any thought?”
Winnie took another sip of coffee to give herself a second to think. She had thought about the upcoming fundraising calendar in a vague, unhelpful sort of way, but she’d gotten so caught up in her worries about feeling excluded at book club that she hadn’t gotten any real, productive planning under her belt.
“Well,” she said, drawing out the word, “I did see a note about possibly doing a collaborative event… I think that’s a good idea to get something a little different on our schedule. Maybe we can reach out to the historical societies of some towns nearby, see if they want to do a collective event? That will let us combine our collections for display, as well as cut down on some of the overhead costs of hosting an event.”
Lyle nodded. “Yes, we did something like that a while back… before your time, I think. You’re right that it does cut down on costs, which is always good. The organizing is more complicated though, as I’m sure you can imagine. The one downside is that, for most of our donors, they don’t really think all that hard about what is Magnolia Shore history and what is, say, Fielder’s Run history,” he said, referencing a town about fifteen miles away. “So, for them, having a combined event with more artifacts isn’treallysomething that feels different.”
The historian in Winnie was affronted at the idea. How could anyone look at the two towns, which had very different histories, and say that their stories were the same?
A more rational voice inside her though, reminded her that not everybody was quite so passionate about local history as she was.
“Well, I see how that could happen,” she said, her mind racing as she tried to come up with ideas. “And I do agree that having something a little more innovative would help encourage new donors to sign up…”
She trailed off. She still didn’t have any good ideas, no matter how much she might have hoped that they would pop magically into her head under Lyle’s considering gaze.
Her heart sank as her boss let out a tiny sigh. She knew he didn’t mean it to be hurtful, but she looked up to him a lot, and knowing she had disappointed him stung.
“Right,” he said, sounding like it was his turn to dig for something positive to say. “Well, like I said, I didn’t exactly give you notice that I was going to ask about this. But I would like you to really put your nose to the grindstone on this one, Winnie. I want some concrete ideas, not vague ones. If you’re not able to think of anything that could really add some pizzazz to the events…”
